Initial Business Model Canvas

Value Proposition:
We are offering to help local news stations in Maryland so they can become
more relevant and popular among the overall populace. We will pursue these
challenges with some solutions that we came up with while brainstorming. One of our
solutions is making a social media account for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. where
the user can find their local news websites so they can stay connected with their
community. This social media profile would act as a network hub of local news. This is
great for the user for two major reasons. The first being the one stated above, where the
user can keep updated on local events. The second reason is that the users will be able
to access other local news from a variety of other places. This way if there is an issue in
their neighborhood they can find a place that relates and even see how the issue is
solved elsewhere. The account also helps out the local news sources because they
have free publicity, and their websites are easily accessible. Being on social media also
means that anyone from around the world can stumble upon the profile and start
reading. The more people that traffic the site also means the more companies will want
to advertise on these sites, therefore bringing revenue for the local news sources.
The other solution would be to see how to boost the views of the local news
organizations if they already have established social media pages. We are a group of
young and energetic people that know how the current state of the internet works. With
our help, we can make the organizations pop-out and attract attention. This can happen
with a viral post such as a meme or some blooper that happened on the local news.
This would entertain viewers or readers and bring more people to read/watch the local
news because of the entertainment factor. This would mean more traffic for the news
organizations which would be what we wanted and this might even spiral into more
revenue.

Customer segments:
The customers can be split into 3 different groups. The people who do not read
at all, people that read a decent amount, and people that read constantly. These
categories are overarching to everyone. We can begin to break things down from there
to see what we need to do to get all three of these categories to read more. The goal
here would be to not have a group of people that does not read at all. To get the groups
to be either read a decent amount or constantly.

Revenue Model:
While our project does not need any revenue, there are multiple ways for us to
raise funds. The first method would be to charge to the local news organizations for the
number of views and views that increase on their sites. This is very similar to the way
that music apps and companies pay out the artist that publishes music on their
platforms. ​The average payout per stream based on 9 different streaming platforms is
$0.00694.​ This means that we would need an average of 145 views to make a dollar.
Meaning that we would need about 215,000 views to make minimum wage. Another
way to make money is to charge them with the advice we give them, we do what
consultants do for marketing and things of that nature. The difference would be that we
would not charge as high since we are not official consultants. The average consulting
firm chargers ​$100 per hour​ meaning that we should charge around $50 per hour. The
third way we make money is by taking some of the revenue that the organizations make
from the advertisements that they have on their sites. This way if we get more
advertisements we make three different groups happy. The local news, the company
that put the advertisement there, and us. ​The average ad view gets $.18 per view. ​We
can charge about 40% of this so the split would be a 60/40. They would get $.108 and
we would get $.072 per view. The most realistic solution for raising funds would be to
request donations from viewers of the social media page. Of course, we would probably
not need any revenue to run a social media page.

Summary:
This project seeks to help reverse the decline of local news in Maryland. We
have observed that with the popularity of online news sources and social media, local
news stations have lost popularity and funding. This bodes poorly as a decline in local
news reduces participation in local politics and community events, and increases
political polarization. We hope to uncover the major problems that local news
organizations are facing and help one news station remedy these problems.

Other pathways:
We can expand this project in many ways. The ones that we are looking at are
expanding to the rest of the US, making a massive hub of local newspapers
everywhere. This would share knowledge on a massive scale.
Another possible solution, that may be more beneficial for local news
organizations, would be to create a network of individuals to train local news orgs in
using social media. We could start by approaching marketing professors at UMD who
could record videos for a social media page we create. This would function on a
volunteer and donation model with the intention of eventually having personalized
seminars with local organizations.