Among the predictions published in this series last year, none proved more prescient than Rachel Sklar’s “Women are Going to Get Loud.” It’s as if Rachel got an advance copy of Time’s Person of the Year issue — really advance.
The #MeToo movement has been an efficient juggernaut, blasting open decades of workplace hostility and harassment, and nowhere has it gotten more attention than in the field of media. (So much for “report the story, don’t become the story.”) Certainly, media is not the only industry so plagued by misogyny — there are others where it’s even more widespread. Nonetheless, it’s the media’s job to expose these outbreaks and it can’t even begin to help in that regard until it puts on its own oxygen mask.
The main consequences of this reckoning have been terminations, resignations, leaves of absence. And so it happens that there are suddenly a whole lot of vacancies in leadership roles across many media organizations. Already we’re seeing some of these roles filled by women. Expect that trend to accelerate and expand. There’s a surfeit of female talent that’s been sitting too long on the bench.
It never made sense for journalism to skew so heavily male at its highest ranks for so long. Media corporations can’t say with a straight face that it’s a “pipeline problem” with regards to women eager to study, work, and lead in journalism, as technology titans feebly do. According to Poynter, journalism schools award diplomas to women at a more than 2 to 1 ratio. Per ASNE, that ratio somehow flips in terms of newsroom supervisory roles, with women comprising only 37 percent. Media is storytelling, communication, information dissemination…we’re not talking about the defense industry or investment banking. These are skills women have long been stereotyped for having mastered — and yet, haven’t yet been deemed authoritative enough in to be awarded a mantle of leadership. Isn’t it ironic?
That all ends next year. My prediction is not solely that media leadership will be feminized, but that news itself will take on a new, more feminine, tone. No, this doesn’t mean more articles on weight loss and beauty trends. Instead, it means that women will be seen as reliable sources and the sexism embedded into articles about women’s issues and female public figures (“Who were they wearing?”) won’t make it past first edit. It also means we can expect newsroom resources dedicated to uncovering stories of other underserved and underreported communities. This means we can expect more two-way communication between storytellers and readers — something more authentic and constructive than a comments section.
I expect the female media takeover will bring also bring a novel remedy to the phenomenon of so-called fake news and the overall stratification of media along ideological lines. Don’t ask me how I know — it’s just my woman’s intuition. 2017 wasn’t pretty for our industry, but there’s hope for 2018. This time next year, “content is queen” will roll right off the tongue.
Jennifer Coogan is chief content officer of Newsela.
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change