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