This year’s Digital News Report reveals a challenging and rapidly evolving media landscape. Contrary to expectations that global political and economic turmoil would drive audiences to traditional journalism, the data shows a significant decline in engagement and trust for established news sources. This is not simply a cyclical downturn; it is an accelerating shift toward a fragmented, platform-centric, and personality-driven ecosystem that is fundamentally changing how people consume news. For media leaders, adapting to this new reality is no longer a tactical decision—it is a strategic imperative.
The Unbundling of News and the Rise of Personalities
Traditional media’s influence is diminishing as audiences bypass news websites and television in favor of social media and video platforms. In the United States, for the first time, news consumption via social and video networks (54%) has surpassed both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%). This fragmentation is evident globally, with six online networks now reaching more than 10% of weekly news consumers, up from just two a decade ago. At the heart of this shift is the growing influence of “personalities” and “influencers.” The report highlights that one-fifth (22%) of the U.S. sample encountered news from podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after the inauguration, while French news creator Hugo Travers reaches 22% of under-35s with content distributed primarily via YouTube and TikTok. This trend is also pronounced in Asia and Africa, where influencers often have a level of reach that rivals or exceeds that of mainstream news organizations.
The Growing Dominance of Video and the AI Paradox
The report underscores a clear and irreversible shift in audience preference toward video. Across all markets, the proportion of people consuming news through social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025. In countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and India, more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it. This is particularly true for younger generations, even in countries with strong reading traditions. As platforms prioritize video in their algorithms, this trend will only accelerate, putting pressure on newsrooms to shift resources from text to audio-visual content.
Alongside this, AI is emerging as a new challenge and opportunity. While the number of people using AI chatbots for news remains small overall (7%), it rises to 15% for under-25s. However, audience sentiment towards AI in news is largely skeptical. The public expects AI to make news cheaper and more up-to-date, but also less trustworthy (-18 net difference) and less accurate (-8). Despite these concerns, audiences remain open to the use of AI for specific tasks, such as summarization (27%), a sign that human-led news with AI assistance may still be a viable path forward.
Rebuilding Trust in a Fragmented World
The most encouraging finding for media brands is that trust still matters. Despite the fragmentation of consumption, trusted news brands, including public service broadcasters, are still the most frequently named source for fact-checking when people are concerned about misinformation. This indicates that while audiences may be consuming news from a variety of new sources, they still turn to established organizations as a reliable arbiter of truth.
The report’s findings provide a clear mandate for media leaders: the future is not about trying to compete with every influencer on every platform. Instead, it is about strategically leveraging these new channels to distribute content while reinforcing the core value of human-generated, professionally vetted journalism. By maintaining a strong brand identity and acting as a credible anchor in a chaotic information ecosystem, media organizations can secure their competitive advantage and forge a new, more resilient relationship with their audience.