The relationship between news organizations and the public is difficult. So is the relationship between news organizations and their journalists. We’re tackling multiple unknowns at once, at a speed that makes many of us feel overstretched and underprepared for our jobs — or for what we think should be our jobs.
Could it be that honest conversations about our experiences — within our teams, within a wider organizational structure, and with our readers — might help relieve some of that pressure and provide solutions?
Just as a more experienced colleague can help a young journalist dealing with a tricky reporting situation, or be a sounding board for untangling complicated narratives, so can a reader with expertise in a particular field provide insights or a new perspective to help unblock projects feeling the weight of indecision.
Small media organizations without resources for long-term strategic thinking could do a lot worse than asking their readers what directions they could follow in the future. At DoR — an independent journalism platform that helps readers connect, understand one another and what they can do to tackle the problems of modern-day Romania — we’ve embarked on a journey to establish a feedback loop with our readers, through surveys, in-person interviews, and focus groups.
It’s easy to start a conversation with readers when you want to discuss the subjects you’re reporting on. Many journalists do this with resounding success and see their own work benefit from these check-ins with their audience. But it’s another process entirely when you’re hoping to build a shared understanding of each other’s relationships with journalism: for them to know why you’re there as a journalist, and for you to understand why they’re there as readers.
Building common ground takes time, effort, and uncomfortable conversations, but we’re likely to see more editorial teams dedicating resources to this in 2020. Publishers hoping that reader revenue holds the key to at least sustainability (if not growth) will need more than a lead-acquisition campaign. (Though that’s definitely also on our wishlist at DoR for 2020!). We’re all going to need more readers who understand our mission and our values — and for that to happen, we need to talk more, listen more, and work together.
Catalina Albeanu is digital editor at Romania’s DoR (Decât o Revistă).
The relationship between news organizations and the public is difficult. So is the relationship between news organizations and their journalists. We’re tackling multiple unknowns at once, at a speed that makes many of us feel overstretched and underprepared for our jobs — or for what we think should be our jobs.
Could it be that honest conversations about our experiences — within our teams, within a wider organizational structure, and with our readers — might help relieve some of that pressure and provide solutions?
Just as a more experienced colleague can help a young journalist dealing with a tricky reporting situation, or be a sounding board for untangling complicated narratives, so can a reader with expertise in a particular field provide insights or a new perspective to help unblock projects feeling the weight of indecision.
Small media organizations without resources for long-term strategic thinking could do a lot worse than asking their readers what directions they could follow in the future. At DoR — an independent journalism platform that helps readers connect, understand one another and what they can do to tackle the problems of modern-day Romania — we’ve embarked on a journey to establish a feedback loop with our readers, through surveys, in-person interviews, and focus groups.
It’s easy to start a conversation with readers when you want to discuss the subjects you’re reporting on. Many journalists do this with resounding success and see their own work benefit from these check-ins with their audience. But it’s another process entirely when you’re hoping to build a shared understanding of each other’s relationships with journalism: for them to know why you’re there as a journalist, and for you to understand why they’re there as readers.
Building common ground takes time, effort, and uncomfortable conversations, but we’re likely to see more editorial teams dedicating resources to this in 2020. Publishers hoping that reader revenue holds the key to at least sustainability (if not growth) will need more than a lead-acquisition campaign. (Though that’s definitely also on our wishlist at DoR for 2020!). We’re all going to need more readers who understand our mission and our values — and for that to happen, we need to talk more, listen more, and work together.
Catalina Albeanu is digital editor at Romania’s DoR (Decât o Revistă).
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
james Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
An Xiao Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Joshua Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
L. Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Mario García Think small (screen)
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Richard J. Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency