Twenty years ago, digital journalists still needed to prove their relevance to the field of journalism. Some of their colleagues asked if the internet was here to stay. Not only did it stay, it transformed journalism. With more than 7,800 media jobs lost just this year, it’s now the journalism field that must prove its relevance — this time, to the community. Many people are already asking if journalism is here to stay.
Digital news is here to stay, and I predict it will become even more essential in helping communities navigate a complex and fast-paced future. But that future requires a shift in our priorities.
With declining revenue, it’s no surprise the industry’s priorities have been digital transformation, metrics, and analytics. We’ve also embraced moving from thinking about “audience” to “community.” Each of those is important, but none will matter if we don’t also invest in the people doing the work and keeping them in the field.
At the Online News Association, our data overwhelmingly suggests a lack of newsroom training — in leadership skills and in strategies for harnessing innovation to create valuable, reliable information for communities. In 2020, newsrooms will need to build leaders and managers differently. For far too long, we’ve taken for granted that leadership is something you learn on the job.
Effective leaders find ways to inspire teams to achieve an aspirational vision. The defining measure of any leader is the culture they create — proactively or not. If you asked your colleagues to define your organization’s core mission and purpose, would you get a consistent answer? And that goes well beyond the popularized Silicon Valley version of “culture.” One issue with culture for most teams is a “do as I say, not what I do” approach. Do you say you value diversity to external audiences, but never attempt to improve your internal team diversity? True leaders reconcile this mismatch between vision and reality to create real alignment.
Digital transformation isn’t a new topic. But many news organizations still struggle to define what it means and embrace an environment that supports change. That’s because there is a daily grind to innovation that’s not pretty and not always the next bright and shiny thing. Future leaders will ask more questions than offer answers, and they’ll focus on the “why” of their community’s needs.
Too few leaders grasp that their own growth depends on helping other people grow. One of my mentors said that one of the first jobs a great leader does is to find the person who will replace them. Newsrooms will need to find future leadership replacements collectively across the field and give those individuals training, resources, and support now — not later. The world is becoming more diverse at all different levels and communities will expect that our newsrooms do the same. It’s also how people start to feel better about local news.
With a focus on building stronger newsroom leaders, digital journalists will be better positioned to tackle key issues next year such as misinformation, audience development, and emerging tech. But ultimately, if the system doesn’t change, it will set people up to fail.
Irving Washington is executive director of the Online News Association.
Twenty years ago, digital journalists still needed to prove their relevance to the field of journalism. Some of their colleagues asked if the internet was here to stay. Not only did it stay, it transformed journalism. With more than 7,800 media jobs lost just this year, it’s now the journalism field that must prove its relevance — this time, to the community. Many people are already asking if journalism is here to stay.
Digital news is here to stay, and I predict it will become even more essential in helping communities navigate a complex and fast-paced future. But that future requires a shift in our priorities.
With declining revenue, it’s no surprise the industry’s priorities have been digital transformation, metrics, and analytics. We’ve also embraced moving from thinking about “audience” to “community.” Each of those is important, but none will matter if we don’t also invest in the people doing the work and keeping them in the field.
At the Online News Association, our data overwhelmingly suggests a lack of newsroom training — in leadership skills and in strategies for harnessing innovation to create valuable, reliable information for communities. In 2020, newsrooms will need to build leaders and managers differently. For far too long, we’ve taken for granted that leadership is something you learn on the job.
Effective leaders find ways to inspire teams to achieve an aspirational vision. The defining measure of any leader is the culture they create — proactively or not. If you asked your colleagues to define your organization’s core mission and purpose, would you get a consistent answer? And that goes well beyond the popularized Silicon Valley version of “culture.” One issue with culture for most teams is a “do as I say, not what I do” approach. Do you say you value diversity to external audiences, but never attempt to improve your internal team diversity? True leaders reconcile this mismatch between vision and reality to create real alignment.
Digital transformation isn’t a new topic. But many news organizations still struggle to define what it means and embrace an environment that supports change. That’s because there is a daily grind to innovation that’s not pretty and not always the next bright and shiny thing. Future leaders will ask more questions than offer answers, and they’ll focus on the “why” of their community’s needs.
Too few leaders grasp that their own growth depends on helping other people grow. One of my mentors said that one of the first jobs a great leader does is to find the person who will replace them. Newsrooms will need to find future leadership replacements collectively across the field and give those individuals training, resources, and support now — not later. The world is becoming more diverse at all different levels and communities will expect that our newsrooms do the same. It’s also how people start to feel better about local news.
With a focus on building stronger newsroom leaders, digital journalists will be better positioned to tackle key issues next year such as misinformation, audience development, and emerging tech. But ultimately, if the system doesn’t change, it will set people up to fail.
Irving Washington is executive director of the Online News Association.
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Mario García Think small (screen)
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms