You're on to something with Breaking Tweets, http://breakingtweets.com, Craig. It's a great idea to have journalists curating the best tweets about a story or topic. That's a solid content model.
Now, if you want to make a living at it, you need to sort out and execute a business model.
You have two options:
1. Get massive traffic, 2MM+ pageviews/month while keeping costs low, low, low, such that you can use existing advertising networks to make a living. Their rates are insultingly low, but if you can break a million pageviews without having to pay for content or help, then you can make that work possibly.
2. Build it out into a brand with a defined, die-hard niche audience that specific types of businesses will pay a premium to reach. What about approaching the makers of some of the Twitter clients out there? They're always looking for new users and your audience consists of super-active Twitter-users who are likely always one step ahead of the game. What if Twirl or Tweetdeck sponsored you guys for a month or two?
Really well written, Brad. Had my attention the whole time. Scary for sure, but I think a lot of what you said is accurate. I'm nearing the end of my program, graduate in August, and prospects aren't good. But like you, I'm pouring a lot of my energy into entrepreneurial thinking. I'd like to create a start-up of sorts and run with it. Especially the state of the industry right now, you can't wait for the opportunities come to you, I think anyway, you have to create your own opportunity.
I went to Medill (Northwestern's Grad J-school). Graduated a year ago.
J-schools are struggling because their costs are rising while their obvious value is diminishing.
Going to j-school seems to have always been controversial among journalists. The successful people who didn't go snicker when students ask them if they should go. The people who went and are still in journalism say it was worth it. The people who went and who are no longer in journalism say it was a waste of time.
J-schools have never been great at "placing" students with media companies due to the volatile nature of the industry and the frankly hit or miss nature of the students they take. Getting into an "elite" j-school is not so hard as you'd think. The admission staff refused to tell me their acceptance rate at Medill, but I suspect it's around 40%.
But now they're doing even worse at "placing" students, especially grad students. At Medill, there's an undergrad program and a grad student program. The undergrads I met and worked with were almost all bright go-getters. They'd never failed at anything in their life and really went after things. Because NU has them for 4 years, they intern at media companies every summer throughout college. These folks get jobs because they have killer experience and a few connections from the program.
The grad program....different story. There were working journalists who wanted a degree to cement their status as a professional. There were people who were there just to rack up another degree. There were people who had no clue why they were there. There were people looking to break into journalism (my case). And when these folks get out of grad school...there's nothing for them. They're usually too old to rack up 3-4 unpaid internships like the undergrads so solid jobs at major papers and broadcast companies are out of the question. This leaves B2B publications, niche newsletters run out of basements in Skokie (I wasn't sure if I was going to be hired or murdered during the job interview), and......marketing and P.R. which have a place, but certainly isn't what people were signing up for when they went off to j-school.
These are fine options. The point is that the best undergrad j-schoolers are getting entry-level jobs at ABC and the Wall Street Journal while the best grad schoolers are landing at places a few rungs further down and/or struggling to find a gig at all.
They're not finding work. There are many, many reasons for why they're not finding work, but they aren't.
Meanwhile the cost of running these grad programs, retaining and recruiting faculty, marketing the school etc are only going up, up, up.
So J-school's getting more expensive as it's power diminishes. That's a problem.
This program in Arizona is very interesting. Tim McGuire wrote some nice things about me, so I'm a fan of his. I wish them the best of luck. I wish they weren't telling the students to read Mashable, but that's just me. :)
A year ago, when I finished up J-school, I had a handful of job offers that I turned down to dive into a bootstrapped, solo startup that's still got a ways to go. Going it alone was a tough decision, but it was made tougher by the fact that I didn't meet hardly anyone who was thinking "startup." Largely due to worries about paying back their crushing loans, healthcare etc, all thing that require creative solutions when working on a startup.
The lack of entrepreneurial thinking is a big problem for journalism students. If more of them saw themselves as independent companies that need to create unique value in the world in order to make a living, they'd be a bit better off.
Entrepreneurial thinking will lead to j-schoolers being smarter about how they package themselves. It's assumed that you're a solid writer and reporter. What else do you have? Being good at flash doesn't count. Being able to make a slideshow doesn't count. You need to have a hook, something you can do better than anyone else in the business, to have a chance.
Writer asks why local newspapers abandoned neighborhood news and intensely local coverage. Says going back to that will save them, along with going deeper in their reporting, running fewer wire stories and being more consistent and aggressive online.
I think local newspapers get away from neighborhood coverage because it bores their editors and reporters to tears.
I don't think it'd be as bad as the reporter says here, but if newspapers start looking to the government to keep them around, that WILL have an impact on their reporting.
Paul is a friend, and he knocked this one out of the park.
My favorite lines:
Apparently, it's [being a 'death of newspapers' blogger] very simple. The more you self-reference, pick feuds and talk about the failure of TimesSelect, the better you're doing. If you make it sound like you're the one who figured out newspapers are dying, you win.
I mean, the point's not to fix anything. It's to describe the problem more dramatically than the next guy. If Steve Outing says newspapers have a "death spiral" and Clay Shirky predicts "a bloodbath," the point goes to Shirky.
Basically, imagine a group of people watching a building burn down and bickering amongst themselves about whether it's a conflagration or an inferno. It's like that, but with consulting fees.
Yes, we all know the media pundits are working on a lot of different "projects" (I"m coming to hate that term along with "the gig economy"), but their main end, as perhaps it should be, is to sell their books. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but Paul takes some well-deserved shots at it here.
The idea of separating your media launch from your product launch is a good one. You usually only get one chance to make a splash with a new project. The more feedback and community you can build around something before that happens, the better.
What are some examples of actual, moneymaking homepages like this in the wild? If this is the way forward, then surely that's in part based on the success of someone doing this or something similar, right?
Favorite line: "The distinction between print and digital media will ultimately vanish. The media of the future will be digitally printed and printed digital devices. "
Newsosaur says Global POst is using every revenue model out there, He emailed me saying that means Subscription, Advertising, Syndication, Conferences, Individual consulting, T-shirts and mugs
Newsosaur says Global POst is using every revenue model out there, He emailed me saying that means Subscription, Advertising, Syndication, Conferences, Individual consulting, T-shirts and mugs
I think GlobalPost is doing some really good work so far.
The best innovation from that article is the idea of having a patron program which allows the patrons to help guide the newsroom. I'm not sure how this will work in a global operation, but I could imagine that this could be very useful in a regional or local new outlet. You could have the patrons tip off the news staff about issues they *really* care about in the neighborhood.
I'm not sure how this would play out, but I think it's an idea that more outlets should investigate.
I'm especially interested in the disruptive technologies he's talking about in this piece. I'm putting my own dollar down on personalization (what he calls information scalability), but there are a lot of potential businesses in part IV of that piece.
Everyblock's opening its code up soon, but will folks in other communities be able to create interesting, effective sites using it? Experts overseas are skeptical about getting ahold of the data in bureaucratic countries like India and Singapore.
Thanks for the detailed response. This is really great stuff to hear. I don't know your story, but Brava on stepping out and doing this.
Also, I like your take on advertising. If you are doing more or less the same thing you were doing before, your first goal should be to get back to that point earnings-wise. That seems as good a way as any to set the first revenue goal.
One thing that comes up a lot in discussions of startups is that, as useful as "business people" are, what they do is not always rocket science. The ability to close sales and find new leads can be learned if someone wants to learn it badly enough.
I'm doing all the reporting the old school way, basically, though I am hoping at some point to have help from either freelancers (we have a number of good journalists in town) or community members (like on the schools page) and if I'm lucky, some combination of the two.
As far as how my advertising is priced, I took a look at what other sites are charging to get a handle on where I thought I could start. My goal at this point is just to earn as much as I was earning in my old job, and go from there. I am doing it myself for now but am exploring some other avenues for getting ads sold (which I will be more than happy to share when something is finalized).
And when you talk about success - Clearly, figuring out how to make this work out financially is key. We've got to get journalists back to work. But honestly, my main goal is making sure that news continues to get reported - and even improving on what's available to folks in terms of local news, and enhancing the involvement that people have with their local media outlets.
2 points
by Jim McBee, partner11 months agoon Smartnews1 child
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How to make money on SlinkSet?
You're on to something with Breaking Tweets, http://breakingtweets.com, Craig. It's a great idea to have journalists curating the best tweets about a story or topic. That's a solid content model.
Now, if you want to make a living at it, you need to sort out and execute a business model.
You have two options:
1. Get massive traffic, 2MM+ pageviews/month while keeping costs low, low, low, such that you can use existing advertising networks to make a living. Their rates are insultingly low, but if you can break a million pageviews without having to pay for content or help, then you can make that work possibly.
