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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete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