BLOGGING / ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM

1. BLOGGING / ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM Hofstra University Prof. Vaccaro JRNL 10

2. REMINDER: Blog your class notes during lecture REMINDER: Tweet notes and links to your blog entries. Use #JRNL10 Lecture on blogging, entrepreneurial journalism and more about the business of journalism Today’s roadmap

3. Opinion No set style Completely online Citizen journalists Anyone can do it Free/sustainable Objectivity Proper style Print/online/TV Trained journalists Hired by company Biz team needed Blog vs. Traditional Media

4. Popular Blogs • Top blogs on internet: • 1. HuffPo (Aol) • 2. TMZ • 3. Business Insider • 4. Gawker • 5. Lifehacker • 6. Mashable • 7. Gizmodo • 8. The Daily Beast • 9. Perez Hilton • 10. Tech Crunch (Aol) Why are they popular? • Focus on one subject area • Packed with information • Perfect amount of multimedia • Mix between paid/unpaid writers/editors/bloggers • “What’s now” content … hip, unique, trendy

5. Analyze the top blogs from list Let’s analyze the top five blog sites … • 1. HuffPo (Aol) • 2. TMZ • 3. Business Insider • 4. Gawker • 5. Lifehacker

6. Blog Basics • More characteristics defining a blog • Unique content, some related to a specific niche • Frequently updated - new content should be at the top • Every entry has a headline/body text and includes hyperlinks • Contains a spot for reader comments/feedback

7. Blog Basics • San Jose Mercury News added a blog in 1999 and changed journalism • Every newspaper has blogs • Every major newspaper has broken news via their blogs • Every reporter hired now, is asked if they know how to manage/run a blog

8. What are your favorite blogs? • Tell us your favorites? • Vaccaro • Jim Romenesko, journalism industry • Hardball Talk / Pro Football Talk (NBC Sports) • Islanders Point Blank • Let’s Blog it Out (Entourage), Newsday

9. Creating a blog • Make a plan: editorial/business • Choose a blog system • Blogger/Wordpress • Choose a theme/design • Extras/Gadgets/Widgets • Build your audience • How? Remember from our second class?

10. Tips for Bloggers • Be specific with headlines/tagging • Post early/post often • Use images and multimedia elements • Participate in the community/social network • Write less and with conviction • Organize your ideas • Be direct and to the point • Use appropriate language and style • Be the authority with a personality • Link, summarize and analyze

11. News >>>>> Education >>>>> Hot-button issues >>>>> Animals >>>>> HS Football >>>>> Politics >>>>> Hot topics >>>>> History >>>>> Police/fire news Sachem Schools Immigration Puppies, Morkies Sachem Football Newsday LI Politics Community calendar 1940’s Europe Blog Ideas and more specific ideas

12. Other Blog Creation Tips • Define your competition … who else is writing about this topic? • Who cares about the topic? Will anyone read or see this? • How can I make this a visitor destination? • Live blog and host talk sessions … think outside the editorial box

13. Microblogging • Using Twitter and Facebook to get your message out quickly • Effective medium for breaking news • Can host chats/Q&As • Extension of your editorial reach • Building a digital community • Another reach for advertisers • Building your brand tweet-by-tweet

14. Planning multimedia • Assess situation for adding multimedia to your story and platform… (could relate to web/mobile/blogs) • Photo galleries • Photo slideshows • Audio • Video • Info graphics

15. Tips on info layering • You have all this content? How do you place it in nonlinear format on your platform and have it make sense? • Create each element to stand alone • Only include redundancies that are necessary • Avoid editing your ideas in early stages of planning … having too much is not a bad thing, you can always cut down or spread the content out (follow up?). Having too little is a problem.

