20200
P
1
20100
R  E
2
2070
D   I   C
3
2050
T   I   O   N
4
2040
S   F   O   R   J
5
2030
O  U  R  N  A  L
6
2020
I  S  M  2  0  2  0
7

Five generations of journalists, learning from each other

“A news outlet that embraces a diversity of generations and experiences creates an environment where innovation, openness, and creativity can truly thrive.”

2020 will be the beginning of a new culture in journalism — one that leverages the expertise of five generations of journalists.

The Knight Foundation’s journalism team recently attended a conference where the conversation centered on how newsroom leadership is managing across generations. In many newsrooms, and across many industries, there are up to five generations working side by side: Traditionalists (born before 1946), Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976), Generation Y/Millennials (born between 1977 and 1997), and Generation Z (born after 1997).

Each generation’s trajectory in journalism was vastly different. Two of the self-identified Boomer journalists noted they were promoted to lead a major department in their newsroom by their late 20s and early 30s. They experienced the golden age of journalism when resources were bountiful and there were numerous competitors in local communities.

The Gen X journalists in the room were shocked because their career trajectories included a series of lateral moves before hitting the journalism leadership jackpot, if they ever did. They were on the forefront of digital transition. While some were able to thrive, many peers left the industry.

The millennial journalists, the generation born into digital, don’t know what growth looks like in journalism. They jump from newsroom to newsroom until they land in a major market or at a national outlet. And, even then, sometimes they find there’s no path for advancement.

Some people are living longer and healthier lives and choosing to work well into their retirement years; others are still recovering from the economic effects of the 2008 recession and have no choice but to work longer than they’d planned. This might not be as great of a problem if journalism jobs were plentiful or if there were more mobility.

The industry, particularly the local newspaper sector, has been in decline the past decade. With media consolidation, erosion of local newsrooms, and financial instabilities, newsroom employment declined 25 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to CJR’s Layoff Tracker. In 2019 alone, there were more than 3,000 job losses.

While the work style, digital fluency, and even the definition of what journalism should be can vary greatly between the five generations, this is also a unique moment when news outlets can foster cross-generational knowledge mentoring and reinterpret what quality journalism can be in a networked era. A news outlet that embraces a diversity of generations and experiences creates an environment where innovation, openness, and creativity can truly thrive.

We predict 2020 will be the beginning of a new culture in journalism, and already we are seeing some positive signals of that change.

  • A culture that values equity and inclusion and not upholding the status quo. For example, a spreadsheet circulated this year gathering self-reported salaries from journalists across the country and disciplines. That illustrated how the issue of pay equity has moved into the center of discussions about work and fairness in journalism.
  • A culture that values community participation in journalism instead of “we talk, you listen.” For example, Outlier Media, a project led by Sarah Alvarez and Candice Fortman, identifies and addresses the information and journalism needs of local residents via SMS. Outlier Media texts more than 400 Detroiters a week and produces investigative reporting to lift those community issues. This is a collaboration between journalists and community.
  • A culture where power is shared to accelerate innovation in journalism. For example, Minnesota Public Radio supported and gave runway to Sahan Journal, a new digital nonprofit dedicated to providing authentic news reporting for and about immigrants and refugees in Minnesota.

This prediction was written by the Knight Foundation’s LaSharah S. Bunting, Paul Cheung, and Karen Rundlet.

2020 will be the beginning of a new culture in journalism — one that leverages the expertise of five generations of journalists.

The Knight Foundation’s journalism team recently attended a conference where the conversation centered on how newsroom leadership is managing across generations. In many newsrooms, and across many industries, there are up to five generations working side by side: Traditionalists (born before 1946), Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976), Generation Y/Millennials (born between 1977 and 1997), and Generation Z (born after 1997).

Each generation’s trajectory in journalism was vastly different. Two of the self-identified Boomer journalists noted they were promoted to lead a major department in their newsroom by their late 20s and early 30s. They experienced the golden age of journalism when resources were bountiful and there were numerous competitors in local communities.

