In 2018, my aspirational prediction is that the journalism industry shifts its focus on innovation toward investing in processes, rather than platforms and products.
Currently, too many good ideas are discarded because they don’t fit the dominant model of “scalable” and “replicable,” which is too narrow in scope.
Many large newsrooms struggle with the reality that the scale their model requires keeps them focused on stories that have the potential of spreading quickly, but fleetingly, across as broad an audience as possible. VC-backed startup journalism still too often focuses on the development of platforms that show a direct pathway for expansion or to become easily replicable, across markets. And the pressure of many funders’ impact reports not only drive the projects that get funded to think about an immediate pathway to scale and replication, but also shape what even gets proposed.
Meanwhile, we have a steady stream of news about the downsizing and shuttering of local journalism outlets, an ongoing trend of concentration of news jobs to a small set of cities, and growing discussion of local news deserts (or, at least, news ecosystems facing significant soil infertility). And, lest we think that at least means the few cities where journalists have concentrated must inevitably have vibrant local journalism markets, consider closely the challenges faced in the past year for journalism specifically serving cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
By only investing in solutions when we can directly see where/how they will be replicable and/or scaled from the beginning, we run the risk of leaving the best approaches to the specific problem at hand on the drawing board. In a quest to find a solution that will work for everyone, we too often invest in ideas that don’t work particularly well for anyone.
Part of our challenge has been chasing “the answer,” when there isn’t one. And, by that, I mean there isn’t a blanket solution out there that we just haven’t uncovered yet. Rather, these are the sorts of wicked problems Heather Chaplin writes about that we have to uncover.
That doesn’t mean, though, that there isn’t anything that can be done or learned from one project or another — that every challenge out there is its own solitary equation, and every entity working on it is in a lonely, solitary pursuit.
Rather, the question should be: “What process should we go through to find and test potential responses to our challenge?” Whether that “wicked problem” be sustainable business models for local journalism, fostering more meaningful community investment, better addressing communities being significantly underserved by the current journalism industry, bridging divides in a polarized climate, or any other pressing part of the challenges journalism faces, we should be investing in exploring useful models and approaches to find the best solution for that particular audience and in those particular circumstances.
I don’t think that I’m stupidly optimistic to believe that 2018 could be the year of the rise of significant investment in processes, rather than products and platforms. In 2017, I’ve been inspired by working with several organizations who are doing just that — developing approaches for addressing key challenges around journalism and civic engagement. For instance:
In addition to being inspired by these groups, I’m currently working with Andrea Wenzel at Temple University to develop an approach to strengthening the information ecosystem, storytelling network, and civic engagement within particular localities. Through our “From Polarization to Public Sphere” work in Bowling Green and Ohio County, Kentucky, supported by Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, we have been building a process for addressing these issues that begins with research which informs a workshop that then leads to pilot projects, which we are just beginning with local partner newsrooms like the Bowling Green Daily News and The Ohio County Monitor.
I’m also currently interested in how we look for processes and approaches to finding solutions for local communities or niche audiences outside the journalism realm altogether: for instance, through studying the development of ecosystems that support artisanal businesses, as Grant McCracken, Leora Kornfeld, and I are exploring in the Artisanal Economies Project.
All of these projects involve establishing and testing processes that help lead to products, services, platforms, etc., which are specific to the circumstances of each community and situation. And all require investment in the sort of slow innovation approaches that Federico Rodríguez Tarditi and I explored in our work at Univision’s Fusion Media Group.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that many of these approaches are being driven by players outside of conventional commercial newsrooms, in organizations often better poised to do such slow innovation work. But building and testing these processes will require the active support and participation of all types of organizations throughout the news ecosystem.
The stakes for investing in sustainable processes for supporting the future of journalism are high, and we need to put our energy into investing in the approaches that drive building healthy civic ecosystems. I don’t believe I’m being stupidly optimistic to say that we can do this, if we get focused on asking the right questions.
P.S. Of course, last year, I predicted 2017 “as the year industry stakeholders put significant institutional, cross-industry resources behind better advertising products,” so what do I know?
P.P.S. Actually, technically, the title said 2017 would be “the year we talk about our awful metrics…” so I suppose we at least talked about them.
Sam Ford consults and runs projects focused on media innovation.
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Carrie Brown Transparency finally takes off
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Nik Usher The year of The Washington Post
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms