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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete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