Nieman Lab.
Predictions for
Journalism, 2025.
In the year ahead, editors, stretched thin by the demands of daily news and shrinking staff, will adopt new approaches and technology to ease work burdens and unleash reporters to tackle stories with greater depth and engagement.
In the past year, I’ve enjoyed conversations with dozens of Evergreen State leaders seeking to host one of 16 local news fellows hired for the program I manage for Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Many of these smaller newsrooms are so stretched that they don’t have time to learn and leverage Gather strategies, LION sustainability support, Microsoft’s newsroom AI efforts, or to pursue desperately needed money (whether from local philanthropists or Press Forward) or coaching (from the Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding, for instance).
Directing news workers is an issue, too. I’ve noticed organizations (many among next month’s Washington census and ecosystem report to be posted here) still try to produce at a volume that was barely possible when staffs were 20% to 50% larger and when audiences are most focused on cell phones, not the morning paper or evening newscast.
From my observations of Washington newsrooms, smaller shops don’t have the time to stop current practices to learn how to instruct ChatGPT to “summarize this press release to 100 words and produce a six to 10-word headline.” Or to explore, much less implement, the Trusting News “trust kits” on transparency or listening techniques. Or to move away from inverted pyramids or 30-second “on the scene” standups that can be both time-intensive and ineffectual.
The news sector must jettison many traditional practices and adapt/adopt creative approaches to entice news consumers and news avoiders to want to stay informed. To do so effectively, this year more news leaders, especially in smaller organizations, will:
- courageously step away from and/or cut back many traditional practices,
- offer fewer stories that have greater interest, impact and engagement, and
- find ways to reduce production burdens to make time to explore solutions that may involve technique, technology, media literacy, staff capacity, audience interactions and talent development.
The first step might be contrary to mission: sharpen the story budget, produce less news (all too often dismissed at a glance) and pursue approaches that personalize thorny local issues and strengthen the connective tissue of a community, regardless of political leanings.
2025 will be a year of implementing against-norms tactics to nurture greater understanding of issues impactful to all strata in American society.
Our industry’s paramount responsibility is to distribute compelling content that is creative, effective and consumed and that rings true to them. That’ll require revising approaches to help citizens recognize, then trust, the Fourth Estate’s role in preserving a democracy.
Jody Brannon is program manager of the Murrow News Fellowship Program at Washington State University.
In the year ahead, editors, stretched thin by the demands of daily news and shrinking staff, will adopt new approaches and technology to ease work burdens and unleash reporters to tackle stories with greater depth and engagement.
In the past year, I’ve enjoyed conversations with dozens of Evergreen State leaders seeking to host one of 16 local news fellows hired for the program I manage for Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Many of these smaller newsrooms are so stretched that they don’t have time to learn and leverage Gather strategies, LION sustainability support, Microsoft’s newsroom AI efforts, or to pursue desperately needed money (whether from local philanthropists or Press Forward) or coaching (from the Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding, for instance).
Directing news workers is an issue, too. I’ve noticed organizations (many among next month’s Washington census and ecosystem report to be posted here) still try to produce at a volume that was barely possible when staffs were 20% to 50% larger and when audiences are most focused on cell phones, not the morning paper or evening newscast.
From my observations of Washington newsrooms, smaller shops don’t have the time to stop current practices to learn how to instruct ChatGPT to “summarize this press release to 100 words and produce a six to 10-word headline.” Or to explore, much less implement, the Trusting News “trust kits” on transparency or listening techniques. Or to move away from inverted pyramids or 30-second “on the scene” standups that can be both time-intensive and ineffectual.
The news sector must jettison many traditional practices and adapt/adopt creative approaches to entice news consumers and news avoiders to want to stay informed. To do so effectively, this year more news leaders, especially in smaller organizations, will:
- courageously step away from and/or cut back many traditional practices,
- offer fewer stories that have greater interest, impact and engagement, and
- find ways to reduce production burdens to make time to explore solutions that may involve technique, technology, media literacy, staff capacity, audience interactions and talent development.
The first step might be contrary to mission: sharpen the story budget, produce less news (all too often dismissed at a glance) and pursue approaches that personalize thorny local issues and strengthen the connective tissue of a community, regardless of political leanings.
2025 will be a year of implementing against-norms tactics to nurture greater understanding of issues impactful to all strata in American society.
Our industry’s paramount responsibility is to distribute compelling content that is creative, effective and consumed and that rings true to them. That’ll require revising approaches to help citizens recognize, then trust, the Fourth Estate’s role in preserving a democracy.
Jody Brannon is program manager of the Murrow News Fellowship Program at Washington State University.
