For far too long, we’ve tried to get our voices, stories, and faces out and into the air. And for far too long, one group has controlled and metered the narratives, people, and places we could visit to tell those stories. Well, the dam on power and control in 2018 won’t just break — there will be a flood, a tsunami unlike anyone has seen. That wall of water has been building, and now the perfect storm is about to let itself loose to invade every crack, dry spot, and patch of land that has been under artificial flood control. The gates will come crashing open, and they won’t be able to do anything about it. The white-male power dominated landscape will give way to color, of all shapes and sizes, in all manner of place and locale.
Women of color will seize their power, telling their stories. No longer asking for permission, waiting for that phone call to come, that job interview that says, “Yes, you matter, we want you.” You don’t need that approval anymore. Look into that mirror every morning and see that beauty that I see, that resilience that gives you the autonomy and agency to build something inherently better — because you are better, and no one can own that but you. Your brothers will be there alongside you and will bear witness when needed. We won’t just be bystanders.
Men of color will rise, for they too can compete against their white counterparts while not trying to alienate the dominant white, 18-34 audience, but the audience that has been left in an abyss — an absence of information and representation. Brother, your people need you. Your sons, your daughters want you to be a strong character of moral influence. To say that daddy was there and he worked it. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Wherever you are, right now is temporary, and the way forward is through and by you. Don’t forget your sisters. They need you.
We will no longer accept the narrative of being an impostor, for the previous ownership has revealed themselves to be the true impostors. They lack the humanity to lead us through this defining moment, for they’re the ones that have gotten us to this moment. The door is now open, so step in, not out. It’s time we create the moment, one that is irrefutable and in which their dominance will be toppled. We will seek our funding, donors, and supporters. We’ll bootstrap it, we’ll be scrappy, and we’ll prove once and for all what we’ve always known: We got this.
We will follow in the powerful footsteps of those who came before us, busting down doors, slapping away the hands who wanted to touch us, our bodies, our hair, our minds, just to say that diversity mattered. It didn’t. In 2018, we will produce our own annual reports with those fancy corporate headshots, pie charts, and hockey sticks of growth. We won’t be floating on white-limbo backdrops, or be the sole token of color in the executive wide shot. We will be the shot, and we’re not going to throw it away.
We will lock arms, all of us, and finally say: This is ours. There is no going back.
Andrew Ramsammy is founder of UnitedPublic Strategies.
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy