X out, Youtube and Tiktok in: News media trends for 2025
Piers Morgan leaves News UK (again) and Bauer Media enters out of home advertising market with major acquisition
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Friday 10 January.
News publishers may have given extensive coverage to the ramblings of X owner Elon Musk in recent weeks.
But they are also deserting his platform in droves.
A new survey from the Reuters Institute based on responses from 326 digital newsroom leaders around the world reveals the big platforms and revenue themes they are going to invest time in this year.
It reveals that X, Facebook, Threads and Snapchat are dropping like stones in terms of the effort publishers are putting in to them. Instead they are focusing on platforms centred around generative AI, video and on Linkedin, Whatsapp and Bluesky.
Google Discover, which is providing so much referral traffic for the Reach network, is another area of focus.
The report reveals that subscriptions remain the biggest area of focus in terms of revenue. And when it comes to AI: text to audio, summaries and translation are seen as the biggest areas of opportunity.
We have all the key take-homes from the Reuters Institute 2025 trends and predictions report here.
There is also big news in the world of online video with Piers Morgan's production company Wake Up Productions taking ownership of Youtube show Piers Morgan Uncensored. In January 2022 Morgan signed a three-year deal which Press Gazette reported was worth £50m.
News UK lost a fortune launching TV channel TalkTV - £88m in the first 14 months to July 2023 alone (the latest figures we have). Morgan's show was the one big success from that disastrous episode so I am guessing they would have liked to keep him in the fold. But they will also probably be glad to be relieved of that enormous pay packet.
We report on another big media merger (following the news earlier in the week that picture agency giants Shutterstock and Getty are to combine). Mag giant Bauer Media Group has agreed to acquire billboard company Clear Channel's northern European business in a $625m deal.
And a welcome breakthrough for press freedom with the news that journalists will soon be allowed to report from all family courts in England and Wales (albeit subject to the normal reporting restrictions).
Given some of the horrendous cases involving children and council failings in recent years it has to be welcome news that more light is being shed in this area. Of course whether newsrooms can spare journalists to cover these complex anonymised cases is another matter.
On Press Gazette
News media trends for 2025: AI threats, Google search decline and subs slowdown
Newsroom leaders around the world appear to have growing confidence about their own businesses in 2025 but concerns for the wider industry.
Piers Morgan takes ownership of Youtube show away from News UK
Wake Up Productions Ltd aims to expand Piers Morgan Uncensored in the US.
Bauer Media Group pays $625m for outdoor advertising business
The acquisition represents Bauer's entry into the out of home advertising market.
News in brief
Journalists will be able to report from any family court in England and Wales rolling out from 27 January after a successful pilot. A transparency order protecting anonymity must be granted but the presumption is now that this will be granted. (Press Gazette)
DMG Media has appointed chief product officer amid a Mail+ subscriptions growth drive, with Lewis Buttress joining from The Times and Sunday Times. (Press Gazette)
The bulk of the Washington Post layoffs announced this week will be in the advertising department (around 73 roles affected). (Press Gazette)
Global will reportedly end all its local and regional shows on Heart, Smooth and Capital in England, with Wales' Capital North and Capital South combining for one national show. Radio Today reported that "many presentation and programming jobs will be lost". (Radio Today)
Billionaire asset management boss Leon Black has reportedly held talks about backing Dovid Efune's bid to buy The Telegraph. It was previously reported that so has Todd Boehly, co-owner of Chelsea Football Club. Efune's exclusivity period ended last month. (Financial Times)
Amazon is reportedly looking into more news coverage after airing a US election night special with Brian Williams that attracted some four million viewers on Prime Video. (Variety)
Fox Corp is heading to court to face a $2.7bn defamation claim brought by Smartmatic over Fox News coverage of the 2020 election result. It follows a $787.5m payout by Fox to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023. (Reuters)
GB News says it outperformed Sky News for average live views over a month for the second month running in December. BARB data puts GB News on 66,129 average live views between 6am-2am daily in December, versus 63,452 for Sky.
The broadcaster also said it had a record-breaking day on Wednesday, with an average of 97,800 views across the day and its highest-yet average share of UK TV viewing.
Press regulator IPSO has found that a Matthew Parris column in The Times headlined "Mental health industry is cheating the public" contained "several inaccuracies on a topic of public interest and significance: welfare payments made to those with disabilities". (IPSO)
A Quaker organisation has said it cancelled a digital ad campaign with The New York Times because it was not allowed to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide. The NYT said this was "entirely in line with the standards we apply to all ad submissions". (The Guardian)
Entries for Private Eye's Paul Foot Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism 2025 are now open until 4 March. The winner will receive £8,000 in May. Last year's winner was the Evening Standard's Tristan Kirk.
Also on Press Gazette:
What Google’s C$100m payout to Canada news industry means for publishers elsewhere
Research, personalisation and automation: What AI can do for publishers
Donald Trump versus the press: His ‘campaign of legal intimidation’ tracked
Meta fact-checking partner calls end of scheme ‘a backwards step’
Computer Weekly editor to national media: Pay more attention to specialist titles
50 biggest UK news websites: The Independent top commercial title by reach
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