Who doesn’t have whiplash from 2016? If this was the year of “do it all,” 2017 will be the year of “do it best.”
Platforms are evolving at breakneck speed, leaving publishers to choose their strategic battles and readers with more options than ever. The noise in what’s become a crowded digital space isn’t going to dull, but the audience is learning what to listen to. Publishers need only hear them.
In 2017, we must get back to basics. But that doesn’t mean being basic.
Readers aren’t distracted by bells and whistles. They know what they want, and that’s quality — wherever they consume news. Most readers are platform agnostic — on their phones switching between iMessage, email, Twitter, and Snapchat all day. Why should what they see in Apple News or on a Facebook Instant Article be inferior to what they could experience on a publisher’s site or app?
In digital media, we should always be in beta. But we don’t have to skimp on quality to open the door to creativity. If we take one thing away from this election, it should be that journalism matters. Facts are important. Reporting will be rewarded. And if you can put it all together in a thoughtful, digestible way, readers will respond. They are aching for someone to depend on.
Politics divided the nation in 2016. But journalism will unify us. Those who were duped by the fake news and half-truths that ran rampant won’t be fooled again. They want to be educated. They want to trust. The uptick in subscriptions across many major organizations tells us so. Now it’s on us to deliver. It’s on us to perfect content, experience and product. In 2017, our loyalty must be to the reader.
Coleen O’Lear is editorial director for emerging news products at The Washington Post.
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Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
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Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
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Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
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Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
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Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
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Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
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Adam Thomas The coming collaboration across Europe
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Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
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Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
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Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
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Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
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Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
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Julia Beizer Building a coherent core identity
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
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Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
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Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
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Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
Corey Ford The year of the rebelpreneur
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
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Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
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David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
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Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
AX Mina 2017 is for the attention innovators
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Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
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Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
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