2016 was a journalism nightmare, with the missed story on the U.S. election and rampant misinformation. 2017 was a rebuilding year, with brave reporting on sexual harassment showing journalism’s impact, and healthy subscription growth at top organizations like The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Next year, 2018, is when things gets real. Despite the promising momentum, this easily can go sideways. This is the year that we need to solidify business models and make real steps to improve news product. No pressure or anything — it’s just the fate of our democracy on the line.
Ads haven’t been cutting it for a while, and we know a major part of the business model answer is getting the people who use our product to pay for it. This isn’t the time to be timid in closing the sale. Subscriptions and memberships are gaining traction, and 2018 needs to be a year with more business model experimentation.
One of the more interesting attempts will be around cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. This isn’t about the hype around Bitcoin’s soaring value, but building new currencies around trust and authenticity using an open, transparent platform. Civil is one such experiment set to launch early in 2018 that will be closely watched.
On the product side, we’ve refined the basic story forms and are getting the hang of podcasts and newsletters. Now this needs to get truly interactive. One of the hottest new media products is HQ, the interactive trivia show mobile app. How can journalism apply the lessons from that format to create exciting live experiences, and give tangible benefits to users for knowing the facts?
We need to use the convening power of media to build network effects, where products get better the more people that use them. Galley, an app in private beta that’s like a Slack team for media geeks launched by Josh Young, has begun testing whether closed, niche networks can build more constructive interactions than the dreaded comment box. Such experiments will expand next year to other niches and formats.
We need to think smartly about how to leverage algorithms and machine learning, and see how they can help source stories and present them. One interesting experiment is Vigilant (which we’re funding at the Lenfest Institute), making public data more accessible and understandable. Their local pilot in Philadelphia is just getting started and they will be expanding trials early in the new year.
Journalists will also be working more smartly. The Washington Post’s Arc platform will be much more widely adopted in the new year. Some of Arc’s most interesting features provide internal metrics that track how journalists are meeting deadlines and whether they are publishing the right stories when audiences want to read them. Media organizations will also working yet more collaboratively. Platforms like Heather Bryant’s Project Facet, launching soon in beta (and another Lenfest grantee), will test whether better tools foster more collaborative storytelling projects.
2018: We can do this.
Burt Herman is director of innovation projects at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age