We Don’t Have a Platform Problem. We Have a Clarity Crisis.
The three critical shifts news organizations will finally confront in 2026 to beat Strategic Debt.
Every year, we go big on one trend.
We ask, “What will the next platform shift need from us?” or “How will AI summarization impact our traffic?” or “Which new product might bail us out if subscribers dry up?”
I get it. Those questions are worth asking. But we keep skipping over one basic point in the rush to tackle those headline-grabbing concerns.
In the quieter shifts that will actually shape 2026, I keep coming back to one idea. We do not have a platform problem. We have a Clarity Crisis.
It is slowing down news organizations in ways that we never talk about in public.
We have invested time in content. We have not invested time in the systems and roles that help people actually do the work. We built the former up over many years. We have barely touched the latter. That difference is showing up right now.
Here is my simple bet for next year. The organizations that double down on operational and strategic clarity in 2026 will have a real shot at stability. The ones that do not will just spin in circles, no matter how many shiny new products they throw at the wall.
Why We Keep Fixing the Wrong Problems
This is the part we often miss. The problem is not that people are not working hard enough. The problem is that we rarely slow down to define what a successful, functional newsroom looks like on the inside.
We have Strategic Debt.
It is the slow buildup of unclear roles, fuzzy processes, and data that means something different to every person in the room. It seeps in. It clogs the works. By the time we see it, we already feel behind.
Let me try this another way.
Imagine a newsroom that hires a support organization or a handful of new people. It feels like momentum. It feels like an investment. But if the team they are joining has no idea who does what or why certain decisions are made, the value disappears as quickly as it arrives.
Slack fills with questions. Projects come to a standstill. People get frustrated. No one can quite explain why. The newsroom has inherited a massive Clarity Crisis, but they cannot see it because it never came with a flashy announcement.
Here are the three shifts I think we will finally own in 2026.
1. The End of the “Doer-Boss”
Let’s start with something we all know quietly. We keep promoting the best doer into the hardest job in the building.
You have seen it. I have seen it. Someone is a fantastic reporter, an excellent editor, or a stellar engineer. Then one day they are asked to lead a team. They get a new title. They get a calendar full of meetings. Suddenly the thing they were good at is the thing they no longer get to do.
No one trained them to manage people. No one showed them how to run a process. No one explained the expectations of the role. So the new manager is lost. The team is lost. The whole thing feels heavier than it needs to be.
I see this same pattern happening with television, too. Many stations are hiring general managers with a sales background. They are revenue stars. They know how to close deals. They bring in dollars. But they walk into a newsroom and immediately feel foreign. The editorial culture feels weird to them. The language feels different. The expectations feel unclear.
The result is predictable.
The staff feels disconnected from the person running the place. The community work gets pushed to the background. The changes the station needs never quite take hold.
Sales talent is not a bad thing. But a thriving newsroom needs more than a revenue leader. It needs someone who understands how the entire organism works.
I think this is the year news organizations finally say out loud that leadership is its own craft. They train managers. They invest in coaching. They stop treating leadership as a reward and start treating it as a skill set. And they get clear about the jobs people already have before they bring in new people to join them.
2. The Unbundling of Support
Here is something else you have probably felt, too. The big “backbone” support model has been a gamechanger, but it is now starting to fall short. Local newsrooms move fast. Their problems are specific. Their pain points are not always compatible with a one-size-fits-all program.
I think the pendulum is about to swing the other way.
We will see more specialized, short-term support. We will see fractional COOs. We will see data clarity coaches. We will see sprint leads who drop in, clean up a process, and get the hell out of the way fast.
Teams do not want another year-long program to track. They want someone who can take something off their plate. They want someone who can help them fix the one thing that has been weighing them down for months. They want support that makes their week easier, not heavier.
I saw this firsthand last month when my colleague and I traveled to Chicago, where more than 140 news organizations are doing local work. We met with several of them. We sat in their spaces. We listened. We asked questions.
What I kept hearing was simple. They wanted direct help. They wanted someone in the room with them. They wanted clarity. You could see the relief on their faces. In-person coaching was what they were craving. Not another program. Not another framework. Just help they could put to work right away.
3. Data Clarity Over Platform Noise
There is one risk we are not talking about enough. It isn’t AI summarization. It is the slow damage of leaning on “free” analytics from giant platforms.
Free sounds responsible. It feels safe. But those metrics were never built to help a local newsroom make smart decisions. They reward volume. They reward speed. They reward behavior that has little to do with loyalty or trust.
I think 2026 is the year newsrooms start defining their own data. They stop waiting for dashboards built for someone else’s business model. They start measuring depth. They start tracking how people move through their products. They start asking which stories actually build connection instead of which ones just rack up clicks.
This is also why clarity sits at the center of the Impact and Trust work I do. The framework is not about selling a tool. It is about helping teams see their own patterns with more accuracy.
I have watched newsrooms change the entire conversation in the room once they stop relying on a platform metric and start looking at what actually builds loyalty. The room shifts. The questions change. The work starts to feel connected to the people they serve. That kind of clarity is powerful. It gives teams a sense of direction instead of a sense of pressure.
The Path Forward
The next big solution will not be a tool. It will be a reset.
If you want to make it through the next wave of AI and platform fragmentation, you need to start on the inside. You need to clarify roles. You need to simplify processes. You need to choose the metrics that actually help you grow.
One week spent getting clear on those three things will do more for your organization than any new product you roll out in 2026. That clarity is what makes your strategy real. Without it, everything feels shakier than it should.
So here is one final thought before I go.
What is the single most confusing project or role in your organization right now?
That point of confusion is your most immediate strategic risk. That is the thing you should be clearing up next week.
So here is one final thought before I go. What is the single most confusing project or role in your organization right now? That point of confusion is your most immediate strategic risk. That is the thing you should be clearing up next week.
Tell me in the comments: What piece of “Strategic Debt” are you finally ready to tackle?
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