A few weeks ago, I found myself in a restaurant underneath the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev. I was talking to Taras, the impressive founder of a new type of local news organization that seems to be doing everything right. At the center of their strategy, he told me, is audience trust and community engagement. They deliver the right stories at the right time in the right format. Working closely with local businesses, they may have even cracked the revenue model in an exceptionally tough advertising and regulatory market.
What I witnessed in Taras is something I’ve seen time and again throughout 2017: an unparalleled openness. A willingness for people in journalism to connect and honestly share experiences, good and bad, that might further the industry.
With that, I see an opportunity in 2018 to turn the informal sharing we see in conversations like this into something more substantive through mentorships.
The media is under fire like never before. At the same time, this is what the European media innovation ecosystem looks like right now:
To help sustain this new landscape, new funding is coming online with the emergence of venture capital hubs like Next Media Accelerator, the continuation of Google’s Digital News Initiative, and increased interest from donors like the Omidyar Network and the Philanthropic Alliance for Solidarity and Democracy in Europe.
In 2018, the experiences of these new initiatives will be the catalyst for even more innovation. Mentorships are essential to accelerate these connections. As an industry, and as individuals, we’re realizing that we need to invest in organizational change, personal growth, and the human connections that will get us there. Mentorships add structure and value to the informal sharing of ideas we experience at conferences and in Slack channels.
Without more structure, all the learning experienced by these various groups will remain siloed (and their monetary investments unfulfilled). Successful entrepreneurs will take vital experience into closed commercial settings. Startups won’t achieve sustainability or exit. Entrepreneurs will fail and quit, newsrooms won’t leverage innovation from within, and students will graduate being unable to find employment.
In 2018, we will see more training programmes, grants, and workshops with knowledge exchange and leadership support at the core. The value of mentorships is already being demonstrated through programs and ideas from our friends at the Knight Foundation, Poynter Institute, ICIJ, Code4Africa, News Integrity Initiative, Google News Lab, Euractiv, Next Journalism Prize, Hamburg Media School, and the Media Lab Bayern. Our own News Impact Academy, Journalism Grants, and Engaged Journalism Accelerator are being calibrated to feature mentorship at the heart of what they do.
We will also see mentorship happen outside of these programs. The best thing about this quiet revolution is that anyone can do it. It starts with an invitation to coffee, a Twitter DM, or a quick question over email. Start with people you know. Connect with people who you can help too, and who will find it a beneficial and rewarding experience. Reach out, explain what you want from the relationship, and take it from there.
Of all the things I’ve done this year, kickstarting my own mentoring relationships, both as mentor and mentee, has been the most rewarding. I’ve visited over 20 countries this year, and from Kiev to Krakow, Berlin to Brussels, and Riga to Rome, the challenges we share unite us. Geopolitics and polarization and advertising markets might vary, but the value in sharing experiences, failures, and victories remains.
Leading any part of an organization in this climate is really hard. If 2018 proves to be anything like 2017, we’re all going to need someone to talk to. If you don’t already have a mentor, 2018 will be the year you get one.
Adam Thomas is director of the European Journalism Centre.
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Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
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Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
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Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
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Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
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Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
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Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
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Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
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Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook