Predictions for journalism 2025: newsroom strategy, talent and leadership

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

Newsrooms require new ways of working and thinking, as they continue to grapple with digital transformation and more recent disruption caused by generative AI and big tech platforms. How do they proceed into 2025 with this uncertainty in mind? Our experts explain.

Lucy Kueng, strategic consultant and academic: the stage is set for niche media, the dye is cast for generalist news

Mark Hakansson / Mousetrap Media

The creator economy eats more of the media industry and YouTube provides the tables, chairs, menus, and waiting staff. This shift affects all sectors – from news to broadcasting. One in five Americans now say they get their news regularly from news influencers. Over 10 per cent of content on connected TVs in the US is now from YouTube – up from 6 per cent in 2021.

More podcasts on YouTube. The YouTube shift affects audio, too. Podcasts are now a visual medium. According to YouTube, viewers watch over 400 million hours of podcasts per month on visual devices. This is good news for news publishers with successful podcasts — it means growth. Video podcasts attract a different, additional, audience.

Niche verticals combining newsletters, podcasts, and events become the default model for new news brands. Implicit in this is a tight focus on the target audience and their needs. This heightens competition in ‘prime real estate’ topics (those most interesting to readers and advertisers). Generalist news providers will struggle to match the depth and speed of coverage.

Structural decline at storied brands continues. While niche media thrive, turnarounds will remain elusive for some big generalist news brands, as we are seeing at CNN, The Washington Post, and The Observer. This is Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma playing out in real-time. Dismantling old 'structures' – from cultural assumptions to products and workflows- while simultaneously building out new ones, in markets that are already overserved, is a herculean task.

AI moves from a novelty to part of the daily digital toolkit. Gen AI is being normalised fast and integrated more broadly. We will see more architectural applications – redesigns of core processes and workflows – and the beginning of serious engagement with new products and markets. At a strategic level, things will be more complex. Ignoring the leverage collective action could bring, revenue-challenged publishers will continue to sign over their content assets to LLMs. The disruption of search will bring more financial pressure.

What does this mean?

We are in a new phase. D2C news models, podcasts, and YouTube have grown up and moved on. These markets are saturated and new entry will be harder than it has been over the past couple of years. However, publishers have significant structural advantages assets in their brands and ability to drive discoverability and these need to be exploited.

Ensure strategies do not focus on last year’s world. The shifts that have taken place in the last 24 months are subtle but profound. Strategies need revising. Ensure the focus is on where growth is happening. Most critical, take concrete steps to connect with the creator economy’s booming growth. The next era of media will be shaped there.

Read more: Why publishers can no longer ignore social video

Martina Andretta, head of growth, Metro: bridge roles get help with the heavy lifting

Collaboration is key. Let’s break down silos.

No, these are not my morning affirmations. I feel confident that most colleagues in a strategic role have heard at least one of these sentences at some point in their careers.

But in 2025, newsrooms will have to embrace them, as their future depends on it. Bridge roles will not be enough – editorial, product and audience teams must rethink how they work together.

Modern media organisations require different internal workflows and redefined roles, and there is so much that can be learnt from smaller, nimbler outlets. The responsibility of reaching audiences will not sit with audience teams alone, reporters will get embedded in new ways of connecting with people – be that through written word, video, Q&As and more.

A new generation of digital-savvy users, who understand content cycles and are more attracted to personality than reliability, demand new rules of engagement. Whilst the picture often looks bleak, with platforms pivoting away from journalists and links, there are still a lot of opportunities – on Reddit and Bluesky but also TikTok and Instagram. This means creating smaller, parallel funnels, and building new audience journeys, where the relationship with the readers comes first.

Audience teams will train and upskill colleagues, optimise content and study its lifetime. The era of ‘out and done’ is over.

Meanwhile, as acquiring new audiences becomes increasingly difficult, retaining existing ones will take centre stage. Direct traffic will become a focus, with audience and product teams getting to know readers closely. What do they find valuable? Why do they keep coming back? How can we serve them better?

Yes, qualitative research takes time. Speaking to people takes time. Replying to comments takes time and resources. But we just cannot – and should not – avoid it anymore.

Read more: How to get started with user needs with the Reuters Institute, Metro.co.uk and smartocto

Khalil A. Cassimally, consultant, mentor and head of special projects, The Conversation: younger people in newsrooms (rightly) claim more power

The long-brewing decoupling of expertise and experience in news operations will start driving structural changes in news operations this year.

