I like to say “yes” whenever possible. Is there another way to approach something? Can we be creative here? Sure — we can do that story — but let’s make sure it’s crafted for someone we’re not already reaching. No problem — let’s make that work. That makes sense, let’s pursue that partnership.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
But saying “no” is important too. In 2018, journalism organizations will — and must — start saying “no” to things that harm us as people and harm the public’s experience with our work.
No, we won’t allow “open secrets” to exist in our organizations, because our colleagues deserve transparency and safety.
No, we won’t hire that person who is talented but a jerk to colleagues, because someone who is talented and kind is eager to take their place. (And no, we won’t keep that person who is a jerk to others currently on staff either.)
No, national journalists won’t parachute into local communities and tell their stories to the world without doing our homework, because every time we’re off, trust in the media erodes a little bit more.
No, local journalists won’t tell the stories of people in our own communities like anthropologists, because that makes sure that part of the community knows our work isn’t for them.
No, we won’t allow the continuation of unpaid internship programs, because they often exclude the very people some hiring managers claim they “can’t find” to fill full-time positions.
No. No. No.
And that’s hardly a complete list. 2018 will be a time of great resetting in journalism. Think about the number of major media figures removed in the past few months alone. The staffs of those shows and organizations, suddenly without jobs. The full-scale rethinking of properties built around singular people.
It’s a moment of course-correction at scale — and we can’t afford to falter. The opportunities ahead are dazzling — in decisions big and small.
How many “open secrets” can we expose to make our organizations safer? How many talented, and kind, people can we give jobs to make our workplaces better? How many national/local partnerships can we foster so that the work we produce resonates both locally and nationally? How many neighbors can we get to know so our local journalism is deeper and more meaningful? How many interns can we pay, creating our own pipelines of talent reflecting our country and our communities?
All of us, no matter our role, have the ability to say no to something we know is holding us back.
In 2017, parts of our industry long asleep woke up to some of the insidious consequences of saying “yes” to the status quo too often. In 2018, by saying “no” to the right things, we can make room to say “yes” to awakened opportunities.
Kelsey Proud is managing editor for digital at WAMU.
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach