News not dead

Picture a post-apocalyptic world where nearly catatonic people have become couch potatoes, their laziness arising from mindless dependence on the work done for them by artificial intelligence (AI).

Add to the bleak imagery a newspaper’s front page being blown along mostly deserted streets, briefly providing a glimpse of its headline in red ink on yellowed paper: “Journalism, as we know it, is dead!”

If video killed the radio star, as the song goes, will digital news eventually kill traditional media? Or is that merely alarmist headline writing, akin to Mark Twain’s famous quip, “The reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated?”

Much as we would like to humorously dismiss the fake news swirling around us — especially during election season — both digital and traditional media, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report, are under siege.

AFP states that Google’s parent company Alphabet, Meta and Amazon alone have been taking the lion’s share of global ad spending — 44 percent — compared to the 25 percent that traditional media outfits are currently fighting tooth and nail over, often taking sucker punches from those trying to scrape by.

The same report, citing the Reuters Institute’s 2024 Digital News Report, warned that social media platforms like Facebook are aggressively “deprioritizing news and political content,” contributing to sharp declines in traffic from social to traditional news sites. In their place, art cards and viral short videos dominate the algorithms; the sillier they are, the better.

All this has resulted in revenue drops even for the most robust digital news platforms, such as the once mighty HuffPost, which has continued to struggle traffic-wise and financially.

Contributing to the media’s woes are study results showing that few people have developed an appetite to pay for news, with only 17 percent of those surveyed across 20 affluent countries in 2023 saying they had online subscriptions.

Nearly a decade ago, HuffPost had over 10 million Facebook followers, and its Twitter account (now X) had 5 million users. Fast-forward to the present, and HuffPost’s unique monthly website visitors have plummeted to 25-30 million, with its X account followers down to 2-3 million.

BuzzFeed, HuffPost’s parent company, closed its news division last year, while Vox Media laid off around 130 workers across various brands, including Vox and The Verge. Traditional media, such as American newspaper giant Gannett, has undergone several rounds of layoffs, with 400 job cuts in 2022 followed by hundreds more in 2023.

Across America, local newspapers have also shut down or reduced operations, resulting in significant job losses in regional publications like the Denver Post and those under Alden Global Capital.

There’s no sugarcoating the overwhelmingly negative narrative surrounding the news industry: reports of plummeting trust, declining advertising revenues, and widespread job losses.

However, this perspective overlooks a range of emerging trends and innovations that suggest the future of journalism may not be as dire as many believe. In fact, there are compelling reasons to be optimistic about the resilience and adaptability of the news industry.

One of the most significant shifts in the media landscape is the growing acceptance of subscription-based models, with 20 percent of US consumers subscribing to news in 2023, up from 14 percent three years ago.

From where this Contrarian sits, there’s no reason this emerging trend — a willingness by consumers to invest in quality journalism they trust — could not catch fire in the Philippines as well. If realized, this would offer a viable sustainable revenue stream for the traditional news industry embracing digital.

Likewise, despite the challenges posed by tech giants siphoning off ad revenues, many news organizations have started to successful transition to emerging news delivery models.

As technology evolves, so too does the capacity for news organizations to adapt and thrive. Importantly, public sentiment remains strong regarding the important role played by a free press in keeping democracy alive, with 77 percent of respondents in a Pew Research Center survey affirming this.

While AI and social media raise concerns about disinformation, news organizations can continue to offer credible information by embracing innovation, leveraging technology, and fostering public support. The writing on the wall for the harbingers of credible news may not be utterly drab, after all.