Chapter 8 in Entrepreneurial Journalism: Marketing

In Chapter 8 of Entrepreneurial Journalism, Briggs talks about how to market your product and draw in an audience. This is something that worries me with my project because of all competition I would have. This is something that the three people I talked to about my site talked to me about and they all said how hard it would be to make my site stand out. I feel like most people go to sites with big names, such as Cosmo or Glamour, and that less would be likely to visit an unknown site made by a college student. At the same time though, I could always use that to my advantage. It would be a site for college students by a college students. Most of those articles on other sites are written by people in their thirties, or possibly older. I think my age will make me more relatable and it could be used as a good marketing tool to draw in readers. At the same time though, it would still be difficult to find an initial audience and build up a good reputation. Maybe other people in class will have good ideas for how to market and grow a product (especially with so many competitors) and hopefully it's something we can talk about in class. Reading Briggs's book is a good start, but I think having a conversation will bring forth more ideas.

Question and Answer

Question: I have read your idea and I would like to understand a little more about it. What need does this idea fill? Is this a need that you have yourself? Who would share this need?

Katie Gardner: The need that this fills is providing young women with informative and relatable articles about personal wellness and being their best selves. It would be like any women's magazine out there, minus the trashy articles. It would be focused on how to make yourself happy, not how to please men or the general public. It'll be focused less on outward appearance and more on who people truly are, and how to make people happy with that. This is a need I have because I would enjoy reading stuff like this. I'm tired of seeing articles titled "50 Ways to Please Your Man" because there are much more important things to write about that can actually be helpful to young women. People who would share this need would be women in college or their young twenties.

Q: At this point you should have some idea of who the average user of your product will be. What is the profile of that person?

KG: This person is a girl who is in in college or in her young twenties. She would be the type of girl who reads magazines such as Cosmo or Glamour, but is looking for more. She may enjoy the articles on sex and beauty, but she wants to learn more about bettering herself. She's looking for inspiration.

Q: Who wants this product that you intend to develop?

KG: Young women who want to develop themselves will want to read this site.

Q: What problem or need are you satisfying for your customers? (Remember, the customers aren't necessarily the people who will be using your product. For example, television audiences aren't customers unless they pay for the product, as in HBO. The customers are advertisers.)

KG: Customers, such as advertisers, will want to use my site to advertise because if their product is intended for young women or even teenagers, and if my site gets a lot of traffic from that demographic, then the customer would want their ad on my site. They would want to advertise in a place that their consumer goes, and my site could be that place.

Q: We all have to live. Where is the money in this product?

KG: The money would come from advertising. If this became a bigger product, then it might be cool to expand into a magazine (which would offer more content) and I could make money from sales and subscriptions. Most money would come from advertising though.

Q: You are a journalist. Where is the journalism in this product?

KG: I would be doing a lot of writing, and although it may not all be news, some of it will be. I would talk to health professionals and interview them and write about what I find. I could find other people to interview as well, potentially even young women so that I could find out what issues matter to them.

Q: We've read that passion is key to success of a new venture. Money alone will not sustain it. So where is the passion in your product?

KG: My passion in this comes from a love of writing mixed with a love of reading women's magazines. I also believe that young women should be given more interesting and inspiring articles to read. The fact that some magazines are only interested in writing about sex (because they think that it's what can make you a more intriguing woman) frustrates me. I'm looking to offer more because it's something that I care about and think is important.

Socializing My Idea

When looking to talk to people about my idea I decided to talk to three of my friends. My project would be directed towards girls their age, which makes them relevant people to talk to, and as my friends I knew that they would be honest with me about what they thought of my idea.

Lily Bourey, 20, UNH Student

Lily said that as a girl in college, she could see this site being useful for other girls her age and that she would probably check out this site herself.

"This is definitely the stuff that girls like," she said.

She was a little concerned about being able to make it popular though. With so many other sites out there that are similar in nature, she wonders how I can make mine stand out.

"It's a tough market because there are so many things like it," she said.

Colleen Kelly, 20, UNH Student

Colleen was also thinking about how I can make my site better than others that are out there. She says that college girls would like to read a broader range of articles, including gossipy things and celebrity news, as opposed to only personal wellness.

"You'd have a lot of competition," she said, "I can think of three sites I'd rather go to than yours."

She understands that I don't want to write about celebrities or gossip though and that I want to write about more positive and helpful things. She said that to do this, I'd have to present it in an entertaining and interactive way.

"You should make it very relatable. It should be about everyday thoughts that people have," she said.

She also had the idea of doing promotions and prizes that relate to my subject matter as a way of drawing people in.



Lily O'Gara, 20, UNH Student

Lily said that this is a site that she would be interested in and that she could see herself reading it. She said that it could become popular, as long as I stay unbiased in what I'm writing.

"I think you have to be careful how you market it because you don't want to seem like you're preaching to the choir," she said.

She thinks that I should cover a wide range of topics because there are many things that are important to young women. She says that I can talk about sex without it coming off as trashy. She said that I should be informative and just make it relatable.

"You could make it an empowering female-centric site because girls are into that," she said.

Project Idea

For my project I would like to make a site directed towards young women in college and their early twenties which would focus on personal wellness in a way that interests and entertains them. Many sites out there are becoming trashy and I would like mine to provide young women with credible and relatable information that can help them to become their best selves.

An Idea For Journalism on Campus

The other day in my Digital Reporting class we were sent out onto campus to interview a random stranger and talk to them in depth for around half an around. We were given only one question to ask them: "What is the value of a college education?" We had to open with that, but then we were able to let the conversation go wherever it went. Talking to a random stranger like that for so long started to feel like talking to a new friend, as we told each other about our lives at home and at school. When I walked away from the girl I had met, I got an idea.

I think it'd be a really cool idea to go around to random college students and ask them the question: "What is going on in the news?" Keeping the question simple like that makes it so that a broad range of responses can be given. They could talk about world news, national, local, or just something that happened on the UNH campus earlier in the day. A broad range of students, or even professors and faculty as well, could be interviewed and their responses would be the content of the news site. It would be like a personalized news site and there could be ones for different campuses around the country. The thing is though, it's obviously not straight news. It's students' perspectives of the news and how they view what's going on around them. There could also be pictures or videos of the students that could go along with the articles.

This might be a hard thing to get going, but I think it could be very interesting to see take off. The conversations would all be unique and it would provide a very different perspective into news and into students' lives.

Entrepreneur Q & A: Todd Krutchoff, Sidetrack Products

Todd Krutchoff, a business entrepreneur from Massachusetts, started Sidetrack Products two years ago as a way to produce model trains for kids that live in, or are visiting, the Boston area. The model is based off of the T and the business has now expanded to include other products as well, such as clothing, magnets, and keychains.

KG: What is the main purpose of Sidetrack Products?

Todd Krutchoff: To fulfill my long-time desire to start my own business and work for myself. 

KG: What inspired you to start the business?

TK: My son had been interested in toy trains since he was three years old. He had a Thomas the Tank Engine train set that was his absolute favorite toy, and we accumulated many of the trains that were available at retail. We lived near a MBTA Commuter Rail stop and I used to take him there just to see the train come and go. As the holiday approached, my son asked if he could have a toy MBTA Commuter Rail train for Christmas. I searched high and low for any toy MBTA train anywhere and I was shocked to find that there was none to be found. I immediately saw it as a business opportunity. I thought that a toy vehicle that was unique to Boston would be the souvenir of choice for families visiting Boston, especially those with young boys. As this was going on, I learned that I was getting laid off from my buyer position at a Boston-area retail company. You could say that desperation enhanced my inspiration.

KG: How did you go about starting the business? What steps did you take?

TK: After I received authorization from the MBTA to proceed with the project, I wrote up a business plan. I set up an appointment with SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) to get some objective criticism. The SCORE consultants were skeptical about startup consumer product companies and cautioned me about investing. They did, however, admire my enthusiasm. The next months were spent working on developing the flagship product - a miniature Boston MBTA Green Line trolley.

COURTESY PHOTO

That meant finding a manufacturer, getting the product to hit my target price, and gaining the approval of the very meticulous MBTA Product Marketing Team. At the same time, I had to figure out my projected cash flow and I borrowed the necessary funds from my parents.

KG: What has been the most rewarding part of having your own business?

TK: When I got laid off and thought about the next phase of my career, I thought a lot about the fact that I hadn't really made a mark on anything in my career to this point. There was no real legacy that I could hang my hat on. Starting my own business, my own brand, and my own line of products that are making kids happy has given me a sense of accomplishment that I hadn't had in my career to this point.

KG: What has been the most challenging part?

TK: Patience. It takes time to build a business and I have found that every product that I have produced has taken at least 33% longer than I originally anticipated. I was expecting to be able to make an income with this business after two years but that timeline has been pushed out. Every dollar has been put back into the company. Not being able to contribute to the family bottom line has been very trying. There have been times where I thought that maybe I should find a steady job and develop this business on the side but I have held off. I still need the flexibility to be able to meet with customers on their schedule and I need to exhaust every new business option before make that step.

KG: What is the biggest or most important thing you've learned from having your own business?

TK: Things don't just happen. That big break you are looking for is only going to happen if you make it happen. In fact, the big break may never happen. It could be a series of small wins that builds up the business to where you need it to be. You have to continually be thinking about how you can grow the business and then act.

KG: Where do you want the business to go from here?

TK: I would like to be able to build up my business to the point where it I can make a living on it. To do this, I will need to keep adding products and expanding into new markets. I would like to produce non-MBTA branded goods so that I do not have all eggs in one basket. I plan on re-visiting SCORE, or a like consultant to help me with a business expansion plan.

KG: What advice do you have for a young entrepreneur?

TK: Take off your rose-colored glasses. I still have this problem. I think everyone will see the value of my products like I see their value but this has been the case just a portion of the time. The sales projections on which I built my business plan were much higher than the actual sales. I have had to lower my wholesale price in many cases in order to hit the retail threshold that customers have dictated. Be realistic. This comes from consulting with trusted people within your network from all walks of business. 

Newsonomics: Chapter 11

One thing I really liked about this chapter is what Ken Doctor said about having to blend the old with the new. At the bottom of page 187 he said, "Among all these new, flexible, multimedia, forward-reaching skills, the bedrock journalistic skills must form the foundation. Reporting. Interviewing. Editing. Writing. These basic tools remain important, even though the way they're done...is morphing." I think that this is very important to remember as things change in the journalism industry. Although everything is moving to digital, journalists still need to maintain quality. Writing will always be the base  of journalism and no matter how digital your site may be, it won't be worth anything if the writing is bad. We actually just talked about this in my digital reporting class the other day. Students were complaining that all we've done in class so far is text posts and they were upset that we haven't done any photo or video yet. My professor explained that we have to perfect our ability to write short and quick for the Internet first though, because that is what's most important. Then from there we can move on to the more digital aspects. I think that no matter how far ahead we move in the digital age, the actual writing will be what's most important, and I hope that journalists will remember that.

Project

For my semester project for this class I think I'd like to do the personal wellness site that I mentioned in a previous blog post. I would focus it towards college-aged women/women in their twenties. I could pull information from other sites and write my own stuff to go along with it. It would be the kind of site written for people by someone who's just like them. You hear the phrase, "For Kids, By Kids" and it's kind of like that concept. I think it feels more personal and relatable that way. I want this to be a source of legitimate information though so I would also talk to health professionals and do stories with them. I hope that this project counts as a "journalism-related venture" because although it's not always about news, and is not like a newspaper at all, it would involve a lot of interviewing and writing on my part. I think it would be a lot of fun to work on a site like this because I love to write and I'm also interested in this sort of topic.

NowThis News

Scrolling through my twitter feed today, I stumbled upon a link to a news site that I had never heard of before: NowThis News. The site posts videos of news reports and has little blurbs written alongside them. The thing that I find most interesting about this site is their use of social media. They are currently doing a series where they interviewed Newark mayor Cory Booker using Instagram. Every night for a week or so they will publishing a new video clip to their website and Instagram account. I think this is a really interesting and innovative idea because so many people are using social media and it is something that they understand and enjoy using. Reaching out to readers (or viewers in this case) through a platform that they use on a daily basis is a great idea. Also, doing it in series of short, 15 second clips that highlight the most important parts of the interview is a great idea because it keeps the readers coming back for more each night. I found this to be a great example of entrepreneurism because it's a new idea and it is a great way to connect with readers. It's working for the site too seeing as they have 29,000 Instagram followers and the number is rising daily. In the article about the interview series, the social editor for the site, Drake Martinet said that using Instagram for the interview series was "something that would be, we think, a first for the platform and a great experiment in bringing interview content in short bursts to people's pockets." It seems as if the site, which was created last year, really undet

Entrepreneur Profile

Two years ago when Todd Krutchoff was laid off from work, he realized that he was going to have to do something in order to continue bringing in an income. Opportunity struck when his son Max was going through a model train phase. Max had collected trains from a few cities around the country and seeing he lives in Massachusetts, he decided that he wanted one based off of the T in Boston. After searching everywhere for one, Todd was finally told that they didn't exist. Seeing a chance to make his own business, combined with not wanting to let Max down, Sidetrack Products was born.

"I was shocked no one was doing it for Boston," Todd said.

Sidetrack Products started with models of the Boston MBTA green line trolley car and soon expanded to include t-shirts and onesies with the T printed on the front. Recently Todd wanted to make the business even bigger and Sidetrack now sells magnets and keychains as well. the products are sold through Boston gift shops and are official licensed products of the MBTA.

One of the biggest challenges that Todd has faced is staying patient because he said that things take so much longer than you anticipate. Because these types of products never existed before though, the MBTA is grateful that they can now sell them. As an entrepreneur Todd knew to take advantage of that fact.

"I saw it as an opportunity cause no one else was doing it."

Thinking of Myself as an Entrepreneur

It's pretty obvious (at least to me) that writing is my biggest passion in life. I think that in order to be a good entrepreneur though, you need a little more than that. Lately I've been trying to think of another interest of mine that I could combine with my love of writing so that I could make a cool and interesting site that people would want to look at.

An idea that I thought of the other day that I might want to actually try out is a website dedicated to personal wellness (emotional, mental, physical). I've been really interested in this for some reason lately and I always enjoy those types of sections in magazines. I want to target this towards girls my age (college age and young twenties). I think it's an important time in life and it's important for girls to have good info out there.

I would probably want to use WordPress for my site because I think it's a good publishing platform. I think I would probably be a site that gathers info from different places around the Internet and organizing all it together in a place where young women can find it. I would also like to write some of my own stuff too though. What might be a good idea is taking other people's articles and use those as the base of a post and then add my own stuff to it as well. I'm not really sure how I could do this, but I think it could work well if done correctly. I just wouldn't want it to seem like I was ripping off anyone else's material. I would have to work out all the kinks of this idea, but I think it could be a great tool for young women.

If this ever became an actual site with some money and funding, I could have people write for it and I could also have events on the site. One idea I have is to have live video streams of conversations with professionals in the health field and they could answer questions from readers. I know that one is a long shot, but it's something to think of. I could even expand the idea into something more as well. I always thought it'd be cool to have some sort of company focused on young women and they could do seminars and workshops to work on self-confidence and personal wellness. I think a lot of this society is about fending for ourselves so I think it'd be great to stop thinking this way and create a program where people can see that they aren't alone. It'd be a great way for people to better themselves and learn more about who they are.

So at this point I'm getting way off track from my original idea. I think starting with a website could be a fun idea and it'd be easy enough for me to start up on my own.

A New Way to Present Journalism

So as I continued to think of ways to save journalism, I thought of the idea of making a website that would give people news in a new way. It would be set up pretty much the same way as the site Stumble Upon, in which the user clicks the "next" button and a new random website appears. If this was done with the news, the person would click the button and it would give them a different random news story from that day. They could also filter the content of what they're receiving if they would like to, just like on Stumble Upon. For example, different categories could be politics, sports, entertainment, crime, etc. Or if the person wanted to just get news based on their location there could be different categories such as local, regional, national, or world. The site would pull articles from that day from various news sources all over the Internet and the person could just click through them. If they find it interesting then they can read it, but if it's not for them then they hit the "next" button and a new article would appear. I think this would be a popular site because it's customizable with what type of news you want to read and it helps you to find interesting stories that you might not have found otherwise. It would give the reader a lot of variety and would keep them from getting bored.

Blog Traffic

One thing that I wish Mark Briggs did differently in his book would be to describe in more detail how the entrepreneurs got their blogs and sites noticed. I know he said over and over that they filled a void in the news world, but how did they get themselves noticed? Did they network like crazy or post their link all over the Internet? I have a blog and it's not for news (I just use it to write about my experiences with writing and journalism) but I find it hard to get people to look at it. I post my links on Twitter and Facebook, but it's not enough. I want to know more about how these entrepreneurs did it so that I can apply it to myself. It's not enough to know that they did it and that it's possible for us to as well, but Briggs should explain more about how to do it. I know that every story must be different and not everyone does the same thing, but it'd be nice to read a few stories of how people did it.

Maybe it'll be harder because my blog isn't filling a need or being beneficial to anyone, but it'd still be nice if it got more traffic. I like to think that the things I post will be entertaining to someone but I don't think anyone besides my family and friends read it. I know that I can always send the link to potential employers so they can see my writing in that kind of format, but it'd be more impressive if I could tell that employer that I actually have readers. Maybe this is something that we'll talk about in class or that will be discussed in the book later on, but I'm definitely curious about it.

Not the Brightest Idea

Looking through the blogs of other people in the class I kind of realized that maybe I didn't do too well with my list of how to save journalism. I was thinking more of saving print and I focused my list more around that. I wasn't really thinking digitally because for some reason I thought we were supposed to think of how to save print. Anyways, a lot of my list had some really strange and not too bright ideas. I tried to think of ten in one sitting and you can see as the ideas get progressively worse as the list goes on. It's actually really hard to think of ideas to save print because as we all know, digital versions are becoming more and more popular. As hard as it is to think of ways to save it though, I don't think print will ever die. It can't. I think that even if newspapers were to stop producing print copies, magazines would still continue to. There's just something more intriguing about buying a magazine in print than on an e-reader. I think it's a visual thing or the glossy cover, but either way, I don't think print magazines are going anywhere. Basically what I'm trying to say is that even though it seems hard to think of ways to save print, it's also going to be kind of hard to get rid of it.

Back to the idea of saving journalism in a digital realm though. There are so many different options for this one. The main idea I've taken away from Mark Briggs's book though is that you have to think of something new. You can't keep doing the same thing as the person before you because then you'll never go anywhere. In chapter two he said, "Each of these new-era news startups has a different approach to the same business opportunity: publishing news on a topic area in a way that no one else is doing, then attracting an audience and becoming an influential voice" (51). That sounds way easier than it actually is. I'll start thinking of some ideas and save that for my next post.

Entrepreneurs: Inspiring or Depressing?

As I was reading through Entrepreneurial Journalism by Mark Briggs I wasn't quite sure how to feel. On the one hand, seeing how these everyday people have become so successful on their own is very inspiring. On the other hand though, the chances of achieving their levels of success is rare and comes only with a lot of hard work, which is rather depressing. It's not that hard work scares me, because it doesn't. What scares me is putting in all of that hard work and still not getting anywhere due to the competitiveness of this field and the lack of financial stability that it provides. This is the field I love though and I have no intentions of backing away from it. I might as well continue reading the book and learn what I can for my best chance of survival.

A lot of the people featured in Briggs's book started out as average people just trying to fill a void they saw in the news world. They had to dedicate their lives to their blogs and start-ups in order to be as successful as they are today. I think a big reason that this sounds so scary and intimidating to me is because I'm a student. I don't have sixteen hours a day to dedicate to something that won't provide me with money or a degree. This is the depressing side of entrepreneurism.

Being a student is also where the inspiration comes in though. I still have two semesters left to learn all that I can so that when I graduate in May, I'll be as prepared as I can be. It's no longer like I'm taking classes just to get a good grade and move on to the next thing. I'm taking classes that will give me skills that I will actually use to apply to my future and the career that I'll have. I have all of these resources available to me (this class included) so that I can come up with awesome ideas and become more prepared for when I'm out there trying to create something. I think that's pretty inspiring.

Women's Magazines as Actual Journalism

When most people think of women's magazines they think of articles on sex and beauty and pages full of fashion spreads. While many of these popular magazines do still have these elements, some of them are actually producing real journalism and I think it's important to take note of this.

For a long time now my favorite magazine has been Cosmopolitan and I would love nothing more than to write for them one day. If I could change one thing about the magazine though, it would be it's lack of journalistic articles. I'm not necessarily talking about news stories, but I would like to see some more issue stories with investigative reporting. One magazine that is doing this great though is Glamour and lately I've found myself reading it a lot more than I have in the past.

The September issue featured stories such as "Cocaine Almost Killed Me", which talked about abuse and addiction, "Stop That Woman", which investigated the desire that some women have to be perfect and why it isn't actually possible, and "Are You a Nearlywed?", which looked at the trend of how more and more couples are forgoing marriage. Obviously these aren't hard hitting stories, but they're investigative and they're the type of stories that should be featured in women's magazines. They have substance to them and I believe that they are of journalistic quality.

Glamour also routinely features stories on rape, as well as other legal and social issues which affect women. I think it's important for women's magazines to feature these type of stories because they keep women informed of the issues going on around them. These stories are interesting and they are the kind that I would like to write one day.

With all of that being said about Glamour though, I would like to point out that I do believe Cosmo is getting better, especially since Joanna Coles became editor-in-chief. In the September issue, they had issue stories such as "I Fought for the Right to Get Married - and Now I'm Divorced" and "I'm Too Young...For Parkinson's Disease." In the October issue there was "I'm Too Young...For a Brain Tumor" as well as a special report called "The Ambition Gap." The report spanned ten pages and explored how many women are earning more than men and have more ambition, and how this affects relationships.

I think that women's magazines are a great place to feature journalistic and investigative pieces and I think that these magazines should be doing it more. Stories on fashion and sex can only be appealing for so long and women's magazines should work on incorporating more feature articles into their pages. Cosmo claims to focus on woman empowerment but I want them to realize that this shouldn't be done only through articles about pleasing men. I believe that featuring more investigative journalism could actually help to up their readership.

Journalism Today and How We Got Here

Journalism today is much different from what it was not too long ago. I would say that journalism used to be defined as a hired writer writing a news article or report for a printed publication. The old definition could have also applied to TV news, but I feel as if it mostly applied to newspapers. Things have definitely changed over the years though because the definition is so much broader now than it was back then and it encompasses so much more.

I would now define journalism as someone who reports on the news and spreads it to others. This is done professionally, but it may not be someone's profession. This means that it could simply be a person with a blog who reports on the news. They may not be getting paid, but they are still being professional and reliable. I think a journalist nowadays is any person who reports the news while still following a journalistic code of ethics.

I think the best part of this is that there are so many different ways for people to do this. They can be a blogger, use Twitter, have a YouTube channel, write for an online newspaper/magazine, write for a print newspaper/magazine, be part of a TV news station, or so many other options. Also, anyone can do this. You can be a professional who's been doing it for years, you can be just starting out, or you could still be a student. As long as you have professional and reliable reporting, I think anyone can do it if they want to.

I think that we've been able to get to this point mainly because of the Internet. People have realized that they can reach out to others through the web and social media, and it's working. Anyone can start their own website or blog and grow it into something huge. You don't have to wait to be hired by a newspaper anymore. You can start working for yourself. On the one hand, this is kind of scary because it's taking away from the newspaper industry, but at the same time it's reassuring to know that I can make it on my own if I put in the effort.

Ten Ideas to Save Journalism

1. For bigger stories, run the main story and then have readers' stories run along side of it as a way to show different perspectives. People will enjoy reading about more personal experiences and the writers of these shorter articles will like to see their name in the paper.
2. I know some newspapers already do this, but some don't, but papers should make it so that to access the website you need a subscription. Readers could have the option of buying the paper subscription, the digital subscription, or a combo deal where you get both.
3. Instead of having the paper be online, just do the paper version and then make a website that's an online community to complement the paper. People could discuss articles and issues and even submit ideas of their own. It would make a nice discussion to go along with what people are reading. Writers and reporters of the paper could even talk back to the readers on the site.
4. Make the website have a lot of multimedia so that once people read the article in the paper, they can check out more online. Then they'll want to read the paper so they know what's going on and then they can follow up with extra stuff on the website. The whole story wouldn't be available online though.
5. It might be interesting to make a newspaper have more of a magazine feel. It could have more graphics and pictures and cool design layouts. A lot of papers look the same but if one had a different feel to it, then people would want to check it out. Also, it might give it a younger feel which would appeal to the younger generation.
6. This would be an interesting thing to do for an alternative sort of newspaper. Each day they could pick one or two issues/events and then dedicate the whole paper to it. Every article would be a different spin on the issue or show a different side to it. Everyone involved in a story has something different to say so there would be enough material. There could also be a lot of pictures to go with the stories. Every issue of the paper would be like an in-depth exclusive look into a story. It might be interesting to see how this would work.
7. It would be interesting if subscribers of a paper could have it personalized to them. Say a reader hated sports, then they would never receive the sports section. If they really enjoy the lifestyle section though, maybe their paper would include an extra pullout with more articles in that section. This idea is a big long shot and would require a lot of extra work on the part of the people at the paper, but it would also save money on printing if not every subscriber gets every section. Also, the readers would feel special that they paper cared that much about them individually.
8. Since people are very into the environment lately it would interesting to make a green paper. Every issue could be printed on recycled paper. People would feel inclined to buy it if they knew they were helping the environment. Also, whenever someone recycled the paper at a certain place it could just go right back to the newspaper for them to use again later. It would cut down on waste which people care about.
9. It might be interesting if papers did contests or giveaways that can only be won by buying the paper. There could be a contest people could just enter by signing up or they could have to read through the paper and find the clues to solve something. The winners would have to show proof of purchase (meaning more people will want to buy it to win) and they could get awesome prizes, like sports tickets or gift cards.
10. I read an article today about a reporter who uses Twitter to ask the general public for help with her articles. She says she needs help investigating or finding sources and then her readers actually go out with her in the city and help her. I think if every reporter for a certain paper did this, then their readership would increase because people like to see that the reporters are real people. Also, if they helped, then they probably want to see the finished project.

Response to Nieman Article

I found the article "Do journalism schools really need to be teaching hospitals?" by Justin Ellis to be very interesting and I definitely agree with the view of David Ryfe and Donica Mensing. I think making journalism schools similar to teaching hospitals is a bad idea and I think that it would actually make journalists less prepared to enter the newsroom. This is why I found it interesting that the article said that some people say that the model is a "way of offering real-world reporting experience to students." Like Ryfe and Mensing, I find that to be completely ridiculous because the industry is always changing. Training someone in such a specific way would be a complete waste of time.

For me personally, I believe that the best way to learn about journalism, news writing, and reporting is to just jump right into it. You have to learn by doing and by gaining actual experience. This way you'll be constantly learning new things and adapting to different situations. You learn how things work best for you or how they work best for your paper/editor. I think teaching somebody in a certain way will just get them stuck in a mindset that they can't get out of. This slows down the learning process.


I'm not sure how much I agree with the idea that being taught by older journalists will make younger ones more cynical. While I do think that learning through experience is the best way to go, I also believe that you should take advice where you can get it. If someone who's been in the field for a long time offers you advice, you should listen and learn from there. This being said though, I think this should be done when the writer/reporter is actually working so that they can apply it to their job. It shouldn't be used as a method of teaching.


Overall I agree with the arguments made by Ryfe and Mensing because it is very true that you can't teach someone about something that is always changing. I also would like to say that Justin Ellis, the author of this article, did a great job with those Scrubs references. I was thoroughly entertained.

How I Get My News

Despite being a Journalism major, I must admit that I don't read the news as regularly as I probably should. I feel kind of guilty about this because I feel as if I should be reading the news religiously or something. The thing is though, I don't really always have the time to sit down and read an article unless it really interests me. Because of this, I tend to get my news in short, quick headlines.

I get most of my news from Twitter and just reading the tweets, but not actually clicking the links. The news sources that I follow are The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, WMUR News 9, and several other New Hampshire newspapers. I know that I should probably be reading the news more and staying up to date with what's going on in the country and in the world, but skimming through these headlines keeps me at least somewhat in the know. I also get a good amount of my news from the MSN homepage on my computer. Once again though, I only tend to read headlines.

I would really like to start reading the news more and becoming more aware of what is happening in the world around me. I think it's important not only as a Journalism major, but as a member of society. I have been trying to read The Boston Globe more since I have the subscription through UNH but I usually read only one article and then I'm done. I would like to start carving out some time each day that I dedicate to reading it, just like I do with the novels I read.

I think the reason I don't like to read the news as much is because I don't think I want to be the kind of journalist who writes hard news. I prefer magazines and human interest type articles, or issue stories. I would really love to write for a women's magazine. At the same time though, I do enjoy writing news stories and I think it's important to stay in the know.