Felixe Thinking

Understanding the News Media Crisis: Three Threats to Consequential Media

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

News media are disappearing at the very moment society needs them most. Across the world, local and investigative journalism is being hollowed out by three converging forces:

Disintermediation by Big Tech
Disruption by increasingly authoritarian power, and
Disengagement by audiences and advertisers.

The result is not just an industry in crisis, but a growing inability for people to form well-founded beliefs, opinions, survival strategies and action plans in an age of profound uncertainty.

Our analysis, Understanding the News Media Crisis: Three Threats to Consequential Media, examines these forces in depth and suggests that, amid increasing polarisation globally, many current attempts to “save journalism” are too narrow, too politicised, and too focused on supply-side definitions of what news ought to be. The paper proposes a broad, ideologically neutral concept — Consequential Media — encompassing any source people genuinely rely on for current information that shapes how they understand and act in the world. This definition can bring more individuals and organisations back to news.

The paper concludes that decentralised strategies and technologies are essential to resolving the core contradiction of our time: a pluralistic information ecosystem trapped inside an increasingly centralised attention economy.

Why this matters now

The decline of news media is often discussed as an industry problem. This paper treats it as a systems problem.

When original, accountable sources disappear, the vacuum is filled by derivative, unaccountable and increasingly synthetic information. Without intervention, the next decade risks producing a world that is more informed in volume but less informed in consequence.

As Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa has warned, the window for securing new models of media sustainability may be measured in years – not decades.

Who this is for

News and media leaders grappling with sustainability
Institutional media investors
Researchers and journalists
Policymakers concerned with democratic resilience
Anyone concerned about what replaces journalism if it collapses

About the author

Jason Lambert (Copenhagen, Denmark) is a senior executive and leader at the intersection of news media business performance and technology. He has managed the Digital division of the UK and Ireland’s national news agency; created an online advertising representation business for news media; consulted with news media in more than 40 countries in digital and strategy development; and run a financial services agency specialised in driving traders to forex, stock, and derivatives brokerages.

Jason co-founded a specialist consulting brand in 2017, acquired by Internews in 2020, with Jason then leading its global practice focused on the financial sustainability of independent media. This included leadership of Internews’ United for News coalition, launched in partnership with the World Economic Forum, and creating its Ads for News initiative that brought new programmatic advertising revenue to hundreds of independent media worldwide.

Jason’s paper, Simplifying Success, which proposed a global data platform and framework for better understanding how independent media could compete for audiences and revenue, led to the $16 million Media Viability Accelerator (“MVA”), funded by USAID and Microsoft. Jason was then MVA’s Head of Product until it was cancelled amid the US restructuring of foreign aid in early 2025.

Jason holds an Executive MBA and master’s in management of technology from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), is founder of Felixe and a board member of Levelflow Foundation.

Understanding the News Media Crisis: Three Threats to Consequential Media

After the Media Crisis in 2025, Does 2026 Bring Answers?

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Image by cocoandwifi from Pixabay

This is a condensed English summary of a piece co-written by Felixe Nova co-founder Jelena Hadžović, published by Mediacenter Sarajevo. The original peace in Bosnian language is available here.

The article examines media sustainability challenges in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, set against the broader crisis facing independent journalism across the Western Balkans.

Media in the Western Balkans: A Sector Under Pressure

Independent media across the Western Balkans entered 2025 already weakened by shrinking advertising markets, political pressure, and platform dependency.

What followed was a convergence of shocks: the withdrawal of key international donors, growing economic instability, intensified political interference, and rapid technological change driven by platforms and artificial intelligence.

While newsrooms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro differ in size and structure, they share structural vulnerabilities: fragmented markets, limited purchasing power, high dependence on external funding, and weak public trust.

The events of 2025 exposed just how fragile existing sustainability models are—and forced media organisations to confront uncomfortable questions about survival, independence, and purpose.

The closure of USAID programmes was a critical shock. Although no major Serbian outlet shut down as a direct result, many lost a substantial share of annual income overnight.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, donor withdrawal disproportionately affected local and public-interest media, particularly those engaged in investigative journalism and community reporting.

At the same time, advertising growth in the region continues to bypass local outlets. Most digital advertising revenue flows to global platforms such as Google and Meta, while domestic media—especially local ones—see stagnation or decline. Public advertising and subsidies often remain opaque and politically influenced, further distorting the market.

Key Findings on Media Viability

The emerging crisis has shed light on some lessons for the Western Balkans media industry:

One-size-fits-all sustainability models do not work: Commercial revenue strategies may help larger or niche media, but they are unrealistic for most small and local outlets operating in limited markets. Treating public-interest journalism as a purely market-driven activity accelerates closures and information deserts.

