No assholes allowed

“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.”

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.

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Miguel Castro   The arrival of the impact producer

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Juleyka Lantigua   Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time

Mario García   Storytelling finally adapts to mobile

Jamie Mottram   From pageviews to t-shirts

Craig Newmark   Working together toward sustainable solutions

Cristina Wilson   The year of the Instagram Story

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Julia Beizer   A longer view on the pivot

Pete Brown   Push alerts, personalized

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Jarrod Dicker   Honesty in advertising

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Tim Carmody   Watch out for Spotify

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Paul Ford   Go global

Nicholas Quah   Stop talking trash about young people

Bill Keller   A growing turn to philanthropy

Amy Webb   Listen to weak signals

Michelle Garcia   Navigating journalistic transparency

Andrew Ramsammy   The year ownership mattered

Kelsey Proud   No, no, no

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Charo Henríquez   Training is an investment, not an expense

Marie Gilot   No assholes allowed

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David Skok   Finding an information-life balance

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Caitlin Thompson   Podcasting models mature and diversify

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Rasmus Kleis Nielsen   The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms

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Elizabeth Jensen   Show your work

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Michelle Ferrier   The year of the great reckoning

Christopher Meighan   Passive partnership is in the rearview

AX Mina   Memes and visuals come to the fore

Dan Newman   A return to trust

Trushar Barot   The Jio-fication of India

Gordon Crovitz   Serving readers over advertisers

Debra Adams Simmons   And a woman shall lead them

Joanne Lipman   Journalists inventing revenue streams

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Brian Lam   Sketchy ethics around product reviews

Edward Roussel   Eyes, ears, and brains

Amy King   Let’s amplify visual voice

Richard Tofel   The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention

Amie Ferris-Rotman   More female reporters abroad (please)

José Zamora   Revenue-first journalism

Monique Judge   Letting black women tell their own stories

Tracie Powell   The muting of underserved voices

Steve Grove   The midterms are an opportunity

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Damon Krukowski   Reviving the alt-weekly soul

Jessica Parker Gilbert   Design connects storytelling and strategy

Aron Pilhofer   We can’t leave the business to the business side any more

Nancy Watzman   Know thy TV

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Caitria O'Neill   The new court of public opinion

Laura E. Davis   Writing answers before you know the question

Neha Gandhi   Filler killers

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Almar Latour   Conquering calm

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Heather Bryant   Building the ecosystems for collaboration

Adam Thomas   Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor

Alexios Mantzarlis   Moving fake news research out of the lab

Dheerja Kaur   Fun with subscription products

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Pablo Boczkowski   The rise of skeptical reading

Nik Usher   The year of The Washington Post

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Tanya Cordrey   Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention

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Mike Caulfield   Refactoring media literacy for the networked age

Ruth Palmer   Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities

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Matt Carlson   Attacks on the press will get worse

Alfred Hermida   Going beyond mobile-first

Jennifer Choi   Standing up for us and for each other

Mary Meehan   Real lives are at stake in rural areas

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Jesse Holcomb   Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you

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Dannagal G. Young   Stop covering politics as a game

Jared Newman   Venture funding and digital news don’t mix

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Matt Thompson   Here come the attention managers

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Claire Wardle   Disinformation gets worse

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