nicnewman.bsky.social

Let’s fact-check Mark Zuckerberg’s fact-checking announcement Zuckerberg didn’t mention that a big chunk of the content fact-checkers have been flagging is not political speech, but the low-quality spammy clickbait that Meta platforms have commodified.

Just caught up with this superb – evidence informed – take down of Meta's fact checking statement. [American] politics not policy is driving it says @mantzarlis.com www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/zuck...

Here are the links to explore the report in full
Download a PDF version
buff.ly/3WcEmLV
Read it on our website reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...

Read in Spanish reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/periodismo-m...

On the business side, expect to new product development. Around four in ten say they’ll be looking to launch or trial a ‘youth’ product in 2025 and some are planning to non-news content like games or education. These are likely to be bundled into ‘all-access’ subscriptions in a bid to reduce churn

A big focus for 2025 will be using AI for format personalisation, Many will be exploring features that turn text into audio (75%), provide AI summaries (70%), or translate news articles (65%). Over half said they’d be looking into chatbots and search interfaces

News orgs’ use of AI technologies continues to increase across all categories, with back-end automation (60%) seen as key by our respondents, many of whom have rolled out AI toolkits to support new workflows

Partly as a result publishers will be putting more effort into building relationships with AI platforms this year (+56 net score) They are also planning to invest in video platforms such as YouTube (+52), TikTok (+48), IG (+43), and in alternative sources such as Bluesky and Google Discover

We're seeing big drops in referral traffic from social media. Facebook down 67% and X (formerly Twitter) down 50% over two years. Though Google search traffic remains stable for now, 74% of publishers express concern about potential AI-driven declines in search referrals.

Just four in ten (41%) of our sample of media execs say they are confident about the prospects for journalism . Concerns relate to political polarisation, attacks on the press, and media capture – all of which in combination are seen as significant threats to journalism’s ability to operate freely.

Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions Our report looks at the trends shaping the news media in the year ahead.

Journalism, media and tech trends report 2025 from @reutersinstitute.bsky.social is out now by me and @fedecherubini.bsky.social. Another tricky year ahead for institutional journalism
📱Explore full report + key findings in this thread reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...

We couldn’t have done it without a super-talented team of academic researchers/partners, along with far- sighted sponsors Google, the BBC, and Ofcom who have been with us on this journey from the start. I'll be remaining at the Institute supporting this and other projects. 4/4

It’s been quite a ride as over almost 15 years we’ve documented the fragmentation of media consumption, the rise of social media, declining trust & news avoidance, and the emergence of AI. It's been a real privilege to see the impact of this research across the industry. 3/4

We started the DNR with just a handful of countries and the upcoming 2025 edition will be our largest yet ­– covering 48 markets. The ambition is to make it even more global and useful. 2/4

The Reuters Institute is seeking a new lead author for the Digital News Report Next year’s edition will be the last one led by Nic Newman, who launched the report in 2012. Here’s what the role requires and how to apply.

Some personal news. This will be my last year leading our flagship Reuters Institute Digital News Report and we’re looking for a new lead author to take it to the next level. More details about this opportunity here reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/reuters...
1/4