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