Dr. Michelle Ferrier reviews the media entrepreneurship ecosystem and what we can do to fill in the gaps for content and technology startups. Includes ideas for higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations.

1. Media Entrepreneurship

Challenges, Opportunities and the Role of Higher Education
Dr. Michelle Ferrier
Associate Professor, Communications
Elon University, Elon, NC

2. The New Normal: Permanent Flux
 “The pace of technological change will not abate. If
anything, it will continue to increase. To think of
this as a period of transition from one state to
another is unwise. This might not be easy to
address, but it needs to be addressed. How do we
staff news organizations with the appropriate kinds
of resources and the appropriate mindset such that
constant innovation is imbued into an organization’s
DNA and into the role of every participant?”
 -- Richard Gingras, Google, Head of News Products.

3. Four strategic questions
that frame the new
challenges and
opportunities for media
organizations.
Source: The Big Thaw: Charting a Future for
Journalism, Deifell, 2009.

4. New Competitive Landscape
How is the landscape changing?


5. New Competitive Landscape
How is the landscape changing?


6. 
We’re using GIS tools to create a “climate”
map that tracks changes in the reach and
depth of community news.

Media Deserts
Using GIS tools, the research
identifies “media deserts” -places where fresh news and
information is lacking.
We’re using open geographic information
systems software. We overlay existing daily
and weekly newspaper circulation
data, demographic and community data
and a network analysis of hyperlocal online
news providers.

More than 120 newspapers have ceased
operation in the United States since 2008.
Our map will help monitor the system over
time and focus attention and resources
where they are most needed.

7.  Work with Journalism That Matters on
policy issues and summits to address
the information needs of underserved
communities.
 Worked as researcher on the
Policy Research
Information needs of
underserved communities
Communication Policy Research
Network, headed by the University of
Southern California Annenberg School
for Communication & Journalism in
collaboration with the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. The CPRN
submitted a literature review and
report to the FCC on July 16, 2012.

8. New Competitive Landscape
What I’ve Learned
 Dynamic nature of change
requires better monitoring
of media environment.
 New technologies allow new
players into existing media
competencies.
What Can Be Done?
 Create interdisciplinary
teams to bring new eyes to
media/communication
issues.
 Develop environmental
scanning tools to better
evaluate
threats/opportunities.

9. New Distinctive Competencies
What new capabilities are needed to succeed?


10.  Fellow, Inaugural Class: Scripps Howard
Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute
at Arizona State University
 AEJMC First Industry Forum Award for
paper on media entrepreneurship.
 Paper accepted to Journalism & Mass
Media
Entrepreneurship
Research around the new news
ecology, hyperlocal online news
providers and curriculum
development.
Communication Educator:
“Media Entrepreneurship: Curriculum
Development and Faculty Perceptions
of What Students Should Know.”
 Secured two student fellowships of
$3,500 each for students to intern at NY
media startup accelerator programs in
summer 2013.

11.  Began partnership with NewU in
Summer 2011. Program provides
minority entrepreneurs with $10,000 in
startup funding.
 Co-hosted NewUStartUp Loft at UNITY
in Summer 2012. Conducted research
with attendees and speakers/mentors
about skills/knowledge training.
 Program received $500,000 this spring
NewU through UNITY
The NewU program provides
intensive, hands-on training to
journalism professionals on
creating and maintaining a
media startup.
in funding to continue programming at
minority professional journalism
organizations.

12. New Distinctive Competencies
What I’ve Learned

Building a Team

Audience Analysis

Content Development

Pitching

Finding Investors

Market Analysis

Customer Development

Partnerships
What Can Be Done?

13. New Sources of Value
What needs can be met, problems solved or desires fulfilled?


14. 
We’re using GIS tools to create a “climate”
map that tracks changes in the reach and
depth of community news.

Media Deserts
Using GIS tools, the research
identifies “media deserts” -places where fresh news and
information is lacking.
We’re using open geographic information
systems software. We overlay existing daily
and weekly newspaper circulation
data, demographic and community data
and a network analysis of hyperlocal online
news providers.

More than 120 newspapers have ceased
operation in the United States since 2008.
Our map will help monitor the system over
time and focus attention and resources
where they are most needed.

15. Entrepreneurship
Ecosystem

16. New Sources of Value
What I’ve Learned
 Possibility journalism:
Solutions-based approach
 Slow News: Developing new
processes for information
gathering and dissemination.
What Can Be Done?

17. New Business Models
How are media organizations structured to capture value?


18.  Received $10,000 in startup funds to
create LocallyGrownNews.com.
 Developed and maintain online
community for news and information
on local food and sustainability issues
since June 2010.
 As both an entrepreneur and a
LocallyGrownNews
A hyperlocal, niche online
community about local food
and sustainability issues.
teacher/mentor, I’ve presented at
numerous conference on media
entrepreneurship and startup skills and
knowledge.
 Developed understanding of startup
culture, developed relationships with
foundations and national organizations
committed to entrepreneurship.

19.  Participant, Block by Block Conference.
Engaged with other hyperlocal online
news operators on starting and
developing businesses.
 Contributor, E-Media Tidbits, Poynter
Institute. Wrote articles on
technology, ethics and operation of
online communities.
Hyperlocal Online
News
Shaping the new news ecology
as a teacher/mentor/scholar
and practitioner on new media
issues.
 Speaker: BlogHer BET, BlogHer Food.
New Media Women Entrepreneurs
Summit, speaker.

