Media EntrepreneurshipChallenges, Opportunities and the Role of Higher Education

Dr. Michelle FerrierAssociate Professor, CommunicationsElon University, Elon, NC

The New Normal: Permanent Flux

“The pace of technological change will not abate. If anything, it will continue to increase. To think of this as a period of transition from one state to another is unwise. This might not be easy to address, but it needs to be addressed. How do we staff news organizations with the appropriate kinds of resources and the appropriate mindset such that constant innovation is imbued into an organization’s DNA and into the role of every participant?”

-- Richard Gingras, Google, Head of News Products.

Four strategic questions that frame the new challenges and opportunities for media organizations.

Source: The Big Thaw: Charting a Future for Journalism, Deifell, 2009.

New Competitive LandscapeHow is the landscape changing?

New Competitive LandscapeHow is the landscape changing?

We’re using GIS tools to create a “climate” map that tracks changes in the reach and depth of community news.

We’re using open geographic information systems software. We overlay existing daily and weekly newspaper circulation data, demographic and community data and a network analysis of hyperlocal online news providers.

More than 120 newspapers have ceased operation in the United States since 2008. Our map will help monitor the system over time and focus attention and resources where they are most needed.

Using GIS tools, the research identifies “media deserts” -- places where fresh news and information is lacking.

Media Deserts

Work with Journalism That Matters on policy issues and summits to address the information needs of underserved communities.

Worked as researcher on the Communication Policy Research Network, headed by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The CPRN submitted a literature review and report to the FCC on July 16, 2012.

Information needs of underserved communities

Policy Research

New Competitive Landscape

What I’ve Learned Dynamic nature of change

requires better monitoring of media environment.

New technologies allow new players into existing media competencies.

What Can Be Done? Create interdisciplinary

teams to bring new eyes to media/communication issues.

Develop environmental scanning tools to better evaluate threats/opportunities.

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What new capabilities are needed to succeed?

New Distinctive Competencies

Fellow, Inaugural Class: Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute at Arizona State University

AEJMC First Industry Forum Award for paper on media entrepreneurship.

Paper accepted to Journalism & Mass Communication Educator: “Media Entrepreneurship: Curriculum Development and Faculty Perceptions of What Students Should Know.”

Secured two student fellowships of $3,500 each for students to intern at NY media startup accelerator programs in summer 2013.

Research around the new news ecology, hyperlocal online news providers and curriculum development.

Media Entrepreneurship

Began partnership with NewU in Summer 2011. Program provides minority entrepreneurs with $10,000 in startup funding.

Co-hosted NewU StartUp Loft at UNITY in Summer 2012. Conducted research with attendees and speakers/mentors about skills/knowledge training.

Program received $500,000 this spring in funding to continue programming at minority professional journalism organizations.

The NewU program provides intensive, hands-on training to journalism professionals on creating and maintaining a media startup.

NewU through UNITY

New Distinctive Competencies

What I’ve Learned Building a Team

Audience Analysis

Content Development

Pitching

Finding Investors

Market Analysis

Customer Development

Partnerships

What Can Be Done?

What needs can be met, problems solved or desires fulfilled?

New Sources of Value

We’re using GIS tools to create a “climate” map that tracks changes in the reach and depth of community news.

We’re using open geographic information systems software. We overlay existing daily and weekly newspaper circulation data, demographic and community data and a network analysis of hyperlocal online news providers.

More than 120 newspapers have ceased operation in the United States since 2008. Our map will help monitor the system over time and focus attention and resources where they are most needed.

Using GIS tools, the research identifies “media deserts” -- places where fresh news and information is lacking.

Media Deserts

Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

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New Sources of Value

What I’ve Learned Possibility journalism:

Solutions-based approach

Slow News: Developing new processes for information gathering and dissemination.

What Can Be Done?

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How are media organizations structured to capture value?

New Business Models

Received $10,000 in startup funds to create LocallyGrownNews.com.

Developed and maintain online community for news and information on local food and sustainability issues since June 2010.

As both an entrepreneur and a teacher/mentor, I’ve presented at numerous conference on media entrepreneurship and startup skills and knowledge.

Developed understanding of startup culture, developed relationships with foundations and national organizations committed to entrepreneurship.

A hyperlocal, niche online community about local food and sustainability issues.

LocallyGrownNews

Participant, Block by Block Conference. Engaged with other hyperlocal online news operators on starting and developing businesses.

Contributor, E-Media Tidbits, Poynter Institute. Wrote articles on technology, ethics and operation of online communities.

Speaker: BlogHer BET, BlogHer Food. New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit, speaker.Shaping the new news ecology

as a teacher/mentor/scholar and practitioner on new media issues.

Hyperlocal Online News

Vice President: Journalism That Matters (2010 to present). Participated since 2008 in JTM gatherings.

Developed JTM “Create or Die” series of media entrepreneurship startup weekends held in 2010 and 2011.

Provided seed funding and entrepreneurship mentors to teams that successfully pitched their project to funders and developer panel.

