The last few years saw a much-needed focus on monetization and, as a result, the industry has seen several changes — particularly a shift away from chasing top-line user metrics and clicks and toward engagement and revenue, especially subscriptions and membership. Alongside this trend, many publishers have built great technology and product teams made of people drawn to their compelling missions.
But now’s the time for publishers to change tactics. Although driving revenue was critical, there has been only limited innovation around products, formats, and new ways of storytelling — especially when compared to other sectors such as finance and health which are seeing radical transformations.
Instead, many teams within news organizations have become obsessed with process and being agile — making methodology rather than outcomes their north star. But agile is not a strategy — it is a capability: a very valuable one with immediate operational benefits, but one that cannot permanently affect a publisher’s competitive position unless there’s a strategy behind it that helps the team take the right decisions at the right time.
Or else teams have got caught up in constant cycles of optimization (often around subscriber flows), which offers little more than diminishing returns. Organizations are not considering the opportunity costs of their work: Just because an initiative may improve a metric or the experience of a user doesn’t automatically mean it should be done. A good idea is not the same as a great opportunity.
I’ve yet to meet a team in a news organization that suffers from a shortage of good ideas. But I have met teams that have clogged up their roadmaps with lots of good ideas that, cumulatively, have little impact. Saying yes to every good idea, however small, means you’re not making time for the great opportunities.
But 2020 should be the year when newsrooms go back to basics and, rather than just focusing on process and optimization, instead prioritize industry-changing product innovation.
The first step of this will see publishers return to the key question: “How does your product grow?” It’s one of the most important questions to be able to answer. Growth is necessary for the very existence of most products and services, and it serves as evidence that you have a compelling proposition — especially if growth is driven by both new and loyal returning readers. Unfortunately, news organizations have tried very hard to distance themselves from growth as an objective over the past three years due to accusations of vanity metrics and clickbait. But growth is necessary for future success.
The best product strategies are about being different. It means deliberately choosing a path to deliver a hard-to-copy mix of value in your market. But much of today’s journalism — in terms of both content and format — feels very similar. Do publishers really understand how they deliver value? Many may say yes — but when did they last ask their readers, potential readers, or (perhaps even more critically) their lapsed readers?
As we enter 2020, publishers will begin to recognize that they need new need strategies, new propositions, and a deep understanding of how they add value for their different audiences in order to build the next phase of sustainable growth. This will require not just radical new strategic thinking, but also developing new levels of understanding of users and collaborative ways of working across the entire organization.
Tanya Cordrey is a product and technology consultant and former chief digital officer of Guardian News & Media.
The last few years saw a much-needed focus on monetization and, as a result, the industry has seen several changes — particularly a shift away from chasing top-line user metrics and clicks and toward engagement and revenue, especially subscriptions and membership. Alongside this trend, many publishers have built great technology and product teams made of people drawn to their compelling missions.
But now’s the time for publishers to change tactics. Although driving revenue was critical, there has been only limited innovation around products, formats, and new ways of storytelling — especially when compared to other sectors such as finance and health which are seeing radical transformations.
Instead, many teams within news organizations have become obsessed with process and being agile — making methodology rather than outcomes their north star. But agile is not a strategy — it is a capability: a very valuable one with immediate operational benefits, but one that cannot permanently affect a publisher’s competitive position unless there’s a strategy behind it that helps the team take the right decisions at the right time.
Or else teams have got caught up in constant cycles of optimization (often around subscriber flows), which offers little more than diminishing returns. Organizations are not considering the opportunity costs of their work: Just because an initiative may improve a metric or the experience of a user doesn’t automatically mean it should be done. A good idea is not the same as a great opportunity.
I’ve yet to meet a team in a news organization that suffers from a shortage of good ideas. But I have met teams that have clogged up their roadmaps with lots of good ideas that, cumulatively, have little impact. Saying yes to every good idea, however small, means you’re not making time for the great opportunities.
But 2020 should be the year when newsrooms go back to basics and, rather than just focusing on process and optimization, instead prioritize industry-changing product innovation.
The first step of this will see publishers return to the key question: “How does your product grow?” It’s one of the most important questions to be able to answer. Growth is necessary for the very existence of most products and services, and it serves as evidence that you have a compelling proposition — especially if growth is driven by both new and loyal returning readers. Unfortunately, news organizations have tried very hard to distance themselves from growth as an objective over the past three years due to accusations of vanity metrics and clickbait. But growth is necessary for future success.
The best product strategies are about being different. It means deliberately choosing a path to deliver a hard-to-copy mix of value in your market. But much of today’s journalism — in terms of both content and format — feels very similar. Do publishers really understand how they deliver value? Many may say yes — but when did they last ask their readers, potential readers, or (perhaps even more critically) their lapsed readers?
As we enter 2020, publishers will begin to recognize that they need new need strategies, new propositions, and a deep understanding of how they add value for their different audiences in order to build the next phase of sustainable growth. This will require not just radical new strategic thinking, but also developing new levels of understanding of users and collaborative ways of working across the entire organization.
Tanya Cordrey is a product and technology consultant and former chief digital officer of Guardian News & Media.
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Mario García Think small (screen)
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart