In 2017, if you couldn’t find an audience or revenue model, for any of a myriad of reasons, there was apparently only one thing to do: pivot to video!
And while that’s become a media punchline, it’s not hard to see why the publishers who took that approach did. As the content boom finally seemed to go bust (see: Mashable, Mic, and Vice) and platforms proved themselves increasingly unreliable (read: terrible) partners, focusing on video was a Hail Mary attempt to ease economic and investor pressure by pandering to ad buyer preferences. It sounds better to say you’re “shifting resources into short-form video” than that you desperately need to reduce your run rate.
But it has already proven extremely shortsighted. There is no evidence consumers want more video, and video production is expensive, logistically difficult, and hard to scale (read Heidi Moore’s excellent CJR piece for more on this). There are early signs that even ad buyers are realizing video isn’t some panacea, and will redistribute some of their budgets accordingly in the coming year. And perhaps most importantly, such pivots seemed universally to come at the expense of good journalists and editors, still the beating heart of newsrooms and who didn’t deserve to be “strategically” discarded. It’s time to officially declare this particular approach dead and admit it’s not, in fact, a strategy or solution.
I’m not suggesting video isn’t an essential part of any content mix in 2018. It is, and as someone who spent many years working in TV and video, I know that some stories are better told visually. But video storytelling is an actual skill, developed over years of working in the medium, not something you pick up through osmosis by getting stoned in college and watching YouTube videos. It’s insulting to the people who do it well to assume that it’s a shortcut to success.
That’s why publishers who made the pivot are now pivoting away again, looking for the next thing that may “save” them. But that’s an endless cycle of restrategizing and layoffs. There is no easy answer, no one thing that’s going to magically make audiences find and connect to your work. The secret to success in journalism isn’t a secret at all: Make very good things that people actually want to read and watch. That’s it. That’s all. That’s everything.
Susie Banikarim is editorial director of the Gizmodo Media Group.
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for