Five Signs of Optimism for the Future of the Media Industry
Table of Contents
Despite facing existential threats from artificial intelligence and declining consumer trust, the media industry isn’t without its reasons for hope. As one analyst noted, “you never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from,” and several emerging trends suggest a path toward a more sustainable future. Here are five developments offering a glimmer of optimism for media in the year ahead.
The Dawn of the Pay-Per-Crawl
One of the most significant challenges facing the media industry is the unpaid use of content to power AI answer engines. For too long, content creators have watched as AI firms scraped their data, repackaged it, and used it to answer user queries without compensation.
However, recent months have seen the emergence of initiatives aimed at establishing a marketplace where publishers can be compensated for the use of their content. A recent experiment involving Criteo and Raptive, utilizing a pay-per-crawl infrastructure, generated $174 for an independent food publisher, demonstrating the potential of this model. This approach, often referred to as “the Spotify model,” mirrors the way streaming services compensate musicians for their work.
Several firms, including Cloudflare, Fastly, Tollbit, ProRata, and Criteo, are supporting this model, which would effectively charge AI firms for the right to crawl websites. A key question remains: what incentive will AI firms have to participate without a legal mandate? Nevertheless, the groundwork is being laid for a more equitable system, one that recognizes the value of content creation and ensures its sustainability. This isn’t solely about benefiting publishers; the current system is unsustainable, as AI firms rely on creators while simultaneously undermining their ability to fund their work.
The Vodcast Extravaganza
The year 2025 marked the rise of vodcasting – video podcasting – as a dominant force in the audio-visual landscape. Audio-only podcasts have rapidly declined in popularity, with podcast appearances now requiring a focus on visual presentation.
This shift has yielded several benefits. First, it has opened up access to larger video advertising budgets for the podcasting industry. Second, it has addressed the long-standing discovery problem in podcasting, as short-form video clips perform well on social media platforms.
Perhaps most importantly, vodcasting provides publishers and creators with a low-effort way to expand into video content. As one media professional explained, filming an interview and uploading it to YouTube effectively transforms a reporter into a vodcaster. This incremental shift has significant implications for the next trend.
The Creator-ification Continues Apace
Publishers are finally taking cues from creators in how they package and distribute content, a shift that is nearly a decade overdue. This is most evident in the increasing volume of video output from traditional news organizations. Outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post have even integrated TikTok-style scrolling feeds into their mobile apps.
The trend extends beyond video. Vox has launched on Patreon, and The Financial Times has joined Substack. Creator-publisher partnerships are also on the rise, exemplified by Platformer’s Casey Newton joining The New York Times through Hard Fork and Alex Heath collaborating with Vox via Sources. Internally, publishers like Axios, Wired, and Bloomberg are “franchising” their star reporters, building brands around individual talent to capitalize on audience affinity.
These developments reflect a new approach to balancing the benefits of institutional support with the appeal of individual creators. While publishers have historically resisted this “atomization,” evidence suggests a viable middle ground is emerging.
Creator-Led Media Scales Up
Historically, the digital transformation of news has involved large players shrinking and small players struggling to grow. However, this year saw a change, with independent creators beginning to scale up and build sustainable operations.
The Substack revolution spawned a wave of solo creators, but only recently have these independent outlets achieved escape velocity, cultivating engaged audiences through subscriptions. The Free Press stands out as a prime example, securing a $150 million exit. Other creator-centric publishers gaining traction include Emily Sundberg’s FeedMe, Puck, Defector, Zeteo, Status, 404Media, Newcomer, Platformer, TBPN, A Media Operator, Drop Site News, and The Bulwark. Semafor also fits into this category.
These smaller publishers may lack the scale of media giants, but their long-term viability appears more secure. The inflated valuations of companies like BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox, and Business Insider now seem like a fleeting anomaly. Perhaps the media industry has learned from past mistakes, and these new torchbearers are more durable.
Publishers, Meet Marketing
Despite their reliance on advertising revenue, publishers have historically been reluctant to actively market themselves. This year, that began to change, with six publishers launching brand-marketing campaigns – several for the first time in their history. Outlets including Hearst, Wired, Reuters, MarketWatch, NBC News, and The Guardian invested in prominent digital and physical media placements to shape their brand identities. Established publishers like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg continue to emphasize their established reputations.
This shift is also reflected in recent media rebrands: Max regained its HBO branding, MSNBC rebranded as MSNow (as NBCUniversal’s cable networks split off into Versant), Dotdash Meredith transformed into People Inc., and Gannett became USA Today Co. These rebrands, while not traditional marketing campaigns, demonstrate a growing focus on consumer perception.
This change is driven by the evolving information landscape, where passive discovery is diminishing and publishers must proactively engage consumers. Thinking of themselves as brands offering a specific type of information, rather than simply news or entertainment firms, will better position publishers to compete in an environment saturated with content and data. It may be an awkward evolution, but it is one long past due.
