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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete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