Predictions for journalism 2025: communities over clicks, trust over traffic

Credit: image generated by Magic Media, a generative AI tool by Canva

Between body blows to direct traffic and audiences feeling exhausted by the news cycle, it is getting harder for news to get in front of readers. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Can we still forge important relationships with audiences? Are there new opportunities on the way? Read on to find out.

Michael MacLeod, founder, The Edinburgh Minute and The London Minute: The only way out of rock-bottom trust is through respectful relationships

Andrew Patterson / Michael MacLeod

My prediction is more job cuts and title closures unless publishers find new ways to make meaningful connections with their audiences.

Drive-by traffic in the millions is the antithesis of local news. But we are seeing more and more ex-Reach and Newsquest staffers speak out about the way they were made to work at 'local' titles. Targets based on clicks mean the most important local journalism has been buried by clickbait, ads and news from other places. Readers are getting increasingly fed up with coming last in the list of priorities.

Readers deserve better and I really do hope 2025 is the year that the continued decline in traffic to local sites forces owners to reconsider a more respectful relationship with readers.

I introduced a Community Noticeboard section to my free daily Edinburgh Minute newsletter this year and it has resulted in 1,500 reader-contributed stories and events via a Google form to streamline inbound comms. That is between 5 and 10 per day, which is manageable. It can be up to 20 on some days. All I need to do with each one is verify and link to the source. This has utterly transformed my view on what local news can be and made me realise that where we live tends to be a lot better than the local news makes you feel. There are so many brilliant people doing wonderful things.

Readers' level of trust in media has been at rock bottom. But since launching this initiative, I have seen that turn around. There is a mutual trust we have. It is scaleable too, as I have launched the same thing within The London Minute, which is growing faster than the Edinburgh title did at the same time. And The Edinburgh Minute now has more readers than both local papers combined.

My principles such as 'reply to everyone' just require good organisation and a commitment to the reader over everything else. Without readers, we are nothing. If anyone wants to start their own version of the Minute where they live, I will be happy to help for no fee. I have helped folk in the US, Australia and around the UK do this and it is helping local titles get more traffic. Readers can tell when a title does not care about them. Adding a comments section is not ‘community’. Involving readers in more innovative ways is how to rebuild trust.

• Read more: Overnight election coverage with three new media companies, Novara Media, TL;DR News and The Edinburgh Minute

Maria Breslin, editor, The Liverpool Echo: local news will get a whole lot noisier

I think 2024 was the year regional brands such as the Liverpool Echo really found their voice again and, as a result, you can expect us to be more vocal and much noisier in 2025. From coverage of the violent disorder that swept the streets of much of the UK to local campaigns to save a much-loved baby hospice in Liverpool or the legendary Salford Lads’ Club, the past 12 months have really confirmed regional journalism is a vital community resource and one worth fighting for. 

An audience-first approach informed by data and a renewed focus on user needs will help brands develop a deeper understanding of their audience and I will be concentrating on giving readers reasons to visit us more often as well as introducing emerging audiences to our content. That will involve a level of experimentation both in the stories we tell and the way we tell them and a greater sense of adventure in terms of creativity as we seek to communicate through new formats.

We will develop a relationship with AI, of course, as we fine-tune workstreams and make new technology work for us. And we will be doubling down on the controllables rather than losing sleep over the latest algorithm changes rolled out by the tech giants. Historic news brands have a distinguished past and, by remaining relevant, trusted, authoritative and by diversifying revenue opportunities, there is no reason why we cannot have a bright future.

• Listen: Maria Breslin, editor of The Liverpool Echo, on covering the Southport stabbings and UK riots

Mili Semlani, community manager, Splice Media; community development manager, Syli: conversations will trump content

In an era of brain rot and news avoidance, the traditional model of one-way information transmission is irreverent. Today's audiences are not passive recipients. They want more than information– they want to feel understood, valued, and empowered.

To cut through the content noise, it is time for a new paradigm: journalism as a collaborative, human-centred ecosystem of connection. For media organisations, this demands a fundamental reimagining of audience relationships.

Success will come from creating intimate spaces where audiences co-create meaning, feel emotionally invested, and see themselves reflected in the narrative. Think highly interactive communities where stories emerge, grow, and transform us together. Thanks to technology, communities are no longer confined to geographic or institutional limits. They are fluid, multidimensional, hyper-personalised ecosystems that people seamlessly navigate simultaneously. 

