Five observations from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
Unsurprisingly, the news landscape continues to shift dramatically—but there are some critical opportunities emerging amidst the disruption
The excellent Reuters Institute Digital News Report came out recently, and as always, it’s full of useful information about the news landscape. You can read a summary and key findings here—even if you’re not in media or communications, it’s definitely worth it. After all, whether it’s from network TV or a podcast, news media is how everyone gets their information about the world around them. This is valuable information on how to connect with the world around you (particularly with young people).
Of course, the landscape continues its dramatic shift. It’s simultaneously becoming more fragmented and more consolidated at the same time, as preferences shift from and both individual personalities and platforms continue to dominate. There’s plenty of disruption, but as always, plenty of opportunity amidst that disruption.
In this newsletter, I decided to pull out five of the problems facing the news ecosystem, and highlight opportunities that I see for research orgs and universities amidst these changes.
Take a look below, and let me know what you think!
1. The problem: Disinformation
“Overall, over half our sample (58%) say they remain concerned about their ability to tell what is true from what is false when it comes to news online, a similar proportion to last year. Concern is highest in Africa (73%) and the United States (73%), with lowest levels in Western Europe (46%).”
“Search engines (33%) are another important way in which people check for information but probing further we found that their underlying intent was to find the same trusted sources. In each case respondents were able to identify the specific brands they would turn to in each country.”
“These data show the continuing importance of independent public media brands as an anchor point in an uncertain world – and at moments of national and international significance – even if people don’t use them as often as they once did.”
The opportunity: Become the trusted source for information
Although research organisations themselves are subject to the same drop in trust that almost all legacy institutions are facing these days, they have an incredible resource: their researchers, who still command comparatively high levels of trust. I’ve already mentioned this report several times, but it’s worth repeating: In January of this year, Nature surveyed 68 countries and found that “most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking.”
Universities and research organisations have the opportunity to leverage this trust—which is an incredible advantage in today’s world—to become a source of trusted news. There is an opportunity to become something similar to an independent public media brand.
Yes, this would take some investment. I’m not saying this would be easy! But it’s also a great way to communicate the value of your own research, by telling engaging stories that focus on your impact. And that is an incredibly important strategic investment that will, in time, pay for itself.
2. The problem: News avoidance
“Low trust and low engagement in the news are closely connected with ‘avoidance’, an increasing challenge in a high-choice news environment, where news is often upsetting in different ways. Across markets, four in ten (40%) say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017 and the joint highest figure we’ve ever recorded (along with 2024).”
“Younger respondents are more likely to say that they feel powerless in the face of existential issues such as economic insecurity and climate change, that the news doesn’t feel relevant to their lives, or that it can lead to toxic arguments.”
The opportunity: become the good news corner
Science is the source of new discoveries, new breakthroughs and new advances that can make the world a better place. Yet we rarely hear about these stories—particularly when it comes to topics like climate change, which often feels like one doomsday story after another.
There are obvious reasons for this: people tend to engage more with things that upset them. But clearly, people also want good news. This is a great opportunity for research organisations. Given that younger people are more likely to use social media, there’s also an opportunity to combine good news content with a social media strategy to really increase your chances of connecting with young people.
3. The problem: Traditional media engagement continues to fall
“Engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows.”
“News use across online platforms continues to fragment, with six online networks now reaching more than 10% weekly with news content, compared with just two a decade ago.”
The opportunity: Become your own publisher
I’ve said it, time and time (and time) again: when it comes to communications, research organisations are way behind the times. It’s not that the digital revolution has completely passed them by—many organisations have social media strategies, and some are working with influencers—but there’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit. In an era where the standard press-release-to-media approach has increasingly diminishing returns, why is it still the standard approach? Why are you relying on traditional media to share your message, when there are so many opportunities to reach audiences directly?
Yes, some of these problems (like news aggregators and increased reliance on platforms) are tough to directly tackle. But a high-quality social media strategy combined with a website strategy that integrates multiple types of media, like videos and podcasts, would provide an entirely new way to connect with audiences. This is particularly relevant when trying to reach younger audiences, like potential students.
4. The problem: The rise of AI
“We find AI chatbots and interfaces emerging as a source of news as search engines and other platforms integrate real-time news. The numbers are still relatively small overall (7% use for news each week) but much higher with under-25s (15%).”
“With many publishers looking to use AI to better personalise news content, we find mixed views from audiences, some of whom worry about missing out on important stories. At the same time there is some enthusiasm for making the news more accessible or relevant, including summarisation (27%), translating stories into different languages (24%), better story recommendations (21%), and using chatbots to ask questions about news (18%).”
“More generally, however, audiences in most countries remain sceptical about the use of AI in the news and are more comfortable with use cases where humans remain in the loop.”
The opportunity: Consider how you could use AI on your website—not in news generation
Much of the skepticism around AI usage in the news comes from the idea that AI will replace humans, or that AI will be involved in the actual creation of the news itself. But there are plenty of ways to use AI that don’t involve replacing humans. In fact, according to the report, the contrast with AI can mean that human-produced news is seen as more valuable.
And as the report notes, most of the uses of AI revolve around making news stories more accessible. This actually solves a significant problem I’ve noticed with most research organisations’ websites: news is buried, disconnected, and scattered, with little thought given to how individuals might locate or engage with the news.
AI could really be a help here: for example, by allowing people to search research websites and find stories that are interesting to them, or to summarise the state of research on a given topic of interest. I’ve often lamented how hard it is to find a good summary of the state of research on a given topic—and although AI might be far off that, it could easily be used to find or summarise a university’s work on its own website.
5. The problem: Young people are reading less
“Changing platform strategies mean that video continues to grow in importance as a source of news. Across all markets the proportion consuming social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025 and any video from 67% to 75%. In the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and India more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it, further encouraging the shift to personality-led news creators.”
“Our survey also shows the importance of news podcasting in reaching younger, better-educated audiences. The United States has among the highest proportion (15%) accessing one or more podcasts in the last week, with many of these now filmed and distributed via video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. By contrast, many northern European podcast markets remain dominated by public broadcasters or big legacy media companies and have been slower to adopt video versions.”
The opportunity: Personal connection
Yes, before you say it, I see the irony in talking about this in a written newsletter. But the data don’t lie: young people are reading less, and watching and listening more.
Everyone and their mother (or should I say father?) is starting a podcast these days. There are even AI-generated tools to create podcasts from scripts, with incredibly and arguably uncomfortably human results. But I actually think the focus on the platform itself misses the point: people want to connect with personalities.
It’s not that different from beloved news anchors in years past: people want to form connections with other people, and the deeper the connection the more trust they feel. And as I mentioned earlier in the newsletter, universities and research orgs already have a massive advantage here: individual scientists are still among the most trusted individuals.
Now, I know that most researchers are incredibly time poor. Like all of these solutions, I’m not saying that it will be easy. You can’t just stick someone in front of a mic and call it a day. But on the other hand, you might just have the next Bill Nye or Carl Sagan working in your institution—and a podcast or YouTube channel could be an opportunity to let them shine.
Thanks for reading and see you next issue.
Kylie
I am the CEO of STEM Matters a global strategic advisory and communications agency that helps science, technology, and research-based organisations build profile, generate influence and increase funding.
Our clients are bold and working to change the world–we’re here to help.
We offer a range of strategic, communications and content services. From developing organisational and funding strategies to crafting pitch decks, impact case studies, presentations and compelling stories, we empower our clients to effectively communicate their unique value–and get results.
Get in touch with me at kylie.ahern@stemmattersagency.com and let’s talk about how we can help you.
