How to take the risk and begin your own news business?
How to build what is next for news? This is one of the very controversial topics. What makes it very important topic is the big challenges journalists meet nowadays and in future. It is not a secret how circulation for subscription media will decline. As a result, advertising will fall. The only thing that will multiply is competition that will put more pressure on both readership and advertising prices. So, what is the solution? the “Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to build what is next for news?” gives us a great answer. The book that is written by Mark Briggs, 2011, gives us a clear road map for how to build your future and to have your own news business. This is really a worth-reading book.
Entrepreneurial Journalism and Servant-Leadership Values
1) passion:
If you decide to take the risk and to begin the journey beyond limits, you should have your own goals. So, setting up your goals is first step at your long journey that you build mainly on what the people need and what you can provide them.
The formula for success depends greatly on the goals and expectations set by a foundering team. Obviously you can not know what the future will bring, but it’s important to envision how big or small you would like your company to be, if everything goes well, and then set benchmarks for how you’ll measure success. Learn from others’ experience: When a site makes you stick around and explore, what’s the reason? What grabbed you, and how can you apply that to your own star-up idea? Practice thinking analytically and Doing business while being a journalist. Do not forget: Stick with your goals, real leaders should have a passion.
2) Integrity:
How to earn money with integrity
Advertising is the most popular business model for content publishers. In the digital age, fragmentation has disrupted the advertising industry. While companies are spending more money on advertising today that at any other time in history, “they have more places to spend their advertising budge. This has created massive competition for publishers but also massive opportunity, especially for publishers whose content finds a niche or target audience that’s attractive to advertising.
However, be careful! Never publish a story agains money. Money is only for advertising not for editorial! While you are making business , always announce who are your advertiser and sponsors. Do not ever be reluctant to publish a story because it may upset current or potential advertiser. Be fair!
Technology and technology and technology
You need to know how to publish your own website or at least to have a great team who believe on you vision. Social media is the most supportive tool to serve your website. However, having a 1000 fan on Facebook is not a guarantee or evidence for success. The point here is how far those fans are interested in your product, your website and what you publish!
Pegasus News
One of the amazing success stories mentioned in the book is that of Pegasus News, one of the very successful web-news. It was established by Mike Orren i
n 2004 to meet the shortage in the local media newspaper. Orren stayed for six months without salary. However, just after three month of publishing the website, the site drew more than 200,000 unique monthly visitors. Here are some insights about Orren and his successful news website:
1) Orren pursued more conventional financing, through his extensive network of local media contacts (to assemble a solid business plan for the new digital publication;
2) He envisioned building a loyal local audience for an innovative website that would be irresistible to area residents seeking customized local news and indispensable to local businesses seeking a viable advertising alternative;
3) He quiet his previous job, as publisher of Texas Lawyer magazine, and went 22 month without salary;
4) He hired a team who had a great belief in his vision. “we were the pirate ship,” Orren says of his overachieving staff, whose belief in Orren’s vision kept them going. “It was a cause, it wasn’t a job.”
5) Audience played a role, too. They tagging content and adding feedback;
Reflection as a value of Servant-Leadership
At the same time, Orren succeeded in building a great team who shared with him his vision. About this experiment, Mark Briggs and Orren say: “We were the pirate ship, “Orren says of his overachieving staff, whose belief in Orren’s vision kept them going. “It was a cause, it wasn’t’ a job. I discovered you get a lot more out of people when it’s a cause, than when it’s a job.”
Other resources on the Book:
www.cqpress.com/product/EntreJourn.html
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gY3P3CXFjM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04Qt4cOP6Y
prezi.com/lpq3ktpec7kr/entrepreneurial–journalism/
