Facebook, X and Snapchat make way for YouTube, TikTok and BlueSky
But will local news publishers find sustainable success on the platforms where clicks back to websites are few and far between?
Hello,
When is the right time to stop saying Happy New Year? The annual publication of the Reuters Institute’s predictions report is probably as good as any - the old year is most certainly gone and the new year has full focus.
That has been published this morning, and we’ve taken a look at some of the main issues covered - from AI to video platforms, misinformation to funding sources.
We’ll be back at the weekend with a round-up of the week in local journalism, and also the first local news jobs board of 2025.
Happy New Year, if it’s not too late,
Behind Local News
Newsrooms change focus as fight for attention intensifies in 2025
Newsrooms plan to put more effort into YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and BlueSky — but less into Facebook, Threads, SnapChat and X, a new study has concluded.
The annual Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism Trends and Predictions Report reveals today that deepening relationships with AI platforms such as OpenAI and Perplexity is the top priority for publishers, while shifting newsroom focus to finding audiences on a wider range of platforms dominates much of the rest of the list.
Authors Nic Newman and and Federica Cherubini said: “The 2024 Digital News Report showed how extensive consumption on these platforms [YouTube, TikTok etc] has become, especially with younger audiences, as well as how publishers have been losing out to news creators and influencers in these networks.
“But there are many challenges for publishers looking to invest in this area. Producing video does not come naturally to many print-based newsrooms and short-form video remains hard to monetise, with little opportunity to drive traffic back to websites or apps.
“An explosion of content in networks like TikTok, including automated and synthetic news, will make it even harder for publisher content to stand out this year.”
Why the switch in attention?
The Reuters study also draws on data from Chartbeat to show changes in traffic referrals to news publishers.
Traffic from Facebook to news publishers has declined 67% in two years, audiences from X have dropped 50% and Instagram, only ever a marginal referrer for many newsrooms, has fallen 26%.
The slumps in referrers to news sources aren’t reflected in the total UK audiences enjoyed by these platforms.
Facebook’s total UK audience grew 2.3% year on year in November, according to Ipsos Iris, with 92% of the UK population using either Facebook or Messenger.
Instagram audience were up 5.1%, reaching 77% of the population.
Reports of the death of X also seem exaggerated. It reached 45% of the UK population in November, only down 2.1% to 22.8m.
BlueSky, said to be the place those unhappy with X are flocking, reached 2.9m people in the UK in November, up from 84,000 a year ago. However, the time users of BlueSky spend on the platform — 79 minutes a month — is dwarfed by the time people spend on X — 240 minutes a month, down 3% year on year.
TikTok users — now at 56% of the UK population, or 28m — spend 841 minutes a month on the platform, or 28 minutes a day. YouTube, with 47m users of 94% of the population, spend 1,645 minutes a month on the platform, up from 700 minutes last year.
Those data points explain the desire of publishers to reach those audiences, even if the revenue opportunities remain limited, expect on YouTube.
Google and the rising threat of AI
The report paints a more positive picture about Google, with overall traffic from Google up since May 2023. Not surprisingly, the platform’s happenstance Discover service, is recorded by Reuters, using Chartbeat data, as being bigger than regular Google search.
The authors said: “There does not yet appear to be any decline in traffic from Google search.
“At the same time, Google Discover, a set of personalised news links that are shown on some browsers on mobile devices and via the Google app, has grown significantly and delivers more combined traffic than organice search.”
But concerns remain about Google’s decision to roll out AI overviews in search results, which publishers fear will reduce the number of times people go on to visit sources of information.
The report notes Google has taken a cautious approach so far, and avoided putting AI overviews on a lot of news topics, but suggests bigger challenges await as new products and platforms delivering news using AI grow.
“Google argues that links within its AI overviews deliver more click throughs than in a traditional web listing, though there may be fewer links visible overall.
“New competition is on the way in the form of Open AI’s Search GPT and Perplexity. These AI disrupters will feel less constrained than Google as they combine the power of foundational large language models with real-time indexes of information to significantly improve the search experience.”
To that end, it’s perhaps no surprise that 74% of respondents said they were somewhat or extremely worried about the potential decline of referrals from search — and that working more closely with AI companies topped the charts for things publishers planned to do more of.
72% of publishers said that the best way forward for news was for collective agreements with AI companies. In the UK, the Government is under pressure to step in — but is showing limited interested in protecting the copyright of news publishers from AI.
AI in the newsroom
87% of people taking part said AI was fully or somewhat transforming how newsrooms work.
Its use is most likely to be evident in speeding up admin and process-related tasks, such as tagging, transcription and copy editing, all said to be important for AI by 60% of people.
Content creation wuth human oversight was important for 70% of people.
“This activity is not confined to the newsroom,” said the authors. “Commercial, operational and product teams are also looking to get on board.
“It is clear the focus remains on back end efficiencies, with 96% of publisher respondents sayings this will be important in the year ahead.”
Content transformation — turning text into audio and similar — is tipped to be the next big thing, powered by AI.
How to fund journalism
The results of the annual Trends and Predictions report also revealed over half of editors, CEOs and digital executives were confident about their business’s prospects for the year ahead — a significant jump on a year ago.
Publishers say they hope for audience gains as a result of unreliable AI information making people seek out trusted sources of news, and are also confident of further news subscriptions gains.
But optimism about journalism more generally is harder to find. Just four in ten (41%) of editors, CEOs, and digital executives say they are confident about the prospects for journalism in the year ahead, with one in six (17%) expressing low confidence.
Subscriptions and memberships have replaced display advertising as the top publisher revenue stream in 2025, with advertising now second. Native advertising has also fallen in importance, while revenue from AI platforms is uk, and is seeking support in various forms of donations.
However, the global survey also needs to be seen in the context of the other Reuters research which shows fewer than 10% of people in the UK will pay for news, and that the BBC is growing its share of the local news market at the expense of local news publishers, according to recent Ofcom data.
Publishers were more likely to say their product development work would focus on improving existing services rather than launching new ones.
What else?
Summing up, Nic and Federica said: “Institutional journalism faces enormous pressures in the year ahead as technology reshapes the way audiences find and consume information, as well as from populist politicians and others looking to undermine it roles in fostering informed democratic debate.
“In this new environment, publishers worry that their carefully crafted, evidence-based articles will be harder to access in 2025 as social referrals dry up and traditional search links are at least partly replaced by AI aggregations, often drawn from their own work.
“Despite these challenges, this report shows news leaders will looking to do all they can to turn the tide.
“Not all media companies will be able to adapt fast enough and that will be increasingly evident, but times of change also throw up new opportunities. A big part of the task for news leaders in the year ahead will be to redefine the roles and value of journalalistic institutions in an age of polarisation, misinformation and super-abundant content in a way which resonates with both staff and audiences.”