Open questions for the year ahead

2026-01-26

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It's nearly the end of January, and from a macroeconomic perspective, it’s been an absolutely wild month. The US threatened to invade Greenland and institute tariffs on European countries mobilising to resist that effort. In Davos last week, Trump appeared to walk back some of those threats, but it’s safe to say uncertainty is and will continue to be at very high levels.Uncertainty raises questions for the media industry, which sits at the centre of global business activity.Earlier this month, The Media Leader convened its ann...

It's nearly the end of January, and from a macroeconomic perspective, it’s been an absolutely wild month.

The US threatened to invade Greenland and institute tariffs on European countries mobilising to resist that effort. In Davos last week, Trump appeared to walk back some of those threats, but it’s safe to say uncertainty is and will continue to be at very high levels.

Uncertainty raises questions for the media industry, which sits at the centre of global business activity.

Earlier this month, The Media Leader convened its annual Year Ahead event in London. The invite-only event is always a great way to kick off the year.

This year, Tom Standage, The Economist’s deputy editor, gave a fantastic run-down of some of those macro factors to look out for, and we separately interviewed him afterward to ask a couple follow up questions.

In addition to Tom, The Media Leader's content director James Longhurst and senior reporter Jack Benjamin to the stage both to recap some of the key themes from last year, and also raise key questions to industry leaders on their plans for 2026.

The duo wanted to involve the audience, so they also asked Mail Metro Media’s commercial chief Dominic Williams, Thinkbox CEO Lindsey Clay, Bauer Media Advertising MD Simon Kilby, and World Media Group CEO Jamie Credland to share their predictions for the year ahead, too.

Highlights:

2:02: Key themes from 2025 in media: Consolidation, getting "easier to buy", AI search

5:30: Stories to watch in 2026: European-American business relations, trust, ROI on AI

9:30: Dominic Williams: The World Cup opportunity

11:12: Lindsey Clay: A return to brand building

13:39: Simon Kilby: Valuing trusted media amid AI slop and harmful images

16:05: Jamie Credland: Quality journalism in an age of AI

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