The big challenges facing the news industry were all-consuming in 2017, and rightly so. On top of a relentless news cycle, newsrooms were focused on partisan attacks, information disorders, changing revenue models, the move to mobile, and the ever-changing dynamics with the platforms. In other words, today’s reality.
In 2018, publishers will begin to make room for tomorrow’s reality, in which new AI-driven technologies upend the way consumers seek, discover, consume, and share news and information. Over the next few years, advances in natural language processing, voice recognition, augmented reality, and automation will change consumer behavior to the point that some people predict the end of smartphones as we know them today.
Let’s group AI’s impact on news into three big buckets:
Will all this have a massive impact in 2018? Maybe not. But I’m reminded of the Bill Gates line that we always overestimate the change that will come in the next two years and underestimate the change that will come in 10. Are news organizations thinking about what AI will mean for business models? For access to quality information? For content discovery? For news gathering? For fake news? For employee skills, staffing, and work flow? Are journalism schools preparing the next generation of news leaders? I think the answer so far, is mostly — no. But in 2018, the awakening will begin.
Vivian Schiller is executive editor in residence at Weber Shandwick.
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
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Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile