How to think about new start-ups

Thinking of a journalism start-up

Adam Peruta, an associate professor in Ithaca College's Strategic Communications Program, made a visit to the Independent Media class on Thursday, to discuss the concept of start-ups, the Start-Up Bus, SXSW, Yank and other applications he and a team are developing. What I mainly took away from his presentation was that tens of thousands of start-up applications, websites, etc are designed everyday, which makes its quite challenging for an idea to not be a duplicate of another idea. That said, instead of focusing on trying to have the most unique idea, a better approach to developing a product is to think about it in terms of the perspective of the consumer, whereby you consider what jobs they want done. Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business professor, came up with this concept of jobs-to-be-done, whereas you think less about specific demographics and more about what jobs consumers want done. The example he describes is a person is waiting in line for coffee and they have five to ten minutes to spare, keep them entertained for that block of time. When I think about my blog idea, which would be a music blog that organizes content by genres that are up-to-date, I realize that there aren't that many people that would want to look at this blog, while waiting for coffee. If I were waiting on line, I might consider checking this blog, but it would be preceded by Facebook, Twitter, The New York Times, etc. Now that I'm aware of this somewhat upsetting reality, I'm curious to know if this means that I should tweak my idea so that it'll be more desirable for someone trying to stay preoccupied, while waiting or if there is another 'job' that I'm not thinking of that my music blog would be more suitable for. I guess a potential 'job,' which might be a tad specific, is a person is struggling to navigate through all the new music that a certain blog they subscribe to posts daily and they want a blog that is better organized. While that is definitely more niche than the first 'job' I described, my blog idea would be the solution in a nut-shell, so it could be helpful to conduct some marketing research to determine if this is something music enthusiasts find irritating.

A "failed writer?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-fowler7-2008jun07,0,7613904,full.story

Mayhill Fowler is a 66-year-old, Huffington Post reporter, who refers to herself as a 'failed writer.' Be that as it may, this failed writer helped expose two of the most surprising stories of the 2008 election. That said, her writing capabilities may not be held to the same standard as The New York Times' Gail Collins, but something that she has over Collins is the risks she is willing to take to expose a story. "Of course he had no idea I was a journalist," Fowler explained when speaking of her interview with President Bill Clinton, "He just thought we were all average, ordinary Americans who had come out to see him." (The Huffington Post, James Rainey) With that in mind, there is something to be said about Fowler's willingness to suffer severe repercussions and opposition, in order to expose a story for the public. And a woman, who was 61 years of age at the time, who still goes 'undercover' to find stories is pretty impressive. What followed after her serendipitous success was Fowler being labeled as "the face of the new-media revolution that is remaking presidential campaigns." The Fowler coverage actually began when she surreptitiously attended a "closed press fundraiser," where Obama was speaking about 'bitter small-town Americans' that "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." The reason she should be recognized for her exposure of this story is not only because of what she went through to record that quote, but also for putting her political views aside and revealing the story not for her, but for people that could be influenced by those words. As such, Fowler deserved any recognition for the investigative journalism she conducted in 2008 and does not deserve the 'failed writer' label anymore.

What is the American Dream?

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/04/2012s-college-grads-land-in-minimum-wage-jobs/

Some troubling statistics from a job report focused on the college graduates was released by The Wall Street Journal and just a heads up, it is pretty grim. "According to the Labor Department, there were 284,000 graduates—those with at least a bachelor’s degree—working minimum-wage jobs in 2012, including 37,000 holders of advanced degrees. That’s down from a peak of 327,000 in 2010, but double the number in 2007 and up 70% from a decade earlier," said Ben Casselman of The Journal. I've always accepted the reality that since I'm studying to work in career thats been struggling for the past 15 years, a barista job is almost inevitable once I graduate. However, there's something about actually seeing concrete statistics on paper that just gives me chills. And for those (myself included), who were hoping that this was just a function of the economy, Casselman assures us this "may endure even after the economy improves." To avoid any further impression that this is turning into one of those stereotypical existential crisis blog posts, I'm going to change gears and talk about Bill Jacobson's visit to Ithaca College last week. Something that stood out to me while he was talking about blogging is how one of his contributors uses a pseudonym, "Fuzzy Slippers" because she doesn't want students knowing she leans to the right. Although I would understand why a conservative professor would be more secretive if the taught at Ithaca College because the majority of the student body seems to be liberal, at Cornell University I would have thought that students would be less critical of their professor's politics. That is not meant to be a criticism of Ithaca College, but based on how some students in the Independent Media conducted themselves, when Jacobson spoke about some occurrence in Massachusetts, it is in indication of sorts that IC students are more willing to object to conflicting political views. What I liked the most about Bill Jacobson was his humility. He wasn't boasting about his success as a blogger, but more giving more of an retrospective of how his blog reached acclaim and in doing so, gave advice to myself and my colleagues. 

Oregon ain't got love for no bloggers

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/bloggers_might_be_excluded_fro.html

"Lake Oswego is considering defining media organizations as 'institutionalized,' 'well-established' and producing at least 25 percent news content," explained Sieon Roux in her Oregonian article. The independent blogging world has become so ingrained in the journalism industry that this potential sanction would be like providing limitations for independent filmmakers trying to distribute their films to a developed movie theater company like Loews. There is a concept in economics known as Barriers to Entry, whereas newcomers to an industry are presented with obstacles that they must overcome in order to get in the game. In the case of Lake Oswego, their barrier of entry is you have to be a developed journalist in order to be granted entry into an executive session meeting. However, the only solution to breaking this 'barrier' would be for a blogger to succumb to the demands of the Lake Oswego government and join a developed newspaper like The Oregonian. That, in my estimation, is completely unreasonable because although, not every blogger should be permitted access to these meetings, there shouldn't be a law in play, that prevents any of them from attending. I guess the worry of allowing a blogger to attend a session is while, the media cannot "directly report on discussions," the government might fear that bloggers would be less likely to respect this rule. Nonetheless, any government shouldn't have this much influence over the media because it hinders a journalist's potential for creative thought. 

