As engagement with traditional media sources continues to fall, personalities and influencers are playing a significant role in shaping public debates, according to the 2025 Reuters Digital News Report. 

Talk about the role of content creators in our information ecosystem seems to be reaching a fever pitch. Research by WPP Media, as reported by The Guardian, indicates content on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram will attract more advertising income this year than content from traditional media companies.

There’s obviously bad news in these trends for traditional media companies as audience and advertising dollars stream toward content creators. But this also needs to be a clarion call: Instead of ceding our audiences, how can we produce content that appeals to them? What can we learn and where should we collaborate?

We’ll dive into that topic in today’s newsletter, and I’d love to hear your thoughts: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

P.S.: Join me in Dublin for the Newsroom Innovation Hub as part of Media Innovation Week. We’ll roll up our sleeves and tackle the most pressing issues in our newsrooms. Find out more and register.

3 lessons journalists should learn from content creators

The proportion of people accessing news via social media and video networks in the United States — at 54% — is sharply up, overtaking both TV news (50%) and news Web sites/apps (48%) for the first time, according to the 2025 Reuters Digital News Report.  

Those aren’t all content creators, of course, but the rise of the content creator is clear.

“These creators are also attracting audiences that traditional media struggle to reach. Some of the most popular personalities over-index with young men, with right-leaning audiences, and with those that have low levels of trust in mainstream media outlets, seeing them as biased or part of a liberal elite,” the report says. “... These trends seem to be encouraging the growth of a personality-driven alternative media sector which often sets out its stall in opposition to traditional news organisations, even if, in practice, many of the leading figures are drawn from these.”

One such example of a journalist-turned-content-creator is Jessica Yellen, whose News Not Noise Substack and Instagram accounts have amassed a strong following. The former CNN chief White House correspondent launched her own platforms in 2018 with a promise: to cover the news differently.

“I spent 17 years working in TV news and learned an important lesson. The TV news model is really good at generating anxiety and ratings, but there’s a big audience that wants news told differently,” she writes on Substack.

“I launched on Instagram, making videos and posting stories that broke down major events with context and clarity, and identifying the noise you can ignore. It took off and today has grown into a super-engaged community of like-valued people across multiple platforms.”

Yellen is right: If you consume her content, she comes across as real, she talks to her audience authentically, and her content is easy to understand and interesting. 

Journalists in newsrooms today should be working to cultivate her connection with her audience and her storytelling techniques in their own content.

Another example is Noor Tagouri, who started her career as a broadcast journalist and is now an independent journalist and storyteller. Tagouri spoke of the rise of the independent journalist at INMA’s World Congress of News Media in May, urging the audience to rethink journalism and who it is for. 

By going independent, she said, she can think story first, medium second. She also said traditional journalism needs to recognise the value of authentic, independent voices. And like other content creators, she emphasises authenticity and collaboration in storytelling.

Here are three lessons I think we urgently need to learn from content creators:

1. Build trust with authenticity: Content creators put themselves at the center of their work. Their audience knows their voice, values, quirks, and perspective — and that builds loyalty. This is not about compromising journalistic objectivity; it’s about showing authenticity. When journalists show their process, motivations, and even their human side (think newsletters, TikToks, behind-the-scenes posts), it fosters stronger audience connection and trust.

2. Engage with your audience: Content creators engage constantly in comments, DMs, live chats, and treat their audience as collaborators, not just consumers. Journalism is far too often a one-way conversation. We must invite dialogue and respond. Ask questions. Incorporate audience input. That’s how you build community, not just readership.

3. Evolve storytelling formats: Content creators tailor content to each platform: short, punchy videos for TikTok; polished carousels for Instagram; long-form explainers on YouTube. Too often, journalists repurpose a 1,200-word article with a “link in bio” for social. We should package stories in ways that fit where people are consuming them — the format must adapt.

I’d love to hear how your organisation is thinking about content creators: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Mapping your local influencer landscape

Beyond learning from content creators, journalists have an opportunity to collaborate with them. 

“These influencers play a key role in bridging the gap between journalism and local communities, offering newsrooms the chance to connect with relevant audiences in ways that traditional — or transactional — engagement can’t,” says the American Press Institute in its research report Mapping your local influencer landscape.

API identifies four types of influencers to consider:

• Niche content creators: They focus on specific topics such as local food, community events, or other hyper-local interests. They often attract followers who share those same passions and interests.

• Community leaders: They include activists, nonprofit leaders, or small business owners and are influential within their communities. They can help disseminate important news with credibility.

• Micro-influencers: These influencers typically have smaller followings (usually 1,000 to 100,000), but their highly engaged audiences often translate to better content interaction and community trust.

• Macro-influencers: Larger influencers with a broader reach, typically over 100,000 followers, who can amplify your message quickly across larger areas or groups.

I recently got a chance to talk to Samantha Ragland, vice president of journalism strategy for API, about their research on influencers. Here’s what she had to say:

Q: What have you learned so far from the research? 

A: Our influencer collaboration experiments have taught us a few key things about success and language: 

Two strategies for success: You’re either a national or international newsroom, or working on a beat with such reach, that these partnerships are almost exclusively an audience reach play ... more eyeballs, more traffic, etc. Or you’re a local news organisation working to connect with the community, making these partnerships about trust and bridging.

I think it’s important to add this nuance to the conversations leaders are having. Acknowledging that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and that depending on your goal alongside the needs of your org and your community, your approach will be different. 

On language, we’ve found that “influencer” as a catch-all can miss an opportunity for unique messengers to engage with your brand and share it with those who trust them. Take the decades-long youth football coach or barista from the local coffee shop. …  The right language has been a key takeaway for those newsrooms in our learning cohorts: We like trusted messenger and community liaison. And trusted creator has also been deemed more accurate and welcome than “influencer” alone.

Q: Do you think news orgs should be partnering with influencers? What are the advantages and drawbacks?

A: Depends on the newsroom. But if you are a local organisation that sees itself as a community pillar — as an institution that connects its community to one another, to information and to resources — I would absolutely encourage you to think about experimenting with trusted messenger collabs.

You can start with the low-hanging fruit of digital marketing, collaborating on promotion of reporting, live events, and news products. You can then level up by exploring native storytelling, person on the street interviews, co-creation and convening. 

An additional learning point here has been how many of these trusted messengers continue to engage and share the org’s news content after a partnership has ended. And some of our newsrooms have found an increased interest in reporters wanting to incorporate either these collabs or social-first content styles into their reporting and story distribution.  

Of course there are drawbacks. These are new relationships, and cultivating them will take time.

We’ve learned that this work is as helpful for the collaborator as it may be for the newsroom. We’re learning that the partnership is mutually beneficial in a few ways, including that since many locally trusted messengers (and even some larger influencers) are teams of one, true partnership with a news organisation can be incredibly helpful to their own ideation and creation process.

For organisations placing a premium on community engagement, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks for everyone: the influencer, the newsroom and the community.

Q: What advice would you offer based on your experience?

A: For hold-out newsrooms, my advice is to watch and read. This work is happening, it’s renewing organisational energy and creating new opportunities for community feedback loops, more nuanced storytelling and reporting, and even local funding to catalyse these engagements and connections for community benefit. 

For those orgs ready to get started, I’d suggest you go deep on the research and exploration of these folks before you begin a partnership. You’re not just looking for follower count. You’re looking for engagement, alignment, and style. Then, you work on relationship building and co-creating the partnership.

Resources:

• Building Trust: An ethical roadmap for journalists who partner with influencers.
• 22 ideas to steal from the API Influencer Learning Cohort.

Have you collaborated with influencers? What did you learn: E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Mark your calendars

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• July 2: “Reuters Digital News Report 2025: How AI and Platforms Are Reshaping The News Ecosystem,” presented by Lucy Kueng, media strategist/board advisor/author, Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University. Register now.

• July 23: “Subscription Masters with El País: Building Spain’s Leading News Subscription,” presented by Luis Baena, former chief marketing officer of Prisa Media, publisher, El País. Register now.

• August 6: “Using AI to Help Reporters,” presented by Tim O’Rourke, vice president/editorial innovation and AI strategy, Hearst Newspapers, and Rune Ytreberg, head of iTromsø’s data journalism lab, Polaris Media Group. Register now. 

About this newsletter

Today’s newsletter is written by Amalie Nash, based in Denver, Colorado, United States, and lead for the INMA Newsroom Transformation Initiative. Amalie will share research, case studies, and thought leadership on the topic of bringing newsrooms into the business of news.

This newsletter is a public face of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative by INMA, outlined here. E-mail Amalie at amalie.nash@inma.org or connect with her on INMA’s Slack channel with thoughts, suggestions, and questions.

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