LinkedIn is looking to expand its relationships with publishing sites in a bid to drive up the engagement level on industry-specific content inside the app.

The professional social network, which has seen a 22% increase in views of updates in the main feed year over year and a 25% increase in public conversations in the app, is now shunting its focus from creators to professional publishers instead, as part of its wider mission to connect the world's professionals to economic opportunity, through niche, high-value content that encourages further conversation in-stream.

LinkedIn editorial head Dan Roth told Axios that "LinkedIn is currently working with more than 400 news publishers globally, and LinkedIn's editorial team is in touch with those newsrooms to inform them of what's trending so that they can better optimize their posts."
And while Meta is retreating from the most polarized news coverage, LinkedIn's niche approach has driven positive, informative engagement.
"That means we're seeing a strong signal in every subject area where we've introduced this," according to Roth.

"We believe that when members and professionals come to LinkedIn, they should be getting insights that help them be better at the job they have or the job they want to have."

The back-to-industry publications also reflects LinkedIn's decision to remove its "Creator Mode" option, which it first introduced back in 2021 and is part and parcel of the broader industry focus on maximizing creator incentives. But being a "creator" on LinkedIn isn't really about that, anyway-most LinkedIn members are already experts within their professional fields, and it's that industry expertise that also offers the most value and insight.

In this sense, LinkedIn now goes to specialized publications for more tailored insight, rather than creating its in-stream influencers.

According to this, Roth says that LinkedIn is also going to invest much more into the network for podcasts, while it is also running a new video sponsorship pilot with selected publishers.

That, naturally should result in even more high-quality video shared through the app and subsequently enhance engagement and interaction within specific niches.
Lastly, LinkedIn's newsletter growth was yet another publisher opportunity. According to Roth, it was up 150% year over year with more publishers and journalists publishing newsletters on the platform over the last year.

From a marketing point of view, it will, thus, also provide even more chances to zero in on some niches because there is much more industry-specific content that will bubble up into these specific community networks. And with LinkedIn also updating its feed algorithm recently to focus on unveiling even more in-depth and insightful post updates rather than trending updates, it could also shift the focus of the app into something far more useful, of more value.

For instance, its niche discussions might just be worth digging into, and maybe what is happening in your brand sector. If LinkedIn can build more specific silos of industry-based discussion, there will soon be lots of value there for your marketing efforts.