Post on 18-May-2015
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News Entrepreneurs vs. Tradi2onal Journalism
Are we there yet? Susan Mernit Oakland Local SXSW 2012
Tuesday March 13, 2012
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EDITOR Charles Waldo Bailey III, former Editor, Minneapolis Star Tribune
ENTREPRENEUR Tavi Gevinson, founder Rookie Mag
Entrepreneurship is being baked into the DNA of media crea8ves; Legacy media, not so much 3
We’re still in a transition
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“Bloggers vs. journalists is over. I don’t think anyone will mourn its passing. There were plenty who hated the debate in the first place, and openly ridiculed its pretensions and terms.”
--Jay Rosen, Press Think, 2002
Back in the day: 2002
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But partnerships can be challenging with legacy media—not everyone agrees on the value exchange
Hyperlocal news non-‐profit Oakland Local has strong partnerships with KQED, New America Media, Yahoo! News, The Bay Ci8zen, California Watch, The Inves8ga8ve News Network, The Media Consor8um and local blogs-‐-‐but not with the local newspaper (yet).
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Home page: oaklandlocal.com
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“We were approached by Digital First to partner with them at the Oakland Tribune. They offered us– traffic. After we stopped laughing, we asked if they wanted to buy our reported content and/or sell ads or us. Answer: No. Legacy: FAIL”
--Susan Mernit, Oakland Local, 2012
March 2012 discussion at Journalism Accelerator
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“Ah, the reliably lazy “Legacy Fail” argument. A more mature way of looking at it would be this: We offered traffic, and you weren’t interested. You asked for money, we weren’t interested. No hard feelings or reasons for bitterness. We just couldn’t come to an agreement.
I missed the rule that says that anytime a start up asks a legacy media company for money, we are required to cough it up.”
--Jim Brady, EIC, Digital First/ANG, 2012 (excerpt from longer post)
Note the emo8onal language of the response from Digital First EIC, March 2012
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Is there a connection between legacy media’s attitude & the sense new media entrepreneurs are profiting in ways traditional media are not?
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Note the shifting revenue streams
• Oakland Local revenue streams
• Adver2sing • Sponsorships • Events • Training & Consul2ng
• Grants
• Tradi8onal journalism revenue streams
• Adver2sing • Events • Sponsored content
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Tradi2onal media wants to become more entrepreneurial
But it takes learning new skills-‐-‐ change management, ability to collaborate, partner, be win/win—
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What’s the win?
The future of news could look like this: • Regional and local sites • Collaborative partnerships • Ad networks • Share the revenue • Share the audience
But we all need to grow to get there
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What do you think?
Share your views
Susan Mernit susan@oaklandlocal.com @susanmernit @oaklandlocal hVp://susanmernit.com hVp://oaklandlocal.com hVp://susanmernit.tumblr.com
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APPENDIX: ABOUT OAKLAND LOCAL
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News: Mission-‐driven and Not For Profit
What is Oakland Local? • Web-‐based, local daily news & repor8ng: original repor2ng & community voices, 3-‐6 stories day • Local Community ar8cles: 4-‐20 week • On-‐going, web-‐based training programs: serve non-‐profits, community orgs, small business • Events & meet-‐ups: Code for Oakland, In Oak Lunch series, Oakland News Café
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Our Audience is Large, Dynamic & Engaged
• 100,000 visitors to web site every month • 2,500 newsleVer subscribers • 5,000+ TwiVer followers • 6,600+ Facebook followers • 700 registered contributors • 45+ community contributor pieces per month
• More 2me spent on site per visit than Bay Ci2zen or Oakland Tribune* * Knight report, Quantcast
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JOIN LOCAL COMMUNITY GETTING RESULTS
= IMPACT Oakland Local web traffic: 150,000 page views, 72,000 visitors, February 2012 (Compare: Alexa.com reports monthly visitors to Inside Bay Area/Oakland Tribune at 35,485 per month)
Distribu8on through: • KQED • SFGate.com • Yahoo! News • Google News • The Media Consor2um • New America Media • Reuters • Byliner
AWARDS Society of Professional Journalists, California Grand Jurors, East Bay Press Club
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