We won’t give editorial design the focus it deserves in 2018, but we need to do better than 2017.
Legacy news organizations put an emphasis on editorial and graphic design for decades inside the pages of their print newspapers. Beautiful, full-page illustrations, well thought-out typography, carefully chosen and placed images. And all of this to keep someone reading and delighted inside a product people had already purchased or likely subscribed to. We encounter these visual opportunities daily in the digital space. We have a chance to use these same design choices in a 2:1 share image to draw someone in on places like Facebook and Twitter. Instead, we’ve decided that a default image and crop will work.
From the very beginning of The Lily, my team and I made the choice to never publish a story without an original piece of art to accompany it, tailored to the platform it’s publishing on. We were tired of seeing overused stock images. Tired of the same wire photo used on story after story. Tired of a lack of visual identity. Everyone is posting a story weighing Al Franken’s punishment? We’ll create our own art. We’ll make sure it’s unapologetically rendered in Lily style. And then, in the endless feeds on Facebook and Twitter, we will stand apart in the crowded space and claim attention. Our images, and thereby our stories, are harder to skip.
Across the industry, we employ product designers, but the need for editorial designers and art directors with minds for digital is equal. Organizations publish hundreds of stories a day. We need a lot of designers if we are going to make an impact.
Designers should be part of the story-planning process from the beginning. This is not new. But designers (we call ourselves visual journalists), should be running some of these platforms. The best recent example of this is Instagram Stories. When a Story is created, choices involving typography, colors and alignment must be made. It’s critical that someone who understands these design principles be involved in — or in charge of — creating the Story. It will look better and more professional, ultimately resulting in higher and more meaningful engagement.
It may be true that young people finding our stories on Snapchat and Instagram respond well to informal, familiar interactions. In their search for authenticity, it is our responsibility to uphold our credibility not only with the information we are sharing but with its visual presentation.
We are getting better. News organizations are making an effort on Instagram. Enterprise stories are getting visual treatments that adapt well to Twitter and Facebook. But there are still stock images out there. Our brands should be recognizable. We can get there by refocusing on editorial design. Let 2018 be the year of visual identity.
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities