Writing an Executive Summary for Your Business Plan

As promised, here's some advice on how to write the executive summary that you will provide to the panel of investors next week. Please plan on having enough copies for everyone--including students and myself. So plan on 30 copies total. I'm happy to pass these out for you as you prepare.


I've chosen this blog post from Guy Kawasaki and Bill Reichert, who are famous serial entrepreneurs, to explain your executive summaries. It's far better than any template or examples I could provide to you. Follow these rules and you'll have a strong executive summary that should easily be pulled from your business plans.

Unpaid bloggers sue Huffington Post, AOL

I noticed others have posted things about the build-up against Huffington Post and AOL for not paying thousands of writers/bloggers, but Politico is reporting that the writers have filed suit.

The lawsuit argues Arianna Huffington and the Post breached contract with at least some writers regarding an "implied promise" of compensation. The suit takes issue with the $315 million Huffington accepted as a buyout from AOL, arguing the latter likely would not have paid such a high sum "without the value (unpaid writers) created" through their work.

A spokesman for Huffington Post is quoted as saying the lawsuit is without merit, based on Huffington Post providing a platform that ensures bloggers' and writers' work will be read by "as many people as possible."

Brand You: How to Market Yourself

So in today's world, even if you have a job at a media corporation, you will need to create a "brand" for yourself. How you do that is up to you? But here is a good series from Innovative Interactivity to help you work through those issues.

Grants for your Website

This ehow article has some tips on where you can apply for grants to get your journalism site up and running.

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Inspiring Videos on Investment, Press, Etc.

Guy Kawasaki on the "Art of the Start"

Guy Kawasaki is a serial entrepreneur. In this blog from Common Craft, they distill his lessons from the book "The Art of the Start." Some useful tips here for presentations!

How to Write a Great Business Plan

I know you all are going to start asking me for a "template" of how to write the business plan. There are many forms that business plans take. I've linked in another post to some of the Knight News Challenge proposals. But here is a book that you may want to consider purchasing .... or see if it is in the library. The Google preview may give you some good ideas as well.

Some Smart Advice That Hurts

Here's a great article about the myths about a college journalism education. We'll discuss this in class next Tuesday when I give you my hour-long schpiel about becoming a freelancer. But for now, read this, print it out, stick it up on your bathroom mirror because what's in it will help you not just as a college journalist but a journalist throughout the your life.

Knight News Challenge: Finalists and their Proposals

The Knight News Challenge has sent out letters to 28 lucky finalists. Here is the beginning of a list of the finalists and their proposals. If you are looking for ideas and templates to follow for your own business plans and proposals, you may want to take a look at these.

The Cloud That Rains Music

Amazon's newly launched cloud player is trying to outdo Apple's iTunes, by making your music available everywhere, (without synching your devices yourself) including your Android phone, because your music will be sitting "in the cloud". Click here to read more.

"Of the Web" not just on it...

Emily Low used to run the successful website for the Guardian, a leading newspaper in the U.K. She now runs the Tow Center at Columbia Journalism. In this interview with Neiman Labs, she discusses the philosophy behind the Guardian's push into digital content. A useful read, especially regarding the importance of technical skills.

Not what I was looking for but PACKED with good info

I'm still on the hunt for anything that gives me an idea of HOW MUCH money can be made with an ad network. But in my quest for said information I found this site. It's a list of 21 ad networks with a description of the ad format and relevant audience figures. It covers everything from in-text to widget ads and the previously unknown (to me) "advertorial" (not gonna lie...it's a little exhausting).
Still, it's definitely worth a look-see.

http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/21-great-advertising-networks-for-publishers/

A Huff Post blogger's take

In this blog post by Jeff Jarvis, the author is very defensive of the attacks made on Arianna Huffington by the New York Times. Jarvis shares his view that the NYT doesn’t understand the Huff Post and that there are multiple misconceptions about it. Jarvis addresses issues such as free content, aggregation, Arianna’s political stance and the idea of fun in journalism. Jarvis originally posted it on his own blog, but decided to post it on the Huffington Post even though it is the subject of his post. Jarvis’ commentary is another side to the NYT pay wall debacle and gives the view of an unpaid blogger at the Huff Post.

Kara Venturino-Eyde

Erin O'Connor

Arianna Huffington vs. Newspaper Guild

According to an article on FoxNews.com, the 26,000-member national Newspaper Guild is taking a stand against the Huffington Post for not paying thousands of its writers. The union is asking all of its members not to share their work with the HuffPo to show their support for paid journalism. In response to the union, spokesman for HuffPo, Mario Ruiz, said that he also thought professional journalists should get paid, but also said that most of the writers they aren't paying are not considered professional; they are community bloggers who come from all over the place. Ruiz also said that HuffPo does have a staff of 160 full-time editors and reporters that it pays. Is HuffPo wrong for allowing bloggers to contribute free information or are the bloggers wrong for contributing information without pay? If a single video can sell for $150 to $1,000, HuffPo is saving a ton of money if they have 3,000 regular bloggers that they're not paying.

Kaleigh Robichaud

The Fix: Finding Your Audience and then Exploiting It

Maer Roshan is known for creating innovative and boundary-pushing publications such as Radar. In his new venture, The Fix he focuses on addiction and the people who live in a world of drugs, alcohol, etc. He spoke to NPR the other day about how he came up with the idea. It's a good listen on how to think about your audience and your niche.

Netflix Next Steps: How to Present Yourself

Netflix is shifting into streaming video online as its core business model. We will walk through this slideshow on Tuesday to discuss why this very simple presentation works and why it can serve as a template for your presentations to our panelists.

After Earning Money, How Does One Spend It?

Courtesy of a unique little website called quicktips.com, I found a short article regarding how much to spend on a website. The site also lists the pros and cons to using a custom design or template design as well as the general monetary investments you should expect to have to make to either. For those of us who have our economic models planned out (anyone?) this is a nice next step! Hope it inspires ideas like it did for us!

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Yahoo is Said to Move Toward Personalized Content

Yahoo plans to announce it is developing a publishing platform for applications that would let users get personalized content on their phones and other mobile devices, following a decline in revenue and a stream of departures. Read more here.

From a friend... A perspective on technology.

  This a blog entry from a friend, posted on Facebook.  She discusses and relates her real life experience with news tech and how it affects her daily life.  Probably, how it affects most of us.... How important is it to keep up, and what new responsibilities come with new tech?

28 Ways for Your Website to Make Money

I came across this blog tonight that I found useful, and probably will reference through out the rest of our project. It hits the main ideas we covered in class, but with a couple more and with a fresh perspective. I found #26 interesting because it is possible to make tons of money by simply sending out news letters of notifications to the site's members. Check it out!

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

New York Times pay wall...will people buy journalism.

As we move into the discussion of the economics of your journalism start-ups, the story of the Times and how it created its pay wall may help you in your own deliberations about how to make money online.

So...how do I actually design an app?

As the end of the semester draws nigh, I've been getting increasingly nervous about how to pitch noozie to a panel of investors. How can I ask for money for a business venture when I have no idea to design it or what it will look like? I found this awesome article from Smashing Magazine that not only explains the steps in creating an iPhone app, but also provides many questions that may help you refine your business plan, regardless of whether your distribution model involves apps. I strongly suggest that you check it out if you feel like you've hit a wall with your ideas.

Erin

Presentation Inspiration

So it's still a few weeks before you need to present, but this talk by a spoken word artist at the Ted 2011 conference inspired me to be a better speaker and communicator. You may take some cues from how she connects with her audience. And at just under 20 minutes...it's about how long you should take for your presentations.

Ahh...the pressure of a name!

That's a little snippet from Pretty Woman in case you didn't catch it. :-)
But seriously...our group has been struggling with a name. We might be the only ones, but in case we're not I'm going to share some inspiration.
First I read an article that seemed legit. It wasn't. To the extent that I'm not going to even link to it. About halfway down the first page the writer says the best way to name your business is to hire a branding firm. Oh yeah, and that's going to cost you about $80,000. Um, no thanks. That pretty much ended my article search. I'm a DIY kinda girl.
Plan B fared much better. I Googled name generators and found this one, specific to businesses.
http://www.businessnamegenerator.com/
They even let you know if the .com, .net, .org, etc. is available or already taken. Pretty sweet.
Most of the names are kind of lame, but a couple I morphed into something I thought was catchier. That's about it. See y'all in the a.m.!

State of the Media: What is Happening with Community.

State of the Media report offers insight into what is happening at the front lines of journalism. Here is a look at community sites.

A Case for Free Content...and I mean free

Deciding whether to give away your content--instead of putting it behind paywalls or making it difficult to copy by using restrictive copyright under Creative Commons--is something that you will want to consider as you work through your content models. Here is a take from Cory Doctorow about why content should be free and why copyright regulations should be changed to reflect our new digital world.

The State of Journalism: 2010

For the next seven weeks we will be digging deep to understand where your news startups fit in relation to what's happening in the rest of the journalism world. I will be posting a story (or several) each week that you will read and then comment on, either in class or at the end of the blog post.

Here is the first one. A look at the state of journalism in 2010 by Rick Edmonds of Poynter.org

A Case Study as Magazine Article

The New York Times Magazine profiled Heather Armstrong, the creator of Dooce.com, this weekend. It's an excellent example of how a case study can be written as a magazine article. This runs several thousand words, but it could serve as a template for how to write your case study. In addition, it's a great read on the blogger industry.

