As publishers grapple with external threats from AI search tools affecting their traffic, AI is also facing internal hurdles in newsrooms, according to a new report from FT Strategies and The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), as skills gaps hold back adoption of the technology across global newsrooms. But publishers are also embracing opportunities in video and creator-led content, in pursuit of more distinctive output that builds closer audience relationships.
The inaugural Future Newsrooms Study surveyed 448 editorial or executive leadership staff across 86 countries. The results found that newsrooms face ongoing barriers to AI adoption, including skills gaps (61 percent), cultural resistance (52 percent) and unclear use cases (45 percent). And while 39 percent of newsrooms expect their overall editorial output to increase over the next three years, 43 percent agreed that AI will reduce the number of people employed in their workplaces.
Respondents therefore called for AI strategies to shift away from focusing on efficiencies, and towards uses that “enable journalism that wasn’t previously achievable”, such as pursuing investigations that were not possible in the past, or identifying new ways to interact with audiences.
“When generic content becomes easier to produce in an AI era, newsroom advantage shifts toward what is harder to replicate: original reporting, trusted relationships and tighter audience–journalist communities,” according to the report.
The second pivot to video
The report notes that future-ready newsrooms are “focusing on producing formats that allow for authentic connection”, with short-form video emerging as the top priority, “signalling that the second major ‘pivot to video’ is now underway.” Asked which formats they are planning to focus more on next year, 79 percent of respondents said short videos, followed by in-depth text at 72 percent.
But the report further breaks down the differences in format priorities between three types of publishers. While “legacy newsrooms” are ramping up investment in short-form video to catch up with competitors, they remain less focused on long-form video and conversational podcast formats. Meanwhile “dot-com era newsrooms” are investing less in short-form video and more in podcasts, and “digital-native newsrooms” are more focused on long-form video, according to the research.
And as short-form video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram gain prominence for news audiences, most publishers are considering their approach to working with creators, with just 24 percent of newsrooms saying that this is not a priority for them right now.
Among those investing in the space, 41 percent are building internal creator capabilities, as publishers seeks to make existing staff more “creator-like” in their output. But the survey suggests “the creator shift is outpacing newsroom support systems”, since 68 percent of those newsrooms have not yet developed formal on-camera training programmes.
Another approach sees 34 percent of newsrooms working with external creators in different capacities. These external creator strategies take a number of forms, including project-based collaborations (such as NBC’s partnership with content creator Cleo Abram for Olympics coverage), or employing creators as full-time staff (such as Italian publisher Ciaopeople acquiring social-first science channel Geopop back in 2021).
Looking beyond risk management
However, the report suggests publishers’ priorities could be restraining the scope of these external creator collaborations. The survey found that 37 percent of newsrooms that work with external creators cite brand alignment as their main criterion for deciding who to work with, versus just 11 percent citing access to a defined niche or topic community.
“This suggests that newsrooms are approaching creators through a risk management lens, potentially choosing to constrain themselves to existing norms rather than embracing a growth and experimental mindset,” says the report.
According to the study, several newsroom leaders argued that the more important factor is identifying creators based on their ability to unlock niche expertise, reach underserved audiences, or lead conversations with communities that newsrooms struggle to access on their own.
Keith Lynch, Editor-in-Chief at Stuff Digital, a New Zealand-based media company, argues that the “recipe for success” in creator partnerships is “finding a niche where you can create something no one else is producing.”
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