Our hierarchical industry has long favoured experience (and prestige), creating a power differential in news operations along the lines of age, among other characteristics. The power dynamic is no longer fit for purpose considering the expertise, fundamental to the survival of the industry, that younger people in news operations have. Not only are they much closer to a large segment of audiences, they are also at the forefront of critical functions like data, audience, AI. In other words, their importance, and the leverage they have, in news operations is not in sync with the power they are afforded.

This disconnect will shape the future of news operations, and our industry. Though the paths will differ based on how it is handled.

Senior types, already grappling with the power shifts driven by digital platforms, often resist empowering younger people. This year, we will be faced with an increasing amount of opposition which will expose the true leverage younger people now have in news operations. Ultimately, that leverage will be the indication that the reshaping of those news operations is inevitable.

Other parts of the industry, especially impact-driven media entities and collectives, will more seamlessly embrace a more horizontal, egalitarian ethos. Here, younger people will be empowered and supported. Their expertise will be complemented and homogenised with the experience of others through more collaborative work to elevate every person in those operations.

This redistribution of power through more horizontal structures will make our industry more effective in transforming itself. It will also align it more closely with the egalitarian values it purports to uphold today. And who knows, maybe a fairer, more horizontal news industry will find it easier to genuinely support and amplify egalitarianism and justice, reinforcing its role as a catalyst for positive change.

• Listen: Digging into the RISJ Digital News Report 2024's insights on user needs with Vogue and The Conversation

Rozina Breen, CEO and editor-in-chief, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: journalists and audiences alike feel the exhaustion

If we thought 2024 was challenging, 2025 is going to be an even wilder roller coaster of a ride. Some will find that thrilling, others will want to get off the ride. 

The political climate for journalism will become tougher, the focus on trust will become ever more urgent and burnout will become even more visible as newsrooms continue to face change and challenge in a world that is moving apace.

The world of journalism will require a concerted and never-before-seen collective effort to cut through the tsunami of misinformation and political hostility, we will need to come together in new and collaborative ways.  Gone will be the usual competitive barriers and instead, a new and combined global mission. I am excited for where those relationships, new and old. will take us.

In a noiser and even more polarised world, we will need to double down on audience trust, delivering ever more relevant, relatable and impactful journalism that resonates across the board. 

And for those who feel the exhaustion, I would say: newsrooms need you. The world needs you. 

We need to find, nurture and adopt better boundaries, and actively seek out moments of joy and peace. Truth, trust and transparency must and will be the mandate that unites all public interest newsrooms.

James Scurry, co-founder, Safely Held Spaces; senior producer, Sky News: trauma-informed journalism gains ground

Mousetrap Media / Frank Noon

Following the success of the MediaStrong Journalists’ Mental Health Symposium at City University in May, 2025 is set to be a transformative year for journalism. The industry is increasingly recognising the profound impact of trauma on journalists and the craft itself — from the way we approach interviews to how we shape narratives. Trauma-informed journalism training is gaining traction, equipping reporters with the skills to navigate challenging situations compassionately and effectively.

Moreover, the need for preventative mental health initiatives is becoming undeniable. Ideas such as an online peer support network, represent a pivotal step toward safeguarding the mental health of journalists. These innovations signal a shift toward a more sustainable, empathetic future for the profession — one that prioritises resilience and supports journalists in telling vital stories without compromising their well-being.

The next year promises to redefine what it means to be a journalist in a world increasingly aware of trauma’s impact.

Steve Matthewson, head of industry and company news, S&P Global Market Intelligence: generative AI will test newsroom leaders (even more)

We talk about having humans in the loop in news workflows but fact-checking basic text will be only one part of this. As AI generated outputs become more sophisticated, editors will have to improve their risk mitigation processes. Newsrooms will need to facilitate (more) skills development opportunities to ensure LLM wrangling is a core capability across their teams. News organisations who secure and keep the talent that can use large data sets and AI models in creative ways, will stay ahead of those who cannot. 

In a world where the tools are ubiquitous, cultivating innovation in storytelling and ensuring journalists work more collaboratively with product teams will remain essential to creating differentiated content that drives audiences and revenue. 

At least two years into this latest phase of the revolution, and with costs sticky, publishing management will not only pressure their newsrooms to extract further efficiencies from technology, but also expect leadership to formally measure and act to improve them, in part to justify the investment in AI.

AI has already taken over many basic tasks that interns and early careers workers usually perform in many industries. The starting point for junior journalists has shifted hugely, raising the bar for them and more senior colleagues, with implications for intakes, career growth, talent pipelines and turnover. If they have not already done so, leaders will need to revise job descriptions so that teams focus on the most complex and original stories that require critical thinking, ingenuity, a sense nuance and and other exclusively human journalistic traits.

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