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A more sincere definition of “community”

“Far too many media companies are pivoting to ‘community’ — creating chatty email newsletters, opening Slack channels or ‘members-only’ webinars, and offering free t-shirts or tote bags. These are more branding than community; the value proposition is weak.”

In this environment, the challenge is on publishers to deliver more than (simply) terrific individual stories — to escape what Harvard Business School professor Bharat Anand has called “the content trap” — by identifying and strengthening connections with and between users/readers.

The issue I see is that far too many media companies, lured by hopes of a steady, reliable revenue source from subscriptions, are pivoting to “community” — creating chatty email newsletters, opening Slack channels or “members-only” webinars, and offering free t-shirts or tote bags. These are more branding than community; the value proposition is weak.

In 2019, I think we’ll see successful media companies get much more reflective about why their audiences read them (or why they don’t). What do these many, varied, and highly intimate interactions (clicks) say about the hopes, dreams, and fears of the human beings behind them? How can these insights drive deeper, stronger connections?

It should be that better insights lead to a broader, richer array of options for consumers. The New York Times has done this with Cooking and Running — two examples from my own media diet that enrich my life, make it easier, more joyful. That’s connection.

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Pablo Boczkowski   Reimagining the media for post-institutional times

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Logan Molyneux   Seeing social media for what it is

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Kevin D. Grant   A year to embrace journalism as public service

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Darryl Holliday   Let’s talk about power (yours)

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Stefanie Murray   Local news wakes up and starts collaborating

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Thomas Hanitzsch   The rise of tribal journalism

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Gabriel Snyder   Journalism doesn’t fit well in a funnel

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Callie Schweitzer   The rise of the conveners

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Errin Haines   Say it with me: Racism

Victor Pickard   We will finally confront systemic market failure

Jenée Desmond-Harris   It finally sinks in that some people aren’t white

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Emma Carew Grovum   The year of the loyal reader

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A.J. Bauer   The coming splintering of conservative media

Michael Grant   More newsrooms experiment their way to success

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Ben Werdmuller   The platform tide is turning

Carl Bialik   Fatigued news consumers will pay more for less news

Francesco Zaffarano   Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media

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Hossein Derakhshan   The news is dying, but journalism will not — and should not

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Jennifer Dargan   You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions

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Peter Cunliffe-Jones   The focus of misinformation debates shifts south

Rebecca Lee Sanchez   We are all actors in the running rampant of political theater

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Adam B. Ellick   Video forensic reporting goes mainstream — and local

Cherian George   Fake news wins in Asia

Rachel Glickhouse   Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs

Stephanie Edgerly   It’s time to understand the un-audience

Sue Cross   Return of the water cooler

Francesco Marconi   The year of iterative journalism

Amy Schmitz Weiss   Local news isn’t where you thought it was

J. Siguru Wahutu   Think 2018 was bad? Wait until you see 2019

Frank Chimero   Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist

Cristi Hegranes   A year to invest in the security of local journalists

Dheerja Kaur   A focus on problems, not platforms

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Candis Callison   Learn from Indigenous journalists on covering climate change

Renan Borelli   Developing loyalty means developing your talent

Joanne McNeil   Building a digital hospice

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