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