To hell with algorithms

During economic downturns, people seek small comforts to offset broader hardships — what Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder dubbed the “Lipstick Effect” 25 years ago. In 2025, I predict we’ll see a similar pattern in news consumption: an embrace of human-curated content as comfort food for our algorithm-weary minds.

This comfort-seeking behavior parallels trends in the music industry. Despite Spotify’s launch in 2008 offering endless streaming options, vinyl sales began climbing that same year. Today, while streaming services dominate the market, vinyl accounts for nearly 10% of music revenue — proof that consumers value curated, tactile experiences even when unlimited digital options exist.

This hunger for human curation extends beyond music. From hand-crafted zines to community radio stations like the recently resurrected East Village Radio, audiences are embracing human-curated content delivered through both digital and analog channels. Print media is finding new life too: The Bitter Southerner’s thoughtfully crafted magazines thrive in an age of infinite scroll, while digitally focused news startups like The Macon Melody discover that print editions attract both older, traditional readers, as well as younger ones who find physical newspapers as novel and authentic as their vinyl collections.

Let’s be clear: Facebook, TikTok, and their algorithmic kin will continue to dominate how most people consume news, even as they continue to lose readers’ trust. But just as lipstick sales rise during recessions and vinyl thrives in the age of streaming, we’re about to witness what I call the Zine Effect. In 2025, watch for the rise of intimate news communities: locally-moderated WhatsApp groups where neighbors share and discuss community reporting, private newsletter collectives on platforms like Letterloop that combine human curation with reader dialogue, and yes, even printed periodicals making unexpected comebacks in college towns and urban neighborhoods. These won’t be mere rejection of algorithms and the enshittification of social media — they’ll be an embrace of something deeper. Like a cherished vinyl record or a hand-passed zine, human-curated news offers something algorithms can’t replicate: the comfort of knowing that on the other side of your news, there’s a person who cares about what you read, not just what keeps you scrolling.