A reporter walks into an open-plan office. “I’ve got this very interesting story going in a couple of days,” they say, “and I think we could do some graphics with that data I’ve got. Who should I talk to?”
That reporter is in a bit of a pickle. They spot name cards on the table, reading Graphics Desk, Digital Graphics, Interactive Team, Visual Journalism — and they rightly wonder who they should be talking to. “What’s the difference between these teams anyway?” they think. “I just want a chart.”
He approaches the first table. “Well, we kind of have our plates full right now, plus it kind of sounds like something The Other Team could do, right?” The reporter nods politely and goes to talk to The Other Team. “Oh, well, we’re a bit short-staffed at the minute, and your dataset only has like five data points in it. And they look like very round numbers to me — did you make them up?” Of course the reporter didn’t; that’s what was in the press release. “This is a job for The Previous Team, surely.”
And on it goes, adding to the confusion.
Fortunately, 2021 is going to change the face of this culture war that exists in some organizations between established (and often print-oriented) graphics desks and newer teams — thanks to a bit of technology and some goodwill.
Traditional narratives assume that publishing online and in print require different workflows, file formats, and so on. But do they? Chart-building tools and companies have outdone themselves recently, bringing more templates, greater ease of use, and more interoperability between output formats and APIs. The Los Angeles Times’ success in unifying digital and print output, leveraging the power of Datawrapper, is one example to look to.
Granted, technical solutions require technical resources to be sussed out and implemented, which can take time and resources. But they also pay off immediately in minimizing duplication of labor.
There’s value in joining forces in this space. The avenues for collaboration and unification of the coverage across screen, platform, and paper are huge — and who doesn’t want to see their beautifully designed piece looking gorgeous on a Retina iPhone and full-width in the newspaper?
Different teams bring different skill sets, which can be in short supply elsewhere. Data/programming skills, illustration talent, advanced GIS-fu: With less duplication getting in the way, these skills can be more widely employed, shared, and nurtured.
Finally, encouraging contact between these previously separate tribes will also inspire and develop new career paths for all — whether one dreams in CMYK or RGB.
The next frontier, of course, is broadcast — a realm of truncated axes and 3d pie charts. But let’s start with 2021, shall we?
Basile Simon is a freelance coder-journalist specializing in data visualization.
A reporter walks into an open-plan office. “I’ve got this very interesting story going in a couple of days,” they say, “and I think we could do some graphics with that data I’ve got. Who should I talk to?”
That reporter is in a bit of a pickle. They spot name cards on the table, reading Graphics Desk, Digital Graphics, Interactive Team, Visual Journalism — and they rightly wonder who they should be talking to. “What’s the difference between these teams anyway?” they think. “I just want a chart.”
He approaches the first table. “Well, we kind of have our plates full right now, plus it kind of sounds like something The Other Team could do, right?” The reporter nods politely and goes to talk to The Other Team. “Oh, well, we’re a bit short-staffed at the minute, and your dataset only has like five data points in it. And they look like very round numbers to me — did you make them up?” Of course the reporter didn’t; that’s what was in the press release. “This is a job for The Previous Team, surely.”
And on it goes, adding to the confusion.
Fortunately, 2021 is going to change the face of this culture war that exists in some organizations between established (and often print-oriented) graphics desks and newer teams — thanks to a bit of technology and some goodwill.
Traditional narratives assume that publishing online and in print require different workflows, file formats, and so on. But do they? Chart-building tools and companies have outdone themselves recently, bringing more templates, greater ease of use, and more interoperability between output formats and APIs. The Los Angeles Times’ success in unifying digital and print output, leveraging the power of Datawrapper, is one example to look to.
Granted, technical solutions require technical resources to be sussed out and implemented, which can take time and resources. But they also pay off immediately in minimizing duplication of labor.
There’s value in joining forces in this space. The avenues for collaboration and unification of the coverage across screen, platform, and paper are huge — and who doesn’t want to see their beautifully designed piece looking gorgeous on a Retina iPhone and full-width in the newspaper?
Different teams bring different skill sets, which can be in short supply elsewhere. Data/programming skills, illustration talent, advanced GIS-fu: With less duplication getting in the way, these skills can be more widely employed, shared, and nurtured.
Finally, encouraging contact between these previously separate tribes will also inspire and develop new career paths for all — whether one dreams in CMYK or RGB.
The next frontier, of course, is broadcast — a realm of truncated axes and 3d pie charts. But let’s start with 2021, shall we?
Basile Simon is a freelance coder-journalist specializing in data visualization.
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side