We’ve started work on what will be the eighth issue of Digiday magazine, which will reach subscribers before the holidays. Our theme for the second year: the year in preview, a look ahead to the big trends and themes our editorial team believes will define digital media in 2018.
One of the big themes is no surprise: the duopoly in the crosshairs. On Oct. 31, executives from Google and Facebook (along with Twitter) were on Capitol Hill to be grilled about their role in Russian meddling in the last presidential election. Not lost on many: The tech giants didn’t send their CEOs — they sent lower-level executives. In 2018, these questions will only intensify as a result of a shift in elite perception of tech giants not as infallible examples of American ingenuity, but as aloof and unaccountable nonstate actors wreaking havoc on many industries and democracy itself.
Politics and opinion typically overcorrect. The rose-colored glasses view of tech platforms was naive; the correction will inevitably go too far. In Berlin last week at a DLD event, I listened as German publishing exec predicted that within five years, a governmental authority, most likely in Europe, will break up Amazon. Governments typically move too slowly. But change will probably come. One of our “bold calls” in our next issue is that ad targeting will get regulated. This will start with political advertising, but platforms are fighting this because regulations tend to creep from where they start.
On the regulatory front, our U.K. editor Jessica Davies is examining the industry chaos to come from the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, a sweeping European regulation that will touch every media, marketing and tech company. The GDPR is a regular worry among Europeans, but Americans mostly ignore it. The broadness of the regulation will come as a surprise to many American publishers and marketers that belatedly concern themselves with it. But in discussions with publishers at our Digiday Publishing Summit Europe, much confusion still exists as to how it will be enforced — and critically, what companies regulators will target as examples.
Our issue will also feature big-picture looks ahead with media and marketing leaders. One is with New York Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson. The Times continues to make progress in its shift to a model driven by consumer revenue. (In its third-quarter earnings out on Nov. 1, it reported that digital subscriptions crossed 2.5 million.) Here’s a preview from the Thompson interview:
Q: The New York Times is changing its mindset to become a consumer company. What’s the thinking behind that?
A: It’s essentially about recognizing that the early days, first 15, 20 years of the internet were wrong. The whole concept that infinite free distribution would solve all the business problems associated with journalism and there’d be a perfect way of matching news to users has just turned out to be wrong. There is demonstrably a market for high-quality news for paying customers. So that’s a significant change.
Look for more in December. — Brian Morrissey
