At a recent business dinner, one executive did something unexpected: He pulled out a Nokia phone that looked like it belonged in the late 1990s. He explained that he had adopted the “dumb phone” to fight information overload from his now-discarded smartphone, which until recently had barraged him with alerts, headlines, emails, social media, and everything else we see every day. His reasoning: He now had fewer distractions and more time to think.
It’s an understandable move. And it may be a harbinger of what’s ahead for at least some media. As the twin torrents of technology and a changing world order work their way through our lives, information consumption has skyrocketed. Challenges to the global status quo have prompted news media to get on top of its game — producing some of the strongest reporting we’ve seen from some quarters. But it has also lowered the threshold for what’s considered news. Screaming headlines flash on our phones and TV screens blare non-stop headlines, which competing news outlets in turn debunk just as rapidly.
We’ve arrived at a pivot point in our history, and with that come the dueling cravings to be current on events while truly understanding their significance. The first is easier to achieve: One can passively sit back and absorb news by reflexively checking one’s phone screen, for example. The second — obtaining true understanding — is trickier: Where can one turn not for the latest, but for the most meaningful answers?
Following one of the most intense years of news coverage in recent memory, mixed with the ongoing tectonic shocks of technology, more news consumers will likely tire of the machine-gun salvo of incremental factoids wrapped in large-font breathlessness. Readers are more likely to crave calm distillation of meaningful themes and trends. That marks an opportunity for at least a few news organizations: to focus limited resources on thoughtful summary and analysis rather than the increasingly risky push to achieve the elusive goal of being first for all developments at any cost.
Some news outlets are already moving in that direction — by way of personable, thoughtful newsletters with a finite number of items, for example, or by being more selective when issuing news alerts. Undoubtably, more will follow with new and creative attempts to conquer calm in the coming year. While at least a few more people will follow the dumb-phone executive and some may even dump smart phones, many more will turn to news outlets that provide crisp, intelligent, analytic briefings and considerate distillations.
Almar Latour is publisher and executive vice president of the Dow Jones Media Group.
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first