Surely, somewhere in those dashboards and spreadsheets, the answer to journalism’s failing business model must be hiding. Maybe if we just vacuum up more personal data…
Journalists love data. Newsrooms love data. Sales teams love data. Everyone with a challenge loves data. We’ve never had more of it and yet, we fear we don’t have enough.
In an era where journalism is only slightly more trusted than Congress, gorging on data to micro-target users won’t help us make the major difference necessary to earn people’s trust. According to the Reuters Institute 2022 Digital News Report, only 18% of people in the U.S. say they trust news websites to use their data responsibly.
Obviously, seeking data isn’t wrong, as long as the answers we seek will help us better serve communities. In 2023, the public service news sector should adopt a set of “mission-driven metrics” that help newsrooms gather and analyze data to not only drive decisions that increase reach and revenue, but also evaluate community engagement, representation, and, most importantly, community satisfaction.
The News Revenue Hub is part of a growing cohort of journalism support organizations that exist to ensure the success of independent digital news organizations. We, along with our colleagues at Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, RevLab at Texas Tribune, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), Local Media Association (LMA), Newspack, Indiegraf, and Blue Lena are positioned to not only provide complementary services, but also advocate for user-centered practices. The Knight Foundation has begun convening service providers with this goal in mind, and we’re already making progress.
Shifting our collective mindset from data mining to mission-driven metrics will fundamentally shift how we relate to news consumers. Instead of digitally stalking users, news teams will spend more time openly engaging with communities and asking people what they want.
Truly mission-driven metrics will show organizations if they’re serving the communities they say they serve; if they’re producing reporting that benefits people. These are the North Star metrics against which we should be judged, and how funding should be justly awarded.
In the future, mission-driven metrics will emerge as the only way news organizations survive the collapse of our business model and continue to build trust in communities. If a united group of committed service providers and funders support that effort, it will answer the questions we’re all asking.
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper are cofounders of News Revenue Hub.
Surely, somewhere in those dashboards and spreadsheets, the answer to journalism’s failing business model must be hiding. Maybe if we just vacuum up more personal data…
Journalists love data. Newsrooms love data. Sales teams love data. Everyone with a challenge loves data. We’ve never had more of it and yet, we fear we don’t have enough.
In an era where journalism is only slightly more trusted than Congress, gorging on data to micro-target users won’t help us make the major difference necessary to earn people’s trust. According to the Reuters Institute 2022 Digital News Report, only 18% of people in the U.S. say they trust news websites to use their data responsibly.
Obviously, seeking data isn’t wrong, as long as the answers we seek will help us better serve communities. In 2023, the public service news sector should adopt a set of “mission-driven metrics” that help newsrooms gather and analyze data to not only drive decisions that increase reach and revenue, but also evaluate community engagement, representation, and, most importantly, community satisfaction.
The News Revenue Hub is part of a growing cohort of journalism support organizations that exist to ensure the success of independent digital news organizations. We, along with our colleagues at Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, RevLab at Texas Tribune, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), Local Media Association (LMA), Newspack, Indiegraf, and Blue Lena are positioned to not only provide complementary services, but also advocate for user-centered practices. The Knight Foundation has begun convening service providers with this goal in mind, and we’re already making progress.
Shifting our collective mindset from data mining to mission-driven metrics will fundamentally shift how we relate to news consumers. Instead of digitally stalking users, news teams will spend more time openly engaging with communities and asking people what they want.
Truly mission-driven metrics will show organizations if they’re serving the communities they say they serve; if they’re producing reporting that benefits people. These are the North Star metrics against which we should be judged, and how funding should be justly awarded.
In the future, mission-driven metrics will emerge as the only way news organizations survive the collapse of our business model and continue to build trust in communities. If a united group of committed service providers and funders support that effort, it will answer the questions we’re all asking.
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper are cofounders of News Revenue Hub.
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first