Director of Leadership Development Programmes Federica Cherubini on her team's work in 2025-26

From our Annual Report 2025-26

Over the 2025–26 academic year, 174 participants took part in 15 Leadership Development events, including our open-admission courses, invitation-only gatherings, and bespoke programmes.

Journalism is undergoing a profound structural transformation, shaped by changing audience habits, pressure on business models, declining trust, platform dependency, and the rapid development of AI. In this context, the need for media leaders to come together in small, safe, and confidential spaces is stronger than ever. The Reuters Institute’s leadership programmes aim to act as a connecting tissue for media leaders: creating space to step back from day-to-day pressures, think, connect, debate, and learn from one another, share what is working and what is not, and make sense of the changes shaping their organisations and the wider industry.

This year, our annual News Innovation Forum explored generative AI, creators, and strategies to grow direct traffic, while the Editor/CEO Forum focused on some of the most pressing strategic questions facing the industry. Our open-admission programmes brought together newsroom leaders at different stages of their careers: Leading Newsroom Change focused on organisational and strategic challenges, while Essential Skills for Newsroom Leaders supported newer and emerging managers in developing their leadership skills. With the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, we brought climate editors together to explore how AI is reshaping their work. We also piloted our first Insight Clinic, dedicated to culture change, and hosted a private gathering at Festival Gabo in Colombia, strengthening our engagement with media leaders in Latin America.

Beyond our programmes, our Spotlight on Newsroom Leadership newsletter continued to share insights, research, and practical lessons with the wider journalism community, including reflections on learning from projects that did not work as planned and lessons from other mission-driven organisations.

Across all this work, our aim is to offer media leaders support, trusted connections, inspiration, and resilience.