There is one clear digital behavior that has seen explosive growth in 2017 and will leave other platforms in the dust in 2018 — the Instagram Story.
Even as a local media outlet, Charlotte Agenda’s Stories are being viewed by 10-, 15-, 20,000 Charlotteans at a time, and still we’re just scratching the surface.
As new features are quietly unrolled by Instagram and its Facebook masterminds, our team is left to play strategic catchup. We haven’t started experimenting with Story Highlights. The fact that users can now follow hashtags (ours, #cltagenda, has been included in 25,000-plus posts) means we have the opportunity to build a community even beyond our direct followership.
And, because we are a business, we’re simultaneously experimenting with how to deliver messages there on behalf of our 25 sponsors. They need to be messages that we’re proud of, that are useful and relevant, and that are labeled transparently but in a way that isn’t jarring.
We even find ourselves preparing traditional story boards as we produce our Instagram Stories, re-examining yet again how to best make use of short(er)-form narrative.
Video clips are integrated with stills, one-liners of text are sprinkled with emoji — the end product feels casual, conversational, and often downright silly. But if we as Instagram users are spending an average of 24 to 32 minutes watching Stories, then we as producers have to treat them as what they are — the new TV.
Is making news content appealing in a Story format a challenge? Absolutely. But the window of opportunity is short, as Story-watching habits are being cemented and loyalties developed right now. It will be well worth the time for any media organization to create content worthy of the platform’s new, dominant role in American life.
Cristina Wilson is the chief operating officer of Charlotte Agenda.
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile