News Leadership 3.0
Posts tagged with: Entrepreneurship
May 27, 2010
Robert Aholt is a successful early-stage investor who helped judge final day pitches by about three dozen participants in both this year’s and last year’s KDMC News Entrepreneur Boot Camps. We asked him to offer his advice for news entrepreneurs.
Q. When you think about successful entrepreneurs, what factors stand out?
A. Getting out and finding that customer need - their big problems - and figuring out a unique way to service it is the key to success. Entrepreneurs who meet with customers, pivot on those customers needs and then offer competitive solutions are the ones that do better. Solutions looking for customers, and neat technologies are nice, but that’s not necessary a precursor to success in the longer run. (Post-it notes being the exception that helps prove the rule.)
It’s also critical that you know your competitive advantage - both personally and as a start up venture. Entrepreneurs may want some basic skills in many areas, but I would stress that they should focus on what they, and only they can do within the firm. That is usually generating sales and inspiring stakeholders to rally around the mission/vision. Hand-in-hand with that, a trait of great entrepreneurs is that they can get folks to work for next to nothing. The promise of far off success, working in a great environment and being around folks who are nice, fun and smart can go a long way in deferring cash compensation. Use that leverage to bring in folks who can complement you and then spend your time nurturing customers.
Focusing on the competitive advantage of the firm, and building that moat around the business is extremely important as well. There’s no way to hold a deeply funded competitor out. However, you can make it much harder and not as worth their effort. If a company figures out what their customer’s value in products/services and focus on that, competitors will indeed find the moat around the company deep. Perhaps even enough so to buy out the company - a goal of many entrepreneurs (not to mention their investors!).
Q. What are the pros and cons of having an investor or financial partner? Is it better to bootstrap or look for infusions of cash?
A. Entrepreneurs who bootstrap as long as they can are better off in two ways:
a. When they do raise capital, they are further down the validation path so there’s less risk and therefore the capital is generally cheaper, and
b. They continue to hold their destiny in their own hands. Having investors means bringing in not only capital, but additional perspectives and goals.
Point B can cut both ways. If the entrepreneur is ready and in need of the additional input, then the first round investors can make a difference. One of the mantras within the Pasadena Angels is that we provide not only capital, but guidance as well. We open up our rolodexes as well and checkbooks. These are benefits that can take the company to the next level of performance. However, if the company and the entrepreneur are not ready for that, there can be a clash of personalities, goals/objectives, and potentially outcomes.
Q. What about budget and finance expertise? Do you need an MBA to be a successful entrepreneur?
A. News entrepreneurs may not be finance wizards but they need a few numbers to back up their story. Most importantly market size (both total and addressable) and revenue projections by month for Year 1 and for Years 3 to 5 at the yearly level. They can then “guesstimate” costs and get to some sort of net profit number or better yet a cash flow break even. (The real value of these plans is not in the data but the strategy and forced attention to detail so that when change occurs - and it will - the effects of the change can be gauged.)
In terms of financial goals, I like to see smaller start-ups focus on a split-level revenue plan - first to get to break-even, then to scale revenues. For game changing firms, focusing on expanding revenues, gaining scale and increasing market share fits within the currently accepted conventional wisdom.
It’s important to emphasize with investor’s motivations. We are looking for a particular return across our portfolio. Over the course of 3 to 5 and even 7 years, we know many investments are going to fail, some return our original investment, some make some money (3 to 5 times our original investment) and some turn out to be big winners (the proverbial homerun 10 to 100 times investment). Give investors a plausible story that your company can be a big winner and we’ll generally continue to listen and might even invest.
Q. You’ve watched about three dozen news entrepreneurs make pitches at KDMC News Entrepreneur Boot Camps. Any advice on how to make those pitches more effective?
A. One reoccurring theme with first-time entrepreneurs is that they pitch their product and not their company when talking with investors. Entrepreneurs really need to understand the differences. There are pitches for customers, for readers, for advertisers, for peers, for investors and probably many more. All originate from the business model but have different focus. When pitching to investors, focus on selling them a piece of your company. Yes, the product is an important part of that story, but not the central focus.
As a reference point, here’s my list of 11 questions the entrepreneur should be able to get across in a 10-15 minute presentation:
1. What product will you be selling? Explain your concept and the sales/manufacturing/distribution processes.
2. What are the advantages provided by your service, and how does that benefit the buyer? We’re looking for something that’s cheaper/better/faster.
3. Who are your expected customers? Specify any who are in the fold now.
4. Any evidence that customers and users need the offering enabled with your service?
5. What is your marketing plan? How will you get folks to buy your product?
6. Who are the competitors? What competitive advantages do you have?—IP, business process, first to market, etc.
7. What are the financial projections?
8. Who are your principal team members? Describe them mainly in terms of their qualifications to do their jobs for the company.
9. What are the uses of this investment? Do you need any additional monies? What do you expect to do with the additional funding?
10. Do you have a proposed deal? Cite investment terms, including pre-money valuation.
11. What is your exit strategy? Cite potential purchasers and list some comparable sales (if available).
Entrepreneurs should try not spending more than one to two minutes on each of these questions. If they go longer, they won’t get through them all, and investors will pick apart the ones that they don’t touch on.
Q. What future do you see for news?
A. The industry is truly ripe for massive change - it has been disrupted. However, the customer need is still as prevalent as it has always been, and good journalism is very valuable. The question becomes, what models will emerge that capture that value?
I believe what Knight Foundation, Knight Digital Media Center, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at USC are doing within the boot camps is truly creating the foundation on which these highly successful journalists can transition into this new world environment and thus define those new models.
By Michele McLellan, 05/27/10 at 6:00 am
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June 24, 2010
This is the final part of Placeblogger founder Lisa Williams’ one-year plan to teach yourself crucial web technology in just a few hours a month. (See part 1, part 2, and part 3.)
The good news is: You’re now done with the geekiest parts. Maybe you discovered you enjoy the really geeky parts—in which case, explore and play with those technologies more.
In this final quarter, you’ll pull your new web technology knowledge together into a bigger picture of how your site will function as a system…
Month 10: Write a site plan
According to Williams, the biggest risk for your project is failing to write a site plan. “Without a site plan, you’ll only get the site that you want by accident. With a plan, you’ll get it on purpose,” she said.
Your site plan is a strategic document that should include these elements:
1. A short, compelling overview. This clearly explains to anyone who wants to work with you (developers, ad sales reps, community managers, etc.) why they want to work with your project and not something else.
2. Descriptions of 3-5 typical users. These character descriptions, sometimes called “personas,” describe as individuals the type of people who you believe will come to your site. Mention who they are (demographics, age, interests, concerns, constraints) and what they want from your site.
It might be helpful to include descriptions not just for your primary target communities, but also other likely user types who might land on your site by accident in large numbers—or who might be hoping that your site will offer them something different than what you intend to offer. Think about how you’ll manage their experience of (and interactions with) your site efficiently.
3. Wireframes. These are simple sketches of your site’s home page and its major landing pages. Wireframes also include examples of typical pages by content types, such as articles, videos, photo galleries, forums, interactive databases, etc. Think in terms of not just what visitors will see on your site, but what they will do there. Include navigation, buttons, and key interactive features (such as social media sharing buttons).
You can create wireframes with a pencil and paper. But there are also programs for building wireframes. (Comparison chart of wireframing tools)
If you want your site to work well for mobile users (and you should, since mobile users are fast outpacing computer users for internet access in the US), be sure to sketch out wireframes for your mobile experience too. Start with wireframes for a basic wireless application protocol (WAP) site that will display well on any phone, even over a low-bandwidth cell network connection. Then consider how your site might be optimized for web browsers on smartphones. (Don’t invest in building an app for the iPhone, Android, or other smartphone platform until you’re much further down the road and know more about what your users want.)
4. Comprehensive list of features for your site. Develop this list by looking at your wireframes. Writing down everything a user could click on that page, and ask “what happens if you click that?”
...That’s Williams’ site plan approach. There are others, such as this one from eHow. Also, Williams recommends reading Joel Spolsky’s guide to writing specifications—it’s meant for software projects, but much of it also applies to writing a good web site plan.
Month 11: Backup and recovery
At some point, disaster will strike your site. You need to know how to preserve your site (not just the content, but all the configurations of your content management system, your stylesheet, and more).
Many content management systems offer a backup plugin. Make sure you have one installed for your site, and that you activate it and configure it for regular backups.
But Williams cautions: “Do you know how much of your site it backs up? And if your site crashes, do you know how to restore from that backup? Is the backup stored on the same machine where your site lives?”
This month, spend four hours researching what your backup really does. Make sure it backs up all components of your site. Not just the database, but also the files, along with your installation of your CMS (including all plugins and modules you’ve added over time).
Write down a backup and recovery procedure. Says Williams, “This will be much more effective than your memory in your panic when your site dies.”
More about backing up a WordPress site or a Drupal site.
Month 12: UI patterns
Williams says, “You probably already know a lot more about UI patterns than you think you do. For instance, you know what a search bar is, and what tabs do.”
User interface (UI) patterns are the visual building blocks of any web page. They’re familiar because they look basically the same on many sites. Over time, web designers and entrepreneurs have developed different and innovative ways to present data and features to site visitors.
Are you presenting your site’s data and features in the best way, or just the first way that came to you? Williams recommends visiting UI pattern resource sites (good first stop: UI-Patterns.com) to see screenshots of these building blocks.
Says Williams: “It’s like a giants bin of Legos to build a web site.”
...This concludes Williams’ one-year self education plan for learning crucial web technology. Again, the point of understanding the technology that supports your site (even if you consider yourself mainly a journalist or publisher) is that this knowledge can help you build smarter, save money, avoid fraud and missteps, and fix or avoid site problems. It can keep you from making your business too dependent on people whose roles and abilities you don’t understand. And it can help you spot and act on new online opportunities.
By Amy Gahran, 06/24/10 at 1:37 pm
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September 07, 2010
By Julia Scott: Being an entrepreneur is about the good, bad, and ugly possibilities of life. The possibility that you get rich and retire tomorrow (or at least be able to hire a house cleaner and eat organic). The possibility that you will fail again. The possibility that you will spend all weekend re-arranging your home office to maximize efficiency only to catch your dog peeing on the shredder come Monday.
Here are three lessons I’ve learned in my 19 months of being an entrepreneur (a word I can now spell):
1. Fear is good. If none of your colleagues, editors, or partners scare you, chances are you’re slacking off. Why work hard for someone who is always content with your content? I realized I had been doing lackluster work when a new editor, um, inspired me to spend three times as long on my weekly column. Fear indicates you are being challenged.
2. Follow every reasonable lead but realize that some are not going to pan out, especially if they involve students who know less than you do. My conviction that a single meeting with three masters candidates would produce a revolutionary business plan, uncontrollable revenue streams, and overnight fame showed me I had much to learn about evaluating opportunities.
My out-of-control expectations, which were fueled by out-of-control ambitions stemming from out-of-control greed, blinded me to the fact that the situation was not under my control. This was one class for the students. They had an assignment to meet an entrepreneur. They had to make a presentation about who I was, what I was doing, and how I could do it better. While sincere, they had no interest in breaking ground for me. Perhaps the true lesson here is that if you think others will carry your weight, it will end badly.
3. When a partnership fails, it can be ugly. Approach the situation dispassionately and leave the door open to future collaboration.
I worked with a local deal site, even though my money-saving blog has national readership, on four Groupon-like discounts in Los Angeles. The results were non-scintillating.
Instead of cursing them and the hours we’d spent negotiating a contract, I typed a polite note praising the quality of their deals and pointing out that the offers weren’t quite the match that we hoped. If they had national deals in the future, however, I wanted to know. The response was encouraging: they were open to partnering again. It’s unlikely that will happen, but knowing it could increases my possibility of a good outcome.
Confused about which lesson is the good, the bad, and the ugly? Hint: I used the words, good, bad, and ugly in the corresponding lesson. Subtle, huh? I hope people other than my mother think this post is funny.
Julia Scott is a journalist by training, a cheapskate by nature, and an alumna of Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp, funded by the Knight Foundation. She shares strategies and inspiration to save at BargainBabe.com. We ask her to share insights about her life in entrepreneurship occasionally on this blog. Reach Julia, aka The Bargain Babe, at julia at bargainbabe dot com.
By Michele McLellan, 09/07/10 at 4:25 am
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September 13, 2010
As foundations step into a larger role in supporting investigative news, two journalists who left traditional newsrooms in 2009 are helping start new watchdog organizations in 2010. Laura Frank of The Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network and McNelly Torres of The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting share what they’ve learned so far on the start up road
The Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network
This new organization is one of 19 winners of the latest round of the Knight Community Information Challenge. The winners were announced Monday by Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen.
Here’s site founder Laura Frank:
Eighteen months ago, I was one of many people crushed in the collapse of the journalism world. Yes, that was me you saw: The tough investigative reporter reduced to tears at the end of the Rocky Mountain News’ documentary about its own demise.
So I can’t tell you how excited I am to be part journalism’s rebirth.
Today, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced it has granted $305,500 over two years to support I-News: The Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network.
