🔶 #23: "When journalism chooses people over content"

It’s June 2030, and something strange just happened.

I just finished reading this year’s edition of the Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. According to the report, for the first time in a decade, the proportion of people that pay for online news increased compared to the year before.

This is a big deal. The number has been stalling at around 17% for years. Now it’s at 21%. Still low, but a significant and unexpected improvement.

And yet, I feel that I shouldn’t be surprised. The signs that something was changing have been there for a while. I think we were just all too disheartened by the state of the industry – declining engagement and trust, seemingly unattainable sustainability – to allow ourselves to acknowledge them.

The tide probably started to turn around 2024.