By Luke Magerko, Director of Consulting at Mather
June 25th, 2025
We officially kicked off our 2025 benchmarking webinar series with a high-impact first session: Benchmark. Analyze. Win.
Luke Magerko, Director of Consulting, and Pete Doucette, Senior Managing Director of Consulting, shared key insights from 350+ news brands — diving into the latest performance trends, the fast-evolving role of AI, and what’s driving real results for publishers right now.
Missed it or want to revisit the highlights? Watch the full recording below and check out a few standout takeaways.
📅 Join us for Session Two: Turning Analytics into Action: Incentivizing Performance in Modern Newsrooms, featuring guest speaker Dan MacLeod from Bangor Daily News. Register here.
1. Industry Pulse: Growth Remains Uneven
Despite signs of stabilization, the second quarter of 2025 continues to show softer performance compared to Q2 2024. Smaller brands are still facing ongoing audience and revenue declines, while even larger brands are struggling to match the high benchmarks of the prior year.
Only 30% of brands achieved year-over-year growth in May, underscoring the need for publishers to reassess and adapt their strategies. Interestingly, TV news outlets are seeing stronger engagement, suggesting that some formats and content types continue to resonate deeply with audiences.
2. The AI Effect: Disruption or Opportunity?
Mather’s analysis of 50 brands reveals a significant shift: AI Overview usage doubled from February to March 2025 — and the April data is still being analyzed.
Much of this AI traffic is driven by longer, more specific search queries (8+ words), reflecting changes in how users seek information. While the full impact of AI on news performance is still unfolding, early trends point to a strong link between AI disruptions and traffic declines among larger brands.
Smaller, local outlets appear less impacted — but that may indicate they’re already feeling the effects more deeply, highlighting a need for targeted support and innovation at the local level.
3. What’s Working Now
Despite the disruption, there’s good news: AI is proving to be a powerful tool for publishers who know how to use it strategically. Mather has identified several AI-driven tactics — including metadata tagging, topic classification, and content recommendations — that are already delivering measurable results, from increased page views to higher conversion rates.
Importantly, Luke and Pete emphasized that AI is not here to replace editorial judgment. Instead, it acts as a guide — helping newsrooms create more targeted, audience-focused content that performs better across platforms.
🧠 Want to go deeper?
Don’t miss our next session! Luke Magerko will be joined by Dan MacLeod, Editor at Bangor Daily News, for an inside look at how BDN used real-time analytics to align newsroom incentives, spark a culture of accountability and experimentation, and drive lasting audience growth. Click here to register.
