The question to our media-insider respondents was: “Which companies or brands would you pick out as really setting the pace in the media business currently? Which do you respect or follow, either in your own sector or outside it?”
The responses fall into two groups, based purely on the number of mentions: primary (the high-profile leaders) and secondary (often, but not always, smaller or more specialist & niche).
News primary
There are six leading news brands, each with their own distinct profile and reasons why our media-insiders chose them. Here is one thumbnail sketch: “The Economist is riding the wave of global political and economic volatility with skill – capitalising on the opportunity to grow enterprise subs and continuing to provide original insight and commentary. In business terms, they are multi-channel and are adept at engaging their readership through constant research and testing. Yet all still based on creating unique, valuable content that people want and need to pay for.”
Interestingly, many consumer media companies look to these major news publishers for ideas, because they are doing some smart things at speed, even though their level of scale may not be replicable in smaller, niche verticals.
News secondary
Beneath the primaries sit 18 secondary brands or companies, both large and small, UK and overseas. They range across major international players, such as Axel Springer (“Quick out of the block with AI. The jury is still out on Business Insider, but they are not scared to experiment and innovate.”) through domestic UK news brands like The Spectator (“Clever subscription marketing and brand extensions, executed well on a very tight budget. Hope that the new owner doesn’t mess it all up with overblown ambitions.”) and on to operations like Substack (“Clever, nimble and sticking it to legacy media. Substack is a force of nature and taking a lot of top tier journalistic talent with it. Yet they are still confused as to whether they are a publisher or a platform.”)
An intriguing entry is trade associations: “As B2C media evaporate, many of the trade Associations (eg. WAN-IFRA, INMA, FIPP, PPA) are filling the gap powerfully. Yet there are obviously too many of them. More consolidation ahead!”
Consumer primary
These are sometimes a mix of companies and their brands. Let’s dive into three of the five to give a flavour of what people are saying…
- Immediate Media: “Ironically, like quite a few of the legacy consumer mags, they have pulled up their socks and finally adapted to the digital / membership age, leapfrogging ahead of many more recently created companies. They realise they can’t just be a “push” business anymore. They have to draw people together into communities. Now they’ve figured it out, they’re a real and profitable force. In terms of brands, Good Food is making the most of being freed from the constraints of being a BBC title. And Radio Times is declining, but is still profitable and spinning off lots of cash as it develops smart digital and multi-platform activity.”
- Condé Nast: “Once seen as a dinosaur, they are now morphing into a content studio with global ambitions. WIRED, Vogue, The New Yorker – these aren’t just magazines anymore, they’re multimedia brands with OTT channels, social series, and ecommerce tie-ins. WIRED is their digital hero brand for me right now. Yet outside their core brands, there are still serious doubts as to just how deep that publishing savviness runs in the overall Condé Nast organisation.”
- Future: “A spent force or about to crank back up into major action again? They are always up to something and should be watched constantly: they are moving forward with their own post-cookie solutions, as well as experimenting extensively with AI. Yet they have lost the top slot of being the company to follow. Is it time to sell off their long, specialist tail of magazine titles? And should Bauer buy them?”
Consumer secondary
Here there are nine acts to follow, from Bauer through to Shit You Should Care About and People Inc (the company formerly known as DotDash Meredith – an interesting case study in the power of a brand). In between, there is a mix of individual brands (eg. New Scientist) and companies (Kelsey, Anthem and Kennedy). These three operators look very different to each other, but show that a lot of activity is taking place in the specialist SME sector.
Here is an interesting quote about Bauer: “I’m waiting for Bauer to make a major acquisition. They have been a very late follower into digital, but that is probably giving them an advantage right now – they don’t have much of a digital business to see decline. The marriage of their lifestyle brands and radio is really strong. Perhaps they will buy Future’s magazines? And they have done some great work internally in upskilling the organisation.”
B2B primary
These four B2B companies are very different, stretching from the massive, relentlessly strategic and wholeheartedly digital-first RELX to the much more opportunistic, fast-moving and print-savvy Mark Allen.
In between sit two pacesetters in William Reed and Faversham House, who share a number of characteristics, whilst also having their own distinct company cultures and ways of doing things.
- William Reed: “Its dynamism in the events space is pioneering. The company is shaping the UK B2B digital publishing market, with a tech-led transformation story.”
- Faversham House: “Generally, a very smart operation: a dynamic and independent publisher. Their Edie brand is doing some really original things in the sustainability space, through its membership offering and the recently launched Edie Enterprise initiative.”
B2B secondary
Beneath the primaries sit ten secondaries, from Informa through to With Intelligence, with a good smattering of live-events focused operators (eg. Terrapin and Closer Still) and the constantly reshaping Haymarket.
Yet it is Informa who seems to perplex our media-insiders and to capture the sense of constant change in the whole B2B sector: “It can look as though it is still thrashing around a bit on occasions, particularly in comparison to RELX, as it tries to leave its legacy publishing operations behind. Yet it is always another “one to watch”, as it is doing some smart and innovative things, but sometimes in isolated pockets rather than right across the business.”
Media services
There are no primary candidates here, but a wide range of companies (thirteen in all) including such diverse operators as Piano, Ozone, Perplexity, Miso.AI and NewsTeam. It is an active, consolidating and increasingly complex marketplace. Yet this whole sector is growing in importance due to the knowledge and tech tools they can bring to make things happen in a range of areas across content, ad tech, data management, customer management and mar tech.
A complete section of the report covers their services in more detail, but also what they see themselves as their own opportunities and challenges. To quote one leading service operator: “Media companies need to outsource more now than ever before, due to the pace of change, but they often have insufficient budgets to do it properly.”
Going beyond published media
A number of media-insiders are looking further out to broader Media & Entertainment sectors, with names such as YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, BBC, Netflix, Sky, Channel 4 and Goalhanger being cited. And even beyond media itself into the world of Big Tech and more random examples of excellence, such as Nectar 360 and UBER.
What does it all mean?
As we saw in the first feature about the individuals shaping our industry, the media world flipped in 2025. The question is no longer how AI can add to human activity. Instead, it is now, what unique value do humans add in an automated world? What is the “Human Premium”?
This same scrutiny also applies to brands. What does a media brand tangibly add to the consumer’s life or work? The sad truth is that many publishers don’t have brands in the true sense at all: just products serving a defined target market. Facing up to that reality means asking some tough and penetrating questions about the supposed “brand premium” and not just repeating PR mantras in the media pack.
Our companies and brands operate in a crazy, churning, noisy world, where we all need to sharpen up our acts and learn from what other people are doing.
Future articles will deal with the business issues behind the naming of names: publishing business confidence, growth opportunities and major challenges. Or just read the full mediashapers 2025 report!
- The full mediashapers report is available from Wessenden Marketing. Contact Jim Bilton at info@wessenden.com.
- Wessenden is also running mediashapers LIVE: interactive sessions, tailored for individual companies, analysing and discussing the report’s wide-ranging results. Contact Jim Bilton for details.
- mediashapers, now in its fourth year, identifies the most influential leaders, companies and brands in the media business each year. It is part of mediafutures, an ongoing benchmarking survey of the industry, undertaken by Wessenden Marketing in partnership with InPublishing. Now in its 17th year, it maps the key drivers, metrics and issues which are transforming the shape and direction of the whole media business. mediafuturesPULSE is a more regular tracking survey of key industry performance metrics.
