Journalism tends to treat technology as something that happened to it, like an asteroid. In 2026, that stance will become untenable.

Governments are beginning to understand that their reliance on Silicon Valley technology is a liability. Jurisdictions like the European Union are funding alternative ecosystems where software is developed in accordance with their values: respectful of privacy and in opposition to extractive business models.

News organizations face similar vulnerabilities, but unlike governments, they haven’t begun to treat their technology choices as integral to their own survival.

They should. Without a fundamental shift in how newsrooms think about and build technology, journalism’s independence is in jeopardy. The threats are not abstract. Link referrals to newsroom websites are declining from both search engines and social media sites because tech companies want to keep users engaged in their own platforms. Information held in the cloud can be subpoenaed, often in secret, putting sources and journalists at risk. And new generations of connected software like browsers and AI agents remix newsroom content, often without their participation or consent.

The solution isn’t to retreat from technology. Journalism needs better tools, built for their needs and values. But they also shouldn’t be in the business of building it themselves. The main business of a newsroom is producing journalism; rightly, their cultures, incentives, and goals are centered around the work of telling the truth about the world. Software built inside newsrooms often fails, not because the teams aren’t talented, but because the incentives, culture, and resources of journalism simply don’t match the operational demands of running products sustainably. But after years of extraction, journalism’s relationship with the tech industry has become abusive. Something else is needed.

In 2026, newsrooms will collaborate with each other, and with aligned organizations that want to support them, in order to create and support new entities that build software on their behalf. We will see a resurgence in open source software in journalism — but with new models for support and ongoing development.

Backed by foundations and member newsrooms, new, independent product teams will create open source tools that serve newsrooms’ core needs, including secure communication, privacy-preserving analytics, and sustainable distribution. They’ll use human-centered product sensibilities while co-designing with newsrooms, ensuring that these products serve real, concrete, ongoing needs. And free from any need to reach venture scale or provide liquidity for investors through an acquisition or IPO, they will align themselves with the core values of mission-driven journalism itself. Rather than extract from the ecosystem, they will enrich it.

The foundation for this shift already exists. The EU’s efforts to create a genuine alternative to Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem are real. Journalism foundations have seen the need to help newsrooms harness new technologies safely, particularly in the wake of the AI boom. And open source communities outside newsrooms are already building the kinds of technologies that could be used to make the work of journalism safer and more independent. Organizations like the News Product Alliance have spread needed product thinking skills around the industry — and have hosted more conversations about the need for open source collaboration.

What’s needed now is the will to invest in independence rather than convenience, and the recognition that technology choices are as existentially important as editorial choices. This year, I believe we can do it.

Ben Werdmuller is senior director of technology at ProPublica.