Two significant developments will shape European journalism next year. Both will take their cues from a more established American scene.
The first is the rise of engaged journalism. Engaged journalism empowers communities and their conversations. It places them, rather than politicians or experts, at the heart of its reporting. With roots in the civic journalism ideas of the 1990s, it’s not a new concept in either Europe or the U.S. But it’s one whose time has come.
Across Europe, news organizations are being sold off, being co-opted by authoritarian governments, or pivoting away from advertising. In a bid to build on existing loyalty and replace advertising revenue, news organizations have responded by focusing on community engagement. For example, established players like Zeit Online are making waves with projects like My Country Talks. Newer nonprofits like The Bureau of Investigative Journalism are franchising successful templates like the Bureau Local.
We’ll see more of this in 2019. Our Engaged Journalism Accelerator was established to support this nascent scene. We have been consulting with and inspired by colleagues over the pond from places like City Bureau, Gather, and The Correspondent (a rare European engaged journalism export!).
Funding for new engaged journalism initiatives may well come from the second development I expect to see in 2019. There are more than 146,000 “public benefit” foundations in Europe. They have accumulated assets of at least €497 billion, and an estimated annual expenditure of €51 billion. A tiny fraction of European foundation funding goes to core support for journalism, especially in comparison to the U.S. Yet all of those foundations rely on the enabling environment a robust media provides in order to deliver their programs.
In 2019, we’ll see a lot more of these foundations move into supporting journalism. This won’t be a PR or communication strategy, but an investment into an infrastructure they all rely on. Engaged journalism, with its focus on community and impact, is a natural home for that investment.
Neither engaged journalism nor foundation funding will save the media industry in 2019. However, both will give European journalism organizations an essential opportunity to reconnect with audiences and plot a new path towards sustainability.
Adam Thomas is director of the European Journalism Centre.
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Dan Shanoff Bet on sports gambling
Mike Rispoli and Craig Aaron Government funds local news — and that’s a good thing
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Andrew Ramsammy The great re-pivot to audio
Francesco Zaffarano Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media
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Logan Molyneux Seeing social media for what it is
Sarah Stonbely Mapping the local news ecosystem — with scale but detail
Monique Judge Committing to the truth, calling out lies
Frank Chimero Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist
Angilee Shah The year news orgs say “yes” to real leaders
Matt Karolian Publishers come to terms with being Facebook’s enablers
Kevin D. Grant A year to embrace journalism as public service
Carolina Guerrero Spanish-language audio blows up
Eric Nuzum The year of the DIY podcast network
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Craig Newmark The end of “loudspeakers for liars”
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Sue Cross Return of the water cooler
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Almar Latour Reported facts, weaponized in service of action
Mandy Jenkins Fight the urge to run away from social media
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Alexandra Borchardt Newsrooms need to build trust with their journalists, not just the audience
Ruth Palmer and Benjamin Toff From news fatigue to news avoidance
Marie Shanahan Newsrooms take the comments sections back from platforms
Christa Scharfenberg and Vickie Baranetsky The year of the lawsuit
Lauren Katz Community becomes a core newsroom value
Pia Frey You can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis
Salem Solomon Correcting our corrections
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen A long, slow slog, with no one coming to the rescue
Ståle Grut A new dawn for 3D tech in journalism
Hossein Derakhshan The news is dying, but journalism will not — and should not
Tamar Charney Seriously: What do you do for people?
An Xiao Mina The death of consensus, not the death of truth
John Biewen Podcasts keep getting better
John Saroff The pivot to reader revenue’s unintended consequences
Cory Bergman Journalism as a technology service
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P. Kim Bui The misfits become the bosses
Shannon McGregor More bogus embedded tweets in our stories
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Simon Galperin After capitalism’s fire, journalism’s secondary succession
Umbreen Bhatti The story doesn’t end for the people we quote
Sarah Alvarez Simplify and redistribute
Thomas Hanitzsch The rise of tribal journalism
Simon Rogers Data journalism becomes a global field
Linda Solomon Wood The year of the climate reporter
Colleen Shalby Representation becomes more than a talking point
Jean Friedman Rudovsky Cross-newsroom collaborations strengthen communities
Moreno Cruz Osório Damaged credibility and a new threat in Brazil
Mario García The rise of content “pilots”
Libby Bawcombe Haikus of the news
Rubina Madan Fillion Fighting the reality of deepfakes
Kristen Muller Local news fails — in a good way
Zizi Papacharissi Old interface, say hello to the new interface
Pablo Boczkowski Reimagining the media for post-institutional times
Jonathan Stray More algorithmic accountability reporting, and a lot of it will be meh
Talia Stroud Engaging people across lines of difference
Peter Cunliffe-Jones The focus of misinformation debates shifts south
Axie Navas The traffic hunt, CMS battle, and magazine identity crises loom
Tyler Fisher This is journalism’s do-or-die moment
Seema Yasmin We will create our own spaces
Matt Skibinski Quality and reliability are the new currencies for publishers
Dave Burdick Seeing our blind spots
Nisha Chittal The homepage makes a comeback
John Garrett You can’t raise prices forever
Michael Grant More newsrooms experiment their way to success
Taylor Lorenz Personal branding is more powerful than ever
Jennifer Dargan You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions
Knight Foundation A year of local collaboration
Carrie Brown-Smith Advocating a healthy civic life is no journalistic crime
Bill Grueskin Toward a symphony model for local news
Steve Myers From trying to cover it all to covering what matters
Greg Emerson Power to the user
Jonas Kaiser Catching up with “Neuland”
Michael Rain The year of the culturally relevant curator
Borja Bergareche Sainz de los Terreros Entering a more balanced era
Emma Carew Grovum The year of the loyal reader
Zainab Khan Publishers whose products can stand up to social media giants will win
Matthew Pressman The battle over objectivity intensifies
J. Siguru Wahutu Think 2018 was bad? Wait until you see 2019
Zuzanna Ziomecka News leadership gets an overdue upgrade
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer The most beautiful sentence in 2019 is “No.”
Stephanie Edgerly It’s time to understand the un-audience
Robert Hernandez Racists and sexists get replaced
Juleyka Lantigua Podcasting battles East Coast bias
Kjerstin Thorson Time to get mad about information inequality (again)
Bill Adair Another year fighting Trump’s falsehoods
Rebecca Searles From silos to Swiss Army knife teams
Ariel Zirulnick Participation gets professional
Millie Tran There is no magic — you’ve got this
Mat Yurow Content competition from the tech companies
Sarah Marshall A return to destination journalism
Laura E. Davis More access, but not that kind
Callie Schweitzer The rise of the conveners
Elizabeth Jensen Going where the Acela can’t take you
Rachel Glickhouse Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs
Errin Haines Say it with me: Racism
Joanne McNeil Building a digital hospice
Jeremy Gilbert AI finally becomes helpful
Alberto Cairo A year of uncertainty and confidence
Glyn Mottershead and Martin Chorley When a tech company pulls the plug on your story
Kelsey Proud Journalism becomes the escape
Dheerja Kaur A focus on problems, not platforms
Mike Isaac The old exit doors for digital media companies are closing
Mariana Moura Santos From pageviews to impact
Jesse Brown Canada’s subsidy for news backfires
Claire Wardle Forget deepfakes: Misinformation is showing up in our most personal online spaces
Jim Friedlich Meet Citizen Kane 2.0
Becca Aaronson From bridge roles to product thinkers
Sue Robinson Reporters go on the offensive
Kainaz Amaria We consider who’s behind the camera
Gideon Lichfield Goodbye attention economy, we’ll miss you
Tushar Banerjee Interactive ads will be the new face of display advertising
A.J. Bauer The coming splintering of conservative media
Kate Myers Journalism continues to be bad for democracy
Renée Kaplan Our future could lie within our own organizations
Patrick Butler Measuring impact will increase audience trust
Andrea Faye Hart Doing less harm, not just more good
Steve Henn Smart speakers get smarter
Elva Ramirez News — but make it cinematic
Gabriel Snyder Journalism doesn’t fit well in a funnel
Whitney Phillips Our information systems aren’t broken — they’re working as intended
Kawandeep Virdee Media wants to take care of you
Steve Grove A reckoning for tech’s work with news
Elite Truong What do we owe the next generation?
Celeste LeCompte Local news needs local conversation to survive
Julie Posetti The year of the fight back
Victor Pickard We will finally confront systemic market failure
Cindy Royal For journalism curriculum to change, its faculty needs disruption
Meredith Artley Huge demand for…anything but politics
Seth C. Lewis The gap between journalism and research is too wide
Francesco Marconi The year of iterative journalism
Joshua P. Darr The nationalization of political news will accelerate
M. Scott Havens Time to swing for the fences
Jack Riley Facebook refugees, from ad revenue to news habits
Rishad Patel A design system for responsible publishing
Peter Bale Venture capital runs out of patience
Tim Carmody Unlocking the commons
Stefanie Murray Local news wakes up and starts collaborating
Kyra Darnton A shift to depth in video
Cristi Hegranes A year to invest in the security of local journalists
Josh Schwartz A pullback from platforms and a focus on product
Frank Mungeam Tonight at 11: News, sports, and climate change
Eric Ulken The year you actually start to like your CMS
Carl Bialik Fatigued news consumers will pay more for less news
Ernie Smith The year we step back from the platform
Don Day Timewalls and other reader revenue experiments
Nathalie Malinarich Video — yes, video
Jenée Desmond-Harris It finally sinks in that some people aren’t white
Julia Rubin Meeting people where they are
Rebecca Lee Sanchez We are all actors in the running rampant of political theater
Jared Newman AI-generated fakes launch a software arms race
Joel Konopo Influencers become the new liberated power in Africa
Joe Amditis Give the audience a seat at the table
Andrew Donohue Voting rights becomes the new climate change
Amy King We should listen to the kids (especially on Instagram)
Ben Werdmuller The platform tide is turning
Nicholas Jackson More transparency around newsroom decisions
Rachel Davis Mersey Local news goes minimalist
Raney Aronson-Rath We learn “digital” doesn’t have to mean “short”
Amy Schmitz Weiss Local news isn’t where you thought it was
Justin Kosslyn Text hits a tipping point
Winny de Jong Data journalism goes undercover
Mandy Velez Putting the social back in social media
Elisabeth Goodridge Yes, they signed up — but our job’s not over
Mike Caulfield Ditch the media literacy cynicism and get to work
Annie Rudd A more intimate aesthetic of politics — on Insta
Ole Reißmann The rise of vertical storytelling
Adam Smith Platforms will have to help rebuild trust in news
Robin Kwong Tech shouldn’t be the only field pollinating “news nerds”
Catalina Albeanu Being responsible for what we don’t know
Masuma Ahuja Make foreign coverage less foreign
Jeff Chin We detox from Chartbeat
Matt Waite “I went to Node.js because I wished to live deliberately”
Rick Berke The year of loyalty
Charo Henríquez Pivot to journalism
Rodney Gibbs A bright — and young — year for audio
Manoush Zomorodi Tech will do for information overload what it did for mindfulness
Soo Oh Just showing our work isn’t enough