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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete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