19 December 2024

Hopes and expectations: FT, Ringier, Red Bull and more look forward to 2025

It’s been a truly tumultuous year for the media industry, with publishers buffeted by the rise of AI, a fall in digital advertising and the challenges of navigating a post-cookie world. And the seas don’t look any less stormy in 2025, with an unpredictable political landscape and the changing nature of news consumption making it even harder to plot a course ahead. Yet, with all the obstacles come exciting opportunities and renewed hope for the industry.

As we look ahead to 2025, FIPP reached out to its board, its members and its audience to try and gauge what the year will hold. We asked two questions: What is the one thing you hope for in our industry in 2025? And what is the one thing you think will definitely happen?

Here is some of the invaluable feedback, which we will revisit at next year’s FIPP World Media Congress in Madrid from 21-23 October to see how many ideas became reality.

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Keeping an eye on AI

Unsurprisingly, the disruptive power of artificial intelligence is at the forefront of the media industry’s mind. “AI will take over most rote jobs and guide strategic thinking,” is how one survey respondent puts it, while others predict the “mass adoption of AI” and that the media will “adopt AI at scale to improve business practices and outcomes”.

According to FIPP CEO Alastair Lewis, the media industry needs to unite to face up to the challenges presented by AI.

“I hope that the industry finds new ways to come together collectively to protect quality content, recognise and reflect the value of that content and all of the IP and assets that publishers the world over have been creating and continue to create,” he says. “We cannot allow tech platforms and third-party AI to crawl and use our content to further their business models without suitable remuneration and protection for the expert, quality content we produce.

Lewis also expects 2025 to be the year AI and AI-driven tools become commonplace in businesses to help those in the media do their jobs better.

“Analysing user data, creating personas and profiles, and adding real value to subscribers and members by providing access to archive content and the answers that lie within it are just some of the ways we will see publishers develop their usage of AI to build new opportunities and grow revenue,” he adds.

FIPP Chair Yulia Boyle predicts AI will revolutionise content customisation, particularly through real-time language translation and cultural adaptation tools.

“I am especially excited to see how such advancements could allow us to tailor educational content dynamically,” she says. “I think it will help achieve relevance and accessibility on a scale we have not seen before.”

Aled John, Director and Deputy Managing Director, FT Strategies, hopes AI will live up to the hype in 2025.

“I hope we’ll see Generative AI deliver on its promise to produce galvanising and exciting use cases that improve news organisations’ prospects for financial sustainability,” he says.

While the continued rise of AI is inevitable, Coneqtia, the Spanish association for B2B media, stresses that it should not come at the expense of producing trustworthy, quality content.

“We hope that in 2025 culture will be at the core of the development of our society and that editors of B2B content successfully face the challenges presented by AI, always committed to producing high-quality content, which is essential in a modern and prosperous society.”

Chris Radley, Executive Director of Magazines Canada, agrees that the media industry should truly value what sets humans apart from cutting-edge tech.

“As we reckon with what artificial intelligence can and should do for us, the humans who research, write, and edit our magazines must never stop doing the one thing that large language models can never do: finding stories that have not yet been told, and telling them with insight, power, and precision,” she says.

“AI is a powerful tool, and it is already starting to make our lives easier in plenty of little ways, but it can’t tell us anything that someone, somewhere, hasn’t already said. For the truly new and innovative, we need the journalists, and we think the journalists are ready.”

Dr. Dietmar Otti, Global Head of Media at Red Bull, believes digital globalisation will continue to progress swiftly in 2025, while we are likely see global tech giants exerting more influence over national markets, the dominance of artificial intelligence growing even further, and the global political landscape remaining unpredictable.

“This underscores the vital social role that quality media plays in our society,” he points out.

Building bridges to audiences

Effective audience engagement will be more crucial than ever in 2025 as the way news is consumed continues to evolve.

“I predict online search experiences will fundamentally change the way readers and users consume news online – and will damage the prospects of many publishers,” says Aled John.

