Time and time again, it’s the same ol’ story.
A white man has a dream, investors support that dream, propel them to new heights, the press jumps in for the dance, and then either we all ride the rays into the sun or melt from getting too close. There have been so many busts, winters, and bears from these recurring events that it starts to feel like a requirement for the game. If anything, it makes for a good story.
When I started out in business and tech reporting, I realized quickly that there was a lack of intersectionality in coverage. I’m not talking about 2020, when every publication started backtracking to highlight minority communities. I mean that the natural way of business and technology reporting is generalized for the white understanding. Diversity is a separate article, if not separate expertise.
Diverse perspectives are rarely legitimized as sources for topics other than diversity, and said communities are often reported on once a year — or once a tragedy. It’s never routine, never guaranteed. This produces work without nuance, far from being as intersectional as the actual business and tech audiences are. Such reporting is more than just the numbers and the latest gear; rather, it’s the regular awareness of the past, present, and future of how classism, racism, and gender discrimination have economically intersected to shape the world we live in today.
This often means more scrutiny, more challenges, and more asking hard questions. It’s asking the top names at those big venture firms those big questions while they sit on on those big stages for their quarterly diversity investment reports. It’s covering Miami’s crypto boom alongside the increased housing challenges that result from it. It’s thinking more critically and doing more work; it is understanding how redlining in Silicon Valley contributes to an opportunity gap for aspiring Black entrepreneurs and connecting how a new era of startups could service the needs of the historically overlooked.
It’s more stories from the depths of #BlackTechTwitter. It’s the idea that business and tech verticals should look as intersectional as the audience they want reading them. Reporters need to be doing more work.
Next year, I want to see the hiring and retention of diverse staff reporters — and I don’t mean just white women — who are then given platforms to not only cover the news of business and tech but also give opinions and analysis. The key here is putting these reporters on staff and granting them the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as white business reporters. This is not just for the sake of their own communities but for the sake of these industries overall.
I believe this will help bring business moguls and tech barons to account more often. White business reporters tend to softball the white men in power, who make up most of the people they cover, and not until they’re forced to or it’s too late do they start to backtrack. It’s this benefit-of-a-doubt understanding that reinforces unchecked power. Furthermore, the same perspective is always chasing the same type of story.
At times, it feels as if there’s a lack of accountability; that issues minority communities point out are either not taken seriously or take too long to land on the radar of those who make of the mainstream. Opening up a bit more will inspire new audiences and reach new hopes and dreams.
It will also help us fight back more against the powers-in-Allbirds who constantly try to devalue the work we do. The power of the press is for the people, and we need not wait for bear markets to show the outliers and outward liars. Having more diverse reporters and editors will also help ensure adequate coverage of minorities in power, because staffers with knowledge of non-white and even non-American communities can better frame societal issues free of stereotypes.
There will be an increased need for such diverse reporting, if not just for the fact that it makes for good storytelling. Tech and entrepreneurial audiences have expanded, and as a result, the mystique of the industry is fading; people see through the smoke and want to keep those hiding in the shadows on their toes. There’s an appetite for more insights dedicated to helping diverse communities understand the way technology and businesses intersect with their lives, as there is for commentary reflecting the perspective many minorities hold.
Journalists are the craftspeople of power, politics, culture, and privilege. Changing the face of journalism starts by changing the tastemakers who curate our stories. Can you name, right now, five Black business and tech editors at any of the top publications? Ten names, right now. Then name five more Black reporters on staff covering the same thing.
Look at even the new media startups who claim to want to tell new stories, to reach new readers. Look at their masthead and then read their work. The lack of diverse insight, analysis, and segregated coverage seems intentional — like a form of editorial redlining. Next year, I’m hoping the next generation of business and tech reporters break through.
Dominic-Madori Davis is a senior reporter at TechCrunch covering venture capital and startups.
Time and time again, it’s the same ol’ story.
A white man has a dream, investors support that dream, propel them to new heights, the press jumps in for the dance, and then either we all ride the rays into the sun or melt from getting too close. There have been so many busts, winters, and bears from these recurring events that it starts to feel like a requirement for the game. If anything, it makes for a good story.
When I started out in business and tech reporting, I realized quickly that there was a lack of intersectionality in coverage. I’m not talking about 2020, when every publication started backtracking to highlight minority communities. I mean that the natural way of business and technology reporting is generalized for the white understanding. Diversity is a separate article, if not separate expertise.
Diverse perspectives are rarely legitimized as sources for topics other than diversity, and said communities are often reported on once a year — or once a tragedy. It’s never routine, never guaranteed. This produces work without nuance, far from being as intersectional as the actual business and tech audiences are. Such reporting is more than just the numbers and the latest gear; rather, it’s the regular awareness of the past, present, and future of how classism, racism, and gender discrimination have economically intersected to shape the world we live in today.
This often means more scrutiny, more challenges, and more asking hard questions. It’s asking the top names at those big venture firms those big questions while they sit on on those big stages for their quarterly diversity investment reports. It’s covering Miami’s crypto boom alongside the increased housing challenges that result from it. It’s thinking more critically and doing more work; it is understanding how redlining in Silicon Valley contributes to an opportunity gap for aspiring Black entrepreneurs and connecting how a new era of startups could service the needs of the historically overlooked.
It’s more stories from the depths of #BlackTechTwitter. It’s the idea that business and tech verticals should look as intersectional as the audience they want reading them. Reporters need to be doing more work.
Next year, I want to see the hiring and retention of diverse staff reporters — and I don’t mean just white women — who are then given platforms to not only cover the news of business and tech but also give opinions and analysis. The key here is putting these reporters on staff and granting them the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as white business reporters. This is not just for the sake of their own communities but for the sake of these industries overall.
I believe this will help bring business moguls and tech barons to account more often. White business reporters tend to softball the white men in power, who make up most of the people they cover, and not until they’re forced to or it’s too late do they start to backtrack. It’s this benefit-of-a-doubt understanding that reinforces unchecked power. Furthermore, the same perspective is always chasing the same type of story.
At times, it feels as if there’s a lack of accountability; that issues minority communities point out are either not taken seriously or take too long to land on the radar of those who make of the mainstream. Opening up a bit more will inspire new audiences and reach new hopes and dreams.
It will also help us fight back more against the powers-in-Allbirds who constantly try to devalue the work we do. The power of the press is for the people, and we need not wait for bear markets to show the outliers and outward liars. Having more diverse reporters and editors will also help ensure adequate coverage of minorities in power, because staffers with knowledge of non-white and even non-American communities can better frame societal issues free of stereotypes.
There will be an increased need for such diverse reporting, if not just for the fact that it makes for good storytelling. Tech and entrepreneurial audiences have expanded, and as a result, the mystique of the industry is fading; people see through the smoke and want to keep those hiding in the shadows on their toes. There’s an appetite for more insights dedicated to helping diverse communities understand the way technology and businesses intersect with their lives, as there is for commentary reflecting the perspective many minorities hold.
Journalists are the craftspeople of power, politics, culture, and privilege. Changing the face of journalism starts by changing the tastemakers who curate our stories. Can you name, right now, five Black business and tech editors at any of the top publications? Ten names, right now. Then name five more Black reporters on staff covering the same thing.
Look at even the new media startups who claim to want to tell new stories, to reach new readers. Look at their masthead and then read their work. The lack of diverse insight, analysis, and segregated coverage seems intentional — like a form of editorial redlining. Next year, I’m hoping the next generation of business and tech reporters break through.
Dominic-Madori Davis is a senior reporter at TechCrunch covering venture capital and startups.
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.