Grit means that no what matter happens, you do what it takes to get things done, according to Jim Spencer, president and founder of Newsy, a video news service for the web, mobile devices and connected TV.  More precisely he defines grit by its individual letters: 

         G - growth

         R - resiliency

          I - integrity

         T - tenancy 

Spencer spoke about building Newsy from scratch last week at the two-day Schuneman Symposium on Photojournalism & New Media at Ohio University. Communication Action Heroes was the theme of the symposium, which focused on those who invent and reinvent media and the enterprises that turn ideas into business models.

His most illuminating comments came during the question and answer session of his hour-long presentation.  He talked about putting his Newsy elevator pitch on i-pods, moving to Columbia, MO, raising money (he got some from the state of Missouri), having no internet access for four months, and working on a project with a CEO of a top software company which dropped the project when the executive left.

These were among the trials of tribulations of building Newsy, which started with four employees in 2008 and now employs 50 full timers. Today, the company has 100 produces more than 1,500 video a month. Its videos can be found on most major news outlets as well as local TV news broadcasts.  Newsy’s publishing partners include AOL’s Huffington Post and Mashable. Besides grit, Spencer attributes Newsy's success to its culture, teamwork and ability to pivot quickly and keep up with the lightening pace of new technology.

Newsy has received a number of awards including a National Edward R. Murrow Award and Spencer was recognzed last year as the Missouri Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2014, Newsy was acquired by E.W Scripps Company for $35 million. The purchase is part of Scripps’ digital strategy to develop new businesses in emerging media through investment and acquisition. 

Before Spencer started Newsy, he was a management guy. He was vice president of content and answers at Ask Jeeves, Ask.com, where he was responsible for all search queries.  He helped guide the company to be the 15th most trafficked website and through a successful initial public offering. Before Ask Jeeves, he was the general manager of news and information programming at AOL (news, sports, health, research and international), advancing content, business and partnership operations for one of AOL’s major business units.  

Asked what keeps him up at night now, Spencer said three things: 

•  Communicating and validating the vision of the company to the team and stakeholders
•  Recruiting and retaining the very best people to work at Newsy
•  Making sure there’s enough money in the bank to run things