In an era of declining print revenues, evolving consumer habits, and fierce digital competition, local news executives are no longer asking if they should change, but how fast they can do it.

At the recent INMA World Congress of News Media, leaders from McClatchy, Gannett, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) shared how they are overhauling their business models to survive — and, most importantly, thrive — in the digital age.

“I think our future depends on our ability to establish relationships, consumer-direct relationships, and get them to pay,” said Tony Hunter, McClatchy’s chief executive officer. 

AI is now essential

Each executive at brought a distinct perspective:

Andrew Morse, president and publisher at AJC, focused on transforming newsroom culture and product strategy, while Michael Reed, Gannett’s chief executive officer, spoke about cost-cutting and scale as a bridge to digital growth.

Yet all agreed on one thing: AI is not optional.

“If you’re running a business and you’re not starting to think about how to apply AI to every facet of the business … you’re making a huge mistake,” Reed said. 

Gannett has a center with AI journalists who are dedicated to producing and editing massive amounts of content by using AI to turn inputs like press releases and real estate updates relevant to local audiences into stories for everyday readers.

AI isn’t just about efficiency — it’s also about engagement. Morse described using AI to personalise marketing and understand subscriber behaviour, calling it key to customer acquisition and retention. 

“You have to understand which of your products and which of your capabilities are going to meet different audience needs,” Morse said. “AI can be incredibly effective in helping you reach those different audience segments and turning them into paying customers.”

At McClatchy, AI is part of a broader effort to speed up operations and reclaim time for storytelling. Quality content and audience differentiation are top priorities, Hunter said: “Everything else, I’m willing to automate, outsource, and run at the lowest cost possible so that I can continue to invest in those two areas.”

Transformation from within

But transformation isn’t only technological. The executives stressed the importance of culture change, with Morse revealing that 70% of AJC’s top two levels of leadership have turned over in the past two years. Building teams with the right mix of engineers, product developers, and journalists is essential to stay relevant, he said.

“The three things you need for any digital transformation are culture, talent, and time,” Morse said. “And it’s not just about hiring good people — it’s hiring people with very specific skill sets, with very clear roles and responsibilities, and rebuilding the operating model along with everything else.”

The panel also addressed how to balance impartiality with brand identity in a time of political polarisation: “Neutrality equals death because you need to have a perspective, you need to tell customers that you stand for something, and you need to have value,” Morse said.

Reed agreed, adding that local newsrooms must focus on truth-telling and investigative work to build trust.

“We want our consumers and our readers to feel like they are as informed as they can be so that they can make their own decision rather than us making it for them,” Reed said.

Learning from the past

While the industry is now shifting toward greater openness to audience engagement, automation, and the use of AI tools, the three leaders acknowledged missed opportunities. 

“I would have accelerated the move of AI and personalisation in my digital product experience, and I would have coveted every single print customer and held them,” Hunter said, calling it a major regret from the past year.

Reed, too, said Gannett was late in embracing a broader content strategy and fully mandating AI use across the company.

“Great journalism is just one sliver of our content strategy,” Reed said, “and to really be able to monetise your audience, you have to serve so much other content that really engages and brings consumers in.”

Surviving the future of local news requires more than cost-cutting or chasing clicks. It demands building smarter products, investing in technology, and, most of all, keeping journalism — and the community it serves — at its core.

“The world will never be slower than it is today,” Hunter said. “And if you think about the rapid change, I think the notion of having a culture that’s open to pivoting, changing, experimenting, and, frankly, failing forward is one of my big bets.”

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