As we gear up for the next Newsrewired this November, we decided to reflect on some of the insights we gathered at the May 2026 event. As always, Newsrewired offered a valuable opportunity to take the pulse of a rapidly evolving journalism and publishing landscape - and explore the challenges shaping its future, from experimenting with new formats to rebuilding trust across increasingly fragmented digital spaces.
Newsrewired conference, London, May 2026
The Times’ data initiative, Britain at a glance, offered a compelling example of this shift, building trust through data and aiming to answer the question of whether Britain is getting better or worse. Rather than simply presenting conclusions, the aim is to give readers the tools to interpret the world for themselves.
This was reflected in a point made by Tom Calver, data editor at The Times and The Sunday Times: "Our job isn't just to answer this question; it's about making sure readers can answer it for themselves."
Here, trust is rooted not in authority but in the transparency of the process, where clarity, consistency, and methodology become as important as the reporting itself.
While established publishers are rebuilding trust through transparency, creators are doing so through personality, originality and direct audience relationships. During the session on creator-led news brands, Jim Waterson, founder and editor of London Centric, noted that what works is "human delivery... original stuff people can't get elsewhere."
Building on the idea that trust is increasingly shaped in shared spaces such as communities, comment threads and platforms, the session led by Rachel Duffy, Head of Community at The Times and Oliver Wright, Senior Growth Partnerships Lead at Reddit, highlighted that value now lies not just in distribution, but in interaction.
At the same time, there was a clear reality check around creator-led journalism. Speakers including Jim Waterson, Founder and Editor of London Centric; Isabelle Roughol, Director of Audience Development at D4S; and Daniel Ionescu, Founder of Millennial Masters, highlighted that while this model offers independence and closer audience relationships, it is not easily scalable.
This tension was particularly evident in the discussion around editorial priorities. As Roughol noted: "We see a lot of media being created by journalists who just want to do the journalism that they want to do... without thinking... is there a market for this."
Speakers emphasised that sustainability depends on a clear value proposition, deep audience understanding and often highly lean operations. Audience questions throughout the highly interactive session reinforced the idea that niche audiences are not a limitation but a strength, especially for monetisation. Success is increasingly defined by depth of engagement rather than scale, where a smaller, highly engaged audience can be far more valuable than a broad, passive one.
Against this backdrop, Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, led a session on the rise of video podcasting, drawing on the Institute's latest research to explore how formats are evolving in response to changing audience behaviours.
The discussion highlighted how, rather than replacing existing formats, video is expanding the podcasting ecosystem, bringing in new audiences and deepening engagement, particularly by making the people behind the content more visible and relatable. At the same time, live formats continue to create direct, real-time interaction between reporters and the public.
They also open up new opportunities inside newsrooms themselves. A clear example is the live blog coverage developed by young journalists during Newsrewired using Tickaroo, which acted as a practical testing ground for younger journalists to experiment with tone, structure, and storytelling in a fast-moving, real-time environment.
Taken together, these developments reinforce a clear direction: journalism is becoming more human, not less.
What emerged throughout the day is a set of ongoing tensions. AI enables scale but risks diluting trust. Platforms provide reach but fragment relationships. Creators build connections but face sustainability challenges. Publishers offer credibility but must continuously evolve. Navigating these trade‑offs is now central to any media strategy.
The most important takeaway from Newsrewired is that trust is no longer something media organisations simply have. It is something they must consciously design for through transparency, direct relationships, human storytelling and meaningful engagement.
The next Newsrewired takes place in London on 26 November 2026, with a study tour on 25 November. We'll be there again - and we've partnered with JournalismUK to give you the chance to win a free ticket and a small stipend to get you there.
To enter, fill out our Future of Journalism survey and give us your insights on the industry. We'd like to know:
And if you want to see what live coverage of a conference looks like in practice, you can read the full live blog from Newsrewired 2026, produced live from the room.
Curious how it was made? Take a look at Tickaroo's live blog software, or read our earlier recaps from Newsrewired 2025 and why young journalists are key to journalism's future.