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.
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
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
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
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
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
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
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
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
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
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
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
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
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
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Nik Usher The year of The Washington Post
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
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
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Carrie Brown Transparency finally takes off
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more