If you travel in audience development circles, you’ve heard by now that Google is back on top as the main source of third-party referral traffic for publishers. And chances are you’re probably exhausted from explaining to folks that relying on any one particular platform as a primary source of traffic is a really bad idea. In 2018, we’ll see publishers diversify their approach to audience development, both in the tactics used and staffing models required to support them.
Teams will broaden their thinking around what the definition of audience development within a modern newsroom means. Engaging and growing audiences on social platforms will continue to be a priority, but not the only one. The 2018 audience roadmap will involve an increased focus on SEO, analytics, on-platform recirculation, community management, and newsletters. In isolation, none of these tactics are new or revolutionary, but whether your business is ad-based, membership-driven, or a paid model, 2018 will be the year in which audience teams are expected to use them in concert to contribute to the bottom line.
Search engine optimization will once again become increasingly important to newsrooms. SEO editors will join audience teams and lead search strategy, training folks on best practices and building bridges with product and technical teams to ensure that we are working together to achieve the best search results. Analytics editors will be hired to dig into the data daily and work with senior management to evaluate what is resonating with our audiences and compelling them to help fund our work. Newsletter editors will continue to build the type of one-to-one loyalty which helps feed our audience funnels, converting casual readers into the type of loyal ones who will help sustain our work. The community editor’s position will return to prominence, but with measurable recirculation goals attached to their work. Newsroom leadership should encourage and empower these individuals to be the watchful eye on editorial ROI. Multi-disciplined audience teams will balance quantitative data and qualitative audience insight with our years of well-honed news judgement. They will challenge us to stop doing what doesn’t achieve measurable results.
The beauty of diversification is that it means not putting all of your eggs in one basket. It will encourage teams to broaden their skillsets, think creatively about various ways to get to the goal of sustainability and sharpen their discipline of setting goals and measuring them.
Kim Fox is managing editor of audience at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic