Let’s face it: Digital news publishers have little reason to feel optimistic heading into 2018. There’s no shortage of ominous headlines or hot takes from the pundits and media prognosticators who, despite the fact that digital advertising will surpass $90 billion in the U.S. in the coming year, are predicting more pain for publishers.
Only 15 years ago, before the hyper-migration to digital began and a wave of consolidation swept across the print media space, U.S.-based newspapers raked in $67 billion in advertising. As many traditional publishers and newsrooms began to transform their businesses (and continue to do so today), meaningful digital advertising growth proved elusive to most, simultaneously contending with both the fickle demands of the marketplace and having to support an inordinate number of online publishers, platforms, and adtech companies.
Then came along a slew of “digital natives,” backed largely by venture capitalists, and the promise to invent a new publishing model. They stood up modern websites, relied on the social web for content distribution, and chased audiences and advertising businesses that could flourish, free from the shackles of a legacy business. Or so they thought. In reality, what many of these startups succeeded in doing was to launch new media properties, in an already over-crowded space, and produce content the world never needed. If companies like Mic, NowThis News, or even BuzzFeed never existed, would the state of news and journalism in this country look any different?
It’s easy to blame the platform monopolies for publishers’ quandaries, but it’s time to also acknowledge that there are simply too many of us in the digital news space. Digital ad spending continues to soar, but the lion’s share remains hijacked by a handful of companies, and exceedingly, gets vacuumed into the programmatic abyss. But if there’s one silver lining, it’s this: For too long, an excessive number of VC-backed publishers and adtech companies have been able to survive by siphoning off the digital advertising hose. Those days are winding down, however, and 2018 will be a year of reckoning for many. We are already seeing it via reports of missed revenue forecasts, shrinking company valuations, big M&A activity, and of course, pivots!
In today’s digital news economy, either you are a buyer or a seller. It’s time to decide which you are, and act accordingly; getting caught somewhere in between means being dealt a knockout blow, and the VCs won’t pull you off the ropes. 2018 will be all about pivoting towards consolidation, and creating strength-in-numbers alliances. That’s likely a good thing, as it should open up wider lanes for many heritage-based news publishers to maneuver. Those who can look past the headlines and sprint towards the opportunities.
Michael Kuntz is president of advertising sales and brand partnerships for the USA Today Network.
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders