Journalism prepares for a post-search and post-social future.

Source: Nieman Lab

By Alfredo Hermida

(EXTRACT)

- "The loss of reach for news publishers comes with a loss of visibility, which is likely to hit new digital-born journalism organizations the hardest."

Alfred Hermida is a professor of journalism at the University of British Columbia

The journalism industry needs to prepare for an impending post-search and post-social world. While news organizations have come to rely over the past decade on digital intermediaries like Google and Meta to distribute their stories and amplify their reach, this era appears to be coming to an end. Both tech giants have signaled over the past 12 months that news is far less important to them than the journalism industry would like to believe.

Meta has gradually moved away from news, de-prioritizing its Facebook prominence over the past year. In Canada, the company blocked all Facebook and Instagram news feeds in the summer due to a dispute with the government over legislation, the Online News Act (Bill C-18), which mandated payment for news links. The loss hit Canadian news organizations hard, with some losing up to 20% of visits overnight. However, the impact on Facebook usage was minimal.

Canada has become a test bed for the fight between news publishers, governments and platforms over journalism funding, and other countries are considering similar legislation. While Google has reached an agreement on the Online News Act to provide $100 million annually to the news industry in cash, training, and services, it has also been moving away from news. Google's algorithm changes over the past year have tended to reduce the visibility of news results in search and other services. The result has been a sharp drop in online visits to news media in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere.

Reliance on digital intermediaries has proven to be a Faustian bargain for the news industry. For years, search, social networks and aggregators offered a cost-effective way to grow audiences, expand reach and generate revenue. News was seemingly everywhere, so it was easy to stumble upon the latest headlines or quirky stories. Now, the challenge for news publishers is that audiences expect news to come to them, rather than going directly to a news website.

According to the Reuters Digital News Report 2023, only 22% of news consumers go directly to a news site or app, down from 32% five years ago. Finding news through the side door has become the norm, especially among young adults. The picture is far from uniform globally. While news publishers in the Nordics can still count on loyal online audiences, social networks and aggregators dominate the gateways to news in countries such as Chile, India, Japan, and Thailand.

The loss of reach for news publishers comes with a loss of visibility that is likely to hit new digital-born news organizations the hardest. In Canada, more than 150 new media outlets have been launched since 2000, often driven by a mission to address commercial media deficits and be more responsive and reflective of communities. These organizations do not have the resources to mount large marketing campaigns to attract and grow audiences. One response from 20 local, regional, and national media outlets in Canada has been to join to launch their own news aggregator, Unrigged. The initiative is a positive first step as news publishers seek to adapt to a post-search and social media environment. Whether audiences will also adapt their news habits is a much more difficult question.