The relationship between publishers of news and the digital platforms (especially Facebook and Google) has been fraught for almost a decade. The platforms, leveraging their sheer scale, have seized ever-greater shares of digital advertising revenue and contributed mightily to the collapse of advertising prices by stimulating the supply of advertising opportunities at a rate faster than the demand for it could ever grow. At the same time, the platforms have also driven huge amounts of traffic to the publishers — accentuating the paradox of growing audiences accompanied by falling profits.
All of this may well approach a crisis point in the year ahead. The crisis, if there is one building, began with the revelations, just after the election, of how the platforms, and especially Facebook, had been employed by the Russian government and the Trump campaign, possibly in collusion, to disseminate what has come to be called “fake news.” But the problem goes beyond that.
It is increasingly clear that the operation of the platforms, both from an antitrust perspective and even more importantly from the perspective of democratic governance, has received remarkably little scrutiny. And it seems unfortunately also true that their executives, particularly at Facebook, feel very little impulse for accountability until confronted publicly.
This all puts enormous pressure on journalists to do their job in holding these enormous enterprises to the standards of decency, legality, and democratic practice that we are all entitled to expect of the nation’s most profitable companies. Some work of this sort is being done. We need more. Journalists would do well to recognize the commercial impulses limiting such inquiries — and not to let that deter them. For the sake of all of us, moreover, they need to do this work before it is too late.
Richard J. Tofel is president of ProPublica.
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted