innovations in digital journalism: 5 lessons learned (v2)

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Today’s Agenda

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5 Lessons Learned:

What’s Next: 2020

!Q&A

Plus:

Design Experimentation Revenue Curation Skills

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Jeremy Caplan@jeremycaplanAbout Me

jeremy@jeremycaplan.com

Share thoughts, questions or responsesSlides and Hashtag

Slides: bit.ly/jc5lessons Twitter: #Journalism2020

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Case Studies: 5 Lessons Learned

in American Digital Journalism

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I. Prioritize Design

Narratively

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Building a New Journalism Organization From ScratchNarratively’s Editorial Approach

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Creative Multimedia In-Depth StoriesFocus on Design

Blending photo, video + text One high-quality story a dayClean, simple presentation

A New Multifaceted ApproachNarratively’s Revenue Streams

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Sponsorship

Syndication

Custom Content

Events

Supplying high-quality content for use in education

Creating content commissioned by companies

Drawing paid attendees and sponsors to local events

Selling special ebooks and special content collectionsPremium Content

Providing sponsors with subtle branding on and off the site

Giving members extra benefits, access and discountsMembership

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Case Study #2: Experiment New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas

Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue From sponsored content to events, services and products

Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest

Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business

Case Study #1: Prioritize Design Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals

What’s Next? Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism

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II. Experiment

Texas Tribune

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New News Organization

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38 Employees $4.5 Million Revenue 550,000 Unique Visitors

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1/3 Traffic to Data Pages 1/3 Traffic from Mobile

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70 Events Texas Tribune plans almost-weekly events, from panel discussions to a big ideas festival

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2000 attendees $225/ticket @Texas Tribune Festival

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$3,000 Cost to sponsor typical Texas Tribune event

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$1,200,000 Texas Tribune’s 2013 event revenue

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Case Study #2: Experiment New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas

Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue From sponsored content to events, services and products

Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest

Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business

Case Study #1: Prioritize Design Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals

What’s Next? Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism

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III Explore New Revenue Forbes & Buzzfeed

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Strengthening a Traditional Journalism OrganizationForbes’ New Approach

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Diversifying Content Diversifying Revenue Social Distribution

More than 1,000 new writers Several new revenue streams Emphasizing reader sharing

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20% Ad revenue at Forbes from sponsored content

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Case Study #2: Experiment New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas

Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue From sponsored content to events, services and products

Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest

Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business

Case Study #1: Prioritize Design Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals

What’s Next? Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism

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IV Curate & Aggregate

Upworthy

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87 Million Unique monthly visitors

Upworthy

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4.95 Million Likes on Facebook

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V Sharpen Skills

Skillcrush

Supplementing reporting, writing and editing with new strengthsJournalism Skills for 2020

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Photo, Video, Audio

Multimedia

Building Community

Social Media

Numbers & Graphics

Data & Design

Digital Flexibility

Coding

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Business

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Case Study #2: Experiment New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas

Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue From sponsored content to events, services and products

Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest

Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business

Case Study #1: Prioritize Design Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals

What’s Next? Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism

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What’s Next: Kickstarter +

Beyond

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Kickstarter

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Up to a two line subtitle, generally used to describe the takeaway for the slide

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Up to a two line subtitle, generally used to describe the takeaway for the slide

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Bionic Publishing

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Narrative Science

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Automated Insights

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Data Algorithms

To find out more about the sites and data used in this presentation, here are some follow-up sources and resources

Sources and Resources

‣ bit.ly/localsites = J-Lab’s list of 1250+ local U.S. sites

‣ submojour.net = Research on Journalism Startups

‣ bit.ly/cjrstartups = Columbia Journalism Review Startup Coverage

‣ niemanlab.org/encyclo = Nieman Lab’s Future of News Encyclopedia

‣ bit.ly/ejboard = Quora Resource Board on Entrepreneurial Journalism

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Director of Education Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Jeremy Caplan

jeremy@jeremycaplan.com

@jeremycaplan

Thank You