What are the main reasons behind the widespread pessimism?
Media leaders are worried that AI is set to further disrupt journalism. In particular, they fear that as AI chatbots answer more informational queries directly within their interfaces, referrals to news websites and apps will decline. Data sourced from analytics provider Chartbeat suggests this is already happening to some extent, with referrals from Google Search globally down by around a third. So far, however, news content appears to have been less affected than lifestyle and utility content.
A second challenge is the fraying connection with audiences: younger people are increasingly unlikely to access traditional media sources, while overall trust remains low across age groups.
In addition, in many parts of the world, publishers are under growing pressure from populist politicians who are ignoring, denigrating, or actively undermining journalism as part of an international playbook to reduce scrutiny. This includes labelling journalism as “fake news”, withdrawing government advertising, and threatening—or taking—legal action as a way of applying additional pressure.
One could interpret this as suggesting that the blame lies largely with external forces (artificial intelligence, disengaged young people, politicians). Do you also see internal factors—things the media industry itself may have contributed—as part of the crisis?
There is some recognition that the media has not helped itself: by chasing clicks for short-term advertising gains, by focusing on a narrow set of negative stories, by writing sensationalist headlines, and by continuing to prioritise volume over quality. Publishers also acknowledge that they have become overly dependent on platforms and their algorithms, and that in the process they have lost the trust of key audience groups.
Many publishers are now placing renewed emphasis on building direct traffic and long-term relationships with audiences. However, achieving this requires changing long-standing newsroom habits and approaches.
And perhaps the most important question: What can media organizations do now? From your perspective, what is the single most important step that needs to be taken next?
News organisations need to be much clearer about what they stand for and where they can provide value in a world of super-abundant content. Rather than trying to provide a product for everyone, they need to understand the information needs of specific audiences and address those needs with compelling, engaging, and useful content.
There is little point in chasing scale, because AI-enabled platforms will always do that better. However, publishers can compete on distinctiveness, humanity, and values.
Trends and Predictions Report