Aggregation App: Politifact

This is an excellent and concise way of explaining how PolitiFact, a news aggregation site that reports on the accuracy of information in politics, sees its product and mission. It's a good read if you are considering how to aggregate information and then present it to either a consumer audience or a journalists' audience.

Thinking Through Funding Models...A look at Texas Tribune

If you are having a tough time working through how much money you think your start-up will need, take a look at this story on the Texas Tribune. It gives some indication of how the founder is spending $3.5 million for three years.

Google Fights Back Against "Gaming" Searches

Google made moves last week to make its searches more credible. This story explains what's been happening, why Demand Studios is an interesting case study in the discussion of knowledge versus information, and where the future lies for search.

Did Google win this one?

Google thinks they have finally gotten a one up on Apple with their new digital-service, One Pass.

According to this Businessweek story, One Pass is more publisher friendly than Apple's subscription service that was unveiled on Feb. 15. Google's service will keep around 10 percent of the fees charged by publishers while Apple will be keeping nearly 30 percent. Google claims that their primary objective is to get the money to the people who are producing high-quality content. According to the company, their cut will cover the costs of the services which will be available on tablets and smartphones, along with websites.

Publishers say One Pass is also more appealing because Google gives them more access to information about users than Apple.

In the end, it is up to the publishers to decide who ultimately wins, Apple or Google.

Lauren Walker
Victoria Marzec

Apple vs. Google

Apple's new payment plan will allow the company to keep 30% of the profits from the sale of any books, magazine or other publications in its app store. Google, on the other hand, is going to let publishers charge for their content through their existing checkout system — naming itself Google One Pass. Now, it's a waiting game to see which payment plan will draw more publishers to post their content on Google vs. the Apple app store.

Megan Durisin
Justin Bailey

Apple's issues with Google.

I was ignorant to the little feud with Google and Apple. I found this article interesting because it explains the issues the companies have with each other. Here it is.

-Amber & Hannah

The "Subscription" Economy

Tien Tzuo, CEO of a subscription billing company in Silicon Valley, took a broader look at the competition between Google and Apple over paid content in his piece called The 'Subscription Economy' Is Growing, And It's Bigger Than Just Media. Tzuo focused on the transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a subscription-based economy and how it might actually improve relationships between customers and companies in the long-run. Unlike the age of manufacturing where consumers were making one-time buys, consumers are contributing to a consistent revenue stream for companies. Likewise, consumers are benefiting because companies are trying to create a long-term relationship with them. Part of that relationship requires the companies to upgrade and improve their services to keep those consumers coming back.

Kaleigh Robichaud
Michael Marx

Apple vs. Google-Paid Content

This article not only explains the situation going on with Apple and Google's recent plans to start a payment system, but points out the differences between the two and what the advantages are.

Lindsay Nowak

Google vs. Apple

This article by PCMag.com does a really great job comparing Google and Apple's Digital Subscription Platforms. I'm not sure there is a clear-cut answer on which is "better" but rather depends on the consumer and his or her preferences. It will be interesting to see which is more successful. Without a doubt, they will both do well and it is great that consumers will have options.

Erica Hamling
Sam Mikalonis

Spot.us funds hundreds of projects, wins journalism awards

Whatever you may think of crowd-funding and revenue generated from micro-funding, Spot.us has been successful with its model of supporting good journalism through a "tip jar" method. This article from Poynter is a helpful primer on how the organization funds journalism through inventive ways.

The Rivalry Between Google & Apple

First, there was the competition between Apple's IPhone and IPad and Google's Android. Now, there is the competition between Apple's customer-friendly payment plan and Google's publisher-friendly payment plan.

This article makes readers wonder what company has the best deal when it comes to purchasing apps and subscriptions.

With strong competition between Apple and Google, we can only hope that Yahoo doesn't sneak attack these companies with its smart business plan.

-Rebecca Stolarsky

Google v. Apple

Thisarticle does a great job of explaining Google and Apple's separate payment plans. One, (Google) being more friendly toward publishers and two (Apple) being more friendly toward customers.

It's interesting and great to me that these two powerhouses are so competitive, because it ends up creating great products/payment plans for people to choose from.

-Abbey Moore, Matt Johns

The First Look at NewsCorp.'s "The Daily"

"New times demand new journalism," Rupert Murdoch said when he unveiled "The Daily", a news app from NewsCorp, looking to put NewsCorp ahead in the digital world. Read more here.

Create a Business Plan

There is a great website for entrepreneurs of any kind that will help with business plans, economic models and everything else a starter business would need. Not only does it walk you through the ups and downs of all the options but it also provides real-life organizations and people that want to help entrepreneurs. I am posting a portion of an article called "Create a Business Plan," but the whole article is great.

Erica Hamling
Sam Mikalonis

TV Works With Social Media

At this year's Oscars, TV is not the only place to find immediate updates about the winners (and losers). This article discusses the collaboration between social media outlets, like Twitter, to talk to viewers about their reactions to the awards show as it airs on TV. This new level of multitasking brings good business to TV stations and social media sites, and this business plan is not limited to awards shows, but reality shows as well.

-Rebecca Stolarsky

The Daily

This story about the recent launch of News Corp's latest endeavor, The Daily, showcases a problem that anyone (including a majority of the class) who plans to create an online media business must face: how will the audience pay for the content? As the article says, The Daily arrives as readers are increasingly being asked to pay. When creating our business models we are all going to have to consider how we will make money, and if actually charging consumers for content proves viable in the online world, this may become a very popular possibility.

The Privacy/Industrial Complex?

As social media continues to grow, the question of privacy--and who watches over our privacy rights--has become increasingly important. As you consider social media as part of your business models, you may have to consider the implications of privacy. Are you going to sell statistics and information on your audience, how will you control comments, etc. This is an interesting article from Jeff Jarvis along with several links included in the story itself that could help you work through what can be a thorny issue.

What Journalism Might Learn from the Lara Logan Story

This article made me realize what rights journalists have and what risks we take for what we love.

Lauren Gentile
Brandon Kirby

Changing Gear in a Changing Field

A lot of controversy has recently erupted over the use and awarding of a photo taken with an iPhone using an application that adds an artistic tone automatically. Where has photojournalism gone, more importantly where does the future of photojournalism lie? If a photograph taken on an iPhone can allow a photojournalist to win third place in Pictures of the Year what is the difference between a photojournalist and a normal person carrying a photo ready smart phone? The photographer that landed the third place honor is a photojournalist, but one day a finalist just might be a lucky person who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Here is the article.

Sam Mikalonis

Erica Hamling

Support News Content You Choose

Spot.us is not very similar, but probably the most similar in content to our idea. This site post stories that citizens create, then the public can choose which stories they like, then they can promote the stories by funding them. We are also aiming to create a site where everyone in the country can post their story ideas, and contribute to (specifically) TV news content.

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Internship Opportunities

Here's a good resource for internships as you look forward the next few months. Innovative Interactivity is also simply a good resource to have bookmarked.

Making it work

A site very similar to our review-based endeavor is expanding its presence via avenues such as phone apps. Decisions by Yelp.com to expand the ways consumers can rate and review products and services has amounted to more than 3 million users of the mobile app. Also, the mobile app constitutes 35 percent of all searches on Yelp. An interesting concept for our group to explore.

Zane McMillin

Young People Don't Vote in Midterm Elections

In 2008, the turnout rate for people in the age group 18-29 was 51%, however in the 2006 Midterm election, it was 25%. Why is that? Michael McDonald, a professor at George Mason University explores a few different explanations.



Read More



Michael Marx
Kaleigh Robichaud

Angry Birds in 3D: IT'S COMING.

Well, it IS an app, so this exciting news sort of has to do with project noozie. (To my group: I decided I like it better all lower-case, with an -ie instead of a -y ending. Thoughts?)

But seriously, as budding entrepreneurs who mostly hope to publish (and get paid for) content put online, I think it's important for us to understand the basics of programming. A journalist at the dataist blog put together a collection of tutorials for journalists that can help you learn a variety of tasks, from merely understanding the concepts of data to creating your own computer games. I plan on learning about some of these myself if I ever get any spare time...someday.

Erin O'Connor

Checking out the competition

Since Noozy is targeted towards young people between the ages of 16 to 24, Facebook will of course be a big competitor. But could it overtake us in the area that is our niche? Along with the possibility that it may develop an e-mail system, Facebook could develop a news application, according to this article. With all of its features and addicting hold over our target market, it seems that we would be crushed by this competition. But, there is a solution (according to the article): create good journalism and content that is relevant to readers.

Kara Venturino-Eyde
Erin O'Connor

Scan a barcode to get your news?

This article explains how USA Today is trying to bring back the idea of scanning a barcode with your mobile phone (by downloading an app) to connect readers digitally to online photo and video galleries.


Lindsay Nowak

Apps Work With Publishers, and Enjoy It

Because our App, "Noozy," will provide aggregate news, we plan on working immensely with many different publishers. One of my main concerns is how to work with with these publishing companies across the country to attain news for our App, and how the collaboration will benefit both of us.

This New York Times article shares how the future of online reading depends on working with publishers to distribute payments with them as App users read their articles. It also discusses when readers have time to read their news, and the invention of the " save-for-later button," for the IPad, which could be convenient for our target market of 16-24 year olds.

-Rebecca Stolarsky

How to gain and Audience, what not to do

For our photo project, I feel like one of the hardest issues to tackle will be how to get yourself in the public eye of the niche audience we are looking for. That is, people who are seriously interested in viewing great quality photojournalism. (People like Kyle Poplin!)

