Comments on: The state of independent local online news: Start-ups look for foundation support http://www.ojr.org/p1568/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=p1568 Focusing on the future of digital journalism Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:43:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Dave Chase http://www.ojr.org/p1568/#comment-1447 Dave Chase Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:22:24 +0000 http://www.ojr.org/?p=1568#comment-1447 In your other post about business models being elusive in local, I made some comments about how innovation is needed on the revenue side (see http://www.www.ojr.org/ojr/people/davidwestphal/200810/1560/) and that counting on foundation support seems to me a path for a very, very, very small number of sites. Thus, the 99% of the market who can’t count on that should try new approaches that don’t count on charity.

Twelve months ago we achieved profitability in our hyperlocal site. Not satisfied with that, this past week we just tried a new sales approach. The short version of the story is that in 3 1/2 days, we just drove 20% of the prior year’s revenue so we’re confident we’ve found a model that will scale.

Instead of “asking for the order” with foundations, my view is that energy should be spent with driving sustainable revenues. If I were to tap foundation money, it would be to tap those foundations that are doing what is called “Mission Related Investing”. That is, rather than just investing their endowment in unrelated businesses, they carve out a small % to invest in business ventures related to their core mission. As an entrepreneur, I’d much rather make my case to the investment folks than ask for charity which will inevitably dry up.

]]> By: Douglas Christopherson http://www.ojr.org/p1568/#comment-1446 Douglas Christopherson Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:22:45 +0000 http://www.ojr.org/?p=1568#comment-1446 Where can I find answers to the following questions?

Staffer columns vs. blogs by print newspapers online

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