Hunker down to survive the influencer-led news apocalypse

My journalistic aspiration in 2026 is to be a cockroach during the news media's looming nuclear apocalypse.

Next year will expose the gaping void between what the British journalism industry produces and what mass audiences are actually consuming. Struggling companies will collapse or lay off staff. Nation states and rich businessmen will move into the gap.

How much longer will the news industry pretend the transition to influencer-led culture hasn't happened? Next time you're on a train, look at fellow passengers' screens. Ten years ago it was news apps or Facebook. Now it's algorithmically-selected video from Instagram and YouTube creators.

Who can blame them? Free mass market commercial "news" is increasingly screengrabbed Reddit posts and brazenly false curiosity gap material designed to game Google Discover.

If you're 22 and looking to get into media, would you take a minimum wage job churning eight stories daily for a corporate local news site - or run a TikTok account aggregating everyone else? Talk to online creators and they're baffled by traditional reporting. Why spend weeks standing up a single story people might not enjoy when you can rip video from elsewhere and cherry-pick the engaging bits?

Strangely, some outlets will gain social and political influence over elites even as their real-world mass market audience declines. Twitter, turned by Elon Musk into a toxic hellhole populated by bedroom-dwelling fascists, is arguably more influential than ever over UK government policy and broadcast coverage. Meanwhile, politicians will continue to quiver when they get a call from newspapers for stories that will be read by barely anyone.

Personally, I'm hunkering down to publish investigations that I care about. London Centric has 4,000 paying subscribers covering our reporting team, legal fees, and freelancers. I'm the only shareholder. Financial independence means editorial independence, albeit with an intense pressure to continue producing journalism that people are willing to pay for.