If back in 2013, you’d written off metro newspapers as can’t-get-it/won’t-get-it dinosaurs on a slow descent into irrelevance, it might have been hard to argue otherwise. Too many treated audiences with indifference if not outright disdain. Witness the painful ad experiences they threw at people or the smug, we-know-best attitude in Page 1 meetings that, tellingly, mostly revolved around print.
What a difference a few years make! The clarity of purpose that comes with asking people to pay for our digital products — and then needing to actually build products worth paying for — has begun to permeate even the most change-averse organizations. Yes, there’s still a lot of ground to make up, but finally, the journalistic mission and the business-model imperative are roughly aligned, with paying customers as our north star.
This year, some early paywall adopters among metro dailies began to see a path to a credible post-print business model. The Boston Globe recently reported that it had 90,000 digital-only subscribers with a goal of 100,000 by the end of 2017, while the Star Tribune in Minneapolis said it was closing in on 50,000.
At the same time, change initiatives in newsrooms have multiplied, sometimes aided by outside groups such as the Knight Foundation and the Lenfest Institute (which owns the Philadelphia newspapers and Philly.com, where I work) or spurred by dire internal reports laying out in stark terms the current reality and the futility of continuing on the present trajectory. My newsroom colleagues here in Philadelphia, for example, produced a “call to arms” report last year, which served as an effective catalyst for many of the change efforts we’ve undertaken over the last 18 months or so and continue to press forward on.
As important as the rising number of change efforts, though, will be shifts in how news organizations conduct those efforts. While one-time introspection is useful in pointing out gaps and jolting an organization into action, it is insufficient to bring about the sustained change we need. The New York Times, whose seminal innovation report in 2014 was widely studied and copied, acknowledged the unfinished nature of its own efforts by producing a version 2 of sorts this year.
We know that change is continuous, and yet we’ve gotten comfortable in thinking about change initiatives as having a beginning and end. Even the word we often use — transformation — suggests a stable end state, a time when the change is done and we can all just get back to work. That’s an illusion. After well over a decade of “transforming” journalism for the digital age, any change effort today that doesn’t acknowledge the open-ended reality of the challenges we face is asking for derision from transformation-weary staffs.
In Philadelphia, we’ve learned this lesson through our participation over the past two years in the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, more popularly known as Table Stakes. Designed and led by Doug Smith, founding executive director of the Sulzberger Leadership Program, Table Stakes uses a primary focus on real performance goals and results not only to drive needed change in local news organizations but also to build the capacity for innovation and change in the years ahead.
Among other things, the program favors an iterative approach that values learning and reacting over long-term planning and phasing. This may seem obvious to anybody familiar with agile development methodology, but as a framework for organizational change, it’s surprising how novel a concept this model is in our industry.
Here are a few of the things this approach has helped us effect in Philadelphia:
In 2016, four major metro publishers participated in the first Table Stakes cohort. This year, 32 news organizations are participating across three different Table Stakes programs, and Doug, along with Quentin Hope and Tim Griggs, has published “Table Stakes: A Manual For Getting Into The Game Of News,” a comprehensive, step-by-step guide publishers can use to guide change. The American Press Institute has also gathered many of the lessons of Table Stakes into its Better News resource currently in beta.
My prediction: 2018 will see more legacy news organizations picking up and sticking with performance-focused iterative models for change, and local journalism will be stronger for it.
Eric Ulken is managing editor for digital operations at the Philadelphia Media Network, publisher of The Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back