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