---
title: The coming wave
description: News publishers need to change their mindset to survive
---

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# The coming wave

[Alan Hunter](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter)  04 July 2025

 3 min read

**News publishers need to change their mindset to survive**

It’s an old joke about the British that the main thing we have given the world is independence day celebrations. Nearly 50 at last count.

How quickly people forget about the world’s best pop music, the soap opera of our royal family, Wimbledon, banter, complaining about our (actually wonderfully temperate) weather, and the restorative power of a nice cup of tea in the afternoon.

But anyway, congratulations to our American readers for this 249th celebration of shaking off the imperial yoke.

[I wrote this week about how news publishers have to shake off their inertia and lean into the next transformation required by the industry](https://tomorrowspublisher.today/editors-picks/publishers-cannot-afford-to-miss-this-next-wave-of-disruption/). Everywhere it seems that the combination of the decline of search and the rise of AI, standing on the shoulders of social media platforms’ news aversion, is wreaking havoc. Publishers tell us of dramatically declining traffic, uncertainty about their profitability and severe doubts about what happens next.

Last week The Atlantic became the latest publication to publish [a “woe is news media” piece](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/06/generative-ai-pirated-articles-books/683009/). In a publication that is never afraid of nuanced argument its headline spoke volumes:

“The End of Publishing as We Know It.” Not even a question mark.

My view is that we have to take charge of our own destiny, act quickly and decisively, and leave the past behind – much as the rebels did in 1776. They wanted to build a New Jerusalem. We need to build both a New Journalism – [which I wrote about back in January](https://tomorrowspublisher.today/editors-picks/a-new-journalism/) – and a new audience-centricity in everything we do.

For too long, journalism has primarily had its eye on other journalists, rather than its readers (and viewers and listeners). This has to change and very soon as it is clear now that time is running out.

Think this doesn’t apply to you? Tell that to the line judges at Wimbledon who this year lost their places to a completely automated tech solution. And there are few places more traditionally minded than SW19.

## Next blog post

<https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/the-case-for-optimism>

## [The case for optimism](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/the-case-for-optimism)

[Read more](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/the-case-for-optimism)

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