SAMANTHA BELL

October 9, 2014

Individuals in today’s economy have many potential startup opportunities to choose from.

Seeing inefficiency in the market — whether in the selling of books and shoes, or providing care for pets — invites innovative ideas and the potential for new businesses.

Many ideas and new products are derived from existing products and businesses. The goal for an entrepreneurial journalist is to start small and go from there.

One of the keys is to cater to a target audience. Preparation is key, and entrepreneurial journalists will come across many types of audiences. It’s important to adapt and change a pitch depending on the audience you are trying to reach.

There are myriad ways to get started:

1. Start Small and Investigate Existing Solutions

According to Jeremy Caplan of Poynter, the first step is to investigate existing solutions further. Someone else may have already developed a solution to an idea, so it’s important to research; A fresh idea brings success.

“The existence of other solutions to a problem you’ve identified can be useful evidence that the problem is real,” he wrote. “The key question is whether there are components of the problem that remain to be addressed, or if the solution you have in mind would fill an important gap. The simplest test: Would people pay for your solution?”

Caplan also suggests starting with small ideas rather than large ones — big ideas can intimidate. Gathering a vast array of information on small ideas can eventually turn into something large, which he says, can capitalize on a journalists’ skills.

2. Pitch Perfect

An important thing for entrepreneurs is to learn how to succinctly and simply communicate their ideas in words. Simple. English. Words. Not. Bizspeak.

Create a pitch, rehearse it and tailor it for a specific audience. That can make or break a presentation.

Tips to being pitch perfect:

1. Keep It Fresh

According to Aileen Pincus of Bloomberg Businessweek, “Every business grows and changes, and your pitch needs to grow and change with it.”

As the audience changes, so should your pitch. The key to success is to capture the attention of your specific audience, catering to their needs and expectations.

Stretching beyond even the best PowerPoint presentation is a good idea — bringing an audience member to the front or using interactive quizzes can all help by engaging the audience.

Prezi is an effective alternative to a PowerPoint slideshow — it is more design-friendly and immersive, making storytelling easier and more enjoyable, for the audience.

2. Always Be Prepared

Chances are, those attending your presentation will be bursting with questions and comments. Be prepared to respond intelligently and with courtesy — this again ties into knowing exactly who your audience is.

Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited, wrote, “Your marketing strategy starts, ends, lives, and dies with your customer.”

Know the company you are presenting to and what they want from their product. And remember, to them, their product is better than sliced bread. It’s always “the best ever.”

Pincus suggests that you adjust “the pitch to the person who is listening, and refine it as you and your business continue to grow and change.”

 

September 25, 2014

Unaccompanied migrant children arrive in the United States alone — with no parents, no direction, no resources. Most cross the southern border with the intention of escaping poverty or abuse in their home countries, and searching for opportunity like generations of other immigrants to the U.S.

Some come for a better life or to reunite with family members already living in the U.S.

New statistics released by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families show that 30,340 unaccompanied children were placed nationwide from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31 — 4,799 in New York.

That is among the highest in the nation, but below Texas, which had 4,280 placements this year — perhaps not surprising since Texas shares a long border with Mexico.

With the numbers increasing, there has been debate about whether migrant children are entitled to legal representation in American courts.

In 2013, Sonia Nazario, author of “Enrique’s Journey,” wrote about the issue in the New York Times. She mentions that anyone accused of a crime in the United States has the right to legal representation; it is a basic human right. Undocumented immigrants, on the other hand, are not currently entitled to a public defender.

Nazario asserts that a recent study by the Vera Institute of Justice in New York shows that 40 percent of unaccompanied children could qualify for legal status that would make them exempt from deportation.

“And yet, while more recent legislation has improved the odds, only around 7 percent of those who were placed in federal custody between 2007 and 2009, and who had received a ruling by mid-2010, were winning their cases,” she said. “Not surprisingly, those with legal representation were nearly nine times more likely to win.”

Forced to represent themselves in court in a strange country where they are unlikely to understand the language or the proceedings, these children find themselves facing government lawyers with years of experience.

But now, at least some of these children will receive help.

On Monday, the New York City Council announced that it would work with two charities — the Robin Hood Foundation and the New York Community Trust — to provide legal representation to about 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children facing possible deportation.

The Council is contributing $1 million, the Robin Hood Foundation $550,000, and the New York Community Trust $360,000.

Because of this program, unaccompanied immigrant children might now have a fighting chance. If this program were in place when Enrique—the subject in Sonia Nazario’s novel—took his journey, his situation may have been different.

In addition to the novel, there is also a website to complement “Enrique’s Journey.” The site features information about Enrique and his family, the author, educational resources, and recent media coverage on the book; and also includes a section dedicated to those interested in lending assistance.

The site is compelling — it shows how Enrique’s journey did not end although the novel did. With the site, Nazario allows access to information about Enrique’s current status and whereabouts.

She visited him in prison where he was being held before deportation, and recorded their session. This valuable addition to the website gives the audience a chance to feel how real the situation is. Reading words and seeing pictures are one thing, but watching someone’s facial expressions filled with emotion as they speak has an impact.

 

 

 

September 18, 2014

The need to attract eyeballs and dollars is reaching deeper into the DNA of new websites.

When a site builds an audience based on the quality of its news coverage, advertisers pay to be seen in the same space. Quality news coverage attracts an audience, and advertisers go where the most viewers are.

The key to launching your own site, according to Mark Briggs, author of “Entrepreneurial Journalism,” is to remember that the project is a product — not just media or journalism.

Many journalists would prefer that a startup business be more devoted to journalism, but the reality is that money talks and people need to eat.

Audience and advertiser revenue are the primary measurements for success in online media. To produce revenue, the site must attract an audience. To attract an audience, the site must provide quality content.

The key to attracting and keeping an audience is to turn the audience into a community — this adds sharing and engagement to the site. According to Briggs, “Quality content combined with authentic community engagement make the model work in the digital age.”

With online media, the main source of income is advertising. Many still feel that viewers should have to pay in order to read news on a website, like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, who still charge their viewers. However, there are plenty of sources today from where a person can get news free.

What startup websites rely on to bring in money are the paid advertisements. As Briggs mentions, many are reluctant to ask companies to pay for ads on their sites. This is one of the biggest hurdles that he claims startups must overcome.

To do this, Briggs said that the developer of the site should be mentally and statistically prepared to approach these corporations. He also states that a startup should have a decent following to entice the large companies to advertise on the site.

A site that fits Briggs’ criteria is MedCity News, a news site and information service that leveraged their skills and experience. He states they had clear goals from the beginning — to do journalism and make money.

The site became popular by aggregating news and products from different medical fields in one place. Instead of having to locate and surf to different medical sites, viewers can get all of their information in one place. As the site grew larger, it attracted more advertisers, who were willing to pay for prime real estate on the site.

The site was able to bring in money using three different methods: syndication, custom content and online advertising.

By using syndication, the site produced content on the economics of health care for any publisher to use through paid contracts. MedCity News provided made-to-order content to health care companies and hospitals. By using online advertising, niche audiences in the professional medical field paid to advertise on their site.

The success of MedCity News shows how the value of journalism skills with the combination of entrepreneurialism is used to create a successful company.

New media journalists at Forbes have the same entrepreneurial mind-set. These journalists relate to and engage with their audience and use social media tools. They produce their own videos, photo galleries and podcasts, and they use Google to tailor stories to reach as many people as possible.

“You teach me, I teach you  —  that’s the bridge Forbes is building to connect the values and standards of traditional media with the dynamism of the digital age”, said Lewis DVorkin of Forbes.

New media journalists face all kinds of obstacles, from creating original content to questioning media ethics.

With the emergence of media like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and blogs, reports and images circulate the Web at lightning speed. This puts pressure on newsrooms to publish stories before they are thoroughly checked for reliability. Too often, major news organizations pick up rumors that circulate online through social media.

A similar problem created by new media, is how to handle errors and corrections all while information is being updated. Live blogging has become increasingly popular, and it is inevitable that when one works at such speed, there are going to be errors.

These are the questions digital journalists face: What should be done to correct these mistakes? Should they wait to correct the material so there is no trace of the original mistake? When corrections can be made seamlessly and instantly online, is first-time accuracy now overrated?

According to “Digital Media Ethics” by Stephen J. Ward, “The ethical challenge is to articulate guidelines for dealing with rumors and corrections in an online world that are consistent with the principles of accuracy, verification, and transparency.”

In the new media era, journalists are forced to deal with issues that were not always present in a traditional news company. Technology has enabled new forms of public communication that also raise new questions of ethics.

 

September 11, 2014

When was the last time you received a handwritten letter or displayed your vacation photos in an album?

If you are part of the 13 percent of Americans who are not connected to the Internet, the answer might be this morning. But for a growing number of people who spend much of their time online, these and many other activities are slowly dying out.

According to the study “The Web at 25 in the U.S.” by the Pew Research Center, “Since 1995, [we] have documented the Internet’s impact on: the way people get, share and create news; the way they take care of their health; the way they perform their jobs; the way they learn; the nature of their political activity; their interactions with government; the style and scope of their communications with friends and family; and the way they organize in communities.”

According to Pew, 87 percent of American adults are now connected to the Internet and 68 percent use the Internet on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.

Imagine life without the Web — no email, no access to breaking news, no weather radar or real-time reports reports. You probably can’t; I know I can’t. We have become dependent on technology and the modern way of living. It has transformed the way we live.

Since the emergence of the World Wide Web 25 years ago, much has changed in our daily lives. The Web has been growing and evolving at an alarming rate that shows no sign of slowing down. Twenty-five years ago, a person who wanted to use the Internet needed to have access to a computer — today, that is simply not the case.

According to Pew, nine out of 10 people in the United States own cellphones. About two-thirds use their phones for more than making phone calls with about “one-third of cell phone users’ primary Internet access point” being their cellphones, and not their computers (laptop or desktop).

It marks a pronounced change in the past quarter-century, and if the trend continues people might only be using desktop computers at work.

People today expect information and news instantly, fast and on-demand … with video. Smartphones have made it a reality: News when you want it, where you want it and from whom you want it — free. Unlimited access to information has created constant expectation in our society.

On Sept. 11, 2001 — when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington — smartphones did not exist. Americans used desktop computers and the television (most NOT in high definition!) to follow news coverage of the most transformative event in the lives of most of us. If you didn’t receive a phone call or if you weren’t near a TV set or listening to the radio, most people had little idea of the events.

Today, notifications on smartphones have brought a continuous flow of information, tailored to the interests of each user. In a way, we all know more and we all know less because we customize the “news” to our own interests.

On its website, The New York Times has created a page dedicated to the 13th anniversary of 9/11. It includes recent articles written about the day, archival footage, photos and historic articles, as well as information about memorials, health and the reconstruction at Ground Zero.

This is one important way the Internet has transformed the way we consume information: It seems to be endless and only a few mouse clicks away. People who weren’t born on Sept. 11, 2001 have unprecedented tools at their fingertips, more information than they can probably ever consume about the attacks.

Sitting down at a desk with a computer sitting on it to access information simply isn’t necessary; unless it’s in a school or workplace. Look around — people are glued to their smartphone screens. There are even people using their smartphones while crossing the street! You see them, but they rarely see you, or the car coming around the corner.

According to Pew, “58 percent of American adults have smartphones,” while in 1995 only 14 percent used the Internet, that number is now a whopping 87 percent. Easy access encourages greater use, which spurs more easy access and more use.

The Internet has also altered interpersonal communication. There has always been a debate that “hiding behind a screen” to communicate could weaken our relationships.

The Pew study says that “67 percent of Internet users say that online communication with family and friends strengthened their relationships.”

Using social media, messaging and email, people have more opportunity to communicate with family and friends. In some ways new modes of communication strengthen relationships, in some ways they make them more interpersonal — it’s easier to dash off a text message than make a call and spend time talking to someone.

Being able to see photos and online status updates from family and friends allows people to connect differently than a phone call would. There is even the option to videochat across miles and time zones, which allows you to see and hear another person.

We no longer need to lose touch with neighbors who move away or travel companions who live halfway across the world; we can keep friends for life and make many new ones.

We have come a long way from snail mail, and waiting for six o’clock news. The Web is still young. It is constantly changing and evolving. No one can predict where it goes next.

 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sept_11_2001/index.html?8qa&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A7%22%7D