The Gen X journalists in the room were shocked because their career trajectories included a series of lateral moves before hitting the journalism leadership jackpot, if they ever did. They were on the forefront of digital transition. While some were able to thrive, many peers left the industry.

The millennial journalists, the generation born into digital, don’t know what growth looks like in journalism. They jump from newsroom to newsroom until they land in a major market or at a national outlet. And, even then, sometimes they find there’s no path for advancement.

Some people are living longer and healthier lives and choosing to work well into their retirement years; others are still recovering from the economic effects of the 2008 recession and have no choice but to work longer than they’d planned. This might not be as great of a problem if journalism jobs were plentiful or if there were more mobility.

The industry, particularly the local newspaper sector, has been in decline the past decade. With media consolidation, erosion of local newsrooms, and financial instabilities, newsroom employment declined 25 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to CJR’s Layoff Tracker. In 2019 alone, there were more than 3,000 job losses.

While the work style, digital fluency, and even the definition of what journalism should be can vary greatly between the five generations, this is also a unique moment when news outlets can foster cross-generational knowledge mentoring and reinterpret what quality journalism can be in a networked era. A news outlet that embraces a diversity of generations and experiences creates an environment where innovation, openness, and creativity can truly thrive.

We predict 2020 will be the beginning of a new culture in journalism, and already we are seeing some positive signals of that change.

  • A culture that values equity and inclusion and not upholding the status quo. For example, a spreadsheet circulated this year gathering self-reported salaries from journalists across the country and disciplines. That illustrated how the issue of pay equity has moved into the center of discussions about work and fairness in journalism.
  • A culture that values community participation in journalism instead of “we talk, you listen.” For example, Outlier Media, a project led by Sarah Alvarez and Candice Fortman, identifies and addresses the information and journalism needs of local residents via SMS. Outlier Media texts more than 400 Detroiters a week and produces investigative reporting to lift those community issues. This is a collaboration between journalists and community.
  • A culture where power is shared to accelerate innovation in journalism. For example, Minnesota Public Radio supported and gave runway to Sahan Journal, a new digital nonprofit dedicated to providing authentic news reporting for and about immigrants and refugees in Minnesota.

This prediction was written by the Knight Foundation’s LaSharah S. Bunting, Paul Cheung, and Karen Rundlet.

Jonas Kaiser   Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists

Seth C. Lewis   20 questions for 2020

Beena Raghavendran   The year of the local engagement reporter

Jeff Kofman   Speed through technology

Cristina Kim   Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”

Sarah Stonbely   More people start caring about news inequality

Geneva Overholser   Death to bothsidesism

Mariana Moura Santos   The future of journalism is collaborative

Millie Tran   Wicked

Meg Marco   Everything happens somewhere

Kevin D. Grant   The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth

Alice Antheaume   Trade “politics” for “power”

Cindy Royal   Prepare media students for skills, not job titles

Juleyka Lantigua   A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen   The business we want, not the business we had

Kathleen Searles   Pay more attention to attention

Jake Shapiro   Podcasting gets listener relationship management

M. Scott Havens   First-party data becomes media’s most important currency

Laura E. Davis   Know the context your journalism is operating within

Jim Brady   We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own

Craig Newmark   Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation

Cory Haik   We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it

Matt DeRienzo   Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers

Meredith Artley   Stronger solidarity among news organizations

Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb   Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage

Jennifer Brandel   A love letter from the year 2073

Dan Shanoff   Sports media enters the Bronny era

Catalina Albeanu   Rebuilding journalism, together

Nico Gendron   Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z

Margarita Noriega   The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms

Anthony Nadler   Clash of Clans: Election Edition

Candis Callison   Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change

Doris Truong   The year of radical salary transparency

A.J. Bauer   A fork in the road for conservative media

Sonali Prasad   Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional

Heather Bryant   Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving

Jasmine McNealy   A call for context

Pablo Boczkowski   The day after November 4

Logan Jaffe   You don’t need fancy tools to listen

Annie Rudd   The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph

Adam Thomas   The silver bullet

John Garrett   It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization

Kristen Muller   The year we operationalize community engagement

Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz   News coverage gets geo-fragmented

Dannagal G. Young   Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart

Mike Caulfield   Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd

Irving Washington   Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job

J. Siguru Wahutu   Western journalists, learn from your African peers

Hossein Derakhshan   AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris

Tonya Mosley   The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends

Marie Gilot   This is fine

Knight Foundation   Five generations of journalists, learning from each other

Rick Berke   Incoming fire from both left and right

Rachel Glickhouse   Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline

John Keefe   Journalism gets hacked

Lucas Graves   A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters

Joni Deutsch   Podcasting unsilences the silent

Felix Salmon   Spotify launches a news channel

Stefanie Murray   Charitable giving goes collaborative

Greg Emerson   News apps fall further behind

Raney Aronson-Rath   News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions

Joe Amditis   Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table

Nicholas Jackson   What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support

Talia Stroud   The work of reconnecting starts November 4

Tom Glaisyer   Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful

Simon Galperin   Journalism becomes more democratic

Michael W. Wagner   Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative

Bill Grueskin   Our ethics codes get an overhaul

Brenda P. Salinas   Treating MP3 files like text

Tanya Cordrey   Saying no to more good ideas

Alana Levinson   Brand-backed media gets another look

Moreno Cruz Osório   In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks

Ståle Grut   OSINT journalism goes mainstream

Francesco Zaffarano   TikTok without generational prejudice

Whitney Phillips   A time to question core beliefs

Colleen Shalby   Journalists become media literacy teachers

Christa Scharfenberg   It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women

Errin Haines   Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story

Helen Havlak   Platforms shine a light on original reporting

Sarah Schmalbach   Journalist, quantify thyself

An Xiao Mina   The Forum we wanted, the forum we got

Heidi Tworek   The year of positive pushback

Brian Moritz   The end of “stick to sports”

Richard Tofel   A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges

Steve Henn   The dawning audio web

Bill Adair   A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song

Sara K. Baranowski   A big year for little newspapers

Victor Pickard   We reclaim a public good

Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor   Think twice before turning to Twitter

Eric Nuzum   Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show

Mario García   Think small (screen)

Kerri Hoffman   Opening closed systems

Julia B. Chan   We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏

Ben Werdmuller   Use the tools of journalism to save it

Linda Solomon Wood   Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal

Jeremy Olshan   All journalism should be service journalism

Sarah Alvarez   I’m ready for post-news

Kourtney Bitterly   Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation

Don Day   Respect the non-paying audience

Joshua P. Darr   All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse

Monique Judge   The year to organize, unionize, and fight

Carrie Brown-Smith   Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening

Emily Withrow   The year we kill the news article

Sarah Marshall   The year to learn about news moments

Nushin Rashidian   Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?

Lauren Duca   The rise of the journalistic influencer

S. Mitra Kalita   The race to 2021

Zizi Papacharissi   A president leads, the press follows, reality fades

Monica Drake   A renewed focus on misinformation

Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper   Power to the people (on your audience team)

Rachel Davis Mersey   The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide

Jakob Moll   A slow-moving tech backlash among young people

Tamar Charney   From broadcast to bespoke

Masuma Ahuja   Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful

Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young   The promise of nonprofit journalism

Elizabeth Dunbar   Frank talk, and then action

Peter Bale   Lies get further normalized

Fiona Spruill   The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves

Joanne McNeil   A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)

Ernie Smith   The death of the industry fad

Imaeyen Ibanga   Let’s take it slow

Barbara Gray   Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement

Mira Lowe   The year of student-powered journalism

Nikki Usher   All systems down

Matthew Pressman   News consumers divide into haves and have-nots

Carl Bialik   Journalists will try running the whole shop

Josh Schwartz   Publishers move beyond the metered paywall

Nathalie Malinarich   Betting on loyalty

Rachel Schallom   The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates

Alexandra Borchardt   Get out of the office and talk to people

Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker   A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech

Gordon Crovitz   Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms

Sue Robinson   Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments