Robert Niles: February 2010 archive
Why I love NBC for blacking out the Olympics: A cautionary tale for all publishers
February 23, 2010
Lots of folks have been bashing US broadcast network NBC for its coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, Canada. But allow me to take some space today to congratulate NBC. Thanks to the network's decision to delay broadcast of many Olympic events - sometimes as much as 10 hours after their completion - I haven't had so much fun watching an Olympics in, well, ever.Huh? I hear folks asking. People have been roasting NBC's decision. Do I actually support it?
Heck, no! But by denying me the chance to watch the Olympics live (which are taking place in the same time zone where I live, by the way), NBC's pushed me to search the Web for live video and coverage, allowing me to find lively, even wildly entertaining, streams of coverage that I'd never have found if I'd been able to watch the games live on my TV.
That's an important lesson for all news publishers. If you don't provide the information that your audience wants, in the manner that they want it, people not only will they seek alternatives... but they might find ones that they strongly prefer to yours. More...
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Top 10 reasons why you ought to apply for the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp
February 18, 2010
You have until midnight Friday (Pacific Time on February 19, 2010) to apply for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp.Why should you apply? Because we'll be bringing 20 journalists to Los Angeles in May for an intense, one-week camp in entrepreneurial thinking, and showing you how that applies to publishing a news website. By the end of the camp, you'll not only have been trained in the right mindset to run a successful publishing business, you'll have materials in hand with which you can pursue the funding that you'll need to continue your journalism career.
Oh, and we won't charge you a thing for this: It's free. (We'll even kick in $250 to help get you to LA.)
You need more reasons to drop whatever you were planning to do today, and apply? Here are 10: More...
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Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists
February 5, 2010
[A reminder: We're taking applications for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Please consider applying if you're looking for better training on how to make your online news publishing efforts an income-producing business.]What's the value of journalism?
The short answer is, of course, "whatever someone will pay for it." But a more thoughtful response gets at why people are willing to exchange something of value for news information.
Economics 101 teaches that if more people want something, and the scarcer it is, the higher the price. With millions of new websites competing for people's attention, advertising rates across all media have plunged, threatening news businesses that depend upon advertising income.
But the Internet hasn't just created more advertising space, driving down its price. It's also developing millions of new writers, diminishing the economic value of writing itself as a craft. More...
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Have you talked with a customer recently?
February 3, 2010
To encourage OJR readers to apply for our 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp, I'm writing again on some of the things you need to know, and skills you might need to develop, to become the successful publisher of a thriving news website.Much of what you'll learn at the camp, should you be one of those selected to attend, focuses on mind-set. The skills necessary to run a news website are remarkably similar to the skills needed to work as a reporter. But the mindsets of a successful entrepreneur and a newsroom reporter, unfortunately, are very often quite different.
To that end... have you talked with a customer lately? (Or a potential one?) By "customer," I mean a person who writes - or might someday write - you a check to fund your site. (Your current boss does not count!) It could be an advertiser, a subscriber or a non-profit foundation. You can't publish a website - or run any business - without customers, and if you're even just thinking about doing that one day, you need to learn what your potential customers are doing... and what they want.
So for my post this week, I offer not some provocative opinion but an assignment - some entrepreneurial homework. Find some people, at least one, who you think might someday, possibly, provide some financial support for that website you might start (assuming you don't have one already). Then start a conversation. More...
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