Last year, I declared that 2017 would be The Year of the Rebelpreneur. I believed that the seeds of the next great media institutions would be planted in 2017 — when things looked darker for our democracy than they had looked in a long time — by courageous entrepreneurs who made the leap to build ventures that speak truth to power, close the massive empathy gap that we have in this country, and take a radically inclusive approach to amplifying the voices of all people.
Rebelpreneurs — both outside and inside media institutions — have heeded the call to strengthen our media ecosystem. Journalists have never been stronger in the face of unprecedented political, cultural, and economic aggression. They have doggedly investigated a corrupt administration to the brink of collapse, and they have taken down men in power who have proven they don’t have the moral or ethical standing to continue to hold it. And readers who value quality journalism have stepped up and rewarded journalists for their good work by becoming subscribers in record numbers.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are taking big swings at solving some of the industry’s deepest problems. They are building more secure communication tools for journalists. They are amplifying voices that have been marginalized by the mainstream. They are finding new ways for facts to matter in a post-truth world. They are creating new ways for people to more deeply empathize with each other through new visual media. They are leveraging open data to build a more informed society and to hold those with power accountable at scale. And they are experimenting with new monetization models for journalists and other content creators.
The good work is being done. The Force is strong. But, in 2018, the Empire will strike back.
The competitive landscape for upstarts and innovators will, unfortunately, become much harder. Net neutrality is on the brink of extinction. Facebook, Amazon, and Google continue to build up massive data network effects that are harder and harder for new entrants and old media institutions to overcome. And the core values of a democratic society will continue to be chipped away until what was once considered abhorrent behavior will now be considered “just the way it is,” because we become more tired and less shocked every single day.
The work of Rebelpreneurs — from each and every position in society — will be harder and more important than ever.
In tech, the last year has starkly shown us that while technology can be leveraged for massive good, it can also be leveraged for massive evil. While we’ve built products with the intention of making the world a better place, it takes more than good intentions to make positive change.
2018 will be the year in which everyone in technology is obliged to look in the mirror and ask themselves not just whether their intentions are good enough, but whether their actions are strong enough. Some of this self-reflection will come through forced means, as the investigations into the platforms’ roles in allowing their content marketing engines to be weaponized will see more light of day. But much of it will also come from leaders in all parts of our industry who consciously make the choice to do a gut check on whether their company is making the long-term choices it needs to make to truly build a more informed, empathetic, and inclusive society.
They’ll need to make some tough, uncomfortable stands within their own organizations to ensure they choose a strategy that will build a stronger democracy. They’ll need to look beyond advertising at scale to deeper, more honest relationships with their users. They’ll need to finally realize that they are the very definition of a modern media company.
Those who take the long view will suffer short-term setbacks in quarterly financial performance, but they’ll set their companies on a track that builds valuable long-term equity and will establish themselves as critical institutions that amplify our democratic values and norms.
2018 will be the year when each and every one of us has to choose. Will we take the easy path and roll with it when the empire strikes back? Or will we choose to make a stand? To be uncomfortable. To risk short-term failure for immortal success. To be a Rebelpreneur.
Corey Ford is cofounder and managing director of Matter Ventures.
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women