For the past year, we have seen flurries of reports about the successes of some traditional newspapers in the digital marketplace. The New York Times hits 3 million total subscribers! The Washington Post is actually hiring people! That is great, but the success of big players in journalism can actually hide how small players are not going to be able to keep up. The truth is, in 2018 and beyond, it’s only going to be more expensive to maintain a successful news website. That will lead to further inequality between big and small news organizations. The big will become bigger, and the ones that are smaller, well, they will have to scramble for audience.
It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The internet, after all, would be the domain of the long tail: those smaller websites that can still find their niche audience and be competitive, even if there are few really big players. But in 2018 and beyond, acquiring and keeping an audience is going to take more tech expertise and all-around firepower.
The Post and the Times are buoyed by their top-notch investigative journalism in the age of Trump, smart collaborations with tech, and positive brand recognition (let’s not forget the high-profile movie out this month). But aside from that, there are underlying reasons for sustained success among the big newspapers. Their economic dominance is key in a market that requires more and more advanced tools to grow and retain audience in our algorithmically-defined age.
The Post is already using predictive algorithms and data analysis to determine which stories will be more successful. The Times has announced 2018 will be the “Year of the Audience” (notice: not “the public,” not “the readers,” but “the audience”), with more specialized top-level leadership that will devote themselves to metrics and strategize how to “best compete for [the audience’s] time and attention.”
What about smaller, local newspapers? Well, first, most of them are not in D.C., covering the big, flashy beat, the Trump White House. Secondly, their smaller scale is not enough to convert into the richness of resources to make great reporting investments, design better webpages, and hire the talent that allows websites to stay on top of social media and search results.
All this adds up to the fact that smaller, less popular newsrooms have a tricky task ahead of them. And it can mean that the further concentration of news organizations is unavoidable. In this darkest timeline, the admission price of the news business is just too expensive for the little guys.
Sure, it’s great that we have journalism behemoths out there, doing their amazing work. But think of all the news that wouldn’t be covered or the perspectives that would be lost if all the smaller newsrooms went away.
Daniel Trielli is a journalist and Ph.D. student in media, technology, and society at Northwestern University.
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level