We’ll all read about the impending doom of many of the publicly traded news organizations. To me, the really interesting thing to watch will be down below the surface. It’ll be hard to see all at once, but even with all of the fear, greed, and loss in our industry, something beautiful is happening to the news ecosystem.
It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization. Most legacy executives have to embrace survival strategies — which leaves an opportunity of a lifetime for the risk-taker to take. There will be plenty of variables of structure and approach, but 2020 will be a tipping-point year for this new age of journalism ownership and stewardship.
We won’t hear about most of these startups. They’ll grind behind the scenes in communities everywhere. There’s just too much talent out there and too many opportunities to quell the rising of this new era of the news entrepreneur. In 2020, these new leaders will build their plans, gather their teams, and get to work — launching hundreds of new sources of local news. It’s going to be awesome.
John Garrett is CEO of Community Impact Newspaper.
We’ll all read about the impending doom of many of the publicly traded news organizations. To me, the really interesting thing to watch will be down below the surface. It’ll be hard to see all at once, but even with all of the fear, greed, and loss in our industry, something beautiful is happening to the news ecosystem.
It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization. Most legacy executives have to embrace survival strategies — which leaves an opportunity of a lifetime for the risk-taker to take. There will be plenty of variables of structure and approach, but 2020 will be a tipping-point year for this new age of journalism ownership and stewardship.
We won’t hear about most of these startups. They’ll grind behind the scenes in communities everywhere. There’s just too much talent out there and too many opportunities to quell the rising of this new era of the news entrepreneur. In 2020, these new leaders will build their plans, gather their teams, and get to work — launching hundreds of new sources of local news. It’s going to be awesome.
John Garrett is CEO of Community Impact Newspaper.
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
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Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
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Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
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Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
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Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
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Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Mario García Think small (screen)
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Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
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Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
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Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
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Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
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Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
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Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
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Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
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Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations