In the latest Publishing Tech Trends Report from Silverchair and Hum, sixteen leaders, consultants, and thinkers offered their predictions about what 2025 holds for the scholarly publishing community. Their insights reveal a profound shift in how publishers will approach their audiences in the coming year.
The publisher-audience relationship continues to evolve. We’ve already seen publishers deepen their focus on audience intelligence, personalization, and community engagement by adopting holistic, data-driven approaches to better understand and meet the needs of authors, reviewers, and readers.
As traditional platforms evolve or diminish in relevance, publishers will explore co-creation, modern research experiences, and segmented engagement strategies to resonate with increasingly sophisticated and time-constrained users.
Narrowing Focus, Deepening Relationships
Mike Di Natale of AACR observes that publishers will be "attempting to tighten their relationships with a smaller audience of authors, reviewers, and readers." This represents a strategic pivot from casting a wide net to cultivating more meaningful relationships with core community members.
This approach recognizes that in an age of information abundance, depth of engagement often matters more than breadth of reach. By focusing on their most engaged stakeholders, publishers can create more value for these key audience segments while gaining deeper insights into their evolving needs.
Lou Peck from The International Bunch reinforces this idea, advocating for "focusing on audience intelligence, community building, adaptability, and transparency. Create a sustainable model that prioritizes the needs of your audience over time. This approach ensures that you are not just playing to win today but are invested in the ongoing adventure of knowledge sharing and community engagement."
Peck's framing of scholarly publishing as an "adventure" rather than a journey acknowledges the inevitable ups and downs of community building. This perspective encourages publishers to take calculated risks, embrace failures as learning opportunities, and view community engagement as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time initiative.
Co-Creation and New Content Formats
Paul Gee from AMA/JAMA Network anticipates publishers "Working closer with them on generating new content types and formats / co-creating in real time leveraging tools made affordable by new multimedia platforms and AI."
This collaborative approach transforms the traditional publisher-audience relationship from a one-way broadcasting model to a dynamic partnership. By inviting their audience to participate in content creation, publishers can ensure content remains relevant to audience needs, tap into specialized expertise within their community, foster a sense of ownership among contributors, and accelerate innovation in content formats.
Christian Grubak of ChronosHub notes a related paradigm shift: "The focus is shifting from authors to users, who now act as reviewers or editors. With content moving beyond traditional journal sites and AI mediating article discovery, new author acquisition models are needed to engage authors and stay relevant."
This shift recognizes that scholarly publishing involves multiple stakeholders with different needs and motivations. The traditional focus on authors as primary customers is evolving toward a more balanced ecosystem approach that values readers, reviewers, editors, and authors—often the same individuals at different times—allowing for more nuanced engagement strategies that serve the complete scholarly workflow.
Evolving Distribution and Platform Strategies
Marianne Calilhanna of Data Conversion Laboratory points to a fundamental shift in content access patterns: "We know that how people access content has changed. I spoke with a publisher at SSP New Directions who said he envisions the end of the platform is nigh. Scary, right? I don't quite think that's feasible over the next few years but disseminating content is where I see the next big change."
This observation highlights the need for publishers to think beyond their proprietary platforms. While traditional publishing platforms won't disappear overnight, audience expectations are increasingly shaped by seamless digital experiences elsewhere. Publishers who cling too tightly to platform-centric strategies risk becoming invisible to audiences who discover and consume content through alternative channels.
Forward-thinking publishers are already experimenting with approaches like:
- Content syndication to reach audiences where they already are
- API-first publishing strategies that enable flexible content distribution
- Partnerships with discovery platforms and research tools
- Metadata enrichment to improve discoverability across the digital ecosystem
The goal is no longer simply to drive traffic to a publisher's platform but to ensure valuable content reaches the right audience, regardless of where and how they prefer to access it.
Holistic, Data-Driven Audience Understanding
Colleen Scollans of Clarke & Esposito emphasizes that "Organizations need to take a holistic view of their audience. Your community doesn't care how you're structured internally, and this is why 2025 should be the year associations 'bust silos' and adopt an organization-wide view on their audience, including their Publishing audience."
Josh Dahl of Silverchair builds on this approach: "Publishers will increasingly work to build a 360-degree view of researchers to personalize and drive engagement. By using data from across sources on researchers' interests, publication history, and reading habits, publishers can tailor content recommendations, marketing strategies, and communication efforts to the individual. This personalized approach not only improves the user experience but also builds deeper engagement and loyalty."
This consolidated, data-driven approach requires publishers to:
- Integrate audience data across departments - Combining insights from editorial, marketing, sales, and member services to create comprehensive audience profiles
- Implement unified communication strategies - Ensuring consistent messaging and experience across all touchpoints
- Apply predictive analytics - Using historical patterns to anticipate future needs and behaviors
- Create cross-functional teams - Bringing together diverse perspectives to develop audience-centric strategies
By breaking down internal barriers and leveraging integrated data sources, publishers can deliver more coherent and valuable experiences that reflect a deep understanding of their audience's complete relationship with the organization.
Personalization Drives Results
Heather Staines of Delta Think observes, "As around 50% of content is open, the focus is shifting from who can read the content to who should read the content and how efficient that can be. Personalization will once more be key. Branding and strategy at the publisher and journal level are once more front of mind."
With access barriers diminishing due to open access initiatives, the key differentiator becomes connecting the right content with the right audience. Effective personalization strategies will:
- Leverage AI and machine learning to understand individual preferences and research interests
- Provide customized content recommendations across formats and sources
- Tailor communication frequency and channels to individual preferences
- Balance personalization with privacy concerns and ethical considerations
Publishers who excel at personalization will earn a valuable place in researchers' information consumption habits by consistently delivering relevant content and reducing information overload.
Practical Implementation Strategies
In an era of information abundance and fragmented attention, the ability to build and maintain these relationships will be a critical differentiator for scholarly publishers. Those who master this approach will be well-positioned to thrive in 2025 and beyond, continuing to fulfill their essential role in the scholarly communication ecosystem while adapting to changing expectations and technologies.
For scholarly publishers seeking to adapt to these changing audience dynamics, several practical approaches can help bridge the gap between current operations and future aspirations:
1. Conduct an Audience Experience Audit
Start by mapping all touchpoints between your organization and different audience segments. Identify pain points, inconsistencies, and opportunities for improvement. This exercise should involve stakeholders from across the organization to ensure a comprehensive view.
2. Develop an Integrated Data and Content Strategy
With third-party cookies phasing out and privacy regulations tightening, publishers need robust strategies for collecting, managing, and activating first-party data while ensuring content reaches audiences through optimal channels:
- Transparent opt-in processes with clear value exchanges
- Strong governance frameworks to ensure responsible data use
- Content syndication and distribution approaches for maximum reach
- Technical infrastructure for data collection, analysis, and content delivery
3. Experiment with New Engagement Models
Set aside resources for testing innovative approaches to audience engagement, such as:
- Community-led content initiatives and co-creation opportunities
- Interactive formats that encourage participation
- Targeted micro-communities focused on specific research topics
- Cross-functional teams dedicated to audience experience
4. Balance Technology with Human Connection
While AI and automation offer powerful tools for personalization and efficiency, the human element remains essential:
- Use AI to scale personalization
- Combine data insights with qualitative audience feedback
- Create opportunities for direct interaction between editorial teams and audience members
By embracing audience intelligence, personalization, community building, and cross-functional collaboration, publishers can create more meaningful connections with their core stakeholders. These connections will not only drive engagement and loyalty but also generate valuable insights that inform content strategy, product development, and organizational priorities.