Journalism must leverage this splintering to regain audience trust and attention. We must evolve from content creators to relationship builders; curating nuanced, authentic exchanges that truly matter. This means seeing journalism not as a product, but as a living, breathing conversation where stories emerge collectively, and every participant is both a creator and a listener. 

Our survival depends on rebuilding trust, one meaningful connection at a time because the future of media is not about creating content, it's about creating conversations. And connection is not measured in likes or views, but in trust, emotional depth, and collective action. 

Audience engagement is dead, audience connection is the future.

• Read more: How The Telegraph turns community into content

Lars Jensen, team lead audience, Berlingske Media: competition for audience attention hits a new imperative

A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference, where somebody talked about the fallout of the traffic declines from sources such as Facebook, Google, X etc.

Here, I heard a point that I hear from time to time as I talk with colleagues and peers in the industry: Sure, the traffic drop is hurting, but the best consumption and conversions are still seen on direct traffic and therefore this traffic is not impacted nearly as much as referred traffic - phew.

The problem is that all this is based on a scenario where a publisher's direct traffic is either constant or in fact growing and always ready to convert - in a world we we are seeing increasing news fatigue and a fight for a lot of us to spend less time in front of the screen.

Keeping direct traffic (which we need to talk about how we measure, as Thomas Baekdal has already pointed out) at current levels requires that your loyal users remain loyal and do not change their habits or outright stop coming to your website.

Growth in direct traffic (or stabilisation, if you are losing loyal users) has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is the aforementioned traffic sources where we have seen drop-offs in 2024 and earlier.

So in order to keep your direct traffic at 2024 levels or higher and healthy in 2025, you need to convert a part of your referred traffic (from places like Facebook) into direct traffic.

This has not exactly gotten easier in recent years, and these traffic sources are volatile and unpredictable - and with visitors rarely seeing more than one pageview per visit. Just ask publishers who are on Google Discover.

Publishers, therefore, will need to up their tactical game in order to convert that magical part of referred traffic into direct traffic from loyal users. This has to be done in a tempo and tone that works for the user - and can include things as "follow us" requests, newsletters, competitions, registrations etc.

To a lot of publishers this is not news; but the importance of it and the increasing amount of resources and money that will have to be put into it will mean that competition among publishers for the audience and its attention will intensify - and some will lose.

• Listen: Lars Jensen, team lead audience at Berlingske Media, on making organisational change stick

Thomas Baekdal, media consultant: search and social continue on a downward spiral for the majority

2025 is going to be the year when the focus will be on structural changes. This might seem silly to say, since many of you would argue that this has been the theme for more than a decade, but we are now seeing another shift in direction.

Social traffic is likely to become even more unstable and will also likely continue to decline. However, the problem we face is not just the traffic — it is even more about the nature of that traffic. One problem is that people are worn out by social media, and while their usage is still fairly high, people just do not click as much. Worse still, even when they do click, they engage far less than ever before. That means that, in order to gain anything from these channels, you need even more scale, which obviously is not going to happen, as that scale is already in decline.

But that is not all. If we look at channels like Instagram or TikTok, links are deemphasised so heavily that those channels are no longer about bringing you traffic. Instead, they are about marketing, public awareness, etc., which, for publishers, does not really help drive subscribers.

Search is another area that is becoming really contentious — especially in regards to how search works in the form of publishers being ranked highly for their primary focus and deranked for anything outside of that focus. This means that search traffic to newspapers is likely to continue to decline for anything other than hard news.

We also have the whole question about AI in search. My prediction is that it will have a polarising effect, meaning that the few publishers the AI "prefers" (or is partnered with) will gain more traffic, while everyone else will see a decline in search traffic.

• Read more: Thomas Baekdal looks at what he learned from avoiding news for a month

Naomi Owusu, founder, Tickaroo: publishers discover traffic through mobile, live sports content

Mobile usage continues to rise, particularly for live content, with sports driving significant traffic on weekends as users follow results, stats, transfers, and performance data. However, a growing trend of users seeking balance has emerged, with many turning off push notifications or leveraging screen-time reduction tools from social networks and operating systems to minimise distractions. This shift highlights the need for a more personalised approach to mobile content. 

In 2025, delivering tailored, relevant updates will be essential as flashy, generic headlines lose their appeal. On mobile — our most personal channel — offering meaningful, engaging content will be crucial to retaining user attention and combating the trend of news avoidance. Sports content offers a clear path forward, with opportunities to provide customized updates on leagues, teams, and players.

• Read more: Building trust during 2024 elections with live-blogging and fact-checking

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