Newsrooms vs. News Influencers—Here’s How You Win

Author Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, a classic satire about the media industry, now seems strangely antiquated: the idea that a major newspaper’s biggest competition would be…another major newspaper.

Waugh’s 1938 novel is a story of mistaken identity, in which the wrong man is dispatched to serve as a war correspondent in the fictional African country of Ishmaelia. The plot is driven, however, by the intense rivalry between The Daily Brute and another broadsheet, The Daily Beast, which try to one-up each other in their pursuit of readers’ attention.

Today, almost anyone can chase exclusives, even if they’ve never stepped foot into a newsroom. Data from Pew Research Center shows about one in five Americans now get their news from influencers on social media. A closer look at what Pew and others are now calling “news influencers” found that 77 percent have no present or past affiliation with a traditional media organization.  

The rise of news influencers is happening when publishers need to modernize their technologies to win back audiences and grow revenue. If going through the due diligence process to vet IT investments takes longer than it should, evidence suggests that media organizations could fall further behind news influencers who are drawing readers and viewers away.

News influencers: a brief history

A recent article on Forbes provides a great definition of news influencers: they are independent, post consistently on current events, and rely on platforms they don’t own. This not only includes social media channels such as Twitter/X and TikTok but also podcasts and services that let them send newsletters that land in inboxes alongside those of traditional publishers. It’s not hard to figure out the appeal:

Platforms like Substack, Beehiv, and Pateron have become popular platforms for independent journalists and news creators because they allow them to bypass traditional media gatekeepers and directly connect with their audience. Independent journalists can build a loyal subscriber base and monetize their content through paid subscriptions, offering exclusive content, analysis, or newsletters.

News influencers may lack the resources of more established newspapers and magazines, but they still manage to get around. A report on the larger creator economy shows they are as likely as field reporters to attend events ranging from the U.S. Open and Art Basel to New York Fashion Week.  

As their reach and audience grow, news influencers are also gaining the kind of access normally reserved for those with official press credentials. Public relations CEO Richard Edelman suggested smart Chief Communications Officers should vie for the privilege of a “first sit-down” with smart observers, and not just those covering politics:  

These new news influencers should be included in media plans over time on topics such as in-sourcing, upskilling, support for entrepreneurs, and American optimism. They are no longer the future; they are the new normal.

The difference between news influencing and news reporting

Professional editors spend hours checking content to ensure news stories are informed by empirical research and reflect multiple points of view. You don’t have to do that to post a TikTok, send a newsletter, or upload a podcast episode. This naturally raises concerns about what news influencers are putting out in terms of quality, and whether in-depth journalism is diminished.

Writing on NiemanLab, University of Alabama professor Jessica Maddox suggested news influencers should be compared more to op-ed writers and commentators. That said, their approach to injecting coverage with entertainment value offers lessons for publishers of every kind: “Content creators and influencers are doorways to information and ideas, and our volatile political and media landscape makes it enticing for audiences to walk through them,” she writes.  

It could also make it enticing for professional journalists to beat a path for the exit. While there is little data so far on how news influencers are affecting employee retention at media organizations, Newsweek recently offered plenty of examples of reporters and editors who have launched their own Substack. This includes alumni from the New York Times, Vox, and MSNBC.

Working in the media is more challenging than ever and taking its toll. Muck Rack’s most recent survey found that 50% of journalists have considered quitting their jobs in the past year. This is in part due to the industry’s instability, uncertainty about audiences seeing their stories, and friction in getting those stories published in the first place.

Achieving results news influencers can’t beat

Journalists should feel empowered to do their best work and confident that it will be readily available for audiences looking for depth and quality. That comes with solid tools that streamline the posting process and a CMS that provides the scalability and performance to stay up during high-traffic events.

ADWEEK discovered this first-hand gearing up for the 2025 Super Bowl, when TV commercials are talked about as much as anything that happens on the field. With popular live blogs and up-to-the-minute hot takes on ads, ADWEEK couldn’t afford their site to slow down or go dark—or their editorial team to hit publishing roadblocks.

Moving to WordPress VIP meant ADWEEK enjoyed 100% uptime during the Super Bowl. Perhaps just as importantly, their editors and reporters were able to triple the volume of content they created. That puts the publication at a level that even the most productive news influencer will never reach.

Like it or not, traditional media organizations will coexist with news influencers for the foreseeable future. They can stand out by providing their editorial teams greater flexibility, support, training, and technology that enhances their competitive capabilities. In doing so, they’ll encourage their best talent to stick around—and win back audiences.