It's nearly all good news for digital media in 2025, based on findings from the Local Media Consortium's 2024 Insights Survey of industry professionals.
Close to seven in 10 (68%) of professionals — including C-suite execs, sales, operations, editorial, IT, finance and others employed by local radio, TV, newspapers, and online news outlets in community, multi-market and major metropolitan media companies in North America and Puerto Rico — project digital revenue to increase this year, while 15% expect it to stay flat, with just 1% seeing a decline.
The survey, conducted from Sept. 27 to Oct. 11, 2024, finds that 83% of respondents say the highest priority focus for local media outlets in 2025 is audience growth and engagement, followed by advertising monetization (78%), consumer registration/subscriptions (26%), video monetization (25%), and data and audience insights and content innovation (18% each).
“Based on insights from our annual survey, the Local Media Consortium is forecasting an increase in 2025 digital revenue led by an uptick in consumer and advertising revenue associated with the continued maturation of video-focused efforts, subscriptions and newsletter engagement strategies,” LMC CEO Fran Wills says. “This annual survey helps us better understand the opportunities and challenges facing local media so we can prioritize new digital partnerships and initiatives such as NewsPassID, which delivers improved programmatic performance for both advertisers and local media.”
Looking at 2024 activity, close to half (45%) of participants report overall digital revenue – including advertising, consumer, affiliate, e-commerce and other online sources – up for the year, while 30% and 16% say it was flat or down, respectively. Specific to ad-based revenue – which includes audio, video, newsletter and display banner ads – 41% report it up, and 25% flat, for 2024.
LMC’s survey finds that for most professionals, news content generated the most traffic and the highest revenue in 2024, with sports and arts/entertainment content running a distant second and third. The only category to punch above its weight in revenue generation vs. traffic is health and wellness.
A rare downside reported in this survey involves political ads in 2024, where local media did not experience year-over-year increases similar to those of total media, which saw a record-breaking $11 billion spend in the 2024 election. Just 5% of respondents saw a 50% increase in political ad spend in 2024 versus 2023, while 18% saw no lift at all, and 24% saw less than a 10% increase.
LMC notes that as was the case in 2023, AI is again the leading trend to watch among local media, with 66% saying they plan to use it for operations, and 47% for content such as headline writing or summaries. Other key trends according to respondents include community engagement (61%), video creation, monetization and distribution (39%), cross-platform strategies (37%), and podcasts (23%).
“The 2023 local media survey revealed a ‘watch and wait’ approach to AI, but in 2024 the industry began to roll up their sleeves to utilize AI to move their businesses forward,” Wills says. “Local media has an opportunity to leverage AI to their benefit. AI can’t create local news, so we anticipate a heightened need for journalists to report on and validate local news, creating an opportunity for a more balanced value exchange with tech platforms. We can’t wait to see what the new year has in store.”