With social media being so common these days, as an organization/news outlet, it would be easy to become too involved in tracking your twitter followers and facebook "likes", so THIS ARTICLE talks about how to understand that each viewer has an audience of their own, and your goal is to create enough quality work that they choose to send it to their own audience.

The blog also has a few other tips on implementing social media and gaining an audience.

-abbey moore

Knight News Challenge Winners Offer Tips on Focusing Ideas

The Knight News Challenge awards millions of dollars each year to journalism start-up ideas just like the ones we are creating for this course. Here's a link to a story on some suggestions on how to focus your business start-up ideas.

Multimedia Must-See: Climate Wisconsin

Here is a post that relates to a unique project involving educational multimedia communications, called Climate Wisconsin.

http://www.innovativeinteractivity.com/2011/01/04/climate-wisconsin/



Justin Bailey
Megan Durisin

Apple Offers Subscriptions for All iPad Publications

Apple is going to allow publishers to sell subscriptions through the App Store. Apple will keep 30% of the profits from the sales and the publishers will keep 70%. Read more here.

Too much Aggreation

Have you heard of this site? http://newscontent.com/ is a bit to much of an aggregation site for my taste, since it consists of just a series of links. No content is their content, and as far as I'm concerned, google or bing do a more efficient job at finding me content. However, this site is still up and running!

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Media Is Everywhere

This column by Michael Zimbalist from Digital Next takes a look at all the media outlets we're constantly exposed to through the likes of laptops, smartphones and now--ever more frequent--tablets and e-readers such as the Nook and iPad.

He calls it an "ecosystem with many different species of devices," and the piece announces the continuing prevalence of e-readers and how this creative style of distribution could be a harbinger for the future of media and how we have access to it.

Lauren Gentile
Brandon Kirby

Just Give Me Two Weeks

Want to start a business? All you need is two weeks according to this series taken from entrepreneur. com called "Two weeks to Startup" This article on Day 7, discusses the importance of developing a marketing plan for your entrepreneurial business. Guess we can cut this class down to two weeks and call it a day! Early break anyone?


Victoria Marzec
Lauren Walker

Use social media? You're a sucker.

This clearly bitter column from David Carr at the New York Times informs readers that if they participate in social media, they are little more than serfs in Feudalistic media landscape where users provide content for free to huge social media companies. Of course, this newspaper writer feels threatened - but we're in JRN 450, so we don't have to.

Erin O'Connor
Kara Venturino-Eyde

Google gives crowdsourcing a go

TechCrunch is reporting that Google this past weekend tried a new feature that allows people to block certain websites that come up as part of their searches. (Sadly for Firefox and Explorer users [if the latter still exists], the feature only works as an extension on Google's Chrome browser.)

The best anyone can guess is Google is using the system to "rank" websites in order of preference within a given search. It's a technical yet fairly interesting read. Earlier this semester I remember talking about Google being somewhat problematic in that the algorithms used to search are somewhat off at times. This is a somewhat surprising — albeit late in the making — move by everyone's favorite software giant.

Zane McMillin

Australian Journalism Professor Starts Online Academic Journal

An interesting article about an Australian journalism professor that started an academic journal online that publishes journalism instead of studies of journalistic work. This will allow academic journalists in Australia to still practice journalism; something that is harder to come by "down under" than in the U.S.



Andrew Atwal
Anthony Sabella

Fact or Fiction?

The News Literacy Project is a national program committed to educating middle- and high school students on the importance of fact over fiction in the digital age of journalism. Since it was founded in 2008 by Alan C. Miller, a former investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the program has found its way into several New York, Maryland and Chicago schools. The idea is to create a relationship between active and retired journalists and teachers to educate students on the importance of news and informing them on how to identify credible news reporting. This program partners with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

You can read how this program is affecting students in the Chicago Tribune's article Program uses journalism to break down barriers by Erin Calandriello.

Kaleigh Robichaud
Michael Marx

Don't like any magazines? Make your own!

HP has come up with a great idea for anyone to create their very own magazine. This article explains how MagCloud allows journalists, or anyone interested in writing at all can make money and produce content on subjects they want to read about.

Social Media Like the Phone Book?

An interesting take on social media tools and whether they are the reason for the supposed "demise" of journalism in Mother Jones. Kevin Drum takes on David Carr's position in this column

Netbooks vs. Tablets

Creative Distribution

This New York Times article talks about how netbooks are losing sales and are being replaced by tablets. A few years ago netbooks were seen as “industry changing” due to their lightweight and low cost. Now, netbooks are a thing of the past with things like the iPad on the market. The iPad is considered an even lighter portable device with more options. Netbooks were said to have taken away from the sales of notebooks, or laptops and now tablets are taking from the sales of netbooks.

Although technology is changing quickly and our devices are obsolete within a couple of years, we are benefiting from this competition. Prices are dropping lower than ever as companies continue to get more creative with how they deliver content.

