Community news startups are part of the wave of disruptive innovation that's been overhauling journalism and the news industry. But these startups face daunting sustainability challenges. How might they avoid the same fate plaguing many major daily news outlets?

In the cover story of the latest issue of Nieman Reports, Harvard Business school professor Clayton M. Christensen proposed a model for thriving on disruption: focusing on which media jobs that need doing in your community.

In his article Breaking News, Christensen offers a general theory for being a constructively disruptive new outlet: Think about the business you're in through the "jobs-to-be-done" lens.

"The basic idea," Christensen writes, "is that people don't go around looking for products to buy. Instead, they take life as it comes and when they encounter a problem, they look for a solution -- and at that point, they'll 'hire' a product or service."

For example, he notes: "Everything IKEA does revolves around doing the job of 'I need this apartment or home furnished, and I need it done quickly and efficiently.'"

Similarly, here's an important "job" that most community members are "hiring" for these days. Imagine, writes Christensen, that "David is in line for his morning coffee. He's probably got 10 minutes while he waits to order and be served. It's going to be wasted time so David pulls out his smartphone. He opens up Twitter and scans through his feed for an interesting article. A New Yorker article catches his eye, he clicks on it, and starts reading. Just as he finishes it, the barista calls his name; his coffee is ready.

"What we've described here is actually a huge job in the media market: 'I have 10 minutes of downtime. Help me fill it with something interesting or entertaining.' David chose to hire Twitter; but he could have hired a newspaper that was lying around the coffee shop. Or he could have hired a game off the App Store. Or perhaps he could have started replying to his e-mail."

Christensen also notes that this "10 minutes to fill" job also arises when people are commuting in places that lack wifi or cell access to the internet, such as in subways. In this situation that job has been getting filled by free dailies such as Metro in New York City -- much to the consternation of pay-per-copy news publishers such as the New York Times.

But increasingly, digital offline reading options for long-format content -- such as e-books or services such as InstaPaper and Readability -- are an attractive option for commuters. The fast-growing diversity, popularity, and affordability of tablet devices is only accelerating this trend.

Christensen's "jobs to be done" theory runs contrary to the operating principle common to news publishers, including many community news startups. Typically the revenue side of the business is driven by trying to reach certain demographics -- market segments particularly attractive to advertisers or funders such as sponsors or foundations.

"Those attributes of a consumer may be correlated with a decision to purchase and read one particular newspaper over another, but they don't actually cause one to read or buy anything," he writes.

So: How can community news startups put the "jobs" theory to work?

According to Christensen, the first step for news publishers is to ask:

1. What is the job that audiences want done?
2. What kinds of employees and structure does the company need so it can fulfill that job-to-be-done?
3. What is the best way to deliver that information to audiences?

Christensen's guidance from there is targeted mainly at large metro or national news outlets -- and he cites the example of how Craigslist filled a community job-to-be-done far more effectively than newspapers reliant on classified ad revenue ever had.

Still, I see some possible opportunities for community news publishers.

For instance, most community news sites tend to focus mainly on delivering conventionally formatted narrative stories -- inverted-pyramid news reports, analysis and commentary, reviews, and more. These stories are usually well crafted and important, but they only really fill the job of "I have a several uninterrupted minutes I can devote to browsing a website and reading in-depth content."

These days, that's probably not most of your digital audience.

So perhaps an interesting experiment would be to offer a mobile-friendly, multi-platform curated local news experience. This could be a news summary landing webpage, e-mail newsletter, and app offering a well-crafted, succinct, compelling curated local news overview. Something that is fast, fun, and rewarding to read simply by flicking your thumb on a small touchscreen; and easy to share via forwarding or social media.

Mobile advertising for this targeted product (ideally linked to a local advertiser's mobile landing page, perhaps sold as a package) could be offer as a premium service -- since it's something that community members would have reason to check frequently since from their perspective it would "do the job" well (i.e., fill a couple minutes of downtime).

One possible example of this approach is independent publisher Dave Pell's popular e-mail newsletter and iOS app NextDraft. Granted, this publication is national (indeed, global) in scope and currently ad-free, but it has a devoted audience because of Pell's unfailing talent for succinctly delivering content and context that mobile users consider an entertaining and valuable heads-up.

This kind of product could complement traditional local news stories -- through links to stories on your site, as well as offering unique context on issues you may not have the resources to cover yourself. The point is to demonstrate usefulness and value to audience members and advertisers and funders -- on their terms.

Another idea would be to repackage thematically grouped local news stories as downloadable, free, ad-supported e-books for offline reading.

...Yes, I said ad-supported e-books. Recent research indicates that nearly half of U.S. e-book buyers would accept some advertising in e-books if that meant they'd get the book for free. And an e-book could be as simple as a few articles on a theme, connected by some introductory or bridging content.

Once you look around figure out which media "jobs" need doing in your community, it's time to configure your organization and staff to support it. For instance, a new staff writer might first have the job of producing a great curated experience -- which could to drive audience and revenue to support, say, additional reporting and photography. Similarly, choices about technology could be made with an eye toward accomplishing jobs, rather than simply serving up news stories. And editorial help might focus on spotting, fulfilling, and marketing e-books on popular local topics based on archived coverage.

Christensen's article is worth a read. It's certainly challenging, especially for community publishers who feel a strong personal dedication to the traditional news process and story format.

But whether you decide to start offering very different types of local news products or services, it can't hurt to start looking around for media jobs to be done in your community. It certainly would be better to spot -- and try to fill -- them before the next Craigslist does.

The Community News Leadership 3.0 blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.