Our journalism trends report for 2026 is out now. AI uncertainty/disruption, the rise of creators and the video-fication of news are some of the key themes. Also, publishers seem to be losing interest in BlueSky as YouTube and TikTok become bigger priorities, discuss.
Publishers expect traffic from search to fall by 43% in the next 3 years. This is one of the findings of our new report on media trends. Authored by Nic Newman, it's based on a survey of 280 media leaders.
Full report
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7 findings in thread
Just caught up with this superb – evidence informed – take down of Meta's fact checking statement. [American] politics not policy is driving it says @mantzarlis.com www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/zuck...
Here are the links to explore the report in full
Download a PDF version
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Read it on our website reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...
Read in Spanish reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/periodismo-m...
On the business side, expect to new product development. Around four in ten say they’ll be looking to launch or trial a ‘youth’ product in 2025 and some are planning to non-news content like games or education. These are likely to be bundled into ‘all-access’ subscriptions in a bid to reduce churn
A big focus for 2025 will be using AI for format personalisation, Many will be exploring features that turn text into audio (75%), provide AI summaries (70%), or translate news articles (65%). Over half said they’d be looking into chatbots and search interfaces
News orgs’ use of AI technologies continues to increase across all categories, with back-end automation (60%) seen as key by our respondents, many of whom have rolled out AI toolkits to support new workflows
Partly as a result publishers will be putting more effort into building relationships with AI platforms this year (+56 net score) They are also planning to invest in video platforms such as YouTube (+52), TikTok (+48), IG (+43), and in alternative sources such as Bluesky and Google Discover
We're seeing big drops in referral traffic from social media. Facebook down 67% and X (formerly Twitter) down 50% over two years. Though Google search traffic remains stable for now, 74% of publishers express concern about potential AI-driven declines in search referrals.
Just four in ten (41%) of our sample of media execs say they are confident about the prospects for journalism . Concerns relate to political polarisation, attacks on the press, and media capture – all of which in combination are seen as significant threats to journalism’s ability to operate freely.
Journalism, media and tech trends report 2025 from @reutersinstitute.bsky.social is out now by me and @fedecherubini.bsky.social. Another tricky year ahead for institutional journalism
📱Explore full report + key findings in this thread reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...
We couldn’t have done it without a super-talented team of academic researchers/partners, along with far- sighted sponsors Google, the BBC, and Ofcom who have been with us on this journey from the start. I'll be remaining at the Institute supporting this and other projects. 4/4
It’s been quite a ride as over almost 15 years we’ve documented the fragmentation of media consumption, the rise of social media, declining trust & news avoidance, and the emergence of AI. It's been a real privilege to see the impact of this research across the industry. 3/4
We started the DNR with just a handful of countries and the upcoming 2025 edition will be our largest yet – covering 48 markets. The ambition is to make it even more global and useful. 2/4
Some personal news. This will be my last year leading our flagship Reuters Institute Digital News Report and we’re looking for a new lead author to take it to the next level. More details about this opportunity here reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/reuters...
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