With more digital journalists coordinating in unions, supposed business experts bungling media takeovers, and technology creating new kinds of paid jobs in journalism, journalists will try their hand at running entire operations.
Journalists will experiment with new ways of delivering and monetizing journalism. Many of their enterprises will fail, but no more often than more traditional and MBA-run operations do. Their successes will bring the field closer to figuring out how to keep making what the world needs but hasn’t yet figured out how to pay for.
Relatedly, something like a new Gawker Media — with many former Gawker Media journalists — will be born.
Carl Bialik is data science editor at Yelp.
With more digital journalists coordinating in unions, supposed business experts bungling media takeovers, and technology creating new kinds of paid jobs in journalism, journalists will try their hand at running entire operations.
Journalists will experiment with new ways of delivering and monetizing journalism. Many of their enterprises will fail, but no more often than more traditional and MBA-run operations do. Their successes will bring the field closer to figuring out how to keep making what the world needs but hasn’t yet figured out how to pay for.
Relatedly, something like a new Gawker Media — with many former Gawker Media journalists — will be born.
Carl Bialik is data science editor at Yelp.
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Mario García Think small (screen)
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Carrie Brown Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change