Your News Biz

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Most of the stories we tell media entrepreneurs are success stories, and my own research is full of such examples. The problem is we might be misleading those entrepreneurs about the difficulty of launching a new business. In this podcast, we'll talk about what some experts say about the errors of judgment made by entrepreneurs and how to overcome them. 

One of the books mentioned is by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel-prize-winning economist–Thinking, Fast and Slow.

The mental errors of entrepreneurs are laid out in detail by Stephen X.  Zhang and Javier Cueto, who draw heavily on Kahneman’s research in their  paper “The Study of Bias in Entrepreneurship”.

Different strategies have to be used in the entrepreneurial environment,  given its uncertainty and unpredictability.  Author and consultant Eric  Ries has elaborated a model in The Lean Startup, which he began as a book and has transformed into a multi-pronged consulting business.

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The name of one of Spain’s notable survival stories in public-service journalism–infoLibre–contains the essence of its guiding principle. It literally means “free  information”–that is, free of undue influence from political and  business interests.

It has a network of celebrity friends and supporters who have kept it going for eight years despite almost 2 million euros in losses (2.4 million dollars.)

More detail and graphics showing financial results are available at this link to my website, Entrepreneurial Journalism (versión en español aquí).

infLibre’s story brings to mind the successes of other European media  that focus on public service to their communities, accountability  journalism, and a digital first philosophy. Here are profiles of some of  them: Il Post of Italy, elDiario.es of Spain, Talking Points Memo in the US, Krautreporter in Germany, Mediapart of France, and De Correspondent in Holland.

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If you liked this episode, please share it. Also, if you have suggestions for me or comments, please send send them to me at  [email protected], or leave me a voice mail message on this episode. When you develop a relationship of trust with your community of users, they will become loyal and more likely to provide you with  financial support. If you would like to learn more about this, here are some links to related material: 

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?    

5 keys to making quality journalism sustainable     

These metrics predict which users will pay for news    

In Italy, a news startup's membership model captures 15,000 donors   

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

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I have more on the topic of credibility, trustworthiness and creating economic value for users at the following link, How publisher credibility creates economic value.

If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a  voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you  have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview,  or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at  [email protected]. 

Here are some links to content that you might find useful: 

How to make native advertising work for you

Why you need to hire a dedicated salesperson

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

Joanna Sullivan's LinkedIn Profile. She is editor of the Baltimore Business Journal, which is part of the American City Business Journals network of publications, whose website is bizjournals.com. Joanna mentioned The Lists, which are compiled in the Book of Lists in each of the cities in the group. You can read more of our interview here. 

If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a  voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you  have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview,  or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at  [email protected].

Here are some related links you might find interesting:

Media consultant sees bright future for quality journalism in Eastern Europe

How to make native advertising work for you

Why you need to hire a dedicated salesperson

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

I've written more about Parusinski here on my blog. He is optimistic about the future of journalism based on the new opportunities for developing financial resources such as reader-generated revenue. He has worked as a journalist, media manager, and strategic  consultant.  He is founder and managing director of Jnomics Media, a media management consulting firm based in London. More information about his company and his professional experience is in an article on my website.  Parusinski is chairman of the board of the Kyiv-based Media Development Foundation, which provides training and business consulting to  journalists and independent media that "are critical to social, economic  and political development, especially in post-authoritarian states." 

If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a  voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you  have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview,  or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at  [email protected].

Here are some related links you might find interesting: 

How to make native advertising work for you

Why you need to hire a dedicated salesperson

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

---

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

In this podcast, I want to give you another reason to control your  advertising sales. The digital advertising environment is filled with  toxic, fraudulent advertising. This advertising feeds off of fraudulent  websites. This is why news sites with a public service mission need to protect their credibility by controlling the advertising that appears on their pages. An excellent study of how this works is by Joshua A. Braun and Jessica L. Eklund (2019): Fake News, Real Money: Ad Tech Platforms, Profit-Driven Hoaxes, and the Business of Journalism. For journalists to understand the ad ecosystem better, perhaps the best study available is by Elizabeth Anne Watkins for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University: Guide to Digital Advertising Technology. 

DigiDay just described how the New York Times now has 71 newsletters, which have been critical in converting users into paid subscribers. If you want to know more about some of the questions about digital advertising, I recommend Something is Rotten in Digital Advertising, by Rand Fishkin, and two Freakonomics Podcasts, “Does Advertising Actually Work”, Part 1 and Part 2.

This episode is based on a blog post on my website, Entrepreneurial Journalism. If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a  voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you  have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview,  or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at  [email protected].

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

Native advertising –also known as sponsored content or advertorial (publireportaje in Spanish)– mixes characteristics of editorial content and  advertising. It has become a major revenue source for many independent news sites. As described in the Tow Center’s Guide to Native  Advertising: “Native ads take on the appearance  of real news stories, and are crafted by people inside news  publications who want to create and spread commercial messages that  don’t look like traditional advertisements that overtly push product . .  . . [T]his practice borrows credibility from the newsroom in order to  enhance the value of the ad created for clients.” You can read a lot more about the topic of native advertising in my blog post on the topic (it includes the Ford Focus ad on El País's front page) and other related content at the links below. 

If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a  voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you  have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview,  or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at  [email protected].

How to make native advertising work for you

Why you need to hire a dedicated salesperson

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

These metrics predict which users will pay for news

In Italy, a news startup's membership model captures 15,000 donors

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

Many media startups would benefit by adding a full-time salesperson to their team. This podcast gives the economic reasons for why to do  it, who to hire, and how much to pay for that staff person. Here is the link to Inflection Point, the SembraMedia study that includes data about ad revenues of 100 digital media startups in Latin America. The study is called Inflection Point, and you can also read it in Spanish and Portugese. 

If you liked this episode, please share it. You can also leave me a voicemail message with your recommendations and comments. And if you have suggestions for media entrepreneurs you would like me to interview, or topics that you would like me to cover, please email me at [email protected]. 

Here are some related articles about digital media entrepreneurs:

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

These metrics predict which users will pay for news

In Italy, a news startup's membership model captures 15,000 donors

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com

This  was an in-depth analysis of business models of 20 news media  organizations in four regions: Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin  America and the US. You can read more about the study at this link. If you liked this podcast, please share it. If you have suggestions for  people I should interview, or topics you would like me to cover, you can leave a voice mail on this episode or send me an email at  [email protected].

Here are links to some related articles: 

Why you need to hire a dedicated salesperson

Give users the option to pay what they can or what they want

What are the biggest mistakes of digital media startups?

These metrics predict which users will pay for news

In Italy, a news startup's membership model captures 15,000 donors

---

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-gerard-breiner/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesbreiner.substack.com