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Reflections from 17 years of innovation. Now its your turn! DAN PACHECO
Feel free to tweet anything! Its part of a class exercise. Twitter hash tag: #sinews12
Im a journalist
But was supposed to be an engineer. Semi-geek -- always interested in computers, and writing / publishing. Wrote about the Internet at its inception (1994) and got jealous. Two-time winner of Knight Batten Award for Journalism Innovation.
Writer
My path
(writi Aerospace Early ng programmer engineering conte (BASIC) student sts) Student newspaper editor
Feature writer Online producer Product (Washington (Denver Post) manager (AOL) Post online) Product manager (Bakersfield) Innovator (Knight News Challenge) Entrepreneur (BookBrewer)
24 startups in 17 years
Three themes
1. News & information 2. Publishing tools 3. Community engagement
taught me to be an innovator, just like nobody taught me how to ride a We learn the HARD bicycle. STUFF by DOING.
Why is innovation important in journalism? Lets look back a few years ...
1994
Source: Newspaper Association of America, Business Analysis and Research Department* First three quarters of 2009 + fourth quarter estimate by Rick Edmonds.
Are you imagining a horsey horseless carriage when you should be building a Ferrari?
Source: Clayton Chritensen, The Innovators Dilemma. Graphic from WikiMedia Commons.
News Example
Storify Twitter Social Even better networks web sites! Better web sites Online services Web sites
Quality
1990
1994
1998
2002
2010
Looking ahead
Quality
Even better web sites!
2012
Better reasons
Everything you do today is already being replaced by something better. Better to replace your own job than to be made completely irrelevant. We all bear responsibility for building a digital future that also pays for itself.
Gingers Problem
Low penetration in a growing city of 330,000. Towns 50% Hispanics avoided the newspaper. Young people didnt care. Newcomers read the L.A. Times.
Gingers Solution
Everything built around the metaphor of local music, not news per se.
Zines 2.0
Global experiment
BookBrewer
Journal Constitutio n
Your turn!
Ready to do your own news startup? Learn from my successes and failures.
Intrepreneur? Entrepreneur?
or
Innovating from the outside -- disruptive. PLUS: Total freedom to do as you like, even if it disrupts another business. MINUS: Fundraising isnt easy!
The B Word
Youre tied to a business, whether you know it or not. Nobody escapes the economy. You can make money and serve your audience at the same time. You can stay true to editorial principles without being tainted by revenue.
The M Word
If a tree falls in the forest and nobodys there to see it, did it fall in the first place? Its up to you to tell people about your great new innovation. In the real world, we call this marketing. Resist journalistic stereotypes of public relations as something dirty. If you dont believe enough in your product to market it, who will?
The F Word
Did you note all of my failures? Its not truly failure unless you fail to learn, adapt and grow. Pay very, very close attention to your audience and allow yourself to pivot to meet their needs.
Start tweeting!
Hash tag: #sinews12
Example: Flipboard
Problem: Following links from Twitter is cumbersome.
Example: Flipboard
What type of person will use your product, and why? How large is this market? How do you know? What is the total addressable market (TAM) that you can reach? What data do you use to get that figure?
Thank you!
Dan Pacheco dan@futureforecast.com www.futureforecast.com