If Omnicom's plan to acquire rival Interpublic (IPG) goes through, the new advertising conglomerate will tower above all others in the industry, in terms of both total revenue and employees. Not everyone is happy about it. Recent survey data shows a larger percentage of marketers disapprove of the merger (27%) than approve (15%). The online...
When Trump won in 2016, those in journalism circles wrung their hands. How had the media missed it? The field settled on an explanation: America’s elite newsrooms had overlooked middle America and neglected rural areas. Journalists misunderstood the zeitgeist. Listening became the new mantra. Employ journalists living in the heartland. Spend time in flyover country....
Hegel, the German philosopher, had a theory of what drives history: conflict between the status quo and a new challenge, resolving (sometimes after much sturm und drang) into a stable synthesis. In 2025, I predict that the journalistic status quo and the challengers of digital social media will begin to resolve — into editorially anchored...
We live in a time of media fragmentation and hyperpolarization. This year’s presidential election raised further questions about traditional media’s relevance. And it seems increasingly clear that people are gravitating to extremes in the types of content they consume — whether scrolling short-form posts or listening to hours-long podcasts. We must meet them there. When...
Do you ever visit a friend’s house and find yourself surprised at how different their Netflix queue looks than yours? Or worry about the breaking down of a shared reality amid an increasingly fractured media landscape? As more of our digital experiences become mediated by personalization algorithms and fandoms built around individual content creators, I...
Predictions — said someone — are a fool’s game. But there’s little doubt that in the next year we will continue to bear painful witness to the decline of America’s formal news structures. Twentieth-century news outlets will keep crashing by the wayside — victims to changing business and technological models, to hubris, to cultural mistrust...
For decades, the news industry has operated on a familiar rhythm: Journalists chase scoops, publish headlines, and define the news cycle. But a new model for information sharing is emerging. Prediction markets — platforms where users buy and sell shares based on the probability of future events — are poised to disrupt the media landscape...