Let’s start with distribution. Google will reinforce its position against Facebook. Publishers will continue to get more audience from Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) than from Facebook Instant Articles, confirming the recent shift. Aside from monetization issues, part of the reason is a growing distrust in Facebook, seen as less reliable than the search engine. Among publishers, the general feeling is that Facebook is more likely to change the rules without warning than Google. Facebook has sent multiple wrong signals over the last two years, from increasing the weight of friends-and-family content at the expense of news in 2016 to an ill-advised series of tests of profound changes to the News Feed. In October 2017, FB removed publisher content from its News Feed to evaluate the impact on users’ engagement; it did so in five countries (Serbia, Guatemala, Slovakia, Bolivia, and Cambodia). These felt they were, understandably, considered lab rats by the spoiled geeks in Menlo Park. We can expect more mishaps of that kind in 2018 as Facebook seems unable to address its endemic immaturity. 

Apple News could, in theory, gain traction, with its neat layout that is more respectful of news brand and authors. But the trend might not last if Apple News continue to carry terrible ads. Eddy Cue should be reminded that the company’s revenue per customer dwarfs any media ARPU and that Apple can afford to offer a much better experience than anyone else.

News distributors should also keep an eye on the evolution of aggregators. Since last summer, I’ve collected my news mostly with Laserlike, a startup created by a group of Google alumni who wants to reinvent search for news. As for Feedly, it upgrades its service continually. Also on my watch list: the China giant Toutiao, which carries a staggering engagement time of 74 minutes per day (50 percent more than Facebook and 3.5× time spent on Snapchat), thanks to its AI engine. Toutiao, leaning on its $11 billion valuation, wants to move aggressively into the West. I’ll also keep an eye on messaging apps: They tend to overtake social engagement, and therefore could become an essential vector for news. But, as history repeats itself, expect difficulties with monetization.

Digital advertising for news is dying. Only 18 months ago, outlets like BuzzFeed or Vice News were considered models for great ad strategies. Now they’re laying people off. When it comes to BuzzFeed, my take is their costly, high-quality news division is poised for a significant shift, a spinoff being the best case scenario. Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Google are sucking up everybody’s advertising oxygen. Last year, according to GroupM, the world largest media buyer, the duopoly captured 84 percent of all digital investment (excluding China), but also 186 percent of the growth. That means everyone else is losing.

It’s time for publishers to rethink their ad model with fewer but better-sold ads. Users get increasingly sick with invasive ads and can’t stand Outbrain/Taboola/Revcontent’s mediocrity: It ruins the reader’s experience and damages the credibility of the brand, while on the business side, they create a massive user data-leak. My take is high-end publishers will move away from these models. That means that paid-for products will gain traction, paywalls will tighten further, and new transactional systems could emerge, lowering the mental cost of a subscription. 

On the fake news front, over the past 18 months, we saw at least seven electoral processes disrupted by information-related manipulations: the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Kenya, India, and most likely the referendum in Spain. Every democratic process will somehow be affected by waves of misinformation, originating either from ideological groups or state-sponsored players. Platforms will continue their effort to contain the pandemic. However, smart fake news providers will always find a way to cheat Google’s algorithms (unless it goes for a massive blacklisting, which it can’t). As for Facebook, I will believe in its commitment to fight fake news and misinformation when Mark Zuckerberg announces that he will consent to a significant impact on the company’s revenues in order to combat false information. No worries, it won’t happen.

The only hope for a serious pushback against misinformation will come from progress in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. But it will take a while to come up with reliable models able to process at scale a firehose of news.

2018 will see a severe regulatory pushback against platforms, essentially initiated from Europe. It will be on three fronts: taxes, privacy, and abuse of dominant position. Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner for competition, will focus on Google, her target of choice. Due to her propensity to wage rearguard battles, she will ignore predatory practices of Amazon and Facebook’s constant assault on privacy. But she rides a powerful ideological wave. For the Big Four, the only way to prevent that would be a move toward paying their fair share of taxes. With smart PR, they could appear as the good guys. But, again, it won’t happen. Silicon Valley is the ultimate cognitive bubble, remember.