After the Rocky died, I started an entrepreneurial journey to create a nonprofit in-depth news collaborative. I thought a small team of journalists with specialized data analysis and multimedia skills could help produce some of the stories that were going untold because of the journalism crisis.
Instead of competing with other newsrooms, I thought we could boost their reporting power to deliver more news right where people would be looking to find it: In their local print, broadcast, web or mobile news source.
Today, thanks to the Knight Foundation, two former Rocky colleagues are joining me: data-guru Burt Hubbard and Pulitzer- and Emmy-winning visual journalist Joe Mahoney. We already have a burgeoning budget of stories to offer our media partners across the region.
What have I learned over these past 18 months? I think it can be summed up as “The Three P’s of New Media Entrepreneurship.”
1. Patience. It took more than a year to really hone a business plan and make personal connections with funders whose mission intersected with I-News. The Knight Digital Media Center News Entrepreneur Boot Camp was a major jump-start in learning how to do both.
2. Partners. I-News wouldn’t be where it is today without our partners. The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County sponsored our Knight Community Information Challenge application. Rocky Mountain PBS donated things like office space and administrative support. The University of Colorado’s Digital Test Kitchen is collaborating on mobile technology. And media leaders, such as Fort Collins Coloradoan editor Bob Moore, have supported us by using our content and encouraging others to support us. Here are Bob’s own words: “I-News has helped generate a sense of optimism about the future of journalism, something that has been in rare supply of late.”
3. Puerperium. Say it with me now: pyur-ah-PEER-ium. That’s right, the state of childbirth. Anyone’s who done both childbirth and entrepreneurship with tell you: There are a heck of a lot of similarities. Maybe Knight should add Lamaze breathing to its boot camp.
Let’s just say I have that parent-of-a-newborn feeling right now. Beyond bleary-eyed and dog-tired. But couldn’t be happier.
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Last week, the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting received a $100,000 grant from the Oklahoma City-based Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. FCIR is the nation’s first nonprofit, digital and bilingual investigative journalism organization.
Here’s founder McNelly Torres:
This was good news indeed. But it didn’t happen over night. In fact, it has taken us over a year to grow FCIR from an ideal to a viable journalism organization. These efforts take a lot of brainstorming, planning and research. And I learned quickly that you must be creative and have the ability to shift gears when something is not working. Though I’ve learned many lessons since I began this journey as a news entrepreneur, I would like to share these:
1. Don’t take your sources for granted. They are your best secret weapon. Call them and talk about your project and use their expertise to help shape your project. Get them excited!
2. Ask for help. I approached a former colleague to design our logo. She liked the idea so much that she volunteered to design our logo before I asked. And when I asked colleagues and mentors to read our proposal and provide suggestions, they were happy to do just that.
3. Plan everything. Planning is crucial when you are working on different projects. You must have the discipline to plan your days and weeks as you multi-task. FCIR was one of the projects I’ve been working on so I had to plan my calls, tasks and goals every step of the way.
Lastly, one of the most amazing lines I heard while attending KDMC News Entrepreneur Boot Camp in May was: “Learn from what you did so you can do it better next time.” I’m trying to do that every day.
(Disclosure: News Leadership 3.0 blogger Michele McLellan is a consultant to the Knight Community Information Challenge.)
By Michele McLellan, 09/13/10 at 9:09 am
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October 01, 2010
Probably no one has been in the field with online local news start ups longer than J-Lab and its New Voices program. So J-Lab’s new report “New Voices: What Works” tells us a lot about the emerging community news landscape. It also marks a moment to reflect on how much has changed in five years - and how much is still changing. One key finding: “Rarely did (new sites) replace coverage that had vanished from legacy news outlets - or even aspire to. Instead, they very much added news and information where there was none before.”
I am glad J-Lab emphasized that point and I hope the replaceniks among us take note. J-Lab examined the work of 46 projects that were launched with New Voices funding. (In all the program has awarded 55 small start up grants from a pool of 1,433 applicants since 2005.)
This program was designed to foster experimentation and innovation by funding pioneers heading across an online news frontier. New Voices projects do news, but they have community at the core.
For example, NewCastleNow started as a way to shed light and provoke debate about actions of the local school board that did not seem to be in the best interest of the community. Appalachian Independent sought to provide alternative voices in a community dominated by a conservative newspaper. Green Jobs Philly created an action-oriented site aimed at helping people connect with resources and opportunities in a green environment. Oakland Local sees itself as a capacity-builder in the community as well as a news provider.
