5 Things Local Newsrooms Should Let Go of to Grow in 2025

There’s no other way to say it: 2024 was a difficult and tumultuous year for local newsrooms. From cost-cutting measures leading to dwindling resources, to journalists leaving the industry due to burnout, newsrooms are acutely feeling the economic impacts of the last few years. 

Yet despite the challenges, local news remains critically important. In the age of mis- and dis-information, you are a cornerstone of your communities. 

Even so, our Magid research this year found just 52% of consumers have a positive association with the phrase “Local News” – a startlingly modest number compared to years past.

The unmistakable truth is that we’ve reached a critical point in our industry: evolve to better serve our communities of today – or lose the trust of and connection to those communities forever. 

So where do you go from here?

It’s normal at this time of year to think about resolutions. You might be asking, “What can I do better in 2025? What can I do more of?” 

But I want to present a different challenge: What can you let go of to be a better journalist and a stronger newsroom in 2025?

I’ve spoken with hundreds of journalists, newsroom managers, and corporate broadcast leaders this year, and I’ve come away from nearly every conversation with the same conclusion: Local news will not evolve and succeed if we, as an industry, do not recognize that we can no longer be everything to everyone. We must let some things go to make daily coverage better for our audiences – and more sustainable for our teams. 

1) Let go of… Sacrificing quality for quantity.

Take a second to think about all of the platforms onto which you distribute your news content. Television, streaming channels, web, mobile apps, multiple social media platforms…the list goes on. And on every single one of those platforms, including television, you are competing with ever-changing algorithms and creators who are experts in crafting content for those specific platforms. In a world where niche content is becoming less niche and attention spans are becoming shorter, how do you break through? 

The simple answer: stop mass producing and distributing your news content and start becoming more intentional – both in what you’re covering and how you’re covering it. We no longer have the time or resources to support the firehose approach. Plus, consumers tell us they’re looking for depth and quality in coverage rather than a high story count.

Take a look at our findings below. While consumers are using multiple platforms, they don’t think local brands do a very good job delivering on those platforms. They can tell you’re spreading yourself too thin.

Heading into 2025, look critically at your news content and your platforms. What no longer has ROI for you? Can you prioritize a handful of platforms instead of 10? I often recommend the “Start, Stop, Continue” activity as a brainstorming tool to engage your team in this process. Reach out to me if you want to learn more about running this exercise (and others) effectively and how Magid might be able to help. I’d love to hear from you!

2) Let go of… Restricting your team to traditional roles and titles.

Consumers don’t engage with news and information the same way they did a decade ago…so why are we still approaching news coverage the same way? There will always be basic journalism best practices, but when it comes to strategically covering local news across platforms, rethink the way you’re using the rich skillsets of your teams. Rather than just adding more work on more platforms, assess your resources and consider shifting responsibilities. 

There’s no “one size fits all” approach to this. It will vary depending on your newsroom staffing and resources, as well as the individuals on your team. Newsrooms I work with have tackled this a few different ways:

• Evolving manager responsibilities to be platform-agnostic, meaning they’re overseeing coverage execution across ALL platforms rather than just television or just digital.
• Shifting Creative Services producers to work on multiplatform content, rather than just linear topicals or promos.
• Utilizing video-editing skills from different workgroups (editors, photographers, digital producers) to craft video content for multiple platforms. 

While you may not be ready to overhaul your newsroom structure, you can absolutely take a critical look at the skillsets of your team and realign resources to prioritize producing the right stories, in the right way, for the right platforms. 

3) Let go of… The “back in the day” mentality.

I’ve spoken with teams from nearly 100 newsrooms this year, ranging from small to top-10 markets, and every single one has told me their biggest challenge is, in some form, that they have inexperienced team members who “just aren’t getting it.” 

Some of these newsrooms are struggling with the shift from being a second- or third-stop market to now hiring journalists right out of school. Some are struggling with the feeling that their reporters lack curiosity or are not compelled to fully commit to the expectations of being a journalist. 

While there are external factors that certainly impact the readiness and skill level of early-career journalists, the bottom line is Gen Z and Millennials think, feel and act differently than previous generations. Magid has done extensive research on generational differences, and what we’ve found is that there is an “Age-45 Divide,” with Gen Z and Millennials aligning more closely in habits and outlooks vs. Gen X and Boomers.

For example, Gen Z and Millennials are much more focused on self-expression and individuality and driven by a profound desire for personal recognition to a higher degree than Gen X and Boomers. 

Additionally, these younger generations feel immense pressure and are drained by the “always-on” lifestyle (as you see in the findings above). 

Both of these research findings indicate a need to change the way we interact with, give feedback to, and guide the early-career journalists in our newsrooms – but are we doing that? 

Instead of lamenting the “good old days,” listen to their needs and adapt your processes to retain them. Otherwise, we risk alienating an entire generation of journalists. 

4) Let go of… The idea that AI won’t be part of the future of local news.

It’s not a question of if artificial intelligence will impact our newsrooms…it’s already impacting your newsrooms. In fact, I would bet members of your news team are frequently using some form of AI during their content creation process to transcribe interviews, auto-generate captions, or write a better web article headline. 

Local newsrooms must look for ways to become more efficient and give their journalists back time to actually be journalists. AI can help with that, and now is the time to start exploring the ways you can make it work for you. 

A great place to begin is by talking to our Magid Collaborator team. Our Collaborator Newsroom tool was specifically designed with newsroom needs in mind. It doesn’t replace journalists or generate content from scratch. Instead, it addresses the common workflow bottlenecks we’ve heard about for years, such as being able to quickly turn a broadcast script to a quality web script. It can also analyze scripts to ensure they’re following journalistic guidelines, giving time back to managers, too. 

“I was hesitant at first, but this is easily giving me back an hour in my day.” – Content producer using Collaborator in a small market

Here’s a helpful one-sheet that will give you some more information on Collaborator. If you want to learn more, reach out to letstalk@magid.com.

5) Let go of… “The way we’ve always done it” 

One of my favorite quotes, that I use almost daily while working in local newsrooms, is this: “The most dangerous phrase [one] can use is ‘we have always done it this way.’” 

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a pioneer of computer programming, shared those words nearly 50 years ago – and they still ring true today.

As we enter 2025 amidst an admittedly scary time for local newsrooms, it is imperative to question industry norms and shift our focus to what’s best for our audience today. Innovation for innovation’s sake won’t help you grow. We must work to better understand what our communities need, how they want to consume news and information, and how we can deliver both of those things in a way that is sustainable for our newsrooms. 

Marisa DeCandido is a consultant at Magid focusing on Brand Strategy and Innovation. Want to learn more about the work Magid does to help newsrooms evolve and better meet the needs of today’s news consumer? Reach out at mdecandido@magid.com.