In 2018, more nonprofit newsrooms will be launched than North Korean test missiles. As Facebook and Google suck up the ad revenues and all but a handful of media companies find digital subscriptions a hard sell, more and more will turn to philanthropy — foundations and the people I’ve learned to refer to as High Net Worth Individuals. (Even The New York Times is building a nonprofit arm in pursuit of foundation money.) One interesting thing to watch is whether new wealth (meaning especially tech wealth) will overcome its wariness of independent news media.
Bill Keller is editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project and former executive editor of The New York Times.
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts