Wall Street CEOs and banks alike are grappling with our economic future in 2023, with daily predictions of a recession (or not) fluctuating. U.S. local and national media outlets are preparing for extensive coverage of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, extremism and democracy. One of the largest legacy newsrooms in the world has announced a significant restructuring of its international operations (read: downsizing) in the next few weeks. It seems the advertising revenue just isn’t there. What we’ve seen happen when media outlets make cuts in decades past will come back once again: international bureaus will close, coverage will consolidate, and global reporting will suffer.
The work we’ve done as an industry in recent years to step away from parachute journalism by building new models and institutions to support global local journalists as reporters and editors will be affected. Which, in turn, will affect the quality of coverage — and the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation — available to U.S. readers and audiences.
The industry has documented the spread of fake news in U.S. elections extensively. But there aren’t enough Pinocchios or Daniel Dales to combat potential false leads on TikTok, Twitter, or cable networks here in the U.S., let alone upcoming elections in Nigeria, Pakistan or Myanmar in 2023. Yes, we still see coverage of Ukraine and protests in Iran, but we miss so much more. For instance, we hear hardly anything about Afghanistan, where the U.S. spent 20 years. Next year, will we know what restrictions the Taliban has extended to local media organizations, or how it has allowed the continuation of spread of misinformation? It’s unlikely.
U.S. audiences will be less informed about the world. What happens as the world’s second largest economy, China, decides to open up or remain closed under a zero-Covid policy next year? That decision will impact inflation, energy prices, global consumer spending, and interest rates. But coverage of that decision will be limited because many newsrooms just don’t have the funds.
Just as importantly, the pivot toward ad dollars and wall-to-wall U.S. election coverage could deal a blow to the strides our industry has made in recent years, acknowledging we are better served as journalists and consumers of news when journalism reflects the communities we cover. We’ve worked hard as an industry to hire an East Africa bureau chief from Kenya, see U.S. national newsrooms partner with mighty local-global ones, train local reporters to become correspondents in Delhi and, generally, moved away from calling regional veteran journalists fixers. Yes, there is still a long way to go, but the erosion of the work many independent, nonprofit, and a few legacy and corporate newsrooms have done will diminish the quality of coverage would, frankly, bring us back to some very bad journalism practices and bad journalism.
Global news coverage will depend in 2023, in part, on philanthropy, memberships, sponsorship. and new forms of revenue to continue, to support, and double down, on the growth of new journalism models, new business models and new newsrooms as our storied institutions turn toward Washington D.C. and inwards Most importantly, we must hold ourselves, as an industry, to account next year.
Khushbu Shah is the head of development for Rest of World, a nonprofit publication that covers the impact of tech outside the West.
Wall Street CEOs and banks alike are grappling with our economic future in 2023, with daily predictions of a recession (or not) fluctuating. U.S. local and national media outlets are preparing for extensive coverage of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, extremism and democracy. One of the largest legacy newsrooms in the world has announced a significant restructuring of its international operations (read: downsizing) in the next few weeks. It seems the advertising revenue just isn’t there. What we’ve seen happen when media outlets make cuts in decades past will come back once again: international bureaus will close, coverage will consolidate, and global reporting will suffer.
The work we’ve done as an industry in recent years to step away from parachute journalism by building new models and institutions to support global local journalists as reporters and editors will be affected. Which, in turn, will affect the quality of coverage — and the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation — available to U.S. readers and audiences.
The industry has documented the spread of fake news in U.S. elections extensively. But there aren’t enough Pinocchios or Daniel Dales to combat potential false leads on TikTok, Twitter, or cable networks here in the U.S., let alone upcoming elections in Nigeria, Pakistan or Myanmar in 2023. Yes, we still see coverage of Ukraine and protests in Iran, but we miss so much more. For instance, we hear hardly anything about Afghanistan, where the U.S. spent 20 years. Next year, will we know what restrictions the Taliban has extended to local media organizations, or how it has allowed the continuation of spread of misinformation? It’s unlikely.
U.S. audiences will be less informed about the world. What happens as the world’s second largest economy, China, decides to open up or remain closed under a zero-Covid policy next year? That decision will impact inflation, energy prices, global consumer spending, and interest rates. But coverage of that decision will be limited because many newsrooms just don’t have the funds.
Just as importantly, the pivot toward ad dollars and wall-to-wall U.S. election coverage could deal a blow to the strides our industry has made in recent years, acknowledging we are better served as journalists and consumers of news when journalism reflects the communities we cover. We’ve worked hard as an industry to hire an East Africa bureau chief from Kenya, see U.S. national newsrooms partner with mighty local-global ones, train local reporters to become correspondents in Delhi and, generally, moved away from calling regional veteran journalists fixers. Yes, there is still a long way to go, but the erosion of the work many independent, nonprofit, and a few legacy and corporate newsrooms have done will diminish the quality of coverage would, frankly, bring us back to some very bad journalism practices and bad journalism.
Global news coverage will depend in 2023, in part, on philanthropy, memberships, sponsorship. and new forms of revenue to continue, to support, and double down, on the growth of new journalism models, new business models and new newsrooms as our storied institutions turn toward Washington D.C. and inwards Most importantly, we must hold ourselves, as an industry, to account next year.
Khushbu Shah is the head of development for Rest of World, a nonprofit publication that covers the impact of tech outside the West.
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Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
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Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
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Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
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Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
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Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
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Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
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Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
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Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
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Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
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Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
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Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
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Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
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Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
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Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
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Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
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Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
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Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
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David Cohn AI made this prediction
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
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Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
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Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
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Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
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Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
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Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
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Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made