Tech companies get aggressive in local
1. 2021 will be a turning point for local journalism — but not as we’ve known it. The relentless shuttering of local newspapers will continue, but in parallel a handful of tech-savvy mobile apps — Citizen, Nextdoor, News Break, SmartNews — will raise substantial funding and aggressively close out a process of creative destruction sweeping the industry, opening across all major American cities and encroaching on new overseas markets.
2. YouTube and Spotify will find themselves on a collision course as podcasting and video converge. Spotify will encourage its stars to follow Joe Rogan’s lead in shooting videos of popular podcasts but providing them exclusively to Spotify. YouTube will push podcast versions of its creators’ videos. Apple will start to flex its muscle, too, engaging more aggressively in the podcast-plus-video space, getting stars from Apple TV+ to spin off audio shows and creating a premium tier for podcasts.
3. Apple, Facebook, and Google will push the boundaries of news innovation, building on the launches of Apple News+, Facebook News, and Google News Showcase. This will force all major publishers to assess their relationships with the tech behemoths, and seek to negotiate deals that both safeguard and benefit their brands. The platforms will target audio, local news, and frictionless subscriptions as areas ripe for innovation.
Edward Roussel is the chief innovation officer for Dow Jones.
1. 2021 will be a turning point for local journalism — but not as we’ve known it. The relentless shuttering of local newspapers will continue, but in parallel a handful of tech-savvy mobile apps — Citizen, Nextdoor, News Break, SmartNews — will raise substantial funding and aggressively close out a process of creative destruction sweeping the industry, opening across all major American cities and encroaching on new overseas markets.
2. YouTube and Spotify will find themselves on a collision course as podcasting and video converge. Spotify will encourage its stars to follow Joe Rogan’s lead in shooting videos of popular podcasts but providing them exclusively to Spotify. YouTube will push podcast versions of its creators’ videos. Apple will start to flex its muscle, too, engaging more aggressively in the podcast-plus-video space, getting stars from Apple TV+ to spin off audio shows and creating a premium tier for podcasts.
3. Apple, Facebook, and Google will push the boundaries of news innovation, building on the launches of Apple News+, Facebook News, and Google News Showcase. This will force all major publishers to assess their relationships with the tech behemoths, and seek to negotiate deals that both safeguard and benefit their brands. The platforms will target audio, local news, and frictionless subscriptions as areas ripe for innovation.
Edward Roussel is the chief innovation officer for Dow Jones.
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
