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