Abstract collage of newsprint, broken circles and an opening path

Forthcoming from Routledge · Early 2027

The Innovation
Trap

Journalism, Media Disruption and the Future of News

Alfred Hermida

Read the central argument

Journalism has spent decades chasing the next answer.

This book asks whether it has been asking the right questions.

01 The argument

Much has changed.
The deeper problems remain.

News organisations have built websites, embraced social media, pivoted to video, introduced paywalls and turned to artificial intelligence. Yet problems of revenue, trust, local news and public relevance have proved far harder to solve.

The Innovation Trap examines why. It argues that journalism has concentrated on new products and tools while paying less attention to the assumptions that shape what news organisations make, whom they serve and what they believe journalism is for.

The recurring pattern

A solution fixes an immediate problem, changes the conditions that follow and prompts another round of innovation.

The book treats innovation as a method of inquiry. Attempts to change journalism can reveal what news organisations take for granted, where they draw the boundaries of change and who benefits from the way a problem has been defined.

02 Better questions

When answers come easily, the quality of the question matters more.

What problem is journalism actually trying to solve?

Which professional habits shape the response before it begins?

Whose needs define what counts as worthwhile change?

What must organisations build so they can keep adapting?

03 Inside the book

Ten chapters move from diagnosis to rebuilding.

The argument begins with journalism’s wicked problems, moves beyond the newsroom to infrastructure and public need, then turns to the founders and organisations trying to build under different conditions.

01
The Wicked System
Why journalism’s problems resist easy solutions
02
The Innovation Compass
From technology to mission in journalism innovation
03
The Disruption Diagnosis
What disruptive innovation reveals about journalism’s vulnerabilities
04
The Newsroom Reflex
Professional culture, resistance and institutional change
05
The Infrastructure Shift
How the web, platforms and AI reshape journalism innovation
06
The Audience Question
From attention to public need
07
The Sustainability Paradox
Money, dependency and editorial independence
08
The Journalism Founder’s Dilemma
How news entrepreneurs renegotiate the profession
09
The Outsider Newsroom
Rebuilding journalism from the margins
10
Beyond the Innovation Trap
Readiness and the future of journalism

04 Who it is for

A book for people who study journalism, practise it or have to decide what it becomes next.

For scholars and researchers
A way to connect journalism studies, innovation studies and critical theory through a common method of inquiry.

For students
A framework for questioning the structures and assumptions that will shape their work long after today’s platforms disappear.

For journalists and media leaders
A means of understanding why organisations repeat familiar responses to different problems, and how to interrupt that pattern.

About the author

Alfred Hermida

Alfred Hermida is a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. A former journalist, he studies digital journalism, media innovation and the changing relationship between news organisations and publics. He spent sixteen years at the BBC across radio, television and online, and joined UBC in 2006.

His career has repeatedly placed him at journalism’s edges, from the early BBC News website to co-founding The Conversation Canada. That position as an outsider and insider shapes the questions at the heart of this book.

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Journalism · Media studies · Innovation