The report notes some hard-learned lessons from the field: Notably, the high churn of citizen content contributors and the woeful lack of revenue models for most of these sites. It also says that a two-year, $25,000 grant from New Voices can help a civic minded publisher get a site up and running but it is simply not enough to bring in business expertise to create revenue or other funding streams.
The community news landscape has changed dramatically in the six years since J-Lab began the initiative. It started a time when would-be community news publishers new little or less about the challenges of effective online engagement and the sand traps of Web development 1.0 and newspaper layoffs on any scale were unthinkable.
Today, journalists displaced from legacy news organizations are moving into online community journalism, often as publisher/entrepreneurs or as employees of startups. Other new players are getting involved in news and information, including Government 2.0 advocates and tech developers, accountability advocates such as the Sunlight Foundation, community foundations and other funders. Technology is more accessible and easy to use while experience has tempered belief that “citizen journalism” will play a major role in most news sites.
Sustainability - whether as a for-profit or not for profit - is the new frontier.
So now what? I would like to see two things happen:
1. Communities of practice need to be form to share a significant amount of learning that online community publishers and supporting organizations have produced in the past decade. Block by Block last week was one effort on my part to help that happen and discussions are continuing about how to create a more permanent network.
2. Online publishers - the citizens and the journalists - need to think about multiple revenue streams even before they launch. They may not start selling or collecting right away, but they need to have realistic plans in front of them.
I question whether these sites can become sustainable without significant business expertise (either a partner or a coach) on board from the outset. Money means multiple revenue streams. Serial grants are not going to be there and publishers who see them as a significant source of money are simply going to invent another “churn.”
Some online community and neighborhood publishers - Howard Owens at The Batavian, Cory and Kate Bergman at My Ballard (and a growing network of neighborhood sites), for example - are doing the hard work of making money and they offer examples for others joining the field.
(Disclosure: I work as a consultant to the Knight Foundation, which is a major funder of J-Lab and New Voices, and I recently served on the evaluation team for J-Lab’s grant renewal by Knight.)
By Michele McLellan, 10/01/10 at 4:48 am
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October 25, 2010
The new strategic report from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Digital Media Committee, Will SPJ Remain Relevant in the Digital Age?, contains some good ideas for how the oldest journalism organization can continue to contribute value.
It’s laudable that SPJ wishes to extend its legacy of leadership into the frontier of digital media. But there’s a catch: Right now, like many journalism-focused organizations, SPJ lags notably in digital media. It’s pretty hard to lead from behind.
One way SPJ (and other journalism organizations) might address this problem is to put learning and collaboration ahead of leadership, for now…
By Amy Gahran
The strategic report recommends several steps SPJ might take which could prove useful eventually, such as:
- “Take stands on hot-button digital media issues affecting the future of information sharing. Become an advocate for expanding access to the Internet, news and information.”
- “Train media start-ups in entrepreneurial journalism.”
- “Ensure staff and leaders are hyper-literate in digital journalism trends and new media theories so they can anticipate what members will need to know.”
These recommendations, and others from this report, would be more likely to succeed if SPJ either starts from a base of demonstrable knowledge and experience, or has in place a network of strong relationships with other players in the media ecosystem.
SPJ could get to this point—but they’re not there yet.
Understandably, SPJ has been focusing mainly on upholding the core values of journalism. This is important work that should continue as SPJ expands more into digital media. SPJ can continue to offer considerable value in terms of transmitting and applying core journalistic values to digital media.
But if SPJ is serious about eventually assuming a leadership role in digital media, the organization faces a considerable learning curve. This isn’t merely about learning technology; SPJ must cultivate new alliances, and be open to influence by cultures beyond journalism.
So far, SPJ and other leading journalism organization have mainly looked to people already in the news business for guidance. Unfortunately, this approach generally has failed to solve the most dire problems threatening the future of journalism.
Without opening up significantly to guidance and influence from beyond the journalism world, SPJ’s claims for digital media leadership would probably lack credibility and effectiveness.
In order to provide substantial, constructive leadership in digital media, SPJ and other journalism organizations might do better to begin with a focused period of learning and collaboration. This means actively seeking insight, advice, assistance, and partnership from players beyond journalism who have current, relevant digital media knowledge and experience.
Rebuilding core infrastructure takes time. This is not something an established organization with a deeply entrenched culture can pull off in a few weeks or months. I’d recommend that SPJ and other journalism groups set aside at least a year to focus their digital media initiatives primarily on learning and collaboration.
For instance, before implementing the recommendations of the recent strategic report, SPJ could spend a year or so on active learning-oriented outreach to groups that focus on technology, information sciences, libraries, business, entrepreneurship, community-building, advocacy, wireless carriers, mobile developers, marketing, education, government 2.0, social justice, campaigning, etc.
SPJ could make a concerted effort to attend or co-sponsor these groups’ events—and then share the lessons that journalists (and journalism) might adopt from these related fields. SPJ also could encourage its members to reach out to people in other professions, and report on their learning experiences.
While this is happening, SPJ could continue to offer basic digital media training and guidance, as it has been doing. Still, it would be wise to postpone claims to digital media leadership before the organization has sufficiently updated its own digital media skill set, mindset, outlook, and network.
During this learning and collaboration push, SPJ could find ways to bring SPJ members and other journalists together through collaborative exercises such as The Media Consortium’s recent Mobile Hackathon. Such events build relationships, blends cultures, and opens minds.
SPJ remains an authoritative leader on journalism. However, great leaders understand their limits and blind spots, and seek to compensate for them before barreling ahead in new directions. If SPJ is transparent about its learning and relationship-building process, this could help re-invigorate and encourage SPJ members to explore and experiment. Ultimately this could yield a more viable and diverse support system for great journalism—regardless of media.
Finally, I’d encourage SPJ’s Digital Media Committee to examine the role of mobile media in the future of digital journalism. This strategic report omitted any discussion of mobile—and fighting the last war generally is not a sound leadership strategy.
By Amy Gahran, 10/25/10 at 5:45 pm
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March 22, 2012
By Julia Scott
As bargainbabe.com has developed, I have fundamentally changed the way I see myself in business. Once an online content creator and filter, I now view myself as a vital connector of brands and people.
Three years ago I quit my reporting gig to blog, and now my value as a writer pales in comparison to my value as a connector.
The realization hit me while planning the third annual Frugal Festival, a one-day gathering of savvy spenders in Los Angeles. The idea for the event was spawned at KDMC’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp when Robert Niles asked me to dream up a “big hairy” idea that would take my nascent company to the next level.
At the most recent Festival, A-list brands like Albertsons, Yelp, AOL’s Shortcuts, Chicago Cutlery, and Pryex participated. So did some 350 Angelenos looking to save money on the most fundamental expense of all, food. The annual event is popular with media and is one of the most profitable elements of my money-saving brand, BargainBabe.com.
Perhaps more importantly, working with top brands has fundamentally changed the way I see myself in business. Once an online content creator and filter, I now view myself as a vital connector of brands and people.
What changed?
The success of the event was one piece. (Attendees began lining up before volunteers arrived.) Another was that so many brands were willing - no, eager - to work with me. A little ol’ blogger.
Clearly, my view of my brand was outdated. BargainBabe.com has zero paid subscribers and a fraction of the readers of the mid-size
newspaper where I last collected a paycheck. But it has something else.
A connection. And Frugal Festival, the offline extension of the brand, was valuable to attendees and sponsors. Guests liked that I offered them ways to save money. Free food and goodie bags didn’t hurt, either. Brands liked access to savvy customers who were likely to share deals that they found.
Both sides wanted access. I found a way to provide it.
Along the way I realized my brand’s value is not reflected in old media’s measure of success, readership.
So how did I go from deadline devotee to marketplace matchmaker?
I built loyalty among my readers by consistently delivering top notch content five days a week. I solicited feedback and posted their tips, always making room for a reader’s idea. I personalized saving money with my own experiences and those of readers.
When brands reached out to me, I tried to find a way to work with them that met BargainBabe.com’s ethical guidelines. (All paid content is marked.) I proposed new ideas. If it didn’t work out, I kept the lines of communication open. Instead of a blunt “I would never cover this completely un-newsworthy scrap,” I opted for “This isn’t a good match for BargainBabe.com right now.”
I tapped my existing relationships with brands, often through PR contacts, to gauge interest in Frugal Festival. Instead of a hard
pitch, I told them the truth. I was creating an event to help people save money on food and wanted to know what would make it worthwhile for them to participate.
Taking a step back, I conceptualized the event by asking myself two questions.
What would make people come?
What would make brands get involved?
Answer those questions for yourself and you are on your way to capitalizing on your value as a connector.
Julia Scott is a journalist by training, a cheapskate by nature, an entrepreneur by design, and an alumna of Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Reach Julia, aka The Bargain Babe, at julia at bargainbabe dot com.
The News Leadership 3.0 blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
By Michele McLellan, 03/22/12 at 4:00 am
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