Media Briefing: As social platforms favor creators, publishers are left out of the referral loop

With traditional news outlets bleeding influence and search referrals drying up thanks to generative AI, publishers are focused on meeting audiences where they are: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. But there’s a catch — those platforms rarely send readers back to publisher sites. 

At a panel tied to the Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report on Tuesday in New York City, news execs debated what happens when content is watched but not clicked. Execs also discussed how they can compete with the rise of personality-led creators who are drawing large audiences — often on the same platforms that no longer send referral traffic back to publishers.

For the first time this year, social and video networks have overtaken both TV news and news websites/apps as the main sources people turn to for news in the U.S., according to Reuters Institute’s report, which surveyed nearly 100,000 people in 48 countries. Online news sites and apps were down among consumption by 21 percentage points in the past 12 years.

“We’re not going to be able to resist this. It’s not going away. So we have to figure out a way to make it positive,” Sally Buzbee, Reuters regional editor, U.S. & Canada, said during the event. 

The changes are even starker with younger generations. Over half of under-35s in the U.S. now say social and video networks are their main source of news, according to the report.

“I don’t think it’s an ideal situation,” Buzbee continued. “This is just the wild ride we’re on… It’s not fun necessarily, from a business point of view.”

As publishers create more content to compete on social and video platforms — and it becomes more difficult to bring audiences back to their sites — publishers will need to rethink how they’re measuring the success of their audience engagement strategies, according to Melissa Chowning, founder and CEO of audience development and marketing firm Twenty-First Digital.

“Reach-based metrics are losing their relevance,” Chowning said. “Metrics like sentiment, share of voice and brand engagement are more aligned with the ecosystem we’re in now. However, those are harder to measure and require a complete decentralization of the publisher’s website as the primary product.”

Chowning added, “With referral traffic in decline, the focus has to shift toward brand-building, and the metrics need to reflect that.”

Individual creators inherited the ‘Trump bump’ from publishers 

The 2016 “Trump bump” was a lifeline for publishers, driving subscriptions and traffic as audiences craved trusted news — but this time around, the momentum seems to be flowing elsewhere, with social platforms and video creators reaping most of the engagement, noted Richard Fletcher, director of research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Among users who get their news from X, 43% said they paid attention to traditional news outlets and journalists — the same percentage as those who follow other media sources, according to the report. And 37% said they were paying attention to news-focused creators.

These creators are also shaping public debates, Fletcher noted. One-fifth of those polled in the U.S. said they came across news or commentary from popular podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after Inauguration Day, for example.

In response to these trends, news publishers are putting more journalists in front of cameras and microphones, and filming short-form on-the-ground videos and explainers. For example, The New York Times is producing videos from Capitol Hill explaining Trump’s tax bill, said Carolyn Ryan, New York Times managing editor. 

Publishers now face an uncomfortable waiting game as they watch how the referral landscape shifts, especially with generative AI reshaping how audiences discover content, Buzbee added. (The report also found that 7% of respondents said they use AI chatbots to access news content weekly.) 

“None of us actually have any friggin’ idea of what it’s [AI’s] going to do to us, or the way that people consume news, or the definition of news, or anything — 12 years from now, let’s say, for example. We are really in an industry where you try to keep a long view, but you’re just trying to deal with this. Your standards are constant, and everything else is flexible,” Buzbee said.

What we’ve heard

“We’re all going to end up dumbing down news. But not while I’m alive… I’m worried about my kids’ generation.”

— An anonymous publishing exec at Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report event in New York City, on younger generations preferring to get news from social and video platforms.

Numbers to know

$300,000: The salary The Atlantic is offering to some new hires.

97,000: The Washington Post’s average paid daily circulation, its first drop below 100,000 in 55 years.

639: The number of Voice of America employees let go, leaving just 50 people employed by the agency.

43%: The percentage of people who have disabled news alerts on their phones.

What we’ve covered

Inside iHeartMedia’s initiative to translate its podcasts using AI technology

• More than a year after iHeartMedia planned to debut a handful of translated podcasts to grow their international audience and advertising business, those shows are finally seeing the light of day. 
• iHeartMedia rolled out AI-translated versions of 10 of its popular podcast shows, in six different languages –in the original hosts’ own voices.

Read more about how iHeartMedia is doing this here.

Spotify’s video podcast program draws praise — and skepticism

• Spotify’s video podcast partner program is gaining traction with independent podcast creators drawn to its direct payouts.
• But major podcast networks remain hesitant, citing the lack of dynamic ad support for subscriber-only content.

Read more here.

Why Hearst built an AI voice assistant tool for Delish

• What started as a weekend experiment is now Hearst’s first fully-fledged AI voice assistant on recipe site Delish.
• Meanwhile, the Delish team is exploring using AI technology to improve the search function on its site. 

Read more about how Hearst built the tool here.

WTF is ‘query fan-out’ in Google’s AI mode?

• Google’s AI-powered search feature AI Mode uses a complex technique to answer a user’s question, called “query fan-out.”
• More searches are happening behind the scenes, making it tricky for publishers to determine how to optimize their editorial content strategy to appear in those search results.

Learn more about Google’s “query fan-out” here.

Creators turn to agentic AI to manage fan engagement

• Creators are increasingly turning to agentic AI to streamline communication with fans — but raising new questions for brands and influencer marketers.
• The most visible way that creators are using agentic AI is to respond to comments and direct messages from fans on social media.

Read more about how creators are using agentic AI here.

What we’re reading

BBC threatens legal action against AI company Perplexity

The BBC has threatened legal action against Perplexity, claiming the AI start-up company trained its model using BBC content, the FT reported. The BBC is demanding Perplexity submits a proposal for compensation for using its IP.

U.K.’s CMA wants to regulate Google search and give publishers more control

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority wants to regulate Google search and give publishers more control by allowing them to opt out of Google AI Overviews without removing entire websites from search.

Axel Springer plans to double value within 5 years with AI help

Axel Springer’s media business (which is likely to be valued at around $3.92 billion) will focus on AI-based journalism and reduce its reliance on search engines and social media, as part of its larger plan to double its value in the next few years, The Wall Street Journal reported.

News Corp’s AI editorial tools cause concern over journalists’ jobs

Journalists at three of News Corp’s Australian publications are sounding the alarm over new, in-house AI tools that can generate and edit articles, which they say are threatening their jobs, the Guardian reported.

Publishers are developing AI-personalized news formats 

Newsrooms are integrated AI tools into their websites that let audiences personalize formats, such as automatically summarize news articles, change news text to audio or create a glossary for technical terms, Nieman Lab reported.