The Journalist - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Journalistas Entrepreneur:Response to Disruption

Confronting Austerity

European Federation of Journalists

/

GPA-djp

Vienna, March 2014

Jane B. Singer @janebsingerSlide2

‘This used to be a newsroom’Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, USA (Photo from CJR)Slide3

‘EJ’ as response to disruptionAs we all well know ...Experienced journalists have lost or left their jobs.New journalists have struggled to find jobs at all – or been disappointed (financially, professionally or both) by the ones they have found.An open-access, low-cost platform beckons.

Necessity (including financial necessity) being the mother of invention, growing numbers of journalists have opted to create their own journalistic enterprises. The spirit is commendable. The challenges are many.Slide4

The entrepreneurial journalistThis person needs skills that include, but go well beyond, those of the typical freelancer. The entrepreneur is a pitchman / woman, fundraiser, idea incubator, ad exec, circulation manager, market analyst and more. Many ‘EJs’ report that less than half

their time is

spent

doing

journalistic

work. Slide5

Shifts in practice and perceptionChallenges include, among others:Developing, creating and sustaining economically viable content ideas.Luring (and keeping) audiences for them – audiences that must be actively nurtured, continuously engaged and often (given inevitably limited staff) enabled / encouraged to create meaningful content themselves.

… while identifying and obtaining

revenue sources

, then making wise spending calls.

… yet maintaining

editorial autonomy

.Slide6

Journalist  entrepreneurFew of those tasks fit traditional practices and skill sets. More fundamentally, they tend to clash with perceptions about social roles and norms. I’ll take justa few of them … Slide7

AudiencesTraditional journalismAggregated, faceless, little / no meaningful contactRelationships? Job of marketing, circulation staffsDistinct from, and segregated from, advertisersEntrepreneurial journalism

Clear and precise understanding of audience

Personal

contact, attention, response

Generally niche audience, must be actively courted

Audience members often active contributorsSlide8

AdvertisersTraditional journalismAutonomy norms forbid contact, influenceMaking money? Job of ad, marketing staffsKeeping advertisers sweet? So Not My JobEntrepreneurial journalismOverlap between advertisers, audiences

Advertisers also must be courted, nurtured

Privacy concerns related to audience info

Personal financial stake, need to recoup costs

Yet autonomy norms haven’t gone away … Slide9

Content Traditional journalism Rests on professional skills, norms, resourcesNear-exclusive focus on editorial content valueFor news media, central civic role perceptionCompetition is knowable and finite

Entrepreneurial journalism

Institutional resource advantages disappear

Demand for journalistic skills may not be high

Niche audiences seek customization, connections

Differentiation from current offerings, options

Competition is unknowable and

ever-expandingSlide10

ActivitiesTraditional journalism:Reporting, writing, editingExpanded a bit in response to InternetExpanded a bit more in response to social mediaEntrepreneurial journalism:

All those b-school things you never learned

… And probably disdained

New collaboration and partnerships become vitalSlide11

ResourcesTraditional journalism:Emphasis on human resources: skills, experience… Resources within newsroom or obtained by it… Facilitated by connection to established brandPhysical, financial resources rarely on j-radar

Entrepreneurial journalism:

Skills and experience get you only so far

… And key aspects of experience are missing

Relationships of various kinds are key resourceSlide12

Costs Traditional journalism:Newsroom big (typically biggest) expenseSomeone else worried about profit and loss… But underlying model stable, well-understoodEntrepreneurial journalism:

News creation likely still biggest expense

What else costs money and how much?

… and where will the money come from?

Massive instability throughout the sector

Bottom line: coming in > going out, or bye-bye Slide13

RevenueTraditional journalism:Is there enough money to pay my salary? Good.Normative injunctions related to money exchangeGeneral lack of expertise on fiscal mattersEntrepreneurial journalism:Money is now your (chief) concern

For what, exactly, are people willing to pay?

A single revenue stream is seldom

enough

Everyone is chasing the same (few

)

sources

Again, ‘separation of church, state’ still key to trustSlide14

Cultural change (again) The rise of entrepreneurial journalism – driven by necessity as much as opportunity, fueled by technological, economic, social and professional forces – poses now-familiar existential questions:Who am I (and what value do I offer)?What do I do (and what is my social role)?Which relationships must I nurture?What defines success (and survival)?

What rewards might I reasonably expect?

Obviously, the answers (maybe even the questions) are different today than in the past.Slide15

Rethinking journalism Can journalists turn themselves into publishers in more than the literal sense of the term – without losing their souls and / or their shirts?Yes, certainly. But many are ill-equipped to succeed. Neither newsrooms nor j-schools nor (correct me if I’m wrong) industry organizations are providing or promoting the skills or mind sets needed to be a sustainable innovator.

Time for yet another rethink … Slide16

The Journalistas Entrepreneur:What do you think?

Confronting Austerity

European Federation of

Journalists / GPA-djp

Vienna

, March

2014

Jane B. Singer (jane.singer.1@city.ac.uk)