What will the news media industry look like in 2025?  

Until we manage to get a hold of a crystal ball to glimpse what 2025 holds for the news industry, Nieman Lab’s annual predictions offer the next best thing.  

For those unfamiliar, every year Nieman Lab gathers insights from over a hundred media professionals, offering a snapshot of the key trends and challenges shaping journalism in the year ahead. 

Though labeled as “predictions,” these insights often serve more as a reflection of the current media landscape—highlighting the ongoing struggles, opportunities, and shifts in the industry.  

Read on as Twipe breaks down the most important takeaways and what they mean for the future of news. 

What’s on everyone’s mind? (Hint: It starts with A and ends with elligence) 

If you also noticed that AI was mentioned a lot more in this year’s predictions, you would be correct. In fact, Johannes Klingebiel (Program & Design Manager at the Media Lab Bayern) ran an analysis of the number of times “AI”, “artificial intelligence”, or “machine learning” was used among the predictions and found that the number had over doubled from last year. The sheer number of predictions that mentioned AI shows just how much of an impact it continues and is yet to have on the news industry. 

These predictions gave dozens of examples of how news organizations can use AI (and we’ve outlined 12 of them in our article as well), but here’s one Cohn’s “return of the reporter” is one that we found particularly interesting.  

Indeed, David Cohn’s “return of the reporter” analogy gave a strikingly simple and memorable understanding of how AI could impact journalists. Cohn, Advance Local’s Senior Director of Research and Development for Content, explained that articles actually used to be produced by two people: “The reporter was the stereotypical fast-talking journalist who knew everyone at City Hall. They’d get the scoop and call it in over the phone to the writer. The writer, trained on the keyboard, had a way with words and could put together the story lickety-split.” In short, there was the person who got the story and the person who wrote it.  

Cohn posits that AI will mainly impact the role of the writer. The reasons for this are self-evident: AI can help reduce the time and cost of the process while increasing in scale (think of using AI to help translate articles). This is not to say that writing will be fully handed over to AI, particularly not in with its current version of the technology (just think of how many times you’ve had to remove the word “delve” from an AI-generated text and you can see why). However, the writing process could certainly be transformed or enhanced as the technology continues to evolve.  

Taking the concept of how the news is packaged for consumption to another level, Nikita Roy, Founder of Newsroom Robots Labs, ask us to “imagine sitting down with your morning coffee and saying, ‘Tell me what I need to know today.’ Your AI companion doesn’t just read the headlines — it engages you in a personalized, conversational dialogue about the news that matters most to you.” The future of AI in the news is one where the role of the “writer” could go beyond the written, to one where you can chat with or engage in dialogue with AI that wrapped the content in the users’ preferred way.  

All this being said, Cohn’s ultimate point is that journalism relies heavily on building relationships with sources, cultivating trust, and gaining access to exclusive information. These are inherently human skills that AI cannot replicate and where the unique selling point for journalists and journalism resides.

The uncertain future of news websites 

Several Nieman Lab predictions signaled that news websites will face mounting challenges in 2025. As Jonathan Hunt, Vice President of Media at HubSpot and Head of The Hustle, put it, “websites aren’t where audiences or advertisers are increasingly investing their time or budgets.” 

This decline in news websites is perhaps more of a continuation of a trend we’ve seen this year. What has contributed to this trend? In short, social media platforms are increasingly restricting external links and AI-search engines delivering answers without having to click off to a website.  

But these technological changes don’t paint the full picture either. Audience behavior changes have also contributed to the decline and will most likely continue into 2025. Young audiences are increasingly seeking out news through alternative channels that offer more personalized and engaging experiences. Case and point: “Ask someone in your life under 40 where they get the news. Odds are they’ll mention a non-newsroom podcaster or YouTuber,” shares Julia Munslow, Senior Platform Editor on the Social Visuals Team at The Wall Street Journal. While news organizations are adapting to this trend, they face stiff competition from creators who excel in these formats. 

Will news websites disappear in 2025? Certainly not. As Hunt explains, “Businesses will always always need a home base — a place that’s theirs, where they have absolute editorial, experiential, and monetary control.” What is clear is that in 2025, publishers should pivot their strategies to account for these technological and behavior patterns changes.  

A (somewhat) renewed appetite for print 

Perhaps a surprising reoccurring prediction is the potential resurgence of print newspapers. Aimee Rinehart (Senior Product Manager of AI Strategy, the Associated Press) paraphrases Ladina Heimgartner’s (CEO of Ringier Media Switzerland) by writing “print is the new luxury, a symbol of leisure and remedy to the daily digital grind.” Similarly, Esther Kezia Thorpe, Co-Founder of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter by Media Voices, believes that edition products are seeing a resurgence.  

The reasons behind these predictions of a print revival can be boiled down to:  

1. “Finishable” edition products appeal to news avoiders who are looking to quash the sense of news overload, and;  

2. People are increasingly becoming aware of the impact of algorithms on their media diets and are looking for more balanced news consumption experience.  

Will this possible rise in print products stop its decline? Certainly not. However, as Kezia Thorpe explains, “the time is right for those publications to capitalize on industry trends and actually market them, rather than having print tucked away on subscription pages.” 

These reasons also bear important ramifications for digital products. Take the case of paywalls, which Sara Morrison, Correspondent at The Capitol Forum, believes will be increasingly prevalent in 2025. She argues that, “Free content will be increasingly synonymous with AI slop and other low-quality content that’s barely worth anyone’s time to read, let alone pay to advertise on. A paywall tells readers that there’s something behind it that’s worth paying for.” In other words, in a world of bad AI content being cheaply distributed, the thought of content being behind a paywall gives the impression that it is worth paying for. What the impact means on for the people who do not have the means to still remains a very open question.  

2025 & beyond 

As we look ahead to 2025, the future of news is anything but simple.  

• AI promises to enhance the writing process, but it will never replace the human elements that define journalism—relationships, trust, and the pursuit of exclusive stories.  

• Meanwhile, the decline of news websites and the rise of alternative media channels signal a shift in audience behavior that publishers must adapt to.  

• But even as digital trends evolve, print may find a niche as a luxury experience for those seeking respite from the digital deluge.  

In short, the news industry will continue to innovate, but its core mission—to inform and connect—remains unchanged.