20 Media Executives Offer Their Predictions for 2025

The great thing about predictions is that they’re never wrong, so ADWEEK gathered responses from more than 20 media executives to hear what they think the new year holds for the industry.

Naturally, artificial intelligence has dominated the conversation, but media operators are of mixed minds about how the technology will come into play next year.

Other key topics – including fragmentation, trust and traffic – have made appearances in past lists, and will likely be among the predictions for 2026 as well. So much of business just swings back and forth between two poles – bundling and unbundling – that hindsight can take the appearance of foresight.

Anyway, here are the slightly condensed and edited predictions for the media industry in 2025.

Generative AI is becoming more integrated into publisher operations…

In 2025, GenAI and AI are generally expected to play a much more important role in publisher operations, from advertising to copy creation to improving recommendation engines.

“If 2024 was the year of testing new GenAI technologies in the advertising buying/selling process, 2025 will be the year of implementing the technology in a tangible way and launching new products and functions that add value real,” said the Wall Street Journal boss. official Josh Stinchcomb.

Sherry Phillips, the new CEO of Forbes, agrees.

“Media companies that embrace AI in use, safeguard user data and foster authentic engagement will build deeper and more loyal connections with their audiences,” he said.

To the Daily Beast, who saw Its subscriber count ballooned under the new leadershipAI is poised to play an even more prominent role in its business next year, according to chief revenue officer Keith Bonicci.

“The continued proliferation of artificial intelligence tools that publishers can leverage, including tools that help drive subscriber growth via an AI-assisted paywall, as well as tools that help create efficiencies in journalists’ workflows,” said Bonicci. “2025 will be the year in which the buzz dies down a bit and publishers move from the analysis phase of these AI tools to more widespread adoption and use.”

… but operators are becoming less transparent about their use

Publishers have found themselves in a bit of a bind when it comes to using AI.

Consumer sentiment towards the technology is still not enthusiastic, making its open use a risk, while using it secretly risks an even greater backlash – but only if they are caught.

As a result, some media executives agree that the use of AI will increase in 2025, but not in a transparent way.

“We’re already seeing more media companies use GenAI to create content without explicit disclosure — you know who you are,” said BuzzFeed editor Jess Probus. “This will happen more quickly in the next year, as the technology becomes better and cheaper, and most media companies will stop even recognizing that AI is part of the service or the output.”