Our take on what’s coming in 2026…
At BHC we pride ourselves on being a consultancy that is always forward-thinking, and can engage honestly with our clients. 2025 was immense for the world of communications…but we think we haven’t seen anything yet and the speed of change is accelerating.
As we kick off the new year, we find ourselves looking to the 12 months ahead and asking ourselves, what does 2026 look like for news and communications?
Here are some of our predictions…
These trends will reshape how every organisation communicates, how audiences consume information, and how trust gets built or destroyed in public conversation.
Three things jumped out:
The traffic cliff is real – and it’s coming for everyone
Publishers expect search traffic to drop more than 40% over the next three years. Google referrals are already down a third globally. AI overviews are eating clicks. Chatbots are becoming the new front door.
This isn’t just a journalism problem. If you’re a business relying on content marketing, SEO, or organic discovery to drive leads, awareness, or engagement – the ground is shifting under your feet. The old playbook of “create content, optimise for search, wait for traffic” is dying faster than most communications teams have realised.
The question: how do you show up when people aren’t searching anymore – they’re asking?
Distinctiveness beats scale
Media leaders are saying the same thing: more original investigations, more on-the-ground reporting, more human stories, more analysis. Less generic news, less evergreen content, less commoditised information that AI can summarise in three bullet points.
This applies beyond media teams. In a world where AI can generate infinite “content,” the only thing that cuts through is content that couldn’t have been created by a machine. Original thinking. Real expertise. Lived experience. A distinctive voice that’s recognisably human.
If your comms strategy is built on generic thought leadership, repackaged trends, or surface-level commentary – you’re already competing with an algorithm that does it faster and cheaper.
The creator economy is eating traditional media’s lunch
70% of news executives are concerned that creators are taking time and attention away from publisher content. 39% worry they’re losing top talent to the creator ecosystem.
But here’s what matters for the wider communications industry: creators aren’t just competing with journalism. They’re competing with all institutional voices. Politicians, CEOs, brands, and organizations are all facing the same challenge – audiences increasingly trust personalities over institutions.
The response? Three-quarters of publishers say they’ll get journalists to behave more like creators this year. They’re putting faces to bylines, building platform personalities, hiring young talent who understand TikTok and Reels.
For corporate communications teams, the question is: who are your creators? Which voices inside your organization can build authentic connection? And are you giving them the permission, tools, and training to show up in the places your audiences actually are?
What this means for communications professionals
If you’re working in PR, corporate comms, public affairs, or stakeholder engagement, these trends should be setting off alarm bells:
- Your carefully crafted press releases are competing with AI summaries and creator commentary
- Your CEO’s LinkedIn post is going head-to-head with influencers who’ve built trust through personality, not position
- Your media strategy can’t rely on traditional gatekeepers when audiences are bypassing them entirely
- Your “content strategy” needs to be about distinctiveness, not volume
The organizations that will win aren’t the ones with the biggest content engines or the slickest SEO. They’re the ones with something genuine to say, said by people audiences actually want to hear from, in formats designed for how people actually consume information today.
Which means: less corporate polish. More human voice. Fewer press releases. More vertical video. Less broadcasting. More conversation.
The internet is basically one big video player now. Podcasts are part of the daily routine. People expect stories to land quickly, clearly, and creatively. The old comms playbook doesn’t work anymore.
The question is: are you ready to rewrite it?
Let’s talk…