Deck from "Innovating Locally," the presentation I gave at the 2014 annual convention for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. This deck, which draws on research during my year as a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, offers an analysis of the local news media and some tools for instilling a culture of continuous innovation.

1. 20 Shocking Secrets
About the News Business
alexa schirtzinger | july 2014
(apologies to Upworthy)

2. What’s coming:
● Theory
● Data
● Secrets!

3. First, a quick intro.

4. Stanford!

5. startup:
“a human institution designed to
create new products and services
under conditions of extreme
uncertainty”
Eric Ries

6. The internet’s “democratizing” effect
● access to information
● communication
● content creation

7. (here comes the theory)

8. What is “content”?

9. If the supposedly self-involved members of the
creative class can organize to assert some
control over what they make — the magical
stuff now routinely referred to as “content”
— then maybe other residents of the
beleaguered middle might be inspired by their
examples.
A.O. Scott

10. “Ads are just as much content
as anything else.”
Dylan Smith, LION

11. the pipe

12. (now for some data)

13. Based on my survey of approximately 40 alt-weekly stakeholders.

14. Based on my survey of approximately 40 alt-weekly stakeholders.

15. [T]he trends are clear: people, especially the
young, are turning to the Internet for more and
more of their news and developing an
effective digital strategy is essential for
long-term survival.
Paul Grabowicz, UC Berkeley

16. Independent Media Network
● “We are a social enterprise”
● operations:
o tech support/training
o national/regional sales
o eventually, local sales
● revenue from national, regional, local sales

17. Texas Tribune
● “Relentlessly entrepreneurial”
● Texas-based, politically involved audience

18. credit: Jake Batsell

19. credit: Jake Batsell

20. Berkeleyside
● Small and lean (3 people)
● operations:
o daily neighborhood reporting
o memberships
o one big event: Uncharted: Festival of Ideas
● Revenue from local ad sales, events,
memberships

21. Why should we care?

22. “In the past decade, what [we] do to
engage customers has changed almost
beyond recognition. Tools and strategies
that were cutting-edge just a few years ago
are fast becoming obsolete, and new
approaches are appearing every day…

23. “…yet in most companies, the
organizational structure…hasn’t changed
[in 40 years].”
Harvard Business Review

24. Secrets!

25. 1. Know your audience

26. 2. Know
thyself

27. 3. Know your purpose
credit: Disney

28. 4. Listen

29. 5. Get personal

30. 6. Engage

31. 7. Enlist allies

32. 8. ...and put them to work!

33. 9. Consider your user...

34. 10. ...the use case...

35. 11. ...and the whole journey.

36. 12. Just do it.

37. 13. Rough beats ready
>

38. 14. Take time to reflect

39. 15. Be transparent

40. 16. Innovate continuously

41. 17. Get the data

42. 18. Challenge ALL of your
assumptions—even the
ones you know to be true

43. 19. Tear down your firewall
credit: npr.org

44. 20. Have fun.