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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete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