Besides various trends in content, data, and AI, contributors' predictions for 2025 focus on enhancing creativity and authenticity in marketing, driven by AI's ability to optimize segmentation and scale while countering the proliferation of uninspired content. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the industry will foster innovation in models like Subscribe to Open and modular infrastructure systems that emphasize adaptability and researcher-centric experiences. Additionally, with open access growth stabilizing, publishers may pivot back to emphasizing subscription content, ROI, and business strategies centered on profitability and engagement.
In our final deep dive on the 2025 report, read more for what contributors had to add to our tech trends questions.
What else do you predict for publishing in 2025?
“We are witnessing a creative renaissance in marketing. Marketers are reclaiming time through AI and automation. The ability to test and segment at scale has advanced dramatically in recent years, enabling more experimentation and targeted, contextual approaches. However, breaking through the noise has become increasingly challenging. The rise of generative AI has flooded the landscape with bland, uninspired content. This is driving a renewed emphasis on authentic storytelling, truly differentiated creative work, and precision in delivering the right content to the right customer at the right time through the right channel. We are seeing progressive organizations focusing on the foundational work needed to be more creative and impactful. In addition to modern MarTech investments, this means returning to marketing basics (e.g., differentiated positioning and messaging) but with an AI-ready twist.” – Colleen Scollans, C&E“More collaborative efforts and positive discussions about new models and initiatives whether they work or not. Sharing experiences and lessons learned in the community to foster progression. 2024 proved an interesting year for more critical discussions around Subscribe to Open (S2O)” – Lou Peck, The International Bunch
“With open content hovering around 50%, there may be a renewed focus on subscription content. Value for money. Return on investment. As in our personal life, subscriptions may be the next cool thing. What’s next? A subscription big deal?” – Heather Staines, Delta Think
“With all the options created by AI out there, I am sure we will see the dust settling quite a bit in 2025. I expect publishers will focus back on how to drive their businesses profitably, around researcher engagement, peer review and research integrity more broadly.” – Sven Fund, Reviewer Credits
“I expect to see more publishers focusing on the experience they offer – focusing on the journey. There will be a shift towards a system landscape where publishers adopt a more modular infrastructure to keep up with evolving demands. Instead of developing entire systems, the focus should be on building capabilities – creating a strong foundation with hyper-integration as the way forward. While exit costs for legacy systems can be high, many will continue running them, but with new orchestration, the experience will be enhanced and built on top of existing systems.” – Christian Grubak, ChronosHub
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