A new year brings new opportunities for local media companies to evolve and thrive. We focus on reinventing business models for news. Here, LMA staff members predict opportunities in for growth and potential challenges for media in 2025. And we reveal some troubling things that keep us up at night, and encouraging things that get us going every day.
Philanthropy will continue to support local news
Charles Dickens was not talking about local journalism when he penned the line, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” But everyone in journalism can relate. The rise of misinformation, the specter of more political attacks on freedom of the press, and the continued erosion of traditional revenue sources are the reality journalists and news leaders must confront in 2025.
The good news is they won’t face these challenges alone. In late 2023 and continuing through 2024, philanthropy has emerged as a willing partner in the fight to preserve trustworthy sources of local information. Exemplified by Press Forward and funders big and small, national and local, who’ve stepped forward, there is momentum for the idea that, whatever a funder’s first priority, its second should be journalism — because that’s how people find out about important issues. Further, funders seem to recognize more than ever both the reality and the reasons for the disruption in traditional news business models, and the importance of supporting new models to sustain journalism, not for its own sake but because the research is clear: Healthy communities need trustworthy, accessible and accurate sources of local information to thrive.
That’s why 2025 is a critical year for local newsrooms big and small, for-profit and nonprofit, to center their journalism around service to their communities. In that mission, they’ll find new and willing partners among both local and national funders, and via direct support from the members of the communities they serve.
– Frank Mungeam, Chief Innovation Officer, manager of the Lab for Journalism Funding
Branded content will include more cause marketing
2025 is packed with potential for branded content that connects, inspires, and yes, drives revenue. Cause marketing is a huge opportunity — partnering with nonprofits and aligning with local causes doesn’t just feel good; it builds trust and loyalty. Brands are looking for authentic ways to connect, and local media is perfectly positioned to lead that charge.
Looking for inspiration? Check out how The Dallas Morning News’ FWD>DFW initiative or The Advocate’s storytelling campaigns connect brands, audiences and meaningful causes. And don’t miss Joe Waters’ incredible Selfish Giving newsletter for practical tips and fresh ideas.
Video storytelling is the secret weapon. From emotional, community-focused narratives to quick, engaging reels, video content grabs attention and keeps it. For advertisers, it’s a chance to connect with audiences in authentic, memorable ways, and for local media, it’s a way to deliver value that justifies premium rates.
For local media, branded content in 2025 isn’t just about making money — it’s a path to deeper connections, stronger communities, and sustainable growth. Let’s seize it.
Need an idea? Take a look at Hearst’s turnkey approach to video strategies.
Collaboration is the secret sauce. Imagine teaming up with other media companies, nonprofits, or local organizations to create campaigns that are bigger, better, and more impactful than anything you could do alone by amplifying reach and maximizing resources. These synergies unlock fresh opportunities for innovation, from co-branded campaigns to shared storytelling initiatives.
Searching for an example? Learn about this collaboration among 15 publishers and Deloitte.
– Julia Campbell, Chief Business Transformation Officer, general manager of The Branded Content Project
Collaborations will expand to include more newsrooms
Industry collaboration is one of LMA’s four strategic pillars, and is no longer an outlier when it comes to industry trends. As research from the Center for Cooperative Media shows, more news organizations are participating in collaborations. The collaborations that are more established have also started to diversify revenue and grow the number of staff, research also shows.
Yet, many news organizations still haven’t participated in a collaboration. That will change during 2025. One driving factor for this change is the latest open call for Press Forward, which calls out collaboration specifically as part of its criteria for proposals on infrastructure.
News organizations that aren’t pooling journalistic, technology or revenue resources will realize that to be noticed by funders, they need to collaborate in some way. At LMA, we expect to see more overlaps among our collaborative projects, after last year’s successful fellowship program supported by Comcast NBCUniversal for News is Out and Word In Black.
– Penny Riordan, director of business strategy and partnerships
AI will be an opportunity and a challenge
In 2025, artificial intelligence will offer local media companies a mix of opportunities and challenges. On the positive side, more local newsrooms will embrace AI technologies to:
- Automate repetitive tasks such as data entry and transcription.
- Streamline workflows, improve content distribution and enhance operational efficiency.
- Generate valuable data-driven insights to support decisionmaking, including identifying audience trends and optimizing resources.
- Reformat and repackage content for diverse audiences across various media.
Despite these benefits, AI will also present significant challenges. As search engines increasingly prioritize AI-generated summaries and answers over original articles from local news outlets, local newsrooms will continue to experience declines in website traffic. Furthermore, the rise of AI-generated images and text will demand a greater emphasis on fact-checking as distinguishing between authentic and AI-created content becomes increasingly complex.
To navigate these challenges successfully, local media companies should embrace AI strategically and prioritize human-centered journalism. Establishing clear and transparent guidelines on AI usage will be essential to ensure that its implementation benefits both staff and audiences. Building strong relationships with their audiences and developing innovative revenue models beyond traditional advertising will also play a crucial role in their long-term success.
– Apryl Pilolli, director of technology services, Knight x LMA BloomLab
Advertising will include more digital solutions
The growing demand for digital-first strategies will compel local media companies to leverage first-party data, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to deliver hypertargeted campaigns and measurable ROI for advertisers.
Programmatic advertising will continue to dominate, requiring media organizations to expand their digital inventory and adopt more sophisticated tools to remain competitive. The integration of digital solutions into legacy advertising will be a pivotal trend, enabling local media to modernize traditional formats like print and broadcast by embedding interactive, data-driven, and trackable elements that enhance value for both advertisers and audiences. Additionally, the rise of subscription-based revenue models will push local media to balance advertising strategies with audience engagement, retention efforts, and innovative monetization methods.
My work in the Knight x LMA BloomLab has shown that success lies in creating value through innovative, community-focused storytelling combined with integrated sales solutions that blend advertising, branded content, and events. In 2025, local media companies that embrace agility, prioritize personalization, integrate digital solutions into legacy formats, and adapt to consolidation trends while investing in sustainable revenue strategies will thrive, cementing their role as valued contributors to their communities’ growth and resilience.
– Robert Walker-Smith, digital revenue director, Knight x LMA BloomLab
Sharing resources will become more crucial
We work in an industry where resources are more and more precious. In recent years, media collaboration and shared services of all kinds have come off the drawing boards and into practice. In 2025, we should see an increased focus on shared strategic and tactical services across local news media organizations: everything from fractional executive leadership to shared back-office support, finance and accounting, and human resources administration.
Collaboratives focused on specific regions, news topics or other affinities will continue to evolve beyond story-sharing and similar network effects to revenue opportunities and even joint ventures focused on product or business development.
One other challenge begs for some kind of shared strategic focus: the cost and complexity of health insurance and related employee benefits. It’s less a prediction than a simple hope that our industry finds ways to address this challenge before it becomes impossible for all but the largest companies to offer affordable insurance options to their teams.
– Jay Small, LMA/LMF Co-CEO
Thinking of local media in 2025, what keeps you up at night and what gets you going in the morning?
Nancy Lane, LMA/LMF Co-CEO:
There are so many things that keep me up at night. Besides the obvious problems with the business model, freedom of the press is high on my list of concerns. I never thought we would have to worry about that in our country. I’m also concerned that philanthropic funding of journalism for underrepresented media outlets will dry up due to the anti-DEI wave that is happening right now. I truly hope that does not happen.
I think about Word In Black, focused on solutions to racial inequities in America, and how important this will be over the next four years. I think about the Miami Herald, my favorite news subscription, and what reporters there have uncovered in just the last month — from a botched boating death investigation that left a teen dead to a sex trafficking ring led by three powerful brothers in town. We must fight like hell to ensure our free press is alive and well. That gets me up every morning.
Liz White Notarangelo, incoming LMA/LMF co-CEO:
What keeps me up at night is the fact that there continues to be less local news across the country as the business model changes rapidly, and thinking about solutions to help media companies as quickly as possible.
What keeps me going are the hard working, innovative and collaborative colleagues throughout our industry that we get to work with to fulfill our mission to reinvent business models for news.
Small:
I’m excited to watch how our colleagues in local media experiment with and use artificial intelligence. I really don’t know what to expect but I’m hoping for some pleasant surprises and meaningful implementations.
I’m concerned that the challenge of sustaining a local media organization will be too much for some. Success increasingly depends on all three legs of the media revenue stool (advertising, consumer revenue, philanthropy), and some companies are simply further along than others.
John Celestand, director of funding services, Knight x LMA BloomLab:
What keeps me up at night is the plethora of content creators that have flooded the industry as disseminators of information. Even though trust in news is faltering, folks are willing to engage with content creators that may not always delve into facts but nonetheless are entertaining.
What gets me up in the morning are the great writers, storytellers and young and up-and-coming journalists who will create content to bring communities together. They are out there, yet we just must look a lot harder to find them because of the amount of information we now have to digest.
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