2017 will be the year that reader loyalty is tested.
Faced with a new political reality that many didn’t expect, readers are looking to deepen their relationships with publications that can help them make sense of the world. In recent weeks, nonprofit newsrooms have seen a “flood” of donations, and the New York Times has gained hundreds of thousands of new subscribers.
It’s tempting for publishers to coast on readers’ renewed passion for journalism. But they shouldn’t get complacent. There’s a clear opportunity for publishers to channel this post-election energy into something more reliable. Those that develop strategies now to double-down on long-term loyalty will succeed in 2017.
They’ll do this in a few ways:
In 2017, the publishers that optimize for quality of content over quantity of clicks will earn the loyalty — and the business — of readers. Their audiences may be smaller, but they’ll be more valuable.
Keren Goldshlager works on Medium’s publisher development team.
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
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Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Richard J. Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Margarita Noriega From pinning tweets to tweeting pins
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
Carrie Brown-Smith We won’t do enough
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
Andy Rossback The year of the user
Kathleen Kingsbury Print as a premium offering
Liz Danzico The triumph of the small
Dannagal G. Young The return of the gatekeepers
Andrea Silenzi Podcasts dive into breaking news analysis
Lam Thuy Vo The primary source in the age of mechanical multiplication
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Renée Kaplan Pure reach has reached its limit
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Robert Hernandez History will exclude you, again
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Corey Ford The year of the rebelpreneur
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Julia Beizer Building a coherent core identity
Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
David Weigel A test for online speech
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Helen Havlak Chasing mobile search results
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Sue Schardt Objectivity, fairness, balance, and love
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
Amie Ferris-Rotman Вслед за Россией
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Rubina Madan Fillion Snapchat grows up
Olivia Ma The year collaboration beats competition
Peter Sterne A dangerous anti-press mix
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Mandy Velez The audience is the source and the story
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Erin Pettigrew A year of reflection in tech
Burt Herman Local news gets interesting
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Reyhan Harmanci Bear witness — but then what?
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Molly de Aguiar Philanthropists galvanize around news
Dhiya Kuriakose The year of digital detoxing
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Earn trust by working for (and with) readers
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
P. Kim Bui The year journalism teaches again
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Tracie Powell Building reader relationships