In 2020, it will be time to review what newsrooms consider a breaking-news event. An election result or a major change in government might deserve a push notification sent to thousands or millions of phones, sure — but so might news related to an environmental or social issue, even if it doesn’t fit into “breaking” norms or the traditional navigation bars of many news websites (“National,” “International,” “Politics,” “Business,” “Sports,” and so on).
Rethinking breaking news can trigger emerging reflexes in media organizations. On the French-language digital news site Contexte, there’s no “Politics” section. The term used instead is “Power,” which embraces institutional power, political power, lobbying, and all other kind of power you can imagine in the European landscape. Young people know what the word “power” means — and I suspect they can connect with it better than a fusty old-fashioned label like “politics.”
It’s not just a matter of semantics: The ways journalists decide what they cover — and how they think about the shape of that coverage — has an impact on the world. An idea like “power” can more directly include millennials’ top concerns, like climate change and income inequality.
One might say that these shifts in coverage are a business strategy to better connect with younger audiences. But it’s also a sign of the management in media outlets meaningfully shifting. While editors struggle to innovate and find new sources of revenue, they’re more than ever aware of the gap between legacy news brands and young people. To simplify, news brands see news as what the public should know, whereas young audiences see news as what is useful to know, what is interesting to know, or what is fun to know. Here’s hoping a few new shapes of news can help close that gap in 2020.
Alice Antheaume is executive dean of the Sciences Po Journalism School in Paris.
In 2020, it will be time to review what newsrooms consider a breaking-news event. An election result or a major change in government might deserve a push notification sent to thousands or millions of phones, sure — but so might news related to an environmental or social issue, even if it doesn’t fit into “breaking” norms or the traditional navigation bars of many news websites (“National,” “International,” “Politics,” “Business,” “Sports,” and so on).
Rethinking breaking news can trigger emerging reflexes in media organizations. On the French-language digital news site Contexte, there’s no “Politics” section. The term used instead is “Power,” which embraces institutional power, political power, lobbying, and all other kind of power you can imagine in the European landscape. Young people know what the word “power” means — and I suspect they can connect with it better than a fusty old-fashioned label like “politics.”
It’s not just a matter of semantics: The ways journalists decide what they cover — and how they think about the shape of that coverage — has an impact on the world. An idea like “power” can more directly include millennials’ top concerns, like climate change and income inequality.
One might say that these shifts in coverage are a business strategy to better connect with younger audiences. But it’s also a sign of the management in media outlets meaningfully shifting. While editors struggle to innovate and find new sources of revenue, they’re more than ever aware of the gap between legacy news brands and young people. To simplify, news brands see news as what the public should know, whereas young audiences see news as what is useful to know, what is interesting to know, or what is fun to know. Here’s hoping a few new shapes of news can help close that gap in 2020.
Alice Antheaume is executive dean of the Sciences Po Journalism School in Paris.
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Mario García Think small (screen)
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Carrie Brown Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech