A pivotal year for news publishers

As challenges to their business models mount, audience expectations change, and technology continues to evolve quickly around them, 2024 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year for publishers. 

Publishers are no strangers to the ground shifting beneath them, of course, and the ability to adapt and reinvent has become table stakes for survival in the digital world. Still, the challenges and choices they’re currently facing feel particularly consequential, and there’s a growing feeling among many – particularly those with products oriented around news – that strategic missteps over the next 12 months could have particularly significant repercussions for their futures.

The rise of artificial intelligence remains top of mind for many. The technology’s rapid emergence coupled with the reality that large AI companies have already ingested large portions of their content has sent publishers scrambling to figure out AI strategies that won’t render them obsolete in the years ahead.

Debates continue on the best path of action: Some argue that publishers striking deals with AI companies are giving up control of their futures entirely and cementing their servitude to large technology companies. Others fear that failing to play ball with AI could leave them cut off from audiences entirely, which is simply not a risk they’re willing to take. Partnering with AI companies will inevitably make more sense for some publishers than others, but there’s a growing sense among some that the decisions they make around AI now will have a significant bearing on their futures.

Meanwhile, questions continue to mount around the viability of ad-supported models. It’s looking increasingly likely that operating news publications on advertising as a primary revenue stream will become increasingly difficult – if not impossible – in the years ahead. Traffic for many publishers is declining, demand from advertisers is flagging, and competition for ad dollars continues to heat up. Large platforms continue to attract the majority of advertisers’ dollars, and the growth of retail media networks threatens to siphon ad dollars away from publishers further.

Some publishers have established themselves as subscription-first businesses, but for those that haven’t or can’t, it’s getting increasingly difficult to see how they’re going to support themselves sustainably.

Product-market fit is a growing challenge, too. Consumer appetite for news appears to be flagging generally, and there’s a growing recognition among some publishers that their current editorial strategies and approaches will result in their business and brands becoming much smaller in the years ahead. Recognizing this, publishers such as the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Daily Beast are all making major leadership and staffing changes to urgently shake things up.

WaPo’s new CEO and publisher Will Lewis ruffled feathers in the company’s newsroom in recent weeks with blunt assessments of its editorial product: “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience is halved. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore,” he reportedly said. Delivery aside, Lewis’s comments demonstrate the challenges many news publishers currently face: They must either establish reasons to exist in audiences’ minds or accept that their relevance will continue to dwindle.

Finally, it’s worth noting that publishers are facing these choices and challenges in a busy news year and the run-up to a U.S. election. While many news publishers remain hopeful this will be a strong year in terms of reader engagement and subscription revenue, there’s mounting concern for many about what might happen in 2025 and beyond if interest in news continues to subside further. 

Existential challenges are nothing new for publishers, but there’s a sense that 2024 might ultimately be looked back on as a turning point for many publishers’ fortunes – for better or worse. The next 12-18 months could see more news publishers making more drastic changes to their products and strategies as a result.