December 18, 2025
Welcome to The L@B Report
Welcome to this end-of-year edition of The L@B Report from GSG. Throughout 2025, we tracked how Americans consume media, shifting trust in news sources, and how technology is reshaping the information environment. As the year ends, we recap three themes that stood out across 2025 L@B Reports.
This issue of The L@B Report was compiled by Ryan Alexander.
In the News
2025 Was the Year YouTube Became Television
As discussed in multiple L@B Reports this year, YouTube emerged as the dominant platform for long-form video, live events, podcasts, sports, political commentary, and entertainment—content increasingly consumed on TV screens, not phones. Older audiences adopted YouTube at accelerating rates, while younger viewers treated it as their primary destination for everything from news to comedy.
What once lived on cable now lives alongside creators, influencers, and independent voices on YouTube. The distinction between streaming and television effectively collapsed.
Takeaway
In 2025, YouTube stopped being an alternative to TV and became TV. According to our latest media consumption report, YouTube is the top platform from which Americans get their news. Communicators should treat YouTube as a core broadcast platform where credibility, production quality, and personality matter as much as reach.
Need more proof that YouTube is TV? News recently broke that the 2029 Oscars will air exclusively on YouTube after being broadcast on ABC since 1976!
AI Changed How Information Is Consumed—Not Just How It’s Created
Throughout the year, we reported on how AI increasingly acted as a middleman between audiences and information. Chatbots summarized articles and delivered news without sending users to original sources. Wikipedia warned of declining human visitors, while search referrals to publishers dropped.
At the same time, newsrooms and communicators adopted AI tools to speed up research, content production, and targeting—raising new questions about accuracy, attribution, and trust.
Takeaway
In 2025, AI permanently altered how people encounter information. Credibility now depends on transparency and consistency across platforms where AI pulls its answers.
Traditional Journalism Continued to Shrink—While New Trust Models Emerged
News deserts expanded as independent and local newspapers continued to disappear. At the same time, alternative models gained ground. Newsletters surged as trusted, direct connections between writers and readers. Podcasts and creator-led media became primary news sources for millions.
The common thread: trust increasingly flowed to people, not institutions.
Takeaway
As traditional journalism contracts, influence relocates. Communicators must understand who audiences trust, how information reaches them, and what fills the vacuum left by shrinking newsrooms. Want a deeper dive into how to reach audiences in this new environment? Check out our report Communicating in Chaos: The 2025 Playbook.
More from GSG
The MAHA movement has rapidly reshaped how Americans encounter health information, shifting influence from institutions to creators who move faster, speak more directly, and are often unencumbered by fact-checking and scientific safeguards that guide established health institutions. First reported in POLITICO Influence, GSG’s latest report—MAHA’s Rise and Backlash: Navigating the New Health Information Ecosystem—offers a guiding look at the forces driving the new health information landscape, and what you must know to navigate it.
Thank you for reading The L@B Report this year.