A Mashable writer proposed ten media shifts that could occur in 2011. (Credit: Screenshot detail from Mashable's website)

Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik proposed his ten “predictions for the news media” for the coming year in a Dec. 20 blogpost.

Mashable is a” social and digital media, technology and web culture” news site.  Lavrusik is Mashable’s “community manager and social strategist,” as well as a Columbia Journalism School adjunct professor.

Lavrusik described this year as “the year of mobile for news media,” highlighting traditional news outlets’ move to iPad and mobile applications.

He speculated that the move will only become more significant in 2011.  “The focus [for news media] will shift from searchable news to social and share-able news, as social media referrals close the gap on search traffic for more news organizations,” he wrote.

Some key points from Lavrusik’s proposed changes in media in the coming year included the effects of social media and WikiLeaks.

1. “Leaks and Journalism: A New Kind of Media Entity.”  Despite what ever may or may not happen with WikiLeaks, Lavrusik wrote that he thinks there will be a “rise of ‘leakification'” and whistleblowing in journalism
2. There will be an increasing number of “media mergers and acquisitions.” Lavrusik explained he thinks mergers like that of Newsweek and Daily Beast are symptomatic of what is to come.
3. News organizations will create ways to disseminate the news only through mobile or tablet devices, much in the style of News Corp’s intended iPad-bound the Daily, coming in 2011.
4. Lavrusik thinks 2011 will bring more hyperlocalization of news and recommendations.
5. Social media will be used as a way to gain readers as opposed to search engines. News outlets will beef up their use of social media, Lavrusik expects.
6. Fewer foreign correspondents.  (For example, StinkyJournalism notes Roy Greenslade wrote for This is London earlier this month that “the days of the foreign correspondent have quietly passed.  Greenslade highlighted a story about Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin.  The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published a report in December titled “Are Foreign Correspondents Redundant” as well.  See the Reuters report here.)
7. News outlets will republish specialized stories from niche websites.  As an example, Lavrusik noted that CNN and the New York Times republish specialized articles on technology written by “niche technology publications.”

See the complete Mashable story here.