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