We know from research one of the primary reasons people pay for news now is for coverage of a specific topic they care about. In 2018, the reason people pay for news will be less transactional and less about the tangible exchange of goods, but instead based on the ~emotional~ relationship a news organization has with its audience. And that emotional connection is built on trust, transparency, and community.
People are increasingly spending money with companies and organizations that are radically transparent, that they connect with, want to belong to, or align with the world they want to live in. And younger people who pay for news are more motivated than older news payers by a desire to support to a news organization’s mission and purpose.
If this year was about transparency of the journalistic process and how we do our job, next year it will be about transparency of values and why we do our job.
First above is Malachy Browne’s tweet that shared the steps in how The New York Times covered the Las Vegas shooting using so-called video forensics. Then there’s The Washington Post’s new series on how reporting works and explaining the journalism process.
Take companies like Everlane and Spotify.1 Both have paired making great products with building a values-based brand — and in the process created a new kind of connection with their audience news organizations have yet to achieve. Everlane focuses on manufacturing transparency and forgoes traditional retail tactics like sales. Spotify used their policy on parental leave and flex holidays as an opportunity to showcase their values.
Everlane’s About page explains their mission of “radical transparency” and shows it through cost breakdowns and price comparisons of various products.
Other brands like Away and Glossier have found success in leading with the emotional connection and making their community integral to what they do. Away’s president Jen Rubio said luggage brands talked too much about product details and not enough about what inspired people to use them. One of Glossier’s most popular products, the Milky Jelly Cleanser, was crowdsourced from their site. Last year, 79 percent of its sales were from “organic and peer-to-peer and earned sources,” a.k.a. their community.
Away’s About page leads with its mission and the inspiration behind the product. Glossier’s call out for what became the Milky Jelly Cleanser, and the product page for the cleanser lists every ingredient and highlights some with an accompanying explanation for why it’s included.
Social media, from which two-thirds of Americans get their news, has diminished news organizations’ brand, obscuring the values by which they do their work and the resulting connection. People are more likely to remember which platform they they found content on than the news brand that produced it. News organizations will need to continue the radical transparency of how we do the work, but also couple that with the why.
Taken together, articulating and acting on clear values alongside an aggressive commitment to transparency and community can be a roadmap for news organizations wanting to rebuild and strengthen trust and the emotional relationship with its audience.
Millie Tran is global growth editor at The New York Times. Stine Bauer Dahlberg is managing director, brand at The New York Times.
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds