Broadcast-focused, open social networks revolutionized the way we connect with people online. First-wave social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram ushered in a golden era of social media and allowed people to build audiences and have their voice heard by millions.
But in 2017, the novelty of racking up a million followers on Instagram or seeing what your third-grade crush is up to on Facebook has washed away. Tweeting out your opinions only to be shouted down by Nazis has caused many users to abandon posting on open social networks and instead spend more time in closed networks and group chats.
This means less time scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram feed and more time posting in Facebook Groups or connecting with friends via Messenger. It means abandoning the quest to respond to every confused man on Twitter and instead DMing with groups of people who matter. It means maintaining several small, interest-based Instagram accounts or Finstas, rather than a single, public-facing persona.
As users migrate to these closed systems, they’re also shifting away from the type of broad-based algorithmic feeds packed with news and media content that were the hallmark of first-generation social media. This isn’t to say that people are consuming less media; they aren’t. However, I predict that media consumption will become a more separate, intentional behavior.
Platforms seem to be anticipating this shift. Snapchat announced it would split the chat function from its media portal in November. Facebook has tested a content-only news feed devoid of status updates by friends and launched Watch, a video portal that contains highly produced content from publishers and media partners. Instagram is spinning out its messaging function into Instagram Direct, a dedicated chat app.
In 2018, publishers will have to find their footing and adopt new distribution strategies to take advantage of this shift in user behavior. This doesn’t mean investing in another incredibly frustrating Facebook Messenger bot that exactly four people will use, or trying to awkwardly insert your brand into personal conversations between friends.
It does mean producing the type of premium content users will subscribe to and seek out. It means spending less time trying to reach the widest audience on the web and more time building intentional, dedicated audiences. It also, unfortunately, means developing closer relationships with social platforms that still control the means of distribution via media portals like Facebook Watch or Snapchat Discover.
Just as the first wave of social media upended previous consumption habits and allowed a whole new generation of media brands to launch and flourish, group messaging and social 2.0 will provide exciting new opportunities for publishers and news brands — even if we’re all still at the mercy of Facebook.
Taylor Lorenz is a technology reporter at The Daily Beast.
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post