Rubina Madan Fillion’s 2017 prediction:“Organisations that aren’t on Snapchat Discover will go beyond the experimental phase on Stories. The remaining skeptics won’t be for much longer.” (full article)
I wholeheartedly agree with The Intercept’s digital engagement editor: Rubina’s, 2017 prediction. Snapchat has emerged as a game changer when in terms of journalistic immersion in the digital sphere. Personally, the Snapchat discover feature is in my top 3 ways I access news daily.
Snapchat is unique in it’s approach to reader engagement, and the quick short bursts of information work in favour of the short attention span of the millennial generation. Rubina believes that Snapchat will attempt to broaden its appeal in 2017, and reach an audience outside of their usual under-25 demographic. This is where I disagree with the prediction. I believe that a major part of Snapchat’s success is the fundamental idea that it is made for the younger generations- a news service directed at the future.
For certain Rubina’s prediction is inheritnly true, and the organisations that don’t jump onto this new carriage in the journalism technology band wagon will definitely be left behind.
Mark Armstrong’s 2017 prediction: “Websites and email newsletters will remain the two most important tools for independent news publishing and distribution, three decades running.” (full article)
Mark Armstrong’s predictions are an interesting take on the transition from print journalism to digital content. He believes that newspapers will still produce important work and will still have a place in the market, but online news services will ultimately reign supreme.
An interesting point he makes is the idea of online subscriptions to news media services. Many consumers easily forget that journalism is a service that should be paid for, regardless of whether it is presented in a hard copy newspaper, or a digital website. It is not financially viable for media companies to not get “serious about subscriptions”, but it will be very interesting to see how society will react when they realise that news can’t be entirely free.
