If I had to build a publishing startup today, I’d build it around the targeting capabilities of social platforms. I’d start there. I’d ask: How do I create content that I know I can target to specific people to address specific needs?
Changing consumer habits wasn’t the big trigger that ended the mass media age; it was the scarcity of attention (fixed) at a time of surging content (exponential). We simply don’t have the time to consume it all.
The debate over Russian “meddling” in the U.S. presidential election appears to hide an important prospect about the role of personalized content in media today: the same technology, executed strategically and tactically, could allow media companies to address gaps in public knowledge, or solve specific informational needs.
The Russians are doing it. Cambridge Analytica is doing it. Why haven’t newsrooms seen this as an opportunity?
The ads we see today are a proxy of what’s possible. On Facebook alone, you can create audience segments around people who were just married, having their first child, needing their first cars. There are a bunch of great stories you could write about that specific life phase. Or how about reaching people who care about human rights in specific emerging markets? Imagine the impact you could achieve as a media company that informs a specific community.
The combinations are endless, as are the stories that can be created to service the needs of each individual.
There are several important benefits for the industry in the shift to micro-targeting. We’d actually seek out problems to solve; we’ll be rewarded by engagement and, therefore, revenue. We’ll also reduce wastage in output — costly operations of content teams that churn out content that never gets seen or read.
The social media age was framed by one question for publishers: How do I reach an audience on social platforms? The defining questions for every journalist in the age of micro-targeting will be: Who is this piece of content for? How do I make sure it reaches them?
I believe this shift to psychographic, micro-targeted media will be the biggest evolution for publishers in the next 3 to 5 years. Every content generated will be targeted to specific needs and profiles, instead of a mass audience.
Alan Soon is cofounder of The Splice Newsroom, a business intelligence service covering the transformation of media in Asia.
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms