As I sit down to write my journalism predictions for 2023, BuzzFeed is laying off 12% of its workforce. Recently, CNN laid off “hundreds” of employees, The Washington Post announced the end of its stand-alone Sunday magazine and laid off the 10 staffers who ran it, and Gannett, just months removed from layoffs that affected 400 people at more than 70 outlets, cut another 200 positions. This doesn’t even take into account companies like NBCUniversal (NBC News, MSNBC) and Disney (ABC News), which both seem primed to make their own cuts early in the new year.
These layoffs are obviously horrible for the people directly affected by them. They also have a price we’ll all end up having to pay in the form of less local news, less original reporting, and an increase in the financial incentives to cater to society’s lowest common denominator. As an industry, the American press is in a very difficult position, though that’s been true for as long as I’ve been a part of it. My concern for 2023 has more to do with what will fill the increasingly large news vacuums and set the nation’s news agenda.
I worry that all of this will make the media ecosystem so weak that what’s left will be a mess of “pink slime” content, politically driven propaganda, and a reliance on curated material from outlets chasing new subscriptions and an ever-shrinking share of ad revenue, tied to the whims and business decisions of billionaire social media tycoons. And that’s where the moral panics come in.
Over the past few years, the right-wing media ecosystem and its preferred political candidates have relentlessly hammered away on so-called “culture war” issues. The more these media organizations, some of which operate at a financial loss but continue to publish thanks to outside funding (and because the purpose of these groups is often more about steering public attention toward their political goals than it is to operate as successful businesses), shine their spotlight on “controversial” issues of their choosing, the more that what remains of the mainstream American press will feel compelled to follow along lest they be called “liberal” — something they will absolutely be called no matter what they write, say, or produce — and that will have disastrous consequences for the subjects of these political campaigns.
In 2021, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, ran for governor of Virginia and won. He did this by taking advantage of the right-wing panic over “critical race theory,” which was brought to the public’s attention by Chris Rufo, a conservative activist. Months earlier, Rufo had admitted that the goal of the “critical race theory” obsession had very little to do with the college-level study of how racial discrimination can be baked into laws and society, but was primarily being used as a catch-all term to turn anything vaguely liberal “toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that broad category.”
Fresh off of Youngkin’s victory, the right put renewed energy into attacking LGBTQ people and stoking a moral panic using decades-old rhetoric and tropes. Republican politicians put forward bills that would restrict the availability of health care for transgender people and began labeling books that mention LGBTQ people or themes as “pornographic” or “obscene” in efforts to get them banned from school and public libraries (and, in Youngkin’s Virginia, some Republicans even tried to make the sale of two books illegal), and called anyone who disagreed with them “groomers.” Even after the Republican underperformance in the midterms, it seems the laser focus on LGBTQ people will continue from the right.
My fear, which I certainly hope doesn’t come to pass, is that more hollowed-out and understaffed mainstream media outlets will find themselves either embracing right-wing moral panics about LGBTQ people or simply not having the energy or resources to fight back against them.
Parker Molloy writes The Present Age newsletter.
As I sit down to write my journalism predictions for 2023, BuzzFeed is laying off 12% of its workforce. Recently, CNN laid off “hundreds” of employees, The Washington Post announced the end of its stand-alone Sunday magazine and laid off the 10 staffers who ran it, and Gannett, just months removed from layoffs that affected 400 people at more than 70 outlets, cut another 200 positions. This doesn’t even take into account companies like NBCUniversal (NBC News, MSNBC) and Disney (ABC News), which both seem primed to make their own cuts early in the new year.
These layoffs are obviously horrible for the people directly affected by them. They also have a price we’ll all end up having to pay in the form of less local news, less original reporting, and an increase in the financial incentives to cater to society’s lowest common denominator. As an industry, the American press is in a very difficult position, though that’s been true for as long as I’ve been a part of it. My concern for 2023 has more to do with what will fill the increasingly large news vacuums and set the nation’s news agenda.
I worry that all of this will make the media ecosystem so weak that what’s left will be a mess of “pink slime” content, politically driven propaganda, and a reliance on curated material from outlets chasing new subscriptions and an ever-shrinking share of ad revenue, tied to the whims and business decisions of billionaire social media tycoons. And that’s where the moral panics come in.
Over the past few years, the right-wing media ecosystem and its preferred political candidates have relentlessly hammered away on so-called “culture war” issues. The more these media organizations, some of which operate at a financial loss but continue to publish thanks to outside funding (and because the purpose of these groups is often more about steering public attention toward their political goals than it is to operate as successful businesses), shine their spotlight on “controversial” issues of their choosing, the more that what remains of the mainstream American press will feel compelled to follow along lest they be called “liberal” — something they will absolutely be called no matter what they write, say, or produce — and that will have disastrous consequences for the subjects of these political campaigns.
In 2021, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, ran for governor of Virginia and won. He did this by taking advantage of the right-wing panic over “critical race theory,” which was brought to the public’s attention by Chris Rufo, a conservative activist. Months earlier, Rufo had admitted that the goal of the “critical race theory” obsession had very little to do with the college-level study of how racial discrimination can be baked into laws and society, but was primarily being used as a catch-all term to turn anything vaguely liberal “toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that broad category.”
Fresh off of Youngkin’s victory, the right put renewed energy into attacking LGBTQ people and stoking a moral panic using decades-old rhetoric and tropes. Republican politicians put forward bills that would restrict the availability of health care for transgender people and began labeling books that mention LGBTQ people or themes as “pornographic” or “obscene” in efforts to get them banned from school and public libraries (and, in Youngkin’s Virginia, some Republicans even tried to make the sale of two books illegal), and called anyone who disagreed with them “groomers.” Even after the Republican underperformance in the midterms, it seems the laser focus on LGBTQ people will continue from the right.
My fear, which I certainly hope doesn’t come to pass, is that more hollowed-out and understaffed mainstream media outlets will find themselves either embracing right-wing moral panics about LGBTQ people or simply not having the energy or resources to fight back against them.
Parker Molloy writes The Present Age newsletter.
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction