If back in 2013, you’d written off metro newspapers as can’t-get-it/won’t-get-it dinosaurs on a slow descent into irrelevance, it might have been hard to argue otherwise. Too many treated audiences with indifference if not outright disdain. Witness the painful ad experiences they threw at people or the smug, we-know-best attitude in Page 1 meetings that, tellingly, mostly revolved around print.
What a difference a few years make! The clarity of purpose that comes with asking people to pay for our digital products — and then needing to actually build products worth paying for — has begun to permeate even the most change-averse organizations. Yes, there’s still a lot of ground to make up, but finally, the journalistic mission and the business-model imperative are roughly aligned, with paying customers as our north star.
This year, some early paywall adopters among metro dailies began to see a path to a credible post-print business model. The Boston Globe recently reported that it had 90,000 digital-only subscribers with a goal of 100,000 by the end of 2017, while the Star Tribune in Minneapolis said it was closing in on 50,000.
At the same time, change initiatives in newsrooms have multiplied, sometimes aided by outside groups such as the Knight Foundation and the Lenfest Institute (which owns the Philadelphia newspapers and Philly.com, where I work) or spurred by dire internal reports laying out in stark terms the current reality and the futility of continuing on the present trajectory. My newsroom colleagues here in Philadelphia, for example, produced a “call to arms” report last year, which served as an effective catalyst for many of the change efforts we’ve undertaken over the last 18 months or so and continue to press forward on.
As important as the rising number of change efforts, though, will be shifts in how news organizations conduct those efforts. While one-time introspection is useful in pointing out gaps and jolting an organization into action, it is insufficient to bring about the sustained change we need. The New York Times, whose seminal innovation report in 2014 was widely studied and copied, acknowledged the unfinished nature of its own efforts by producing a version 2 of sorts this year.
We know that change is continuous, and yet we’ve gotten comfortable in thinking about change initiatives as having a beginning and end. Even the word we often use — transformation — suggests a stable end state, a time when the change is done and we can all just get back to work. That’s an illusion. After well over a decade of “transforming” journalism for the digital age, any change effort today that doesn’t acknowledge the open-ended reality of the challenges we face is asking for derision from transformation-weary staffs.
In Philadelphia, we’ve learned this lesson through our participation over the past two years in the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, more popularly known as Table Stakes. Designed and led by Doug Smith, founding executive director of the Sulzberger Leadership Program, Table Stakes uses a primary focus on real performance goals and results not only to drive needed change in local news organizations but also to build the capacity for innovation and change in the years ahead.
Among other things, the program favors an iterative approach that values learning and reacting over long-term planning and phasing. This may seem obvious to anybody familiar with agile development methodology, but as a framework for organizational change, it’s surprising how novel a concept this model is in our industry.
Here are a few of the things this approach has helped us effect in Philadelphia:
In 2016, four major metro publishers participated in the first Table Stakes cohort. This year, 32 news organizations are participating across three different Table Stakes programs, and Doug, along with Quentin Hope and Tim Griggs, has published “Table Stakes: A Manual For Getting Into The Game Of News,” a comprehensive, step-by-step guide publishers can use to guide change. The American Press Institute has also gathered many of the lessons of Table Stakes into its Better News resource currently in beta.
My prediction: 2018 will see more legacy news organizations picking up and sticking with performance-focused iterative models for change, and local journalism will be stronger for it.
Eric Ulken is managing editor for digital operations at the Philadelphia Media Network, publisher of The Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning