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Deck from "Innovating Locally," the presentation I gave at the 2014 annual convention for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. This deck, which draws on research during my year as a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, offers an analysis of the local news media and some tools for instilling a culture of continuous innovation.
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20 Shocking Secrets About the News Business
alexa schirtzinger | july 2014
(apologies to Upworthy)
What’s coming:
● Theory
● Data
● Secrets!
First, a quick intro.
Stanford!
startup:
“a human institution designed to create new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty”
Eric Ries
The internet’s “democratizing” effect
● access to information
● communication
● content creation
(here comes the theory)
What is “content”?
If the supposedly self-involved members of the creative class can organize to assert some control over what they make — the magical stuff now routinely referred to as “content” — then maybe other residents of the beleaguered middle might be inspired by their examples.
A.O. Scott
“Ads are just as much content as anything else.”
Dylan Smith, LION
the pipe
(now for some data)
Based on my survey of approximately 40 alt-weekly stakeholders.
Based on my survey of approximately 40 alt-weekly stakeholders.
[T]he trends are clear: people, especially the young, are turning to the Internet for more and more of their news and developing an effective digital strategy is essential for long-term survival.
Paul Grabowicz, UC Berkeley
Independent Media Network
● “We are a social enterprise”● operations:
o tech support/trainingo national/regional saleso eventually, local sales
● revenue from national, regional, local sales
Texas Tribune
● “Relentlessly entrepreneurial”
● Texas-based, politically involved audience
credit: Jake Batsell
credit: Jake Batsell
Berkeleyside
● Small and lean (3 people)● operations:
o daily neighborhood reportingo membershipso one big event: Uncharted: Festival of Ideas
● Revenue from local ad sales, events, memberships
Why should we care?
“In the past decade, what [we] do to engage customers has changed almost beyond recognition. Tools and strategies that were cutting-edge just a few years ago are fast becoming obsolete, and new approaches are appearing every day…
“…yet in most companies, the organizational structure…hasn’t changed [in 40 years].”
Harvard Business Review
Secrets!
1. Know your audience
community
2. Know thyself
3. Know your purpose
credit: Disney
4. Listen
5. Get personal
6. Engage
7. Enlist allies
Wikimedia Commons
8. ...and put them to work!
9. Consider your user...
10. ...the use case...
11. ...and the whole journey.
12. Just do it.try
13. Rough beats ready
>
14. Take time to reflect
15. Be transparent
16. Innovate continuously
17. Get the data
18. Challenge ALL of your assumptions—even the ones you know to be true
19. Tear down your firewall
credit: npr.org
20. Have fun.
