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36 Questions for 2025
Here are 36 of the most pressing questions facing the Fourth Estate, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.
Oliver Darcy
January 01, 2025
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Confidently making predictions about the media industry, particularly as it remains trapped in a state of transformative change and enormous upheaval, is ill-advised. For that reason, we’ll refrain from trying to serve as a crystal ball here. Indeed, the only thing that can be said for certain about 2025 is that it promises to be anything but boring.
In lieu of a catalog of sweeping and declarative predictions, we’ve compiled a list of 36 pressing questions facing the Fourth Estate, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley. And so, without further ado, here is a non-exhaustive list of questions for the year ahead:
How will Donald Trump use the powers of government to attack the press? Will the threats from Steve Bannon and Kash Patel materialize? And what will media executives do to combat the coming assault on their newsrooms? Will the parent companies of some of these news giants have the backbone to stand up to Trump?
Will cable news ratings see a resurgence with Trump as president? Or has the #Resistance viewing fizzled, with MSNBC/CNN viewers opting to largely stay tuned out?
Will Trump maintain a good relationship with Rupert Murdoch's Fox News? Or will he launch meaningful attacks on the network and urge audiences to turn to OAN/Newsmax when he does not believe it to be sufficiently loyal enough?
After spending so much of the campaign appearing on podcasts with personalities such as Joe Rogan, will Trump keep up the trend now that he is officially in office? Will the Washington press corps get snubbed for the Theo Vons of the world?
What will the broader television landscape look like in 12 months with Brian Roberts' Comcast spinning off its cable assets and David Zaslav's Warner Bros. Discovery teasing a similar move?
Will Cesar Conde remain atop NBCUniversal News Group, given the new SpinCo reality? Will Rashida Jones exit MSNBC?
Will MSNBC be allowed to keep its name, like CNBC, after it is cleaved off from Comcast?
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How will SpinCo boss Mark Lazarus make MSNBC more palatable to the GOP, as he has indicated in private conversations he would like to do? Will viewers rebel against such changes? What about the network’s top progressive stars?
Will CNN chief Mark Thompson, more than a year into the job as network boss, finally launch a suite of digital subscription products at the outlet? What will they look like? And, most importantly, will he be successful in convincing a significant swath of CNN's digital audience into paying for a subscription?
Will CNN Max ever exit "beta" mode on the Max streamer? More importantly, will CNN launch its own standalone streamer as part of its digital offering?
How will Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis turn around The Washington Post's fortunes? Do they have a meaningful vision to execute on? If so, what exactly is it? And what's next for them after coming up empty in their search for a so-called "change agent" to serve as the newspaper's top editor?
Specifically regarding Lewis, will there be any damning revelations that drop about the role he played in cleaning up Rupert Murdoch's phone hacking scandal when Prince Harry's lawsuit goes to trial in the weeks ahead?
With Matea Gold setting up shop at The New York Times, will even more journalists from The WaPo welcome The Gray Lady's embrace? Will Jeffrey Goldberg persuade others at the struggling newspaper to join The Atlantic?
What will become of the Los Angeles Times under newly MAGA-curious owner Patrick Soon-Shiong?
Will "Today" permanently overtake "Good Morning America" in the ratings race? Or will Debra OConnell, Almin Karamehmedovic, and Simone Swink find a way to claw their way back to the top? And will Hoda Kotb's exit hurt the "Today" viewership numbers, or will Craig Melvin keep the audience tuning in?
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Will Graydon Carter manage to convince anyone to purchase Air Mail? Will any of the legacy news companies make plays for outlets like Punchbowl, The Information, and Puck? In the right-wing media space, will Fox News make any plays for smaller digital companies, such as Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire?
Will Fox News settle with Smartmatic and put the 2020 election behind it? Or will it continue to fight on, risking further reputational and monetary damages?
Who will New York Magazine hire to fill its now vacant Washington correspondent role? And what will Olivia Nuzzi do next?
With legacy media facing decline, how many more major journalists will opt to go independent? And at what point does the newsletter market get oversaturated? Is this the year that bundling begins to occur?
What will become of The NYT's lawsuit against OpenAI? Will the two parties settle outside of court?
What will be TikTok's fate? The Supreme Court is set to hear the social media company's arguments ahead of the January 19 divest-or-ban deadline. Will Trump's amicus brief help move the needle in the platform's favor?
Will Trump's Justice Department break up Google? What would that look like?
Will A.I. continue to advance at a breakneck speed? Or will the technology's progress slow down considerably?
Will Bluesky maintain the momentum it picked up in the latter half of 2024 and continue to steal users away from Elon Musk’s toxic X? Or will Mark Zuckerberg's Threads make a comeback as the to-go destination for the disaffected media and political elite?
Will Amazon Prime produce more news specials with Brian Williams? Or is it done after the Election Night experiment, which it never released viewership numbers for?
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Outside implementing cuts, how will David Ellison make his mark on Paramount Global? What is his vision for the company and when will we hear him really articulate it?
Will WBD’s stock price continue its six-month trend of strong growth? Or will the stock continue to hover at $10 a share?
Will James Gunn and Peter Safran succeed in using the "Superman" reboot to breathe much-needed life into DC Studios? What if "Superman" ultimately doesn't match the hype Gunn has created and fails to take flight at the box office?
Will Marvel find its footing with "Captain America: Brave New World," "The Fantastic Four," and "Thunderbolts"? Or will the studio see a couple of those films miss and continue to struggle post-"Endgame"?
Speaking of Disney, will the Bob Iger-led company continue to dominate the box office with films like "Avatar: Fire and Ash," "Elio," and "Captain America: Brave New World"?
How big will "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" be? Will this be Tom Cruise’s final mission?
How will the Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively dispute end? And who else will get sucked into the drama before all is said and done?
What will become of all the legal action Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing for alleged sexual assault?
Will Jay-Z succeed in getting the civil lawsuit filed against him tossed? If not, will he settle?
Will Taylor Swift drop new music or will the world's biggest music star take some time off after ending her "Eras" tour?
What are we not asking, but should be?
Holiday Rundown
Elon Musk briefly made his X avatar an image of "Pepe the Frog." (Screen shot)
Elon Musk briefly changed his X avatar to Pepe the Frog and his name to Kekius Maximus. As Tom Bayly and Patrick Jackson reported, "'Kekius' appears to be a Latinisation of 'kek,' a word roughly equivalent to 'laugh out loud' popularized by gamers but now often associated with the alt right." [BBC]
For those who have had any doubts that Musk has transformed Twitter into a right-wing fever swamp, there should be none now. The question is: Why do so many public figures, government officials, and brands continue to post on there? If they wouldn't maintain an account on Truth Social or Rumble, why remain on X?
The NYT defended itself after Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million suit against the paper: "Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported." [Variety]
The Palestinian Authority banned Al Jazeera from operating and said the Qatari-funded outlet must “freeze all the work of its journalists.” [NYT]
CNN mourned the loss of former anchor Aaron Brown, who died Sunday at 76. Anderson Cooper praised Brown as a "great writer and broadcaster." [CNN]
CNBC said it plans to charge $14.99 a month for its new streamer. [Variety]
If you blinked, you might have missed it! After Warner Bros. Discovery teased coming board changes, the company quietly disclosed via an SEC filing that Li Haslett Chen plans to resign from the body. [Reuters]
Season two of "Squid Game" debuted strong, despite mediocre audience reviews. Netflix said the new season garnered the most views ever for a show on the streamer in its debut week. [Deadline]
Netflix released additional viewership data for its Christmas Day NFL games. The Chiefs-Steelers matchup drew 25.8 million U.S. viewers and the Ravens-Texans face-off averaged 27.2 million U.S. viewers. [The Wrap]
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finally reached a divorce settlement after eight years. [The Wrap]
Hulu released a teaser for season six of "The Kardashians," which it said will premiere February 6. [YouTube]
CNN said its comedy series "Have I Got News For You" will see its second season premiere February 15. [Deadline]