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