“How Would You Feel About A 100-Year-Old Doctor?”
This recent New York Times headline got me wondering if I was digital journalism’s version of a 100-year-old doctor. After all, I’m old enough to have my 50th high school reunion penciled in on my calendar for next year.
Why would Nieman Lab ask somebody as old as I am to predict the future of journalism?
My answer, as an AARP card-carrying Boomer, is that I’m predicting 2023 will be a year of intergenerational learning that will have a positive impact on the future of journalism. There is so much we can do together if we can build on the experiences that have shaped how we see the world and live our lives. Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Zers, and Boomers, it’s time to join forces to make journalism that serves all of our communities and helps make our world a better place for all.
Here are some positive signs there is value in our hard-won gray hairs and wrinkles.
Admittedly, there are a lot of factors that could get in the way of my prediction coming true. One obvious one is that Boomers have the hubris to believe that we know what’s best. That’s just one of many justifiable reasons that our experience is undervalued. Members of my generation have had an unfair advantage due to our gender, race, and privilege. We may not even know what we don’t know or the harm we have caused.
That said, local news is in crisis. Public trust in journalism is at an all-time low. Our business model is failing. The first amendment is under attack. What does our industry have to lose? Maybe Boomers like me can leverage our experience to clean up some of the mess our generation created.
Check back with me next year to find out.
John Davidow is a founder of Media Bridge Partners.
“How Would You Feel About A 100-Year-Old Doctor?”
This recent New York Times headline got me wondering if I was digital journalism’s version of a 100-year-old doctor. After all, I’m old enough to have my 50th high school reunion penciled in on my calendar for next year.
Why would Nieman Lab ask somebody as old as I am to predict the future of journalism?
My answer, as an AARP card-carrying Boomer, is that I’m predicting 2023 will be a year of intergenerational learning that will have a positive impact on the future of journalism. There is so much we can do together if we can build on the experiences that have shaped how we see the world and live our lives. Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Zers, and Boomers, it’s time to join forces to make journalism that serves all of our communities and helps make our world a better place for all.
Here are some positive signs there is value in our hard-won gray hairs and wrinkles.
Admittedly, there are a lot of factors that could get in the way of my prediction coming true. One obvious one is that Boomers have the hubris to believe that we know what’s best. That’s just one of many justifiable reasons that our experience is undervalued. Members of my generation have had an unfair advantage due to our gender, race, and privilege. We may not even know what we don’t know or the harm we have caused.
That said, local news is in crisis. Public trust in journalism is at an all-time low. Our business model is failing. The first amendment is under attack. What does our industry have to lose? Maybe Boomers like me can leverage our experience to clean up some of the mess our generation created.
Check back with me next year to find out.
John Davidow is a founder of Media Bridge Partners.
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials