What makes a great media leader in 2025?

This is a moment of systemic disruption in media, and it needs leaders who can harness this change to make the craft of journalism survive.

Over the past month, I've been asking colleagues across the industry – reporters, editors, managers, researchers, observers – what qualities would inspire them to do their best work. Their responses paint a compelling picture of the evolving skills needed to navigate our challenging landscape.

Below are some key points they mentioned. If you're on a hiring committee, these are some things to look for. If you're aspiring to be or already are an executive, these are key skills to work on. If you work in media, ask yourself if your manager has these (and if not and you have other options, whether you want to move on).

A media executive is someone who:

1. Can demonstrate with concrete examples how their journalism has improved real people's lives.
2. Can identify emerging revenue streams, understand audience shifts, and spot competitive threats as they materialize.
3. Has hands-on experience in content creation/editing, audience development/management, and business/fundraising/revenue operations.
4. Has cut through red tape and made things simpler, more effective, and more joyful. They can show what processes they fixed and why it worked.
5. Knows how changes ripple through an organization – can give examples of connecting different teams to solve problems.
6. Actually listens and helps their people grow – proven by team members who have stuck with them and thrived (by merit, not patronage).
7. Admits when they're wrong and fixes it, with real examples of course-correcting after mistakes.
8. Explains their decisions clearly and shares both good and bad news directly, informed by team feedback.

Personally, question #1 has become my test – it immediately shows if someone has drunk too much of our collective Kool-Aid.

Lynn Walsh, Assistant Director of Trusting News, emphasized the importance of thinking big and allowing teams to think big:

"An ideal media leader is someone who values big ideas and fosters a culture of innovation, encouraging the team to think beyond traditional approaches to storytelling and problem-solving. They are highly competent and lead by example, demonstrating a deep understanding of journalism, audience needs, and the challenges of the media landscape. Efficiency is a priority for them—they streamline processes, set clear goals, and remove barriers that hinder progress."

This vision of leadership resonates with what Feli Carrique, Executive Director of the News Product Alliance, told me: "I understand an ideal media leader as someone with strategic thinking and foresight, able to anticipate challenges and opportunities by being attuned to audience behavior changes and market context. They inspire confidence and rally teams by crafting and clearly communicating a compelling vision, and managing with empathy."

"I value a leader who is impact-oriented and understands how various components of a system interact," Feli said, "ensuring their decisions drive actual outcomes. And most importantly, an ideal media leader would be excellent at supporting teams to identify and leverage their unique strengths."

Several anonymous respondents highlighted the need for new forms of hybrid experiences across different aspects of media operations. "My ideal media leader has experience in editorial (content) AND audience AND business," wrote one. "If they're not interested in smart experimentation that leads us to discover what works for media now, they're not my person."

A common theme was the critical importance of transparency and accountability. "Someone who can clearly communicate a realistic vision. Is transparent and leads by example," one anonymous respondent wrote. "You can't seek transparency without being transparent yourself. You can't preach accountability without showing how you are holding yourself accountable."

Many highlighted communication: "I want a leader who can articulate where we're going and why, who shares context for decisions, and who genuinely listens to feedback from all levels of the organization."

Other responses emphasized psychological safety. "Someone who creates psychological safety for their team to try new things and potentially fail," one noted. "A leader who understands that innovation requires risk-taking and supports calculated experiments while maintaining clear guardrails."

Drawing from his experience at Malaysiakini, Hazlan Zakaria offered a perspective on diverse backgrounds in media leadership. That newsroom succeeded, he wrote, by hiring "not based on journalism degrees or experience but for our ability to adapt, to learn and our passion for promoting change, diversity and social justice."

Hazlan pointed to these skills:

• "Strategic agility to navigate uncertainty and quickly adapt to shifting audience behaviors and market dynamics"
• "Technological fluency to understand digital tools, platforms and data to guide innovation and growth"
• "Empathy-driven leadership to help rekindle trust in media, foster collaboration within teams and build authentic connections with audiences"
• "Diversity-minded thinking to ensure diverse voices and perspectives are reflected not only in content but also in leadership decisions"

"Nowhere else I think had such an eclectic collection of people from diverse backgrounds, ideologies and even political leanings united in a common vision," Hazlan said. "At least not in Malaysian journalism at the time, and without shadow-backing by a local power."