In the coming year, publishers will focus on building direct relationships with audiences and learning as much about their readers and viewers as possible.
As business models shift from pageview-driven display to direct sales — whether subscriptions, memberships, events, or courses — key performance indicators evolve.
In 2018, journalists will become more attuned to loyalty metrics and the types of stories and distribution methods that encourage repeat visits.
Reporters and editors will receive stats on how many people within the loyal audience segment read a particular story; audience development editors will focus on Facebook, Line, email newsletters, and other platforms that drive readers to visit repeatedly.
There will be new community roles in newsrooms as publishers launch and host Facebook groups and pages with the aim of encouraging loyal behavior. Example communities are Quartz’s At Work (closed) Facebook group, The New Yorker’s (open) Facebook group, and the Huffington Post’s unbranded Facebook pages (such as the one for introverts.
Loyal audiences are more valuable than flybys: they consume more (a one percent increase in loyals will give a far greater uplift in pageviews); they’re more engaged (they scroll deeper and watch more videos); they are more likely to share stories and behave as brand ambassadors; they are more likely to agree to be contacted and provide an email address.
Publishers will decide on an appropriate loyalty rate to target for their brand. High-volume news providers may not consider a reader loyal until she visits 10 or 15 times a month. Niche publishers are more likely to consider 4 or 5 visits a month as a sign of loyalty.
Subscription publishers will measure the relationship between the frequency of returns and the propensity to subscribe.
Driving loyalty requires focusing on quality. Readers and reporters will be grateful.
Sarah Marshall is head of audience growth at Vogue International, Condé Nast International.
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time