Question

Topic: Other

What Are The Pitfalls For A New "news Website"

Posted by Anonymous on 6/29/2010 at 5:44 AM ET 300 Points
A client with a history in televised news has discussed the possibility of launching a "news website". Now to my mind the problem with that is immediate. There are huge corporations that provide this service and they do it well. What he would like to do is make the website a resource center where the news is user generated not paid reporter generated.

There would only be admin to check content and validity. My gut feeling is that people have already started to use social networking sites and U-Tube for this "reporting" of both local and global events.

So my question/problem is simply – given that money is no object what value would a site like this have.

That sounds negative however I want it to work – there must be some positives that I am overlooking.
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  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/29/2010 at 8:26 AM Member
    Why would a person write up the news for the world to see on their website for free? If you paid for submissions that's one business model. But expecting people to volunteer isn't realistic, especially in the volume you'll need to generate sufficient returning visitors.
  • Posted by modza on 6/29/2010 at 9:38 AM Accepted
    I ran the web sites for two daily newspapers, and was on the board of the Digital Media Federation, and a member of the Online News Assn, and so on, for 9 years. Community-based or citizen journalism is an idea that's been around for quite a few years, and several large companies are trying to make national businesses of it, along with many local experiments, some of which have come and gone (failed) and others of which seem to be surviving. So other people do think it has merit (which is the kind of thing that venture capitalists like when an entrepreneur comes to them. If no one else thinks it's a good idea then maybe there's no market). The first thing I would suggest is to learn what others are doing: Check out patch.com (part of AOL); read "State of the News Media 2010" and at least scan prior years as well at journalism.org; visit poynter.org and search for "community journalism" "citizen journalism" "user-generated content" and look especially for Steve Outing's old columns -- he started one such venture and wrote a book about its demise; civilbeat.com, Pierre (eBay) Omidyar's Honolulu version (more to come, he says, if that works); well, that's all I can remember off the top of my head! There are others, but State of News Media should fill you in. Oh, and knightchallenge.org. Knight Foundation (remember the newspaper chain Knight-Ridder?) has been choosing projects for funding for the last few years, and the descriptions of the proposals, and of the winners, will tell you much more. Oh -- CNN.com has a citizen journalism operation; and daily newspapers in Denver and Bakersfield, CA, Savannah, GA and Lawrence, KS all have had or still have citizen journalism side ventures...(I did moderate a panel of the leaders at a national convention a few years back, so I could check my PowerPoint for details.)
    Okay, that's the first step. The second is to see if there's anything like that where your client wants to start up. (Almost all of these are premised on the idea that this works best in a well-defined community, although the very first and most successful one of all is ohmynews.com -- in S. Korea. Lots of articles about them!)
    The third is to redo the business plan...Because the "administration" is not a trivial matter...and because if your client wants to do this as a public service you can at least take advantage of the tax code!
    There's more, of course, but come back when you've done the first step!
    Michael Odza
  • Posted on 6/29/2010 at 10:27 AM Author
    Jay, I think I am at the moment in your mind set.
    Michael, what you say interests me a lot.

    I think one of my problems is that there is clearly a desire for people to share "stuff" on the internet. In the case of news it seems to be the real headline grabbing news as it breaks coming from sources that have no other resources than that of the web – for example the stories that came from Iran and so on during elections – or the stories of disaster strikes where the mobile phone user can now send a message or in this case perhaps a news bulletins via their mobile.

    Would real journalists use it for free – probably not so I am guessing there needs to be a real need to create a platform where all relevant disciplines in the news world can benefit. So for example if you are a photographer you could use the site to sell your images, movies and so on. Remember the images of the Concord as it slowly disappeared in flames near the Charles-De-Gaule airport. I am guessing it would cater to that kind of on the spot news and footage.

    Also, in some respect why do people give their time and advice for free on this website? What is the pay-off here? Is the motivation the same that would make a budding journalist offer their time and skills?

    Will do some more digging. Thank you for your replies.

    R
  • Posted on 7/5/2010 at 4:10 AM Author
    Thanks for your response W.M.M.A, My thoughts are in sync with those of yourself however I always try to look outside my comfort zone and want to make sure I am not missing something.

    I do not think I will get anymore responses that will add anymore clarification.

    A quote that I read when youtube was launched said something along the lines of…

    'why on earth would you want to upload videos of yourself for free?'

    With this in mind I always try to remember the web audience is a fickle bunch – hard to predict unless there is a model on which to base the predictions – even then …

    I am closing the question and points are going to the answer that gave me advice. Many thanks to all of you for taking the time.

    R
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