INMA Recommends
INMA's editors, initiative leaders, experts, and volunteer leaders scour the world of media to find sources of inspiration about the business of journalism: trends, subject matter expertise, data, and more. Augment your INMA experience by perusing our recommended reports from third-party sources. We have vetted these thoroughly. They are global in nature or have global ramifications, the subject matter is unique, our experts determine this is a “best of” quality, and/or the report is freely available. If the report has too much of a sales component, it doesn't make the list. If you have a recommendation for INMA Recommends, e-mail inma-recommends@inma.org.
Recommended reading from INMA
18 Results (clear filter)
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Newspapers Fact Sheet
Released: November 10, 2023 | Pew Research Center
Our view: Note quite a report, but the rare data about print newspapers in the United States and even digital engagement with legacy newspapers is staggering. Brace for it: The news isn’t good, but you need to read it anyway.
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Top 10 Strategy Technology Trends for 2024
Released: October 16, 2023 | Gartner
Our view: As the report title suggests, Gartner boils down the top strategic tech trends for 2024, among them being AI trust and risk, AI-augmented development, democratised generative AI, and more. This report isn’t for everyone, but the 35-slide presentation is top-of-the-funnel into issues media c-suites need to know about.
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Change and Opportunity: 2023 Media Trends
Released: December 21, 2022 | Dentsu
Our view: Dentsu breaks down its uniquely insightful 39-page trends report into three parts: content, commerce, and community. Inside each part are trending constituent parts. Pay special attention to the commerce section with trends being “from going shopping to always shopping,” “retail media shakes up adland,” “the rise of the super apps,” and “no way back for third-party cookies.”
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Audio-Sound Ecosystem
Released: December 2, 2022 | RAI Ufficio Study, HEC Montreal, and EBU
Our view: In this major 232-page deep dive into the audio-sound ecosystem, learn about the renaissance of listening, digital products, voice commands, and opportunities for innovation. This is an amazing overview for radio media professionals, yet also for non-radio professionals looking for innovations, intersections, and opportunities in audio. We are linking to the PDF report itself (not our normal practice) because of the multi-lingual partnership – this is just the easiest way to get directly to the report.
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Connecting the Dots: Discover Trends That’ll Dominate 2023
Released: November 9, 2022 | GWI
Our view: The report is worth the site’s less-than-optimal user experience and design: too many clicks, too many scrolls, too much over-design. Then choose between a U.S. and “World” version. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the 57-slide PDF. There are nuggets throughout, including how consumers are finding products, whether social media has reached a tipping point, community and identity in the metaverse, and consumer tastes in a contracting economy.
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Activate Tech & Media Outlook 2023
Released: October 26, 2022 | Activate Consulting
Our view: A 181-slide deck on broader technology and media trends may sound daunting, but most INMA members will delve into the 11 takeaways – and let their staffs burrow into the data and details. From a consumer perspective, the report looks at consumer time and attention and the role of super users. Then roll up your sleeves on product: e-commerce, video, gaming, NFTs, metaverse, audio, sports betting, and digital fitness. Some sections are more relevant to news media than others.
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Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2023
Released: October 17, 2022 | Gartner
Our view: How to view technologies through strategic goals is the storyline behind this useful 33-slide Gartner report. Gartner suggests companies optimise via a digital immune system, applied observability, and a smart focus on AI. Companies should scale via industry cloud platforms, platform engineering, and wireless-value realization. Pioneering subjects include superapps, adaptive AI, the metaverse, and sustainability technology. The Gartner report does a good job of summarising each subject. This is a free report, if you can find it on their Web site – and requires too much “volunteered information.”
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Three Steps to the Future
Released: December 1, 2021 | Benedict Evans
Our view: Ignore author and futurist Benedict Evans at your peril. In his annual presentation looking at macro and strategic trends in the tech industry, he breaks down “visions versus deployment and disruption”: the future (tech visions for 2030), the present (startups deploy the ideas of 2010s), and the past (old economy disrupted by ideas from the 2000s). Brace for the Metaverse, Web3, NFTs, VR and AR, and more. In a misery-loves-company moment, we even see how the disruption of newspapers is now happening across industries – take special note of e-commerce’s exponential impact on retail. Brace for 94 slides … but it’s worth it.
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Media Moments 2021
Released: December 1, 2021 | What's New In Publishing
Our view: If a report’s title ever was precisely what the report is about, it is Media Moments 2021. The publisher literally takes 12 media-related subjects, provides an executive-level overview, and punctuates each moment with a case study. Among the moments covered: newsletters, Big Tech platforms, subscriptions, advertising, video, audio, trust, data and privacy, print, e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions, and emerging technologies. Nicely sourced material in the appendix. This report is free with registration.
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Inflection Point International: A Study of the Impact, Innovation, Threats, and Sustainability of Digital Media Entrepreneurs in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa
Released: November 16, 2021 | SembraMedia
Our view: Don’t let the crazy long report title fool you: This is a rare, data-fueled look at digital media in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa – complete with a strong executive summary for the time-deprived among us. In regions under freedom of speech threats, the authors embraced some blunt talk about content and impact; media freedom and journalist safety; building business models; digital media teams; social media, technology, and innovation; and finally, a recommendations section.
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Activate Technology & Media Outlook 2022
Released: October 20, 2021 | Activate Consulting
Our view: Zoom out to 35,000 feet and see technology and media and the fissures that make up that universe: bedrocks like consumer spending, data, e-commerce, audio, and video … but also the bright, shiny subjects such as the metaverse, cryptocurrency, NFTs, sports betting, esports, and more. Pay special attention to the section on Super Users, an unusual subject in a report like this. This is 203-page report is free and open to the public.
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Into the Metaverse
Released: September 14, 2021 | Wonderman Thompson
Our view: For those media companies keeping an eye on the future, this detailed report about the metaverse may prove valuable and timely. Think of the metaverse as a “digital third space” where more and more people are hanging out and where brands need to pay attention. While the metaverse doesn’t yet fully exist, Wunderman Thompson does a good job in this 93-page report. This is a free report that requires registration.
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The Great Unbundling
Released: January 12, 2021 | Benedict Evans
Our view: Benedict Evans produces an annual presentation on the big trends in the tech industry, yet this year’s “Great Unbundling” leaned enough into media to make it on the INMA list. This presentation looks at how COVID broke tech habits and accelerated a great deal. The China angle on smartphones (being ahead of Europe and the United States) is intriguing – as is the movement in India, too. As tech enters its second half century, what are the ramifications to it becoming more of a regulated industry?
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Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2021
Released: January 7, 2021 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Our view: Author Nic Newman takes us deep inside fast-changing newsrooms worldwide with a look at the COVID-19 fallout, a big-picture look at Big Tech platform regulations and likely impacts on media, impartiality, and engagement strategies. The “headline” for the report is what media leaders internationally expect for the year ahead. For INMA members focused on the revenue side of our business, you will be interested to learn what’s up and what’s down in terms of money expectations.
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Trust In News Project: Perspectives On Trust In News In a Changing World
Released: December 3, 2020 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Our view: What better source about trust in media than the trusted Reuters Institute Trust In News Project? Solid landing page with a link providing an overview in English, Spanish, and Portuguese to the 28-page report based on interviews with 82 journalists and senior managers at media companies in Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Good distillation, especially the takeaways at the top.
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Digital Media Trends Survey: COVID-19 Accelerates Subscriptions and Cancellations As Consumers Search for Value
Released: June 1, 2020 | Deloitte Center for Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Our view: This 28-page report leverage’s Deloitte’s unique vantage point on “how the pandemic has changed media consumption habits in the short-term and its potential long-term impact.” While the report dabbles in the big picture such as the new fluidity of media consumption and subscription fatigue, Deloitte puts special emphasis on streaming video subscriptions, video gaming growth, and video trends. Still worth a read to view outside of the news media box and relate trends back to our experiences. Viewable in HTML or PDF.
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News Podcasts and the Opportunities for Publishers
Released: December 3, 2019 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Our view: This is likely the most authoritative strategic overview of where podcasts stand with news media companies – even if the report is pushing 2 years old. As the authors say this is “the most comprehensive study to date on the growth of news podcasts, explores their prevalence worldwide, what they are offering to audiences, and how publishers and platforms stand to benefit.” Good overview landing page punctuated by a 56-minute Webinar on the report. You can download the 48-page report on the landing page.
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Start Earning Trust
Released: January 1, 2019 | Trusting News
Our view: Produced by Trusting News – a project by the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and the American Press Institute (API) – this page is a concise look at “potential opportunities to demonstrate credibility by explaining news processes, coverage goals, and journalism ethics.” Yet pay special attention in the “Next” section to a 74-slide research deck that looks at trust in news in the United States – which is worth the entire price of admission (which is free, though consider signing up for their newsletter).