Brand owners - it’s 2025, your funnel doesn’t resemble a funnel any more, your media distribution plan only features vertical media, and everyone is banging on about ‘jinfluencers.’ What fresh hell is this?

Well, let’s take a tour.

A turf war is going on for the vestments of publishing right now, and ‘jinfluencers’ (journalist + influencer) are at the heart of it.

Some context: the fragmented media landscape has increasingly served us up niche and nano interests, driving relevance away from the mainstream to less mass but more trusted sources, creating deeper engagement metrics with a more loyal and attentive audience that brands are at pains to seek out.

There will always be room in an established and progressive media society for differentiating media outlets. Rolling news v slow news, digital v the smell of ink, left v right wing views. Together, they create an authentically whole picture of the status quo to a degree. However, as legacy media grapples with new formats and audience consumption habits, an unlikely battleground has emerged between journalists and influencers.

UK publisher Reach - owner of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Manchester Evening News, and several local titles - became the poster child of this tussle when it announced 450 redundancies last year and planned to hire influencers instead of journalists.

Chief exec Jim Mullen told the Telegraph that “they don’t like me using the word influencers in here, but we have brought in people who have a following and… put them through our formal training to ensure they can write things in the right way”.

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