Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026

Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism · 2026-01-12

We are still at the early stages of another big shift in technology (Generative AI) which threatens to upend the news industry by offering more efficient ways of accessing and distilling information at scale. At the same time, creators and influencers (humans) are driving a shift towards personality-led news, at the expense of media institutions that can often feel less relevant, less interesting, and less authentic. In 2026 the news media are likely to be further squeezed by these two powerful forces.

Existential challenges abound. Declining engagement for traditional media combined with low trust is leading many politicians, businessmen, and celebrities to conclude that they can bypass the media entirely, giving interviews instead to sympathetic podcasters or YouTubers. This Trump 2.0 playbook – now widely copied around the world – often comes bundled with a barrage of intimidating legal threats against publishers and continuing attempts to undermine trust by branding independent media and individual journalists as ‘fake news’. These narratives are finding fertile ground with audiences – especially younger ones – that prefer the convenience of accessing news from platforms, and have weaker connections with traditional news brands. Meanwhile search engines are turning into AI-driven answer engines, where content is surfaced in chat windows, raising fears that referral traffic for publishers could dry up, undermining existing and future business models.

Only slightly more than a third (38%) of our sample of editors, CEOs, and digital executives say they are confident about the prospects for journalism in the year ahead – that’s 22pp lower than four years ago. Stated concerns relate to politically motivated attacks on journalism, loss of USAID money that previously supported independent media in many parts of the world, and significant declines in traffic to many online news sites.

By contrast, around half (53%) say they are confident about their own business prospects, similar to last year’s figure. Upmarket subscription-based publishers with strong direct traffic can see a path to long-term profitability, even as those that remain dependent on advertising and print worry about sharp declines in revenue and the potential impact of AI powered search on the bottom line.

Publishers expect traffic from search engines to decline by more than 40% over the next three years – not quite ‘Google Zero’ but a substantial impact none the less. Data sourced for this report from analytics provider Chartbeat shows that aggregate traffic to hundreds of news sites from Google search has already started to dip, with publishers that rely on lifestyle content saying they have been particularly affected by the roll out of Google’s AI overviews.

Alongside the traffic disruption from AI, news executives also see opportunities to build new revenue from licensing content (or a share of advertising revenue) within chatbots. Around a fifth (20%) of publisher respondents – mainly from upmarket news companies – expect future revenues to be substantial, with half (49%) saying that they expect a minor contribution. A further fifth (20%), mostly made up of local publishers, public broadcasters, or those from smaller countries, say they do not expect any income from AI deals.

More widely, subscription and membership remain the biggest revenue focus (76%) for publishers, ahead of both display (68%) and native advertising (64%). Online and physical events (54%) are also becoming more important as part of a diversified revenue strategy. Reliance on philanthropic and foundation support (18%) has declined this year, after cuts of media support budgets in the United States and elsewhere.

Meanwhile news organisations’ use of AI technologies continues to increase across all categories, with back-end automation considered ‘important’ this year by the vast majority (97%) of publisher respondents, many of whom integrated pilot systems into content management systems in the last year. Newsgathering cases (82%) are now the second most important, with faster coding and product development (81%) also gaining traction.

Over four in ten (44%) survey respondents say that their newsroom AI initiatives are showing ‘promising’ results, but a similar proportion (42%) describe them as ‘limited’. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) say they have not saved any jobs so far as a result of AI efficiencies. Around one in seven (16%) say they have slightly reduced staff numbers but a further one in ten (9%) have added new roles/cost.

The rise of news creators and influencers is a concern for publishers in two ways. More than two-thirds (70%) of our respondents are concerned that they are taking time and attention away from publisher content. Four in ten (39%) worry that they are at risk of losing top editorial talent to the creator ecosystem, which offers more control and potentially higher financial rewards.

Vibe coding[/ vaɪb/kəʊ.dɪŋ/ ] nounDef: Coined by one of the founders of Open AI in early 2025, it has come to define the practice of writing code, making web pages, or creating apps, by just telling an AI program what you want. Great for prototyping or personal projects.

Digital provenance[/dɪdʒətəl/prɒvənəns/] nounDef: Describes the ability to verify the origin and history of digital media in an AI-infused world where sophisticated deep-fakes are becoming more common. See also associated terms such as watermarking, attestation databases, and the C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity).

AEO[/eɪiːˈoʊ/] nounDef: Answer Engine Optimisation describes ways in which content providers can get better visibility within AI chatbots and other AI driven interfaces. See also GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Liquid content[/ ˈlɪkwɪd ˈkɒn.tent/] nounDef: Describes content or stories that are not static but adapt in real time based on the viewer's context, location, time, or interaction. AI facilitates this by tailoring content to individual preferences. Requires traditional media companies to move away from authoring ‘articles’ towards more flexible atomic objects.

Meanwhile many executives feel that trusted, high-quality, accurate content will be increasingly valued in a world of AI slop, deep-fakes, and toxic social media debates.

Publishers expect traffic from search engines to almost halve (-43%) over the next three years, following recent dramatic declines in referrals from social media. The latest concerns are focused on Google’s AI Overviews, which now appear at the top of about 10% of search results in the United States6 and have been rapidly rolling out elsewhere. A number of studies show that the proportion of ‘Zero-click searches’ – where the user doesn’t click through to any website – increases significantly when these overviews are shown. Meanwhile the separate ‘AI mode’ tab is now available in 120 markets, with full multi-modal capabilities from Gemini-3 providing more reasons to switch. Expectations vary, with a few optimists believing the negative impact of these changes will be less than 20%. At the other end of the scale, around a fifth of respondents expect a loss of more than 75% of their company’s search traffic.

But declines in Google referrals are not the only challenge. ChatGPT has become one of the fastest growing apps of all time with around 800m weekly active users worldwide. Reuters Institute surveys show that searching for information of different kinds is now one of its most widely used AI functions,7 with up-to-date news now a part of that story. Within ChatGPT and similar chatbots, links are provided in the form of a small ‘citations’ button for those who wish to dig deeper into the subject via an original source. Chartbeat data do show a rapid rise in the number of referrals from ChatGPT, but its contribution to overall referrals remains little more than a rounding error. Google delivers 500 times as many referrals as ChatGPT from search alone; 1,300 times as many if you take into account Discover traffic.

According to the Tow Center’s AI Deals and Disputes tracker,8 there have been a number of new deals this year between OpenAI and leading publishers such as the Guardian, the Schibsted Media Group, and Axios – at the same time as others continue to pursue lawsuits. Amazon has also secured AI licensing deals with several major publishers, including the New York Times, Condé Nast, and Hearst, to use content for training – as well as for powering features in products like Alexa. In December, Google joined the party, though the company emphasised that the cash on offer is part of the next phase of its partnership programme rather than directly tied to AI licensing.