Publishers will finally learn to truly value news creators

For years, audience research such as Next Gen News has shown that news consumers seek affinity and trust from individuals, not institutions. Audience members want to follow faces, not mastheads. News publishers who think that offering salary, benefits, and a byline is incentive enough for a journalist to bring their own audience to the publisher are fooling themselves. The creators news consumers follow on YouTube, TikTok, Substack, and Ghost offer personality, affinity, and transparency.

In 2026, the news publishers that lead and thrive will be those that grasp what creators already know: Individuals command the attention that institutions need to survive. The trope of the irascible news editor dictatorially assigning stories to helpless reporters is dead. Newsrooms should not seek to command and control talented reporters and news presenters; they should be recruiting them. Successful news publishers will be those who build compelling pitches and value propositions that recruit and retain journalists who command audience attention.

Instead of bemoaning that empowered reporters can “steal” a news organization’s audience and take it with them to the platform of their choice, publishers will craft packages to support and reward news creators who recognize that editing, research, legal protection and marketing are powerful incentives for collaboration.

News organizations will become loose confederations of news creators and supporting services — more like legacy book publishing houses than classic newspaper newsrooms. News consumers may not pay close attention to the organization that supports their favorite news creators.

This new relationship may be less stable than newsrooms were used to, but it provides enough benefits to both sides that it’s worth building. This transformation will also reshape workflows. Editors will become more like TV producers. Audience teams will operate like talent managers, coordinating cross-promotions and designing marketing strategies.

Publishers will need new metrics focused on aggregated reach across a constellation of individuals who report, analyze, and opine on the news. Publishers will realize that not all reporters can command an audience, and not all journalists with a following are great reporters. News consumers will benefit from news creators who have access to better research and reporting support and are less at risk of the whims of platforms.

Different kinds of journalists need different types of compensation. For some audience-generating journalists, a base salary could be supplemented with revenue sharing, performance bonuses, marketing commitments, and negotiated IP rights.

To fulfill their societal mission, news brands don’t have to be the center of the news universe. News organizations must be the infrastructure that empowers great reporting, enables powerful storytelling, and supports trusted individuals in reaching and serving news audiences. News brands don’t have to disappear, but they may need to step back. They must treat their audience-facing journalists like stars and supply the essentials of an agent: marketing, negotiation, access and compensation.

In 2026, the most successful news publishers won’t be competing with news creators; they will be competing for them, and the ones that win will do it by offering things creators actually value.