I recently titled one of my presentations “2017: the year storytelling (finally) adapted to the platform.” Indeed, this past year has been one in which many major newspapers took giant steps forward to advance storytelling specifically written and designed to be consumed on mobile platforms.
However, the year about to end has only been a springboard to what is to come in the area of what I refer to as linear visual storytelling. In this type of storytelling, the narrative and the visuals flow in a linear way from top to bottom, exactly the way we communicate when we text or use WhatsApp on our phones. I show you here an image from my presentation depicting the way we do narratives in our daily lives:
But a majority of newsrooms continue to prepare stories in the traditional manner of headline, summary, and text, the way information is presented on the printed page, with any visual assets displayed separately, often as photo galleries, isolated from the flow of the text.
That is simply not how we read on our mobile devices.
So I predict that we will see a stronger movement to favor customizing stories, especially those that are rich in visual assets (photos, videos, infographics) to be presented in a linear way, then adapted for other platforms. Warning: What works for mobile storytelling is not necessarily right for print, for example. Videos will play a vital role as visual assets in linear storytelling, with a reminder to editors and designers that videos on mobile should be short and informative.
Digital transformation will continue to be a major theme in 2018, an advancement for some, a beginning for others. Smaller regional newspapers globally will aim for some type of strategy leading to digital transformation. It’s begun to happen, although not expediently enough.
This will bring about greater need for training, especially in the area of storytelling for mobile. Newsrooms need to become classrooms where training is constant, and laboratories where experimentation is part of a strategy.
We will also see greater experimentation with advertising that is suitable for mobile platforms. Publishers are aware that Google and Facebook are projected to account for about 61 percent combined of the U.S. digital ad market. The audience is there, too. The way we present news and advertising on those platforms must be customized as well.
For 2018, I see major progress in how we tell stories on that preferred platform which is our phones. Because the traffic is going to be there, so will be opportunities to monetize with creative advertising that includes sponsored content.
Finally, let’s remember that in the digital world, experimentation never stops, new product creation is always welcome, and the interest of our readers in news has never been greater. This is a good formula on which to base our plans for 2018.
Mario García is CEO of Garcia Media and senior adviser on news design and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news