I’ve been much less certain about my predictions in years past, but I’m confident that 2020 is going to be the year when the climate crisis becomes a central story for news organizations. It will take its place where it deserves to be — as a touching-every-aspect-of-life story.
The climate crisis is an existential threat for the world as we’ve known it. Given that, will the story get all the resources it deserves from already-strapped news organizations? Probably not. But there were multiple examples of serious journalistic commitments in 2019 which point the way forward. Some examples:
In the tech world, where I’ve lived for the last six years, there are many communities of people forming that are devoting themselves to working on climate solutions. Bryce Roberts, a venture capitalist, said on Twitter recently, “Climate change is the new crypto. Many of the smartest people in tech shifting their time, attention and dollars to the escalating climate crisis.”
What pushed the story to the forefront? Certainly Greta Thunberg deserves a lot of credit. And then there are the alarming, ticking-time-bomb facts: Climate-related disasters are happening with ever greater frequency, and the warming of the planet is accelerating. I also think the growing backlash against plastics has made our disregard for the planet a real, tangible thing for people, as opposed to something scientific, distant, and amorphous.
Many rightfully argue that all of this should have happened sooner, it’s not happening fast enough, and there still aren’t enough attention and resources being committed given the scale and urgency of the problem. But I’m choosing to see the glass as half full and to take comfort in the public commitments from news organizations, which are solid steps in the right direction.
I also think you’ll see more news organizations make sustainability commitments themselves, like The Guardian’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. I believe companies across all industries will not be able to hire and retain the next generation of talent if they don’t act sustainably.
Geoff Dembicki of Vice says that as we say goodbye to the 2010’s, we’re also saying goodbye to polite conversation about climate change. I hope he’s right.
Fiona Spruill is former chief operating officer at Meetup and a former editor at The New York Times.
I’ve been much less certain about my predictions in years past, but I’m confident that 2020 is going to be the year when the climate crisis becomes a central story for news organizations. It will take its place where it deserves to be — as a touching-every-aspect-of-life story.
The climate crisis is an existential threat for the world as we’ve known it. Given that, will the story get all the resources it deserves from already-strapped news organizations? Probably not. But there were multiple examples of serious journalistic commitments in 2019 which point the way forward. Some examples:
In the tech world, where I’ve lived for the last six years, there are many communities of people forming that are devoting themselves to working on climate solutions. Bryce Roberts, a venture capitalist, said on Twitter recently, “Climate change is the new crypto. Many of the smartest people in tech shifting their time, attention and dollars to the escalating climate crisis.”
What pushed the story to the forefront? Certainly Greta Thunberg deserves a lot of credit. And then there are the alarming, ticking-time-bomb facts: Climate-related disasters are happening with ever greater frequency, and the warming of the planet is accelerating. I also think the growing backlash against plastics has made our disregard for the planet a real, tangible thing for people, as opposed to something scientific, distant, and amorphous.
Many rightfully argue that all of this should have happened sooner, it’s not happening fast enough, and there still aren’t enough attention and resources being committed given the scale and urgency of the problem. But I’m choosing to see the glass as half full and to take comfort in the public commitments from news organizations, which are solid steps in the right direction.
I also think you’ll see more news organizations make sustainability commitments themselves, like The Guardian’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. I believe companies across all industries will not be able to hire and retain the next generation of talent if they don’t act sustainably.
Geoff Dembicki of Vice says that as we say goodbye to the 2010’s, we’re also saying goodbye to polite conversation about climate change. I hope he’s right.
Fiona Spruill is former chief operating officer at Meetup and a former editor at The New York Times.
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
An Xiao Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Mario García Think small (screen)
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter