I have to admit, right off the bat, that I don’t have an answer to the question in the title. Twenty years ago, however, I was convinced that I had one. Around that time, at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, one of the professors challenged us to answer a simple question: will the Internet replace the printed press? “Pff, obviously not!”, I thought to myself, displaying very little foresight. And I set about arguing in an essay that the Internet has no chance against newspapers.
Those were times when my classmates and I would rush every Tuesday, Thursday or Friday to the newsstand at the bus stop to get the latest issues of Jurnal de Chișinău, Timpul or Ziarul de Gardă. We read them, or rather savored them, from cover to cover. We knew the authors and their styles. We admired them. They were our influencers. One of my arguments back then was also the fact that the Internet was a luxury. We connected “by the piece,” via dial-up, to the university library or in Internet cafes. Access was expensive, and the connection itself took time.
Two decades later, as access to the Internet has become unlimited and new technologies have developed, we no longer wonder whether online media will replace the printed press, but rather how the media will withstand social networks and whether these platforms will somehow end up replacing even the websites of newsrooms as a source of information.
This is because, amid total information chaos, people’s attention has become the most coveted currency in the digital ecosystem. Information has become unlimited. Regardless of the platform, as soon as we access our accounts, we are assaulted with news, videos, notifications, advertisements, opinions and comments. All of them seem to insist on paying attention to them. Moreover, with a phone in our hands, we are not only consumers of content, but also creators and distributors.
And newsrooms are no longer competing only with each other for this attention. They are competing with every content creator. But the competition with algorithms that decide what the user reaches is even more complicated.
In 2026, the Reuters Institute, in Digital News Report, confirms a change that has been taking shape for several years: social networks and video platforms have become the main sources of information, overtaking news websites and apps. The authors of the study say that, although this phenomenon has already been present for several years in some countries, globally, based on data from 48 analyzed markets, social networks and video platforms are, for the first time, the main way people access online news. 54% of respondents said they use these channels to get information.
The change is observed among both younger and older people, suggesting a general transformation in news consumption habits, rather than just a trend specific to the younger audience.
In the Republic of Moldova, social networks have also become the primary source of information. This is one of the findings of the Media Audience Study, launched in 2025 by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC). Social networks were used by 79.8% of respondents, the most popular being Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Telegram. Television followed with 76.9% and news websites with 60.8%.
Here’s a quick side note. In addition to social networks and algorithms, there is another intermediary – artificial intelligence – which also controls the relationship between a newsroom and the end consumer. Because a simple Google search has become too simple. It gives you an instant summary. It is like going through a drive-through that offers you fast food, but it is not certain that it is healthy.
When the press is looking for people
This change is also confirmed by media managers, who say that views have begun to drop dramatically. Some media outlets, which have been on the media market for many years, have begun to rethink their approach, adopting the social media first strategy. Today, there are newsrooms that develop native content for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. And many of the recently emerged ones display their products only in the ‘windows’ of social networks.
When it comes to local realities, the bravest seems to me to be Agora, which after 12 years gave up its own website and shifted its focus to social networks. If many years ago, people were looking for newsrooms, now newsrooms are looking for people. And Agora has taken a big step by going where its audience is. It is quite possible that we will see more cases like this in the coming months or years. Whether these changes will be successful remains to be seen and, perhaps, analyzed in a few years.
Beyond algorithms
In this migration that we can only anticipate, the real challenge is not to lose our identity in the crowd of content creators who have joined the dance with algorithms.
A first answer is obvious. We have a code of ethics, and it is important to comply with it, regardless of the platform we are on. On TikTok or Facebook, where anyone can produce, comment on, and share information, the difference must lie precisely in what makes journalism journalism.
More specifically, if the press goes where the people are, it must take with it the ‘journalist’s kit’:
- fact-checking;
- editorial independence;
- context;
- accountability to the public.
And I think we need something else: we need to invest in people. We should not abandon them simply because AI can do (almost) everything. We need to help them learn the skills that tomorrow’s journalism will require.
Our newsrooms are already small. If AI can help us with certain tasks, the time saved could be invested in something else: learning skills that, a few years ago, we didn’t even imagine we would need to have.
Yes, 20 years ago I was wondering if the Internet would replace the PRINTED PRESS. Today, I know that the Internet did not replace the PRESS. But it has made the competition for people’s attention fierce. And today’s journalists face different challenges. They no longer wonder if the story they worked on will make the front page. They wonder what will make people stop scrolling and give them a few seconds of their attention.
The article was written within the project “Resilient Media, Informed Voters: Safeguarding Moldova’s Elections from Disinformation”, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Moldova. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the donor.