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