Seven Things You Need to Know from Axios’ 2025 Media Trends Report
Axios’ 2025 Annual Media Trends Report draws a picture of an American media landscape in transformation. Here are seven top takeaways from the report – and what to do about them:
1. AI’s Gain is Traditional Media’s Loss: The exponential growth of AI has led to a collapse in the number of referrals from search to traditional news outlets. Google’s adoption of AI Overviews, for example, led to more searchers getting the answer they were looking for without ever leaving Google. From February 2024 to February 2025, search engine referrals dropped by 64 million, while AI chatbot referrals grew by just 5.5 million. This drop has coincided with social platforms like X and Facebook pulling back from referrals to news sites as well.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: Content strategies must adapt to optimizing for AI search, just as they’ve been optimized for traditional search engines. Owned media provides much more value for large language models than traditional media. B2B and professional content receive roughly six times as many AI scrapes per human query than either local or national news stories. Investing more time in building owned materials that reach Generative AI users will pay sustained dividends over the long run.
2. Connected TV Grows: This will mark the first year that connected TV (CTV) viewing surpasses linear, with the advertising market expected to follow. Recent growth in streaming viewers has largely been in ad-supported subscriptions. At the same time, the continued inflation in streaming subscription prices suggests that growth for cheaper ad-supported options may continue. These developments – and the more sophisticated targeting available on CTV versus linear – mean that your paid campaigns can reach more of your targets more efficiently.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: Not all CTV options are the same: make sure your media buyer stays current with individual platform consumption trends in order to maximize your efficacy, and with targeting options to make sure you are reaching the right people at the best price. And if you’re consistently spending more on linear than you are on CTV, it might be time to rethink that.
3. X’s Staying Power: For all of the headlines and controversy surrounding Elon Musk, X (formerly known as Twitter) remains the single most popular microblogging platform, and it’s not particularly close. Each day, X runs laps around its competitors at Bluesky, Truth Social, and Threads, with more than 30 million more visits.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: If you’re still not advertising — or not advertising much — on X, it’s time to reconsider that. But while X remains the center of attention, tracking the smaller, more partisan-leaning platforms can alert you to sentiment shifts before they jump to the mainstream.
4. Disappearance of Local News: Most American counties now have little to no local news sources to learn about their communities. Digital news outlets are predominantly in coastal or urban areas that are already at low risk of becoming news deserts. Shrinking local newsrooms means broader reporter beats and less time to build issue expertise.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: Finding a local angle to build connection remains essential, but organizations will have to become more creative to ensure local stories are told where it matters.
5. Vanishing Fact Checkers: The number of fact check sites, which surged from 2016 through 2022, first began to level off in 2023 and is now in decline. As PolitiFact and Pinocchio ratings recede, they are being replaced by community policing models, such as X’s Community Notes feature.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: Brands have to learn to navigate a less predictable, crowd-sourced process — and be ready to act fast to protect themselves if the crowd comes for them.
6. Political Spending Accelerates: Political ad spending continues to accelerate, with the 2026 midterms expected to be the most expensive on record. In fact, more money will be spent on connected TV in 2026 than was spent during the 2024 presidential election cycle. More than $10 billion will be spent on Congressional elections and state ballot initiatives.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: Although advertisers are adding inventory to meet this demand, it’s critical to set a strategy and reserve premium inventory early, which will be limited.
7. The Push: News outlets have increasingly relied on push notifications to survive and adapt amid their diminishing traffic numbers. The biggest news outlet apps send nearly 300 push notifications per month, enabling outlets to drive traffic without competing in a crowded inbox or on a cluttered social media feed.
Stay Ahead of the Curve: For decisionmaker audiences with high-media consumption diets, legacy media still holds a grip on how breaking news developments and analysis are framed.
Rich Luchette | VP, Communications
Rich Luchette is a communications strategist and crisis expert with more than a decade of experience working at the highest levels of government and political campaigns. At Precision, Rich works with political, non-profit, and corporate clients to design and execute strategic communications plans that achieve measurable objectives, promote brand awareness, and communicate clearly and succinctly to target audiences. Prior to joining Precision, Rich spent nearly a decade on Capitol Hill, where he served as senior adviser for a member of House Leadership. He has also worked as a strategic counselor to candidates for governor in Ohio and Illinois.