Erica Hamling & Sam Mikalonis

Social Media in the Business World

This is an interesting story to take a look at as you map out your social media strategy for your businesses. How will you use social media and what do you need to keep in mind as you launch your project through these new social strategies.

What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur

Here's an interesting look at what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Some good suggestions on pitching and being passionate about what you want to create.

paidContent Founder on Why He's Not Interested in Covering News

PaidContent is a great site to look at for ideas on digital content and its various economic models. Rafat Ali, the founder, talks to Poynter about what his interests are going forward in this article.

Obama to Expand the Ever Growing Internet

Obama and the White House wants in on the information technology scene. This article explains how Obama plans to expand the world wide web.



Victoria Marzec
Lauren Walker

Academia and Journalism Working Together

This article basically outlines the topic that was set forth for us. When I read this it changed my mind of how I look at journalism. Click Here

Lauren Gentile
Brandon Kirby

Journalists working with Journalism students?

In this article, the writer says that journalists need to reach out to their local universities and work with Journalism students. With the help of students, stories that the journalists didn't have time to write in the first place could get written. It would also give students a chance to get experience.


Andrew Atwal
Anthony Sabella

Google's greatest skill - and challenge, as seen through the eyes of an academic

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Would Google Do?" bases his discussion around Google's greatest skill and challenge: scale. In the article, Jarvis offers insight into Google's greatest scale challenge; innovation and its next biggest scale opportunity; mobile. He discusses how important 'local' will be for Google in the near future and where Larry Page will ultimately take the company. Jarvis' Book, "Public Parts", will be published later this year.

Lauren Walker
Victoria Marzec

NYT + NYU forever

This article has a boat load of information about the collaboration between NYU and the Times. The collaboration produced a hyper-local website called The Local: East Village, and has been live on the NYT website since September.
The article was written almost a year ago, but the information is perfect for our class. He outlines 16 points to explain The Local: East Village, and most of them—maybe all—answer questions we will have to answer in developing our business models.
-His first point defines coverage area.
-His tenth point explains what each institution will contribute to the site.
-His ninth point explains who the contributors will be. **Interesting goal: They don't give a target date, but the ultimate goal is to have 50 percent of content contributed by the community. A content fundraiser of sorts? I like it.
I'll stop there. I'm sorry this post is so wordy but I think this article is valuable. He outlines A LOT of different aspects of the collaboration, and it gave me more of an idea of what we should include in our business plan.
Ok...I'm done. Finally.

Climate Wisconsin

Researchers from environmental institutions in Wisconsin, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teamed up with a multimedia journalist to produce a website about the effects of climate change on the state. It features videos, interactives and stories on everything from fly fishing to farming to temperature change. In this case, the power of visual communication helped the environmentalists convey their message in a way that people could see and connect with, giving it more power than it would have as just another story about climate change in the newspaper.

Megan Durisin
Justin Bailey

Academic Journal to Publish Peer-Reviewed Journalism

An Australian Journalism Professor has created a website devoted to fellow journalists who are currently in the world of academia.

"In the U.S., the craft of journalism has academic status in many journalism schools and many professors continue to work as journalists after entering the classroom. But in Australia, journalism professors often struggle to maintain their professional practice when they join academia."

Read More

Michael Marx
Kaleigh Robichaud

Olbermann Decamps to CurrenTV--What's CurrentTV?

Keith Olbermann is now the chief news officer for Current TV. This an interesting content and revenue model company to take a look at--check out who funds the company.

Why journalists need to speak up about net neutrality.

Having learned about net neutrality in class recently, this article seemed extremely interesting in voicing why journalists need to speak (and have an un-objective voice) about why net neutrality is important for the sake of the industry. The article mainly expresses that to allow everyone to take part in not only reading but in content creation, it allows for better and unbiased reporting to distribute.

Lindsay Nowak

Your Career is as Strong as your Network

In August 2010 Blogger Robert Niles give students his top five tips on how to succeed during your journalism education. The one that I found the most interesting? Your career is only as strong as your network.

I thought it was interesting that a few years ago "building your network" meant getting to know your professors and having them help you find internships. Today, your "network" can extend state boundaries and even country boundaries thanks to Twitter, Facebook, TumblR and other social networks.

The blog also gives some interesting tips that make us realize how we must understand and grasp that the way we become successful has changed, and thanks to the Internet we are required to be journalists all the time, not just when we're writing the story.

-Abbey Moore

Redefining Journalism Curriculum in Latin America

This article is a self-proclaimed "pessimistic perspective" on the future of journalism curriculum in Latin America. Journalist Guillermo Franco explains how schools in this region need to develop new programs for future journalists in order to appeal to the masses.

Rebecca Stolarsky

News Merger

It is a few weeks old, but still a news merger that deserves to be mentioned. The merger between Comcast and NBC Universal will make them huge.

