The biggest trends from the Digital News Report 2025
And Nic Newman delves into the data on push alerts and how to engage people without annoying them away
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 17 June.
Hi all - apologies for our rare day off this newsletter yesterday. But I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear Dom is enjoying (albeit slightly overwhelmed by!) his first Cannes Lions experience.
His initial hot takes from a very hot Cannes are: everyone is prepping for Google zero on news traffic, Reddit wants to be the new Twitter for journalists, and lots of talk about the need for brands to get over safety fears around supporting news. More to come soon.
But what a day to return - one of the biggest of the year for media geeks. The launch of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report.
Obviously we always recommend reading the full report. But for anyone who is too busy to get stuck in, at least straight away, here’s our initial digest.
I’ve rounded up several of the key themes. AI chatbots were inevitably mentioned - I found it interesting to see the actual scale of usage (7% of respondents globally are using them for news). Although it’s small, it’s not insignificant either and it’s early days. I already can’t wait to see where it is in 2026, for better or worse.
Other nuggets I picked out included the stagnation of digital subscriptions and the proportion willing to pay, how fragmented platforms are nowadays - it’s a far cry from the days when it was just all about Facebook and a little of Twitter - and the ongoing threat to the legacy media from alternative/individual creators.
It’s a tricky balance: how many do you send to both keep people informed and get their attention as much as you can without annoying them? The data provides some direction on that front.
I’ll be attending the London launch of the report this morning so should have more from you on some of the big themes and publisher responses to them tomorrow.
Press Gazette Future of Media Awards: Thursday 19 June is the deadline for entries
On Press Gazette
News trends for 2025: AI chatbots, social video boom, platform fragmentation and rise of news influencers
'Challenges for institutional journalism are intensifying' in platform-enabled ecosystem, report finds.
Walking the mobile notification tightrope: How to engage audiences while avoiding overload
Nic Newman examines latest data on use and audience response to push alerts.
News in brief
Journalism figures recognised in the King's Birthday Honours this weekend included: ex-Today presenter Martha Kearney (CBE), longtime Guardian economics editor Larry Elliot (CBE) and Sky News director of operations Jacqueline Faulkner (MBE).
British journalist Charlotte Meredith, who lived in Australia working as deputy social media editor for Daily Mail Australia and previously worked at Huffpost, The Independent and Vice in the UK, has taken her own life aged 36. Here is an obituary written by her mother. (The Guardian)
A licensed edition of Time in France is being launched with 360BusinessMedia with a website going live in the autumn and the first quarterly print issue with a run of 100,000 copies coming at the end of the year. They will have a mix of original content from a French editorial team and curated articles from the US edition. (Time)
The Competition and Markets Authority is consulting on releasing Google from pro-competition commitments around its Privacy Sandbox after the tech giant said it's no longer planning to ask users to decide if they want to block third-party cookies on Chrome. (Gov.uk)
More than 100 journalists have signed an Amnesty International open letter calling on Keir Starmer to demand international reporters can access Gaza and provide support to Palestinian journalists. (Amnesty)
The Chicago Tribune is offering voluntary buyouts to union members in the newsroom. The union criticised the publisher for looking for "a short-term profit boost". (Chicago Sun-Times)
Business Insider has launched an audio briefing tool providing AI-generated voiceover summaries of its top stories. (Business Insider)
Premium Content
Newsletter strategies: Insights from The Scotsman, Metro and The i Paper
How 20-strong PA Media puzzles team feeds growing publisher demand for brain teasers (promoted)
Telegraph withdraws banker school fees story after being deceived by source
New London culture title to launch in September with five-strong team
Around ten staff axed in Techcrunch move to scrap Europe coverage
Press Gazette now operates a metered paywall, so you’ll need to subscribe in order to read more than a couple of premium stories on our website.
This newsletter remains free.
Latest podcast: Video masterclasss with PA Media's Joe Pickover
UK national news agency PA Media has massively ramped up its video output in recent years and is able to provide live video feeds of news events across the country. Here PA head of video Joe Pickover explains how publishers can make video work for them in a podcast edition which is presented by Press Gazette in association with PA Media.
 | A guest post by
|