I can has cheezburger

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-07-13/bloggers-bring-in-the-big-bucksbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

With the incessant traffic on the Internet every millisecond, it is no surprise that Eric Nakagawa and the mysterious "Tofuburger's" cat appreciation blog receives 500,000 page views daily. However, this element of accidental success is what I find so interesting because Nakagawa and Tofuburger unintentionally found a niche that is so reliable that sustaining existence will never be an issue. It would seem as though ideas men should be less focused on coming up with new ideas and more on experimenting, possibly through crowd-sourcing, to determine what content is desirable enough to attract a large body of people willing to provide financial support in exchange for that content. I'm almost certain this blog doesn't generate revenue through advertisements, however the Smokin' Jay Cutler Tumblr "dedicated to the most apathetic looking athlete in the history of sports," has developed enough of a following that it now sells t-shirts through the website as a means for not only creating more interest in the subject, but also keeping the website in existence. I'm not a football fan so my roommate had to show me that Tumblr, but at this point that blog is attracting more than just football fans because you don't need to be a football enthusiast to appreciate the comedy on that blog. With that said, there are probably millions of niches that have yet to be tackled and accidental success even greater than Nakagawa's could be out there. It's both disheartening and remarkable to think that I've been developing a journalism app that won't have more than half a percent of the 100,000 to 200,000 visitors that Nakagawa's blog gets, but I've been actively trying to pursue this venture and he started this from posting something he thought was amusing. What makes his website more attractive is the fact that anyone can post an image, which can be a very satisfying pursuit for some people. I'm interested to see how far Nakagawa decides to take this business venture and if it will still be as successful as it is five years from now. Will the blogosphere continue to accept I Can Has Cheezburger or decide it's time for the cheeseburger to be eaten?

http://smokinjaycutler.tumblr.com/

Izzy Stone

"Before there was an Internet, Izzy Stone was doing the work we associate with today's best bloggers." (Common Dreams, Jeff Cohen)

For this week's blog post, I'm going to attempt to do something that may amuse some and confuse others. I'm going to blog about how Izzy Stone's work could be categorized as blog-like before blogging was even concepted. I guess it's not THAT amusing, but I just thought I'd acknowledge the fact that I'm blogging about how a man that preceded blogging could be compared to some of the most prolific bloggers in journalism. I don't want this post to turn into some long paragraph, where I just Izzy Stone for all of accomplishments and influence on the journalism industry, but I would like to show my appreciation for such a relentless reporter. The Internet is an invaluable tool for journalists not only because it enables them to always be up-to-date on current events, but more importantly because how effective of a research device it can be. Whether it was his consumption of several newspapers daily or the incessant skimming through a number of Congressional Records, Izzy Stone's devotion to uncovering news for the public was unmatched. Especially considering that he didn't have a tool like the Internet, to make his research a bit more bearable. I understand that I'm not a developed journalist, but it is hard to imagine that I'll devote that much time everyday to reading that many newspapers cover to cover. Bloggers are dedicated to uncovering controversial stories, but it is doubtful that they spend as much time as Izzy did analyzing documents. Another aspect that puts Izzy stone in a league of his own was how he would begin articles not blog posts, with quotes like "The American government and the American press have kept the full truth about the Tonkin Bay incidents from the American public." He was not afraid to challenge the government and I know there are tons of bloggers nowadays, who challenge the government left and right, but it reflects one's courage more when they do it through print. Something Izzy shares with current bloggers is how he was a writer, editor and boss, so he governed himself like many bloggers do. He did not have to answer to an advertisers request. Almost every word that he wrote was determined by him and didn't have some worried editor complaining about his work being too controversial. This aspect makes him quite similar to the many bloggers today because obviously bloggers only communicate ideas that they are passionate in. 

Voices of Revolution, Chapter 1

"The importance the Working Man's Advocate placed on universal education was clear from the motto it carried each week at the top of page one: 'All children are entitled to equal education, ' and from the item it positioned as number one on its list of measures that working men sought: 'Equal Universal Education.' " (Page 12)

     George H Evans, the publisher and editor of Working Man's Advocate, was passionate in reforming the education system for children, among other things. While he was a radical reformer, he and William Heighton, who was quoted in his Mechanic's Free Press saying that something he was primarily focused on was "securing education for every working-class child," (Page 12), Evans could not accept a system that directed benefitted one class - the bourgeois, which was in the minority in terms of their size. With that in mind, in one of my art history classes I was learning about how after the fall of the Roman Empire, it brought rise to the dreadful system known as feudalism. Cities in Italy including Siena, Lucca, San Gimignano had citizens, who grew tired of having the feudal lords ruling their towns and mistreating the lower classes. Additionally, the feudal system gave birth to a new class, known as the merchant middle class, which was full of many people with enough capitol and wits to eliminate the feudal system. And instead of that system, they created a self-governing system, where members of the middle class and some lower class individuals would live autonomously without having feudal lords interfering and making ridiculous laws that only benefit themselves and the rest of the bourgeois. Although this system would have a lot of trouble thriving in 19th century America, I found it interesting that if you go back six or seven centuries systems of government were in the case of San Gimignano and the other Italian cities, much more reasonable to those inhabiting them. The concept of equal education for the child working class would likely be more of a non-issue because the merchants, who were part of the governing board, would not have as much reluctancy or see it as problematic to permit working class children to education. If only things could have been that easy for the American working-class children in the 19th century.