“Consequently, many organisations will double down on building direct relationships with their audiences.”

One respondent hopes the digital subscription business model will continue to flourish in 2025. “One thing that will definitely happen is that more people than ever will use social media to read, watch and listen to traditional media content,” they say.

With Donald Trump’s return to the White House raising some serious questions about the credibility of mainstream media, building trust with audiences will be a priority in 2025.

In addition to wanting a stable advertising industry that prioritises investment in quality media, Dr. Dietmar Otti, also hopes for solidarity amongst media outlets to help build that trust.

“After the challenges we’ve faced in recent years, it would be wonderful to see a collaborative effort within the industry to support national media outlets, combat misinformation, and promote quality journalism,” he says.

“This way, media can remain a trustworthy and reliable source of information in our increasingly complex world.”

According to Richard Murphy, CEO, President and Managing Director, Alliance for Audited Media, adopting best practices will be the cornerstone of ensuring credibility in 2025.

“As the media landscape continues to evolve in 2025, publishers that prioritise transparency, ethical AI use and adherence to industry standards and best practises will set the benchmark for trust and credibility,” he says.

“It’s important that the industry continues to collaborate and develop standards-based solutions that empower the media ecosystem to advance with confidence while meeting growing demands for accountability.”

Another respondent hopes 2025 will be the year in which real, sustainable investments will be made in media literacy campaigns but warns that the “public’s trust in mainstream media will continue to lower” in the coming year.

Don’t write off print

While the digital revolution in the media shows no signs of slowing down, print will still very much have a say in 2025, predicts Coneqtia:

“As screen fatigue increases, we believe that print media will not decline, especially in specialised media. For many readers, a physical object is more attractive and may even seem more reliable, although you should always develop premium content that is relatively permanent over time and not only informative.

“Additionally, the physical medium will keep offering advertisers special inventory for brand building.”

Yulia Boyle hopes to see a continued renaissance in the premium print sector, where the tangible experience of high-quality publications coupled with trusted premium content/journalism gains renewed appreciation and monetisation.

“I hope that this movement towards print brings deeper connection with good content and deeper respect for the medium and its audience’s limited time,” she says. “With the digital overload both consumers and advertisers are ready for it. We all need this ‘calming’ medium that captures and sustains our attention in ways that transient digital content simply is not capable of.”

Another respondent echoes the sentiment, beating the drum for print: “I hope the digital vs print narrative will finally disappear and I’m sure there will be several more high-profile print relaunches,” they say.

Staying creative and joining forces

Steffi Buchli, Chief Content Officer at Ringier, hopes media organisations do not throw out the creative baby with the bathwater in 2025.

“I hope that we find room for being creative, besides all the cost-cutting,” she says, predicting however that “the economic environment in journalism will become even more complicated”.

Another respondent to the FIPP survey predicts more mergers and acquisitions in the media industry:

“There will be a landscape-altering spike in media M&A, at least in the US market, sparked by easing cost of money, new regulatory environment and the poor growth prospects of so many outfits.”

The respondent hopes that, in 2025, there will be a “growing consumer acceptance of the value of quality, targeted information and an attendant willingness to pay – leading to greater engagement with niche media brands and the communities they serve”.

One respondent wishes there will be more visibility on Google’s plan for “informed choice” with respect to third-party cookies in Chrome.

They also believe sustainability will come into focus in 2025 for the media industry, particularly in the EU, with the impact of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regulations.

And Chris Radley hopes that the lobbying done by the Canadian National Magazine Association will bear fruit in 2025.

“The one hope I have for our members is that our advocacy and lobbying with the Federal, Provincial and Territory governments will help them recognise the importance of magazines to the very fabric of Canadian culture and the economy,” she says.

“That they support and recognise the importance of providing funding to our industry. That magazines print and digital are taken into consideration when creating new bills that affect the publishing industry as they do newspapers and books.”