INMA offers GenAI predictions and resolutions for newsrooms in 2025
Generative AI Initiative Blog | 15 January 2025
Generative AI is top of mind for most news media companies as the new year begins, and during this week’s INMA Webinar, members heard predictions of what’s to come — and were offered resolutions that every news media company can benefit from.
Presented by INMA’s Generative AI and Newsroom Transformation initiatives, 2025 trends and predictions for GenAI in news media looked at some of the key trends that are emerging and looked at how newspapers can benefit from them.
Newsroom trends in 2025
Generative AI Initiative Leads Sonali Verma shared insights from a recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, which predicted the following trends for the coming year:
Newsrooms will seek stronger tech ties: “Around a third of news publishers are looking to strengthen their relationships with tech platforms,” Verma said, noting that while some consider it a “marriage of convenience,” others are more optimistic about partnerships with new players like OpenAI and Perplexity rather than traditional giants like Google or Meta.
This is “a bit of a shift in power there as far as tech platforms are concerned,” she noted.
Traditional social media will continue declining: Platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Threads are becoming less relevant for news publishers. Instead, Google Discover is gaining importance, and there is a growing interest in video-oriented content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
“YouTube, the streaming video platform, is now the biggest podcast platform in the world,” she said. “So a lot of crossover there as well.”
Audio and multilingual content will boom: Audio has emerged as a crucial product for engaging audiences: “[It] is the No. 1 product that anyone wants to build for their audience,” Verma said. “And thanks to GenAI, it is now possible to transform text articles into audio in multiple languages.”
This functionality is expected to be widely adopted in the months ahead, with about three-quarters of publishers planning to invest in it, she said.
Additionally, AI-generated summaries at the top of articles and chatbot or AI search functionalities are becoming more common, enhancing audience interaction and personalisation.
More investments in product development: Nearly half of the surveyed publishers are looking to invest in new products, including games, educational content, international or foreign language versions, and youth-targeted products, Verma reported.
This trend reflects a shift from last year, when much of the focus was on using GenAI for efficiency and productivity: “They were busy building tools that help their staff go faster or come up with new ideas for storylines or headlines or social media promotion.”
Those tools will still be important in 2025, she said.
Newsroom transformations will continue: It’s not exactly breaking news that GenAI has significantly transformed newsrooms. About 63% of respondents reported some level of transformation, while 24% said they had experienced full transformation.
Look for that trend to continue in the new year, Verma said.
The build vs. buy question returns: News organisations face the challenge of deciding whether to develop their own AI tools or adopt existing ones: “Is it worth rolling your own?” Verma asked. With many AI-driven tools available for free or at low cost, such as Google Notebook LM and Google Pinpoint, the decision hinges on resource allocation and the ability to maintain and update these tools.
“You probably want to think long and hard about putting a lot of resources into building a lot of your own tools,” Verma noted. “It’s not just about building them, but it’s also about maintaining them and keeping up with the latest cutting-edge technologies. Does your news brand really want to devote resources to that?”
Newsroom resolutions for a new year
To prepare for the evolving landscape of GenAI, Verma shared several resolutions that can guide news media companies’ strategies and ensure they harness the full potential of this technology:
Monetise GenAI: Now that GenAI is becoming more familiar, Verma said news organisations should resolve to explore how to use it to generate revenue.
One example: Japan’s Nikkei has successfully created a product called Minutes by Nikkei, which condenses multiple articles into a single, easy-to-read format using GenAI. The product targets a new audience segment willing to pay a lower subscription fee and is also offered in an audio format.
Use innovative ad solutions: Advertising solutions that leverage GenAI can enhance monetisation options. For example, The Times of India developed a chat-based ad product that allows users to interact with ads, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.
Similarly, The New York Times uses GenAI to create personalised targeting segments for ad campaigns, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of advertisements.
“Advertisers provide the existing marketing briefs and then the tool uses them to build these personalised segments based on relevant articles and the audiences that tend to engage most with those articles,” she explained. The Times ran a test pilot on it last year and will roll it out across a range of articles and Web sites in 2025.
Keep a human in the loop: Despite the advancements in GenAI, it is crucial to maintain human oversight.
“We are not yet at the stage where you can hand GenAI the keys and let it drive without any sort of supervision,” Verma said, adding, “We’ve seen many missteps in the past several months. Most of them are errors of judgment that no human being would’ve made. So keep a human in the loop, folks.”
Invest in training and change management: This is vital for maximising the value of GenAI tools. Organisations like Switzerland’s Tamedia are leading the way by providing comprehensive training programs, including prompt libraries, AI evangelists, and regular feedback sessions. Such initiatives ensure staff are well-equipped to use GenAI effectively.
Be transparent with audiences: “Tell your audience how you’re using GenAI because they’re going to find out anyway,” Verma said. Research from Oxford indicates that telling audiences how AI is used in content creation builds trust.
“If you show them how the AI sausage is made, they actually trust you more,” she said.
Address news avoidance: GenAI can help tackle audience disengagement by providing news in formats that are relevant and engaging.
“If you give people news that’s relevant to them and create it in a format that they find useful, they will consume more of it,” she said. “So experiment with different versions and formats to see what works.”
Those can include audio, chat-based interactions, and solutions journalism bots, all of which can make news consumption more appealing and reduce news fatigue.
Solve real problems: Newsrooms should focus on using GenAI to address significant goals and pain points.
“We’re past the stage where you just jump on the bandwagon just because everyone else did,” she said.
Now, newsrooms should identify the most pressing challenges and start measuring the success of AI initiatives. “If [GenAI ] is not helping you with your goals, if it’s not taking care of a pain point, you should really reconsider how you’re using it.”
Be bold and creative: Finally, newsrooms should embrace bold and creative solutions powered by GenAI. This includes rethinking traditional formats and exploring new ways to engage audiences. Conversational interfaces, for example, are “having a moment right now” and can enhance user experience by providing personalised content and improving search functionalities.
The questions publishers should be asking as they enter the new year, she said, is how to use GenAI to understand and serve their audiences better: “Let’s think of some bold and creative solutions for 2025.”