For years, news publishers treated LinkedIn as a recruiting site or a space for professional self-promotion. Now it may be an important — and overlooked — distribution and engagement platform for the news industry.

That was the message Catherine Taibi, director of business development at LinkedIn, delivered to media executives during the INMA Media Tech & AI Week study tour in Silicon Valley on Tuesday. Taibi works with hundreds of publishers globally and said the platform’s value to newsrooms is changing fast.

“LinkedIn is where your audience is,” she told the study tour group of 40. “Our audience is professionals who are looking to upskill and learn new information and get their next best job.”

A new top of funnel for publishers

For news organisations reevaluating traffic sources as traditional social platforms decline, LinkedIn’s billion-member network represents an alternative route to reach high-value audiences — people with disposable income, curiosity, and trust in credible information.

“You can connect the largest professional audience in the world,” Taibi said. “You can engage with them, distribute content to them, understand who they are through analytics — and then convert them back to your owned and operated properties.”

That last point is central for news publishers: LinkedIn offers visibility and data that can feed subscription, event, and advertising strategies. The most successful media brands on the platform — including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, and Forbes — are treating LinkedIn as both a discovery engine and a loyalty driver.

Engagement over clicks

While most newsrooms still chase referral traffic, LinkedIn rewards interaction. “The big metric we look at is comments,” Taibi said. “Sometimes the best content is actually in the comments section itself.”

Posts that spark conversation outperform headline-and-link posts. Publishers seeing meaningful results build context around stories, add expert insight, and respond in the comments. This approach, Taibi noted, builds habit and credibility — the same elements that underpin subscriber growth.

Professional storytelling, not just business news

One of the biggest misconceptions, Taibi said, is that only business or economics coverage works on LinkedIn. That was true a few years ago, but the platform’s audience has broadened.

“Any topic can work on LinkedIn, as long as you take a professional lens,” she said.

Entertainment, travel, sport, and lifestyle pieces can thrive if they explore what professionals can learn from those stories or how they relate to work and society. For editors, that means adapting framing and tone, not the subject matter itself.

Credibility as the new algorithm

In an era of algorithmic opacity elsewhere, LinkedIn’s signal for visibility is clear: “credibility, authenticity, expertise.”

LinkedIn’s systems look for evidence that a post’s author has genuine knowledge of the topic — degrees, work history, or previous posts — and then amplify those voices.

For the news industry, that means journalists are no longer just bylines; their professional profiles are part of distribution. The better a journalist is positioned as an expert, the stronger the reach of their reporting.

Video takes the lead

Video is now LinkedIn’s highest-performing format, delivering more engagement than other posts. The platform has introduced a dedicated mobile video tab showcasing short-form, vertical clips around news, workplace stories, and career advice.

“Video is the language of the Internet right now,” Taibi said.

For news publishers, this reinforces the need to diversify video distribution beyond YouTube and TikTok. Even repurposed clips from those platforms can gain traction on LinkedIn if they deliver insight or analysis relevant to professionals.

Newsletters redefine reach

LinkedIn’s newsletter product has become another strategic tool for publishers. It allows media brands to build subscriber lists natively within the platform, with push and e-mail notifications sent to all followers.

Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Business Insider each have millions of newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn — often surpassing their owned databases. For news organisations struggling with inbox fatigue, the feature offers instant access to an engaged audience without the technical or marketing overhead of e-mail distribution.

Journalists and CEOs as distribution channels

Taibi urged publishers to think beyond corporate pages. “They know the story best,” she said of journalists. LinkedIn’s For Journalists programme trains reporters in sourcing, verification, and audience engagement, with six months of free Premium access.

Executives, meanwhile, are increasingly breaking news directly on the platform — from product launches to leadership changes. 

“CEOs are ditching the old comms playbook because they know LinkedIn is where business leaders and decision makers are,” Taibi said.

For media companies, that trend matters twice: their own leaders can use LinkedIn to humanise strategy and brand purpose, while also monitoring how advertisers and corporate partners communicate publicly.

Human editors still matter

Taibi confirmed that LinkedIn maintains a global newsroom of editors — “hundreds of editors globally who are creating and curating the best content on the platform every day.”

The team uses AI to identify trends but keeps human oversight for quality control. Their “storylines” highlight top news topics, often featuring publisher posts. Editors also send publisher notifications — alerts that push selected posts directly to relevant audiences by geography or profession.

This mix of algorithmic reach and editorial judgment mirrors what publishers themselves are striving for: responsible use of AI guided by human curation.

A new revenue frontier

LinkedIn’s emerging monetisation initiative, Brand Link, could become a new income stream for news media. The closed-beta programme lets publishers run three- to 30-second pre-roll ads before their video clips, sold directly to B2B advertisers seeking brand-safe environments.

“It’s LinkedIn’s first content monetisation solution that enables publishers and creators to generate revenue from the video content that they share,” Taibi said.

For media companies, Brand Link resembles a new-generation syndication model: publishers get paid and promoted; advertisers get trusted context and precise professional targeting.

Local news invited in

Responding to a question about regional outlets, Taibi said LinkedIn wants more of them: “Local news is having a very serious moment on the platform right now.”

That demand stems from advertisers looking to reach professionals in specific markets and from users craving community-level relevance. Local publishers may not get the same one-to-one support as major brands but can access scalable newsroom training and product updates.

What this means for the industry

LinkedIn’s evolution underscores several shifts the news industry must adapt to:

1. Social referral traffic is fragmenting, but professional networks are rising as credible discovery engines.
   

2. Journalists’ personal brands are distribution assets, not just individual voices.
   

3. Video and newsletters remain the twin growth engines, now supported inside a platform designed for depth, not doomscrolling.
   

4. B2B monetisation is opening up, giving publishers a chance to diversify beyond traditional ad exchanges.
   

5. Credibility has become an algorithmic advantage. In Taibi’s words: “LinkedIn right now, more than ever, is the place where credible and authentic and verified voices can really thrive.”

For media executives, the takeaway is clear: As engagement on older social platforms erodes, LinkedIn offers a path built on trust, expertise, and professional relevance — qualities newsrooms already possess. The challenge now is to use them strategically.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .