Everyone in the news business has firsthand experience of how commercial pressures have forced change. Yet few organizations have developed the capacity to constantly learn, adapt, and thrive on it.
2018 will be the year when the smartest digital publishers will reorient themselves for volatility. How adaptive is your organization?
Tactics come and go, but leadership must set an unequivocal mission that inspires, addresses everyone, and remains constant. Is it clear who and what your organization stands for? Are activities between teams connected and pointed in the same direction?
In the search for answers, there’s a tendency to look up to management, or even outside. But great insights are often just across the room. The age of automatic deference in the workplace is over. Are individuals able to speak up and be heard? Do managers and colleagues alike reach deep into teams to collect ideas and exploit expertise? Has a culture of experimentation permeated everywhere?
To address an opportunity or issue, you first have to see it. This requires making sure information gets in front of people who can act upon it. Analytics and audience data are now commonplace but can give the false impression of paying attention. What are you doing to truly learn about readers? Are you asking questions to serve them or sell them?
Deliberate differentiation means having the stomach to stand apart and resist dogma. Today’s best practice may turn out to be bad practice or irrelevant to your strategy. When you gravitate towards opportunities, do you stay grounded in your mission? To what extent is your success dependent on someone else?
Required skills and knowledge are changing faster than job descriptions. How fast are you adapting roles and providing the necessary development opportunities to keep staff up to speed? Does every discipline have a path for career progression and possibility of lateral moves?
Everyone wishes for resources they do not have, but strong organizations know how to make difficult decisions. How good are you at establishing priorities and avoiding distractions? Are decisions made quickly and decisively?
Changing course is painful because it brings loss and disorientation. Yet giving something up also means freeing resources to try something else in service of the same mission. Indeed, if you push through difficult change, your reward is a competitive differentiator. How long do you hold on to something that is not working? When changing course, is the rationale clear?
Turbulence is here to stay. The difference between those that ready for change and those that suffer it will be decisive in 2018.
Jassim Ahmad is global head of multimedia innovation for Reuters.
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Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
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An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
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Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
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Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
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Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
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Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
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Frédéric Filloux External forces
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
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Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
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Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
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