As we embrace 2025, I must say I’m excited and apprehensive about the future of publishing and media in the UK. Having spent years in this industry, I’ve ridden many waves of change, but the landscape ahead feels particularly transformative.
The speed of publishing content is instantaneous: one blink and a comment or a photo is shared with millions. Where social media used to be reserved for younger audiences, today, it proliferates and manipulates all generations across a multitude of channels. And with it comes unregulated false information, which, if repeated and shouted about the loudest, is believed.
We’ve seen ‘X’ become a toxic platform, resulting in a loss of 32.7m users in two years (source: eMarketer) and 115k US users closing their accounts the day after the US election results. TikTok continues to be the fastest growing social channel at 1.6bn active users a month, chasing the tail of Facebook’s declining 3bn and Instagram’s 2bn. All are channels which manipulate behaviours through algorithms and are targeted themselves by unscrupulous characters and hacks for economic and political gain.
2025 isn’t just going to be a super VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous — but a super VUC-AI world where all of these will be heightened through the rapid sophistication and growing permeation of AI into our lives.
However, these challenges also bring fresh opportunities. My 20+ years publishing career has mainly been focused around brands and their communities — 18 years with Harley-Davidson as a client, I know what it takes to earn the customer’s trust, build loyalty, inspire advocacy and the role that publishing, storytelling and communications plays in this.
And this is where the opportunity lies for brands in 2025 and beyond, more so than ever. Brands have a responsibility of authenticity, being true to their purpose and upholding their values to protect and inspire their customers. Brands have an opportunity to bring positivity and optimism through their storytelling.
AI has the potential to entertain, excite and enhance brand stories and creativity. We should embrace and experiment with it, using it as a tool to surprise and delight our customers and readers. Taking imagination to new levels.
And perhaps, surprisingly for some, I see a rejuvenation for print as it becomes a significant trust mark for brands and their customers where the discipline and craft of print publishing is recognised more than ever; a medium which can’t publish at the blink of anyone’s eye but needs to be ideated, challenged and bettered before it reaches the hands of the reader. This is the moment for honest brands to rekindle their relationship with one of the oldest mediums which can bring calm and enjoyment to the chaos of tomorrow.
This article was first published in the Publishing Partners Guide 2025, which was distributed with the January / February 2025 issue of InPublishing magazine. You can register to receive InPublishing magazine here.