Partnered with NC entrepreneurship centers to provide continued support for NC projects.

An organization committed to advancing the new news ecology with news by and for all people.

Journalism That Matters

5 Concrete Steps for Media Innovation

1. It took someone else’s perspective for me to see the value of the work of the Journalism That Matters Create or Die series of design | build | pitch events that were held in 2010 in Detroit and 2011 in Greensboro, NC. These events serve as a firestarter…an opportunity for passionate people to meet talented technicians and ignite innovation in the journalism space. The passion of the Greensboro 52 or G52 has continued to live on our Facebook Create or Die group, where members share their projects, needs and support. We need to move more of these projects up the pipeline to funding and raise awareness for our successes. And it looks like Create or Die 3 will have an important place in this media entrepreneurship ecosystem.

2. The second step is to create more venues like Comcast’s DreamIt Ventures and UNITY’s NewU that increase the odds that diverse people and projects can pitch and be heard. As part of this mix, we need incubators that don’t require relocation to Silicon Valley or Boulder, Colorado. A “Bloom where you’re planted” model would bring together training and talent in a geographic space. Journalism That Matters piloted such an idea in Seattle in 2010. The Pacific Northwest Collaboratory was born as a support system for the new news ecology there. That successful experiment should be replicated in other regions.

3. The third step is education and training for the hundreds of potential business that wither at the doorways to incubators and pitch sessions. These projects could be successful if provided with nurturing, talent, and access to funds. We need a distributed model, probably online and in physical space, that will help give entrepreneurs just-in-time access to the information and people that can help vet and nurture new ideas.

4. The fourth step is the creation of a talent network so that media entrepreneurs can find and build a talented team that has a higher likelihood of success. Content ideas rarely get funded unless they have a strong technology play. Many ideas flounder because of the lack of a tech team early on in the process of product development.

5. The fifth step is to create a microfund to support application fees and travel fees for potential entrepreneurs to attend and perhaps pitch at the other startup weekends and venues around the country. These small loans, probably of a couple of hundred dollars, will help in identifying media entrepreneurs in need of just the services a robust network can provide (see bullet three and four).

The Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Digital Media

Creates an innovation laboratory, a physical retreat space for the mashup of journalists, technologists, educators, artists, community activists and others to reimagine news and information for diverse voices.

Stimulates participants by exploring the intersections of storytelling, art, technology and culture and the community, which are changing the practice and products of journalism through annual startup events.

Engages participants in sharing ideas and concepts and developing them through intensive teambuilding, idea development, design and build sessions.

Develops viable ideas that get pitched and vetted before a panel of programmers, funders, content developers, business leaders and marketers for concept refinement and funding.

Creates pathways to commercialization or social entrepreneurship models.

Creates a structure for engaging and mentoring students and seasoned professionals in envisioning media entrepreneurship as a career pathway.

Student Goals

Researches media entrepreneur community and alternatives to traditional media environments.

Supports students and professionals in creating and vetting new media business ideas.

Engages with real-world issues and needs surrounding the changing media landscape and growth opportunities.

Introduces students to the entrepreneurial thought process.

Creates and develops entrepreneurial ideas to pitch to student competitions as well as for foundation, angel and venture capital funding.

Faculty Goals

Works as part of an interdisciplinary team to develop interdisciplinary projects with students, professionals and local communities.

Conducts qualitative, applied research to gather community ideas and feedback for creating support systems for new ventures.

Researches barriers to entry into entrepreneurial journalism ventures and engage faculty colleagues at Elon and regional institutions in solutions to address these barriers.

Community Goals

Develops community-based news and information vehicles that service diverse audiences.

Engages community members in being integral to the development of media innovations.

Michelle Ferrier teaches journalism, interactive media and communication strategies at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in Texts and Technology from the University of Central Florida and a master's in journalism from the University of Memphis. Since the development of listservs in the early days of the Internet, she has been involved in new media and particularly in the development of online communities and new media innovations.

Michelle beta tested early content management software used to power major regional newspapers when they ventured online. She is also one of the early adopters of online learning systems.

For more than three years, she worked as a lead researcher with the Banner Center for Digital Media in Florida and developed a core digital media curriculum for a higher education coalition in Central Florida. She was also a research associate at CREATE, the Center for Research in Arts, Technology and Entertainment at the University of Central Florida. She is a former blogger with Poynter Institute’s e-Media Tidbits, a weblog about emerging media technologies.

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Dr. Michelle Ferrier Associate Professor School of Communications, Elon University, NC; mferrier@elon.edu; Twitter: @mediaghosts

Founder, LocallyGrownNews.cominfo@locallygrownnews.com; Twitter: @localize_nc

For More Information on Media Entrepreneurship Vision: http://nabjdigital.wordpress.com/tag/dr-michelle-ferrier/

www.newmediainnovators.com

http://www.poynter.org/author/michellemichelleferrier-com/

EducatorEntrepreneurMentorScholarNew Media Innovator