2. Build it out into a brand with a defined, die-hard niche audience that specific types of businesses will pay a premium to reach. What about approaching the makers of some of the Twitter clients out there? They're always looking for new users and your audience consists of super-active Twitter-users who are likely always one step ahead of the game. What if Twirl or Tweetdeck sponsored you guys for a month or two?
Really well written, Brad. Had my attention the whole time. Scary for sure, but I think a lot of what you said is accurate. I'm nearing the end of my program, graduate in August, and prospects aren't good. But like you, I'm pouring a lot of my energy into entrepreneurial thinking. I'd like to create a start-up of sorts and run with it. Especially the state of the industry right now, you can't wait for the opportunities come to you, I think anyway, you have to create your own opportunity.
I went to Medill (Northwestern's Grad J-school). Graduated a year ago.
J-schools are struggling because their costs are rising while their obvious value is diminishing.
Going to j-school seems to have always been controversial among journalists. The successful people who didn't go snicker when students ask them if they should go. The people who went and are still in journalism say it was worth it. The people who went and who are no longer in journalism say it was a waste of time.
J-schools have never been great at "placing" students with media companies due to the volatile nature of the industry and the frankly hit or miss nature of the students they take. Getting into an "elite" j-school is not so hard as you'd think. The admission staff refused to tell me their acceptance rate at Medill, but I suspect it's around 40%.
But now they're doing even worse at "placing" students, especially grad students. At Medill, there's an undergrad program and a grad student program. The undergrads I met and worked with were almost all bright go-getters. They'd never failed at anything in their life and really went after things. Because NU has them for 4 years, they intern at media companies every summer throughout college. These folks get jobs because they have killer experience and a few connections from the program.
The grad program....different story. There were working journalists who wanted a degree to cement their status as a professional. There were people who were there just to rack up another degree. There were people who had no clue why they were there. There were people looking to break into journalism (my case). And when these folks get out of grad school...there's nothing for them. They're usually too old to rack up 3-4 unpaid internships like the undergrads so solid jobs at major papers and broadcast companies are out of the question. This leaves B2B publications, niche newsletters run out of basements in Skokie (I wasn't sure if I was going to be hired or murdered during the job interview), and......marketing and P.R. which have a place, but certainly isn't what people were signing up for when they went off to j-school.
These are fine options. The point is that the best undergrad j-schoolers are getting entry-level jobs at ABC and the Wall Street Journal while the best grad schoolers are landing at places a few rungs further down and/or struggling to find a gig at all.
They're not finding work. There are many, many reasons for why they're not finding work, but they aren't.
Meanwhile the cost of running these grad programs, retaining and recruiting faculty, marketing the school etc are only going up, up, up.
So J-school's getting more expensive as it's power diminishes. That's a problem.
This program in Arizona is very interesting. Tim McGuire wrote some nice things about me, so I'm a fan of his. I wish them the best of luck. I wish they weren't telling the students to read Mashable, but that's just me. :)
A year ago, when I finished up J-school, I had a handful of job offers that I turned down to dive into a bootstrapped, solo startup that's still got a ways to go. Going it alone was a tough decision, but it was made tougher by the fact that I didn't meet hardly anyone who was thinking "startup." Largely due to worries about paying back their crushing loans, healthcare etc, all thing that require creative solutions when working on a startup.
The lack of entrepreneurial thinking is a big problem for journalism students. If more of them saw themselves as independent companies that need to create unique value in the world in order to make a living, they'd be a bit better off.
Entrepreneurial thinking will lead to j-schoolers being smarter about how they package themselves. It's assumed that you're a solid writer and reporter. What else do you have? Being good at flash doesn't count. Being able to make a slideshow doesn't count. You need to have a hook, something you can do better than anyone else in the business, to have a chance.
nope — it's all about cash and wringing cash out of the newsroom as well as the need to report ultra local in a more sophisticated way.
Writer asks why local newspapers abandoned neighborhood news and intensely local coverage. Says going back to that will save them, along with going deeper in their reporting, running fewer wire stories and being more consistent and aggressive online.
I think local newspapers get away from neighborhood coverage because it bores their editors and reporters to tears.
I like it. This is a great idea.
I don't think it'd be as bad as the reporter says here, but if newspapers start looking to the government to keep them around, that WILL have an impact on their reporting.