20.  Vice President: Journalism That Matters
(2010 to present). Participated since
2008 in JTM gatherings.
 Developed JTM “Create or Die” series of
media entrepreneurship startup
weekends held in 2010 and 2011.
 Provided seed funding and
Journalism That
Matters
An organization committed to
advancing the new news
ecology with news by and for
all people.
entrepreneurship mentors to teams
that successfully pitched their project to
funders and developer panel.
 Partnered with NC entrepreneurship
centers to provide continued support
for NC projects.

23. 5 Concrete Steps for Media Innovation

1. It took someone else’s perspective for me to see the value of the work of the Journalism That Matters Create or Die series of design | build | pitch events
that were held in 2010 in Detroit and 2011 in Greensboro, NC. These events serve as a firestarter…an opportunity for passionate people to meet talented
technicians and ignite innovation in the journalism space. The passion of the Greensboro 52 or G52 has continued to live on our Facebook Create or Die
group, where members share their projects, needs and support. We need to move more of these projects up the pipeline to funding and raise awareness
for our successes. And it looks like Create or Die 3 will have an important place in this media entrepreneurship ecosystem.

2. The second step is to create more venues like Comcast’s DreamIt Ventures and UNITY’s NewU that increase the odds that diverse people and projects
can pitch and be heard. As part of this mix, we need incubators that don’t require relocation to Silicon Valley or Boulder, Colorado. A “Bloom where you’re
planted” model would bring together training and talent in a geographic space. Journalism That Matters piloted such an idea in Seattle in 2010. The Pacific
Northwest Collaboratory was born as a support system for the new news ecology there. That successful experiment should be replicated in other regions.

3. The third step is education and training for the hundreds of potential business that wither at the doorways to incubators and pitch sessions. These
projects could be successful if provided with nurturing, talent, and access to funds. We need a distributed model, probably online and in physical
space, that will help give entrepreneurs just-in-time access to the information and people that can help vet and nurture new ideas.

4. The fourth step is the creation of a talent network so that media entrepreneurs can find and build a talented team that has a higher likelihood of success.
Content ideas rarely get funded unless they have a strong technology play. Many ideas flounder because of the lack of a tech team early on in the process
of product development.

5. The fifth step is to create a microfund to support application fees and travel fees for potential entrepreneurs to attend and perhaps pitch at the other
startup weekends and venues around the country. These small loans, probably of a couple of hundred dollars, will help in identifying media entrepreneurs
in need of just the services a robust network can provide (see bullet three and four).

24. 
The Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Digital Media

Creates an innovation laboratory, a physical retreat space for the mashup of journalists, technologists, educators, artists, community activists and others to reimagine news and information for diverse
voices.

Stimulates participants by exploring the intersections of storytelling, art, technology and culture and the community, which are changing the practice and products of journalism through annual startup
events.

Engages participants in sharing ideas and concepts and developing them through intensive teambuilding, idea development, design and build sessions.

Develops viable ideas that get pitched and vetted before a panel of programmers, funders, content developers, business leaders and marketers for concept refinement and funding.

Creates pathways to commercialization or social entrepreneurship models.

Creates a structure for engaging and mentoring students and seasoned professionals in envisioning media entrepreneurship as a career pathway.

Student Goals

Researches media entrepreneur community and alternatives to traditional media environments.

Supports students and professionals in creating and vetting new media business ideas.

Engages with real-world issues and needs surrounding the changing media landscape and growth opportunities.

Introduces students to the entrepreneurial thought process.

Creates and develops entrepreneurial ideas to pitch to student competitions as well as for foundation, angel and venture capital funding.

Faculty Goals

25. 

Michelle beta tested early content management software
used to power major regional newspapers when they
ventured online. She is also one of the early adopters of
online learning systems.

Educator
Entrepreneur
Mentor
Scholar
New Media Innovator
Michelle Ferrier teaches journalism, interactive media
and communication strategies at Elon University in
Elon, North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in Texts and
Technology from the University of Central Florida and a
master's in journalism from the University of Memphis.
Since the development of listservs in the early days of the
Internet, she has been involved in new media and
particularly in the development of online communities
and new media innovations.
For more than three years, she worked as a lead
researcher with the Banner Center for Digital Media in
Florida and developed a core digital media curriculum for
a higher education coalition in Central Florida. She was
also a research associate at CREATE, the Center for
Research in Arts, Technology and Entertainment at the
University of Central Florida. She is a former blogger with
Poynter Institute’s e-Media Tidbits, a weblog about
emerging media technologies.

26. 

Founder, LocallyGrownNews.com
info@locallygrownnews.com; Twitter:
@localize_nc

Educator
Entrepreneur
Mentor
Scholar
New Media Innovator
Dr. Michelle Ferrier
Associate Professor
School of Communications, Elon
University, NC; mferrier@elon.edu; Twitter:
@mediaghosts
For More Information on Media
Entrepreneurship Vision:
http://nabjdigital.wordpress.com/tag/drmichelle-ferrier/

www.newmediainnovators.com

http://www.poynter.org/author/michellemi
chelleferrier-com/