Setting Realistic Expectations for Influencer Collaborations in Newsrooms

This first article in our three-part series outlines why newsrooms (especially nonprofit and mission-driven outlets) are exploring collaborations with influencers, and what to expect before you begin. We discuss the opportunities these partnerships present – like reaching new audiences or building trust – as well as clear-eyed realities (for example, don’t count on a flood of pageviews). By setting realistic expectations early, newsroom teams can approach influencer collaborations as a long-term community engagement strategy rather than a quick fix. We also highlight real examples of how such collaborations have added value beyond clicks.

Why Consider Influencer Collaborations?

News consumption habits are changing, and many people (especially younger audiences) get information from digital creators on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. These influencers successfully engage audiences in ways traditional news outlets often struggle to achieve. Rather than viewing them solely as competition, news organizations are starting to see collaboration with influencers as an opportunity to reach people where they are. For example, the American Press Institute notes that Americans may be suffering “news fatigue,” but they’re still online – often learning about issues from individuals with influence in spaces they trust. In other words, influencers (or “trusted messengers”) can help bridge the gap between journalism and communities, connecting newsrooms with relevant audiences in ways transactional or one-way engagement cannot.

It’s important to recognize that “influencer” doesn’t only mean a celebrity or a mega-followed internet star. Influencers come in many forms. They might be niche content creators focused on specific topics (food, local events, etc.), community leaders or activists who are trusted in local circles, micro-influencers with a modest but highly engaged following, or larger-scale creators with broad reach. What they have in common is credibility with their community. They’ve built authenticity and trust with their followers or peers, often through consistent engagement and shared values. For mission-driven newsrooms, partnering with such people can tap into that reservoir of trust and attention.

The Long-Game Benefits (And What Not to Expect)

Before jumping in, newsrooms must set realistic expectations. Influencer partnerships are not a magic bullet for driving traffic or instant revenue. In practical terms, this means you likely won’t see a huge spike in pageviews on your website just because you worked with an influencer. Many collaborations involve content living on the influencer’s own platforms, so the success metrics look different from traditional web traffic.

What should you expect instead? Primarily, these collaborations are about reach, engagement and trust – often in ways that are harder to measure but deeply valuable. For example, a key outcome might be increased brand awareness and trust in communities you couldn’t easily reach on your own. A successful collaboration might result in more people recognizing your outlet’s name, considering your reporting credible, or feeling that your journalism is relevant to them. These are long-term gains: people reached via an influencer won’t immediately become paying subscribers or donors the first time they encounter your work, and expecting them to do so is unrealistic. Instead, the payoff might be that these new audiences start to include your reporting in their information diet, engage with your content, or develop a relationship with your brand over time.

Another realistic benefit is audience diversity and inclusion. Influencers often have followers from demographics or communities that a newsroom may struggle to engage. A real-world example comes from LAist (a nonprofit newsroom in Los Angeles): In 2022, LAist wanted input from a broad range of Angelenos via a survey about city priorities. They realized posting the survey on their own site and social channels wouldn’t be enough to reach diverse residents. So, they paid five local influencers to each post a video encouraging people to take the survey. The results were striking – about 30% of all survey responses came through those influencer referrals, and the respondents skewed younger and more diverse than those reached through traditional methods. In this case, the collaboration didn’t drive clicks to an article; it drove community participation in journalism, which was a win for informing their reporting and engaging new voices.

Similarly, the nonprofit Kansas City Defender worked with local food influencers to promote “Black Feast Week,” an initiative supporting Black-owned restaurants. The goal wasn’t to push news content, but rather to uplift local businesses and foster community pride, very much aligned with their mission. The outcome: the campaign reached nearly 1 million impressions across platforms and brought hundreds of thousands of potential new patrons’ eyes to these restaurants. The Defender reported that this effort “reclaimed visibility” for often-overlooked businesses and created joyful community spaces, emphasizing that the value was in community impact, not in transactions. This example shows how a newsroom’s collaboration with influencers can advance a community mission (in this case, supporting local culture and economy) rather than simply boosting web traffic.

Prepare to Experiment and Learn

Because this is a new space for journalism, treat any influencer collaboration as an experiment with a learning curve. Even seasoned social media creators can’t guarantee virality or engagement; in fact, one lesson from API’s influencer cohort was that “influencer reach is as random and erratic as [a] legacy news org’s social reach”. In short, not every post will be a hit, and that’s okay. Set expectations with your team that some efforts will perform better than others, and the insights gained are as important as the immediate numbers.

Realistic expectations also mean setting modest, mission-aligned goals at the outset. For example, you might aim to get your election explainer video in front of a local youth community via an influencer, even if that doesn’t translate to clicks on your site – the goal could be simply that more young people feel informed about the election (a form of impact that you might measure later via surveys or feedback).

Finally, understand that collaborations with influencers should complement your broader engagement strategy, not replace other efforts. They are one tool to reach people who otherwise tune out traditional media. If done thoughtfully, working with the right influencer can show a skeptical public that your newsroom is in touch with the community and willing to share power and listen. That can yield goodwill and relevance that pay dividends in the long run.

Before you begin an influencer partnership, level-set with your team: success will look different from the usual web analytics dashboard. It may be reflected in qualitative outcomes like community trust, new relationships, and audience insights. By entering these collaborations with realistic expectations and clarity of purpose, your newsroom can lay a strong foundation for meaningful engagement. In the next installment of this series, we’ll delve into how to define meaningful KPIs for these projects – translating those big-picture goals into specific metrics and indicators of success.