Technology in the coming year will be overwhelming, if not scary. But if you aren’t planning to embrace the challenges, then you’re missing an opportunity to learn and connect with new audiences. So as not to overwhelm you with a laundry list of relevant tech, let’s focus on a handful I expect will disrupt our industry in 2018.
In the new year, people will get real about virtual reality. Audience adoption will grow considerably as lower-cost headsets enter the market, but so will their expectations of what true VR is. We’ll begin to see a slow shift from dedicated monoscopic 360° video pieces in exchange for high-production-value interactive experiences. These changes will drive the demand to produce high-quality content, which will be difficult to achieve, so you’ll see fewer organizations supporting the platform. Organizations that do continue to support the development of virtual reality projects will create some of the best narrative-driven experiences we’ve ever seen.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention augmented reality. This emerging platform is quickly catching up to virtual reality, but don’t expect AR to be a mainstream platform in 2018. We’ll begin to see more AR applications, but most will be limited to 3D objects appearing above a surface when a user points their phone’s camera at a printed image — I call this smoke and mirrors, as that tech has been available for years. With native integration of AR functionality into mobile devices (ARKit and ARCore), you should start seeing the breadcrumbs of the platform’s future with the introduction of goofy looking AR-enabled eyewear later in the year.
I expect someone reading this will be the first in our industry to develop a functioning AR news platform built for the new glasses. The user experience and functionality will be clunky, but the prototype will drastically change the way we think about media consumption and location-based personalization beyond the screen of a mobile phone.
In an effort to support the expanded development needs of virtual and augmented reality experiences, you’ll begin to see the creation of dedicated teams that closely resemble that of videogame development studios. These teams will be made up of a diverse group of journalists, designers, and developers. A new audience will begin to take notice as these development teams push the boundaries of interactive storytelling. It will be a challenge, but organizations that have been dedicated to supporting immersive technologies will reach a new and more connected audience.
Accessing media will be easier than ever before, thanks to visual discovery applications powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies will allow users to surface content through text, image, and facial recognition by simply aiming their phone’s camera at a point-of-interest. Relevant content will be surfaced providing the user an opportunity to explore and discover stories within their communities.
2018 is the year we all need to stop making excuses and jump head first into the unknown. We must embrace these technologies and understand the future of media will not be driven by what we’re already comfortable with. Take risks and trust your teams; their passion is infectious. Expect a few failures, but if you emerge without a few scrapes, then you’re doing it all wrong.
Ray Soto is director of emerging technologies at Gannett.
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question