This just made Gawker. http://gawker.com/5185362/that-is-just-how-jeff-jarvis-writes-yes
Paul is a friend, and he knocked this one out of the park.
My favorite lines:
Apparently, it's [being a 'death of newspapers' blogger] very simple. The more you self-reference, pick feuds and talk about the failure of TimesSelect, the better you're doing. If you make it sound like you're the one who figured out newspapers are dying, you win.
I mean, the point's not to fix anything. It's to describe the problem more dramatically than the next guy. If Steve Outing says newspapers have a "death spiral" and Clay Shirky predicts "a bloodbath," the point goes to Shirky.
Basically, imagine a group of people watching a building burn down and bickering amongst themselves about whether it's a conflagration or an inferno. It's like that, but with consulting fees.
Yes, we all know the media pundits are working on a lot of different "projects" (I"m coming to hate that term along with "the gig economy"), but their main end, as perhaps it should be, is to sell their books. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but Paul takes some well-deserved shots at it here.
The idea of separating your media launch from your product launch is a good one. You usually only get one chance to make a splash with a new project. The more feedback and community you can build around something before that happens, the better.
What are some examples of actual, moneymaking homepages like this in the wild? If this is the way forward, then surely that's in part based on the success of someone doing this or something similar, right?
This looks a lot like Slate or Salon circa 1997.
Advice geared toward tech startups in general, but a lot of applicable info for journalism startups.
Interview with a media expert:
Favorite line: "The distinction between print and digital media will ultimately vanish. The media of the future will be digitally printed and printed digital devices. "
Newsosaur says Global POst is using every revenue model out there, He emailed me saying that means Subscription, Advertising, Syndication, Conferences, Individual consulting, T-shirts and mugs
Newsosaur says Global POst is using every revenue model out there, He emailed me saying that means Subscription, Advertising, Syndication, Conferences, Individual consulting, T-shirts and mugs
I think GlobalPost is doing some really good work so far.
The best innovation from that article is the idea of having a patron program which allows the patrons to help guide the newsroom. I'm not sure how this will work in a global operation, but I could imagine that this could be very useful in a regional or local new outlet. You could have the patrons tip off the news staff about issues they *really* care about in the neighborhood.
I'm not sure how this would play out, but I think it's an idea that more outlets should investigate.
I'm especially interested in the disruptive technologies he's talking about in this piece. I'm putting my own dollar down on personalization (what he calls information scalability), but there are a lot of potential businesses in part IV of that piece.
The Gist:
Everyblock's opening its code up soon, but will folks in other communities be able to create interesting, effective sites using it? Experts overseas are skeptical about getting ahold of the data in bureaucratic countries like India and Singapore.
Hi I use Slinkset for a 'local' Green news digest at GreenSudbury.ca How are you creating the extra Tabs on your site - i.e.) Jobs and Comment?
Thanks for the detailed response. This is really great stuff to hear. I don't know your story, but Brava on stepping out and doing this.
Also, I like your take on advertising. If you are doing more or less the same thing you were doing before, your first goal should be to get back to that point earnings-wise. That seems as good a way as any to set the first revenue goal.
One thing that comes up a lot in discussions of startups is that, as useful as "business people" are, what they do is not always rocket science. The ability to close sales and find new leads can be learned if someone wants to learn it badly enough.
I'm doing all the reporting the old school way, basically, though I am hoping at some point to have help from either freelancers (we have a number of good journalists in town) or community members (like on the schools page) and if I'm lucky, some combination of the two.
As far as how my advertising is priced, I took a look at what other sites are charging to get a handle on where I thought I could start. My goal at this point is just to earn as much as I was earning in my old job, and go from there. I am doing it myself for now but am exploring some other avenues for getting ads sold (which I will be more than happy to share when something is finalized).
And when you talk about success - Clearly, figuring out how to make this work out financially is key. We've got to get journalists back to work. But honestly, my main goal is making sure that news continues to get reported - and even improving on what's available to folks in terms of local news, and enhancing the involvement that people have with their local media outlets.
Can you help me understand what the core business model is? I couldn't very easily glean it from your website.
Thanks for sharing this. How's preparation for the launch coming along?
Please check us out, a new way of marketing news and info content: a freelance journalism cooperative that provides income and access to markets for writers, photographers, artists and editors, and affordable content for publishers. Join our FB group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=69091714512