Donor dependency has shifted, not disappeared: While some donors stepped in to fill short-term gaps, long-term, predictable funding is increasingly rare. Short project cycles and heavy administrative requirements further strain already overextended newsrooms.

Audience revenue is growing—but remains insufficient: Memberships, donations, and tools like Buy Me a Coffee contribute to engagement and legitimacy but typically cover only a small fraction of operating costs. Without scale, marketing capacity, or technical infrastructure, audience revenue alone cannot sustain most local outlets.

Resource sharing is becoming essential, not optional: Newsrooms are increasingly exploring shared services—legal support, accounting, ad tech, micro-payments, and IT—to reduce costs and increase resilience. Collaboration is emerging as a survival strategy rather than a values-based choice.

Public-interest journalism is the least marketable—and the most vulnerable: Investigative reporting, long-form journalism, and specialized coverage rarely align with click-driven economics. As grants decline, many outlets are forced into cheaper formats, risking tabloidization and reduced accountability reporting.

Technology is both a threat and an opportunity: AI tools for transcription, translation, and basic production can reduce costs and increase efficiency, but only if adopted responsibly and without undermining editorial standards. Capacity gaps remain a major barrier.

What Comes Next?

Media outlets in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are at a crossroads. The experience of 2025 has made one thing unmistakably clear: the future will not be defined by stability, but by continuous change.

What separates those that endure from those that disappear is not size or legacy, but the ability to recognize the urgency of the moment and act on it with intention.

The outlets most likely to survive are small, flexible, audience-focused, and prepared to rethink how they are organized, how they reach people, and how they combine different sources of income. Yet adaptation at the level of individual newsrooms will not be enough if the wider system fails to change with them.

Without renewed recognition of journalism as a public good—reflected in long-term donor strategies, fair and transparent public funding, and a reduction of bureaucratic pressure—media that serve local communities will continue to carry the burden of transformation alone. In such conditions, even the most committed teams risk exhaustion rather than renewal.

The lesson of 2025 is therefore not only about survival, but about direction. Media viability in the Western Balkans is not merely a business challenge - it is a democratic one. Change that is driven solely by crisis produces short-term fixes, while change grounded in shared purpose creates the conditions for trust, accountability, and relevance.

If responses to the crisis fail to reflect the diversity of media realities and the public value they generate, the cost will not be abstract. It will be felt in weakened oversight, eroded public trust, and local information spaces that fall silent just when they are needed most.

A Tool to Guide Independent Media Through Practical Digital Transformation

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The goal of the RNW Media’s Digital Transformation Assessment is simple: to offer independent media organisations a self assessment on where they stand digitally, along with concrete suggestions for maximising their sustainability, impact and resilience.

Felixe and Felixe Nova worked with RNW Media to transform
its offline Digital Maturity Assessment into a scalable digital tool,
combining RNW’s deep independent media expertise with Felixe’s data and product
capabilities and Felixe Nova’s organisational change frameworks — all tailored
for small and medium-sized independent media.

The assessment provides structured insights across key areas such as strategy, audience, technology, operations and revenue, translating complex transformation concepts into clear, actionable guidance. It is designed to be practical rather than theoretical, supporting organisations at various stages of their digital journey.

“By providing robust data insights and scoring, this assessment tool offers individual media organisations tailored guidance in driving their own digital transformation,” said Boris van Westering, Senior Media Viability Expert at RNW Media. “It not only supports strategic internal conversations, but also opens the door to meaningful engagement with funders and stakeholders – ultimately contributing to a stronger, more innovative digital media ecosystem.”

“We were delighted to work with Boris and the team at RNW Media on this,” says Jason Lambert, Founder of Felixe. “This was a chance to go deeper – not only into how independent media create and distribute content and use online tools, but also how their teams adapt to transformation.”

The tool has been built from the ground up to support partnership and white labelling, enabling other media catalyst organisations to adapt and deploy it within their own programmes.

About Felixe

Felixe focuses on improving prospects for media outlets amid rapid technological advancements and growing threats to their existence.

About RNW Media

RNW Media is an international media development organisation based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It harnesses the power of independent digital media to uphold human rights and advance the public good.

Active in more than 40 countries across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, West and East Africa, East Asia, Central and South America, RNW Media works to defend media and internet freedom, and to protect the universal rights to information and freedom of expression.

With over 75 years of experience, RNW Media has evolved from an international radio broadcaster into a leading champion of independent digital media. Together with its partners, RNW Media is building a diverse, resilient, and trustworthy digital media ecosystem that informs people, shifts narratives, influences social norms, and drives policy change – reinforcing the vital role of independent media in open and democratic societies.