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Someday, we will all be replaced by robots.

Okay, maybe not. But according to this article, a team of writers and scientists are collaborating on a project called "My Boss is a Robot." The idea is that a computer-programmed "boss" can be capable of stitching together the work of many writers into something resembling a piece with a single author. It's already proved successful in the writing of a short encyclopedia entry on New York City, and journalism could be its next target.

Erin O'Connor
Kara Venturino-Eyde

More Case Study Suggestions

You'll find short case studies of a number of journalism startups at the Columbia Journalism Review. Click here and you will can scroll through different case studies. They aren't as long as the ones you will write, but they will give you good ideas for what I am looking for.

Grim prognosis for newspaper advertising

Print advertising has rebounded in recent years, but not nearly as quickly as television and online ads, according to a report published last week. Advertisers are funneling their dollars toward TV and the Interwebs because people tend to spend their time more with each when compared to print media (particularly newspapers). And despite there being a slight rebound in print advertising, it is small enough that it cannot be considered "positive." All is not well on the digital front, though. The report found effective monetization of digital advertisements has yet to be harnessed. Although the report focus on two large media companies — Gannett and the New York Times Co. — its implications apply to a broad spectrum of organizations.

Zane McMillin
Rebecca Stolarsky

Do Not Track

It does exist! "Do Not Track" functions are actually available for smartphone users to keep third parties from using their information to sell ads. Sounds great, but many people are unaware of how to access their privacy settings, let alone know that this option is available. Executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Marc Rotenberg, thinks that the FTC and Congress need to step in and create some sort of public policy to inform users. Meanwhile tracking companies such as Collective are opposed to this idea because they rely on "behavioral ads" to run their business.

Kaleigh Robichaud
Michael Marx

Yahoo Pushes for Personalized Content

Yahoo appears to be losing readers, money and employees. Yahoo knows it has to change something if they want to stay alive in the news industry. In this NY Times article, Yahoo's next step is to have their news cut through the noise of the web and provide its readers with personalized content. Yahoo is also pushing its content to phones and other mobile devices. This is interesting because so many students in our class had similar ideas. It was will be interesting to see if Yahoo can keep up with the other innovative companies like AOL, Google and the iPad.

Erica Hamling & Sam Mikalonis

Advertising & The Daily

As many of us may already know, a tablet-exclusive newspaper has been introduced to the iPad called "The Daily."

This introduces an interesting concept in terms of a new journalism and advertising model that could be implemented in the future when "The Daily" expands to more tablets and other similar tablet-only publications come out.

As stated in the article from the Washington Post:

It's the most ambitious attempt yet by a traditional media company to merge the subscription-plus-advertising business model of a print publication with the multimedia and interactivity of the Web.

I think tablet publications really could be an avenue for future advertising methods. It combines a subscription model that people might not mind taking the dive to pay considering the publication would upload right onto the tablet they already own. Convenience is a big sell point here.

Lauren Gentile
Brandon Kirby

Charlotte Newspaper Cuts

This article pertains to a Charlotte newspaper cutting an additional 20 jobs. Recently McClatchy has been aggressively cutting costs, including hiring freezes and layoffs.

Andrew Atwal
Anthony Sabella

Interaction-design launches free multimedia encyclopedia

This website offers a free multimedia encyclopedia. It may be useful for people like us, as we are trying to work with multimedia and launch our own multimedia business. It also offers a look at a unique business idea.


http://www.innovativeinteractivity.com/2011/02/06/interaction-design-encyclopedia/

Justin Bailey
Megan Durisin

How advertising fits in with the Huff-AOL merger

Digital advertising plays a big role in online media, and the merger between the Huffington Post and AOL recognizes that. In this article, digital analysts explain the importance of online advertising for digital journalism: it is currently right behind print and broadcast advertising, but within the next two years is predicted to surpass both. Also, a big advantage that AOL will gain from this merger is advertising, because of the Huffington Post's millions of readers who attract big advertisers.

Kara Venturino-Eyde
Erin O'Connor

YouTube Case Study: Written as Magazine Article

Fast Company featured YouTube's strategy in its February 2011 issue of the magazine. It is both a great read for information about how video companies work (if that's part of your business plan) but it also can serve as a template for how to think about how to write the media entrepreneur case study. You may want to consider writing the case study as a magazine length article, although there are other ways to write it as well.

AOL Buys HuffPost for $315 million

Everyone is trying to figure out whether this news is "big" or not? We'll discuss this in class once we watch the video.
This also is a great story to talk about in terms of business models. As you watch the video, consider what they are saying in terms of what we discuss in class: content, economic model, distribution, technology.  

AOL Buys Huffington Post

Tim Armstrong is continuing to make big moves improving AOL's news content, it is being reported that AOL bought the Huffington Post for $315 million. Huffington will now take control of AOL's editorial content, including Patch.com.