16. Assess multimedia potential • Can the story be broken down into several topical chunks? • Does the story describe a process? (Info graphs, video and photo galleries are perfect to displaying a process of events) • Is the story laden with stats and figures? (info graphs and data visualization will help you!) • Is there emotional narrative to be shown? (Video shows action and events as they unfold)

17. Entrepreneurial Journalism • Let’s apply what we just learned about blogging and microbloggingto the following notes on entrepreneurial journalism. • You should know how to build a media platform before trying to build a media brand. They go hand-in-hand, but the work behind the brand is what actually counts for the reporters/editors/journalists. • You need to think and act as a publisher, business development executive in some aspects of journalism. The industry dictates this evolution. You’ll be better off.

18. How we got here? • In 2005 newspaper advertising revenue was at an all-time high with $48 billion income, while in 2010 that same number dropped to $23 billion. • Newspaper circulation declined by 25 percent. • A third of all newsroom jobs from 2001-2010 were cut. • The growth of the Internet and digital technology has hindered the print model and changed the world forever.

19. Taking advantage of opportunity • How do you open a new product and change the new media frontier? • Engagement: No longer are journalists expected to shout the news from a remote location, they are on the ground with the people. It’sa form of news collaboration, according to Briggs. • Building trust: Being transparent with the audience and giving them what they want in an online medium. • Embracing diversity of voice: You must be open to different view points through different dispersal methods. Fair and balanced with the submersion of new media technologies.

20. What makes a successful start up? • Quality content pays • Understanding how to do business while being a journalist • Test, test and test some more • Pick a niche and go deep • Target audiences for targeted advertising • Check out the new app economy • Be ethical and stick with it

21. What makes a successful start up? • Analyze common traits of other successful startups … both positive and negative • Learn how some blogs have grown into big businesses or other mediums like books or magazines • Get inspired by others who have beat the odds • Set your own goals and achieve

22. Creating revenue models • Syndication: Will other companies pay for your content? • Custom content: Will people log onto your platform and pay for specific content? • Advertising: Will you work with a third-party ad agency to plate your ads on other networks as well?

23. Elements of Innovation • Ideas do not fall off trees … you need to: • Be creative: envision something that doesn’t exist. • Risk: be willing to go way outside the box if you think it will work. Sometimes it doesn’t. • Hard work: easier said than done sometimes, and very cliché, but you know what it takes to be successful and it doesn’t happen over night in most cases. • How innovation is taught? Business schools have taught innovation through numbers and finance for years, now CUNY offers an entrepreneurial masters program for journalism. You can learn to think like an innovative digital journalist.

24. Make innovation a strategy • Make a priority • Make failure acceptable • Set goals • Be agile • See innovation as a product

25. Bring start up culture to thenewsroom • Get hired byan older media company with traditional ways? No problem. It’s your turn to shine. • Divide and conquer: Think hyper-local and give authority to more people but in concentrated areas. • We report, you decide: Monthly meetings can be used as a way to report to your team how new projects are working. Good and bad.

26. Other start up keys • Find start up funding before you build your audience, if you need the cash • If you’re looking to charge, ask yourself, will customers pay for your product or service? • Understand the basics of product development: cost, communication, control, longevity

27. Choosing the right technology • You need a platform you understand and can work in • Choose the right host and right theme for the design of your site • Enhance your site with advanced features • Event calendars • Live blogs • Live video • Mapping • Databases • Bulletin boards • Social media/bookmarking • Email marketing

28. Assignment No. 1 • DUE NEXT CLASS • Prepare an editorial/business plan for a web/blog idea that could be utilized as a real website … • Be prepared to have it done in class and talk about it, along with your classmates, in front of the room live before the class period ends.

29. Assignment No. 1 • Post the business plan to your class blog • Headline: “Assignment No. 1: Biz Plan” • Things to include • Blog idea with specific focus? Niche? • Who is your demographic? Why? • How will you execute on coverage? • Types of multimedia you would use • How would you staff your company? Hierarchy of workers? None? • List at least five types of content you’d include: news articles, commentary, daily columns, etc. • List forms of multimedia to coincide with your coverage

30. Next up • Assignment No. 1 is due next class • Lecture will be on Digital Photography