Media restructuring used to mean layoffs and cost-cutting. In 2025, it’s more nuanced—publishers are rethinking team structures, skill requirements, and how editorial, commercial, and technical functions collaborate.

Some experiments are working. Others are failing predictably. Here’s what we’re seeing from Australian and international publishers actually navigating these changes.

The Death of Traditional Departments

The wall between editorial and commercial is eroding, though not in the dystopian “journalists writing advertorials” way critics feared.

Instead, editorial teams are collaborating with commercial on content strategy informed by what audiences actually value and what advertisers will support.

This doesn’t mean compromising editorial integrity. It means understanding that a beautifully written piece nobody reads generates neither audience value nor revenue.

The Australian Financial Review integrated their editorial and product teams. Journalists now work alongside UX designers and data analysts to create content experiences, not just articles.

Multi-Skilled Journalists Versus Specialists

There’s tension between wanting journalists who can write, shoot video, manage social, and edit photos versus deep specialists who excel at one thing.

Most successful publishers are doing both. Core reporters remain specialists focused on their beats. But they’re supported by multi-skilled content producers who handle video adaptation, social distribution, and visual storytelling.

This is different from expecting every journalist to do everything—a failed experiment from the 2010s that produced mediocre work across formats.

The Product Management Role

Publishers are hiring product managers from tech companies to apply software development approaches to editorial products.

These people don’t make editorial decisions, but they help organize workflow, prioritize features, and ensure technical capabilities align with editorial goals.

For subscription-focused publishers, product managers bridge editorial, engineering, and analytics teams to optimize conversion and retention.

This role barely existed in publishing five years ago. Now it’s standard at digitally sophisticated publishers.

Collapsing Geographic Structures

Australian publishers with Melbourne and Sydney offices are reconsidering whether location-based teams make sense in remote-work era.

Some are organizing around content verticals or functions rather than geography. The property team works nationally, not office-by-office.

Others maintain location-based structures for local coverage but centralize support functions like design, analytics, and tech.

There’s no universal answer, but publishers reflexively maintaining pre-pandemic structures are missing efficiency opportunities.

The Audience Development Function

Many publishers have created “audience development” teams separate from editorial and marketing.

These teams handle SEO, social distribution, newsletter growth, and traffic analytics. They’re measured on reach and engagement metrics that feed into broader business goals.

This prevents editorial from ignoring distribution (classic mistake) and marketing from prioritizing low-quality traffic (different classic mistake).

Crikey’s audience team works with editorial on content planning, using data about what resonates to inform coverage decisions without dictating topics.

Commercial Integration Without Compromise

Publishers are experimenting with commercial teams embedded in editorial, focused on creating sponsorship opportunities that align with content strategy.

The key word is “align.” This works when commercial understands editorial values and proposes partnerships that make sense, not when they demand editorial compromise advertiser demands.

Successful integration looks like: “We’re planning a series on sustainable business. Are there sponsors interested in supporting this?” Not: “This advertiser wants content about their product. Write something.”

Freelance and Contract Structures

Full-time staff ratios are shifting. Many publishers maintain smaller core teams supplemented by specialized contractors.

This provides flexibility to scale coverage up or down based on revenue and opportunity without the overhead of permanent headcount.

The risk is losing institutional knowledge and team cohesion. Publishers handling this well have core staff for strategic work and consistent contributors (essentially permalancers) for volume.

Data and Analytics Integration

Most publishers now have dedicated data analysts who aren’t in IT or business intelligence, but work directly with editorial and commercial teams.

These people translate analytics into actionable insights: what content gaps exist, what distribution strategies work, what audience segments are growing.

Effective integration means analysts attend editorial meetings and contribute to content planning, not just producing reports that nobody reads.

The Shrinking Print Operation

Publishers still producing print are often restructuring those teams significantly. Print-first workflow doesn’t make sense when 80%+ of revenue comes from digital.

Some have eliminated separate print and digital teams entirely, with everyone producing digital-first content that’s adapted for print when relevant.

Others maintain small print specialist teams for layout and production while consolidating content creation.

The mistake is maintaining parallel digital and print operations as if both are equally central. That’s expensive and creates redundant work.

Revenue Team Consolidation

Separate advertising, subscriptions, and events teams are merging into unified revenue organizations in many publishers.

This acknowledges that the same audience might generate value through multiple channels. Siloed teams optimize their own metrics while missing broader opportunities.

The challenge is compensation structures. Ad salespeople work on commission. Subscription teams have different incentives. Aligning these takes careful planning.

Remote Work and Talent Access

Geographic constraints on hiring have loosened. Australian publishers are hiring talent from anywhere in the country, not just major metros.

Some are hiring internationally for specialized roles where local talent is scarce—technical development, specific subject expertise, emerging format specialists.

This expands talent pools but requires different management approaches and, potentially, adjusted compensation frameworks for different cost-of-living contexts.

The Technical Team Question

Should publishers maintain in-house development teams or rely on agencies and contractors?

Publishers treating their platforms as core competitive advantages tend toward in-house technical capabilities. Those viewing technology as support infrastructure outsource more.

The Guardian maintains substantial engineering teams. Smaller Australian publishers use agency partners or contractors for development work.

Neither is universally right, but the decision should be strategic, not just cost-driven. Cheap outsourced development often creates expensive problems.

Skills Training and Development

The skills publishers need are changing faster than staff can naturally adapt. Strategic restructuring includes serious training investment.

This means:

• Video storytelling for text journalists
• Data analysis for editors
• SEO basics for all content creators
• Digital marketing for commercial teams

Publishers cutting training budgets while demanding new skills are setting themselves up for failure.

Some organizations are working with specialists in business AI solutions to upskill teams on using AI tools effectively without replacing human judgment with automation.

Community and Engagement Teams

Publishers building membership models or community-focused strategies are creating dedicated community management roles.

These people facilitate discussion, organize events, manage member benefits, and gather feedback to inform content strategy.

This isn’t just social media management. It’s building genuine relationships with engaged audience segments.

The Saturday Paper’s community team runs member events, manages their online discussion platform, and provides insights to editorial about what community members value.

Consolidation Versus Independence

Smaller publishers are either consolidating into groups that share resources or doubling down on independence with lean, focused operations.

The middle ground—too large for lean operation but too small for full resource infrastructure—is increasingly untenable.

Consolidation provides shared services (HR, legal, technology) while maintaining editorial independence. Independence requires acceptance of limited resources and strategic focus.

What’s Not Working

Matrix management structures where people report to multiple managers across functions. These create confusion and accountability problems.

Forcing everyone to be generalists. Some roles benefit from breadth; others need depth. Publishers trying to make everyone interchangeable produce mediocrity.

Restructuring without addressing culture. New org charts don’t fix dysfunctional relationships or misaligned incentives.

Copying structures from successful publishers in different contexts. What works for The New York Times doesn’t necessarily work for a B2B Australian magazine.

Making Restructuring Work

Start with clear goals. What problems are you solving? Don’t restructure because it’s been a few years and you think you should.

Involve people in changes that affect them. Top-down restructuring breeds resistance. Collaborative design increases buy-in.

Accept that new structures need iteration. First attempt won’t be perfect. Build in review cycles to adjust based on what’s actually working.

Communicate constantly. People fill information voids with anxiety and rumors. Over-communicate the why and how of changes.

The publishers successfully restructuring aren’t following templates. They’re thinking carefully about their specific business models, competitive advantages, and resource realities, then organizing accordingly.

That’s harder than copying what worked elsewhere, but it’s what actually produces results.