Read More

Income Falls 26% at The Times Company as Print Advertising Drops

The New York Times Company reported a fourth-quarter drop in net income last Thursday. Net income fell 26.25, from $90.9 million a year earlier to $67.1 million. Print advertising dropped 7.2%, but were offset somewhat by an 11% increase in digital advertising. Circulation revenue also dropped. Read more here.

Here's Why You Need to Know about Servers and Bandwidth

Milk & Honey, a popular build-a-shoe concept, ended up angering would be customers as its site went crazy after publicity over its products caused a web traffic jam. This is a good lesson in why you need to at least understand servers, bandwidth, and a bit about how the underlying technology serves up audiences to you. Check out this story from AllThingsDigital.

Twitter and Trusted Sources--Social Media Strategy?

Here's a story from Sunday's NYTimes on how some tweets catch on...and others don't. Could be valuable as you consider your social media strategies for your business start-ups.

Attracting Viewers to Video

We spend a lot of time in journalism school discussing multimedia...and attempting to train you in how to create it. But what can we do to encourage people to actually view the videos we create. This article has some good suggestions as well as good links to other stories on how to bring people to your video content. One quick question: do you agree that "younger" viewers like "raw" video as opposed to well-produced video stories?

First iPad Newspaper Seeks Balance Between Subscription and Advertising

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. released the first newspaper available only on the iPad late last month. The Washington Post article details the paper called The Daily, readers pay 99 cents per day or $40 per year for a subscription granting them access to hundreds of daily articles and content. However, News Corp. plans to continue to receive revenue from advertising, much like an actual newspaper. The article suggests that News Corp. is attempting to balance revenue from ads and users 50-50.

Sam Mikalonis and Erica Hamling

advertising + twitter = RealTime Ads

Do you like to use your twitter account? Do you wish that you could publish your twitter account to your newspaper? Well that's almost exactly what the Minneapolis Post website has been doing with their new system, RealTime Ads.
The goal of the system is to provide readers with fast pace ever-changing advertisements that are up to date and fresh. As Kramer describes in his blog, "Imagine a restaurant that can post its daily lunch special in the morning and then its dinner special in the afternoon. Or a sports team that can keep you up-to-date on its games and other team news. Or a store that could offer a coupon good only for today."
Though the MinnPost doesn't use twitter to create these ads, they provide small feeds from advertisers rather than full blown ads. Will it work? It's unknown so far, but it is definitely something new and worth a try. Though they are in the beta-test stage and the service is free, it will become a paid service if successful.

Self-publishing is the future of journalism

In this article, one writer laments the dwindling money and possibilities in book contracts, while another embraces the increased income he's seen from the advent of e-books. It's just one more illustration that content-creators can no longer rely on an existing company to scoop us up and start giving us a paycheck upon graduation - we need to market ourselves.

Erin O'Connor
Kara Venturino-Eyde

News Corp and Time Warner cable still thrives

News Corp and Time Warner showed an increase in ad sale profit for their cable television networks this quarter, demonstrating that advertisers are still investing in news... just not print news.

Evangelism: Hate It or Love It?

Personally, I HATE it! But this guy doesn't. And he's got a good point. All about word-of-mouth advertising and distribution. And his monetary gain after writing an old-fashioned letter.

Infopreneur Revenue Models

This article has a lot of interesting information about how to make money online. It is tailored to bloggers but a lot of it could be applied to any website.
Particularly interesting were the parts about passive income and niche marketing.

Report: Facebook Ad Performance Is Abysmal

Average click-through rate was 0.051 percent in 2010. Therefore, just like many of us believe many clickers are afraid of span. But these low numbers aren't stopping advertisers.

Lauren Gentile
Brandon Kirby

I keep trying to get this to post as a live link and it will not show up...so here's the URL. http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i3526b9ba6837828c88f374604a45b9a6

Advertisements and News Aggregators

This is an interesting article about news aggregators and their relationship with advertisers. The author of this article talks about how websites that copy entire articles from the original website cost the original website money and tells us (in his opinion) why it needs to be stopped.

Andrew Atwal
Anthony Sabella

Letting Users Create the Advertising

Instead of pummeling their own advertising at target consumers, Sprint created an aggregation site of its own that essentially allowed users to control the advertising content. The site allows users to upload videos of "firsts" that they've shot using their new 4G Sprint Evo phones, a form of journalism and advertising in and of itself. While this is not "news" content, the website shows video and documentation of things that people consider important — something journalists strive to do. Essentially, users are the ones advertising the product.

Megan Durisin
Justin Bailey

Are Facebook ads even effective?

This article explains the revenue Facebook actually brings in from advertisers, fads such as Farmville and if that earns the company any profits and whether advertisers benefit from posting ads on the site.

Lindsay Nowak

Ashley Dematteis