I predict 2018 will be the year newsrooms focus on inventing new revenue streams. Journalism has never paid for itself. Historically, it’s been subsidized by some combination of advertising and/or subscriptions and/or wealthy owners.
Look for innovative new ways to finance reporting — and the twist is, I wouldn’t be surprised if the ideas come from journalists themselves, rather than from the business side. Ideas are already bubbling up around audio, syndication, licensing, partnerships, foundation grants, and more. These approaches enable journalists to preserve independence and integrity while allowing for funding that supports critically important work. What breakthrough concepts come next? Stay tuned.
Joanne Lipman is chief content officer of Gannett and editor-in-chief of USA Today.
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first