WAN-IFRA aims to capitalise on recent momentum with a focus on AI and experimentation in 2026 The organisation has expanded through the integration of FIPP, creating a global media alliance Priorities include press freedom, media literacy, and strengthening publisher networks amid industry shifts WAN-IFRA is entering 2026 with an explicit reset: a tighter focus on impact, heavier investment in artificial intelligence and audience development, and a push to convert its expanded scale into tangible value for members as a new chief executive begins his tenure. With publishers facing accelerating technological change and sustained commercial pressure, WAN-IFRA is redefining its role…

Instagram’s Adam Mosseri highlights AI’s impact on content authenticity Platforms developing labels and metadata standards to verify images and videos Creators urged to embrace raw, candid content amidst growing mistrust in polished visuals Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has declared that the era when photographs or video could be taken at face value is over, arguing that advances in artificial intelligence have broken the basic visual trust that once underpinned social media. The warning comes from the executive in charge of one of the world’s most influential image platforms. He believes the problem is not a passing technical glitch but…

Experts predict a divided news industry dominated by global brands and independent creators by 2050 Traditional broadcast and print media face decline, with AI and personalised interfaces reshaping news consumption Preservation of journalistic values and trust deemed crucial for future sustainability By 2050, consuming the news may involve screens that are not really screens, AI briefings delivered through humanlike interfaces or even, as one independent publisher put it, a chip implanted in the brain. Those possibilities emerged from a wide-ranging forecast by Columbia Journalism Review, which convened senior editors, broadcasters and independent publishers to imagine what journalism might look like…

Axios CEO Jim VandeHei issued a stark warning to the media industry this week, declaring America’s information ecosystem “badly broken, deeply polluted and increasingly dangerous.” In a memo outlining the company’s strategic vision for 2026, VandeHei argued that society has officially entered a “post-news era” where traditional reporting no longer defines a shared reality. VandeHei suggests that the “crap trap” of high-volume clickbait – which Axios was originally founded to combat – has evolved into a more complex existential crisis. He describes a “shards of glass” phenomenon where public attention is shattered into countless pieces, shaped more by algorithms, podcasts,…

A new digital media platform, Velora, utilises generative AI to enable a one-person newsroom The system coordinates news gathering, drafting, and publishing, with human editing at every stage Velora aims to transform specialised journalism and offers potential for white-label publishing solutions A former editor of Cycling News has launched a digital media brand built to rethink the economics of specialist publishing, unveiling a “one-person newsroom” powered by generative AI. Velora, created by Peter Stuart with co-founder Danny Bellion, has launched in beta after a five-week build. The project offers another live test – similar to Tomorrow’s Publisher – of how…

The European Commission investigates whether Google is using publishers’ content without fair compensation for AI summaries Concerns over unfair terms and market advantage as publishers and creators warn of traffic and revenue loss Potential for significant fines and remedies if breaches of EU competition rules are confirmed The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether Google is breaching competition rules by using publishers’ and creators’ content to generate AI summaries in search results and on YouTube. According to the Commission, the probe will assess “to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is…

WAN-IFRA and FIPP to unify in 2026, representing over 20,000 media brands worldwide The merger aims to strengthen independent journalism and adapt to digital challenges Combined organisation will facilitate knowledge sharing and advocacy for media rights WAN-IFRA and FIPP will merge on 1 January 2026, creating the largest and most diverse alliance of media companies worldwide. Representing more than 20,000 media brands and technology enterprises across 120 countries, the deal see representative bodies of news and magazine publishers coming together at a time of unprecedented challenges for both sectors. As distinctions between news and magazine publishing fade, the organisations…

Major regional and long-standing titles adopt paywalls to secure revenue Industry acknowledges that reliance on digital ads alone is unsustainable Success depends on refining reader journeys, data use and operational discipline The past fortnight brought two announcements that should make every senior news executive pause. Reach plc is introducing a part-paywall on the Manchester Evening News, one of the country’s largest regional titles, and The Observer, a paper with more than two centuries of history, has launched its first digital paywall. While they are entirely independent decisions, together they signal a broader shift. They reflect the moment when publishers…

Industry leaders emphasise the urgent need to adapt to fast-paced shifts driven by AI and creator integration Traditional media must adopt new skills and operational models around niche content, podcasts and events Strong leadership behaviours are essential to navigate the upheaval and prevent a potential crisis in news organisations When it came to the switch from print to digital, the news media spent a long time pretending that it wasn’t really happening and carried on much as it had always done. Partly this was the result of the decline of print being slow and, for a long time, profitable.…

Google rolls out its most advanced AI model, Gemini 3, into search features in the US Enhances complex query handling with richer, multimodal and interactive responses Subscribers of Google AI Ultra gain access to the most powerful capabilities, including agentic workflows Google has begun rolling out Gemini 3, its most advanced AI model, across parts of Google Search. The move brings a substantial boost to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with a model widely hailed as a match for ChatGPT’s latest generation and expected to close a long-standing quality gap in Google’s search-embedded AI. The update signals a push to…