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.
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Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
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Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
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Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
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Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
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Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
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Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
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Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
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Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
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Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
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Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
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Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
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Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
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Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
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Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
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Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
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David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
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Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
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Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
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Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
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Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
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Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
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José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
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Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
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Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Mariano Blejman News games rule