I am, at my core, an optimist. Frankly, I’m probably more optimistic than situations dictate.
You have to be an optimist to quit a safe corporate media job and then start a local news startup. In 2016, I launched BoiseDev as a hobby. This January we will add our sixth and seventh employees.
While adding a few people won’t offset declines in journalism sector employment by Gannett or scores of others, I very much think it’s where our industry is going. Back to the future, to borrow a phrase. Instead of large-scale journalism providers based in far-off places with little connection to communities outside of the people they employ, the pivot toward independent news outlets has increased.
We operate a thriving set of two publications focused on a “reader first” model. Put simply, we endeavor to listen to our audience and provide journalism that they need. It can be a new store going up in their neighborhood, a dive into the increasing numbers of elderly citizens in homelessness, or answering a reader question on a pile of dirt. We think deeply about our audience and put listening at the front.
That listening gives us insight into what people want to see less of: Opinion content. Heavy, glitzy crime stories. National news.
I’ve joked to people that “Of course I’m an optimist; I started a new business in local news.” But every day, I see the potential. I see what can happen when you make a commitment to a community and put time and effort toward it.
No, journalism won’t be what it once was. The near-monopoly days pre-Internet, where newspapers and two to four TV stations controlled the information flow, were, I guess, great for those companies. But in this age, an entrepreneur can build a news outlet that serves audiences in new ways with new options. We cover stories — many, many stories — that weren’t getting covered before here. And while I can speak about my experience, I’m hardly alone. There are hundreds of small publishers across this country now, doing news for their local communities because they want to make an impact.
It will only get better. Different, but better. That’s what an optimist would say.
Don Day is the founder and publisher of Boise Dev.
I am, at my core, an optimist. Frankly, I’m probably more optimistic than situations dictate.
You have to be an optimist to quit a safe corporate media job and then start a local news startup. In 2016, I launched BoiseDev as a hobby. This January we will add our sixth and seventh employees.
While adding a few people won’t offset declines in journalism sector employment by Gannett or scores of others, I very much think it’s where our industry is going. Back to the future, to borrow a phrase. Instead of large-scale journalism providers based in far-off places with little connection to communities outside of the people they employ, the pivot toward independent news outlets has increased.
We operate a thriving set of two publications focused on a “reader first” model. Put simply, we endeavor to listen to our audience and provide journalism that they need. It can be a new store going up in their neighborhood, a dive into the increasing numbers of elderly citizens in homelessness, or answering a reader question on a pile of dirt. We think deeply about our audience and put listening at the front.
That listening gives us insight into what people want to see less of: Opinion content. Heavy, glitzy crime stories. National news.
I’ve joked to people that “Of course I’m an optimist; I started a new business in local news.” But every day, I see the potential. I see what can happen when you make a commitment to a community and put time and effort toward it.
No, journalism won’t be what it once was. The near-monopoly days pre-Internet, where newspapers and two to four TV stations controlled the information flow, were, I guess, great for those companies. But in this age, an entrepreneur can build a news outlet that serves audiences in new ways with new options. We cover stories — many, many stories — that weren’t getting covered before here. And while I can speak about my experience, I’m hardly alone. There are hundreds of small publishers across this country now, doing news for their local communities because they want to make an impact.
It will only get better. Different, but better. That’s what an optimist would say.
Don Day is the founder and publisher of Boise Dev.
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
AX Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
James Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale