Fail Fast and Bounce Back: What Alt-Weeklies Can Learn From the Startup Mentality | Industry News |
Fail Fast and Bounce Back: What Alt-Weeklies Can Learn From the Startup Mentality
Photo by Alexa Schirtzinger
Recently, a group of Knight Fellows visited the offices of , a media-focused venture capital firm in San Francisco, just around the corner from the playground .
It was an immersion in startup culture, which exhorts would-be entrepreneurs to “focus on the user,” “fail fast,” and embrace the idea that “life is a prototype.”
Although we tend to think about these lessons in the context of iPhones and apps, they should resonate with alt-weeklies. When most alts were founded (20, 30, even 40 years ago), they were startups: lean, scrappy organizations designed to disrupt the status quo. What happened?
Eric Ries, author of the entrepreneurial bible , defines a startup as “a human institution designed to create new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” What about that definition doesn’t apply to the news industry in general, and to alt-weeklies in particular? We’re human institutions. We’re constantly creating new products and services, whether it’s this week’s narrative feature or a new music festival. As for “conditions of extreme uncertainty,” it’s difficult to imagine an industry that’s experienced (and continues to experience) as much disruption.
This definition is at the crux of any news organization’s battle for survival. I believe that publications that begin to think like startups—by eliminating their fear of small failures, embracing uncertainty as an opportunity for experimentation, and figuring out what their readers actually want—will have a better shot at success.
While my work as a Knight Fellow is far from complete, I’ll offer three quick (and by no means comprehensive) examples of companies that are adopting aspects of the startup mentality.
(alt-weeklies in Sacramento and Chico, Calif., and Reno, Nev.)
about N&R’s two big (and decidedly non-digital) innovations: sponsored reporters and client publications. The sponsored-reporter idea arose out of a series one of the N&R p after seeing the impact good journalism could have, a local food bank offered to pay for the paper to hire another reporter—“no strings attached,” according to N&R president/CEO Jeff vonKaenel. But N&R is making more serious money on its
and has started building a separate editorial staff to produce them. It’s a good fit, vonKaenel says, because N&R can “use our editorial skills—to take complicated issues and distill them and turn them into stories—to help organizations that have more depth than a regular advertiser.”
(alt-weeklies in San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa, Calif.)
“Even if we have less revenue, we’re more efficient [now],” Dan Pulcrano, the founder/CEO of Metro Newspapers, told me recently. “The business is way more efficient, and that’s why we’ve been able to deal with revenue declines and still put out a product every week.” Pulcrano, who talks about establishing a “culture of change,” has an advantage in that he’s also the founder of , a network of city guides that together attract monthly unique visitors in the millions. But he still has to innovate on the Metro News side: with budding digital services f a new tech conference and music festival, ; and keeping journalistic quality and brand integrity at the center of every new venture.
(local news website for Berkeley, Calif.)
While not an alt-weekly, Berkeleyside is one example of a place alts might go for inspiration. According to co-founder Lance Knobel, local comes first—not only in Berkeleyside’s journalism, but also in its digital advertising. ( and see if you can find any ads that aren’t local.) Berkeleyside reps offer cross-platform (website, mobile app, email newsletter) advertising strategies and emphasize that Berkeleyside is as much a local business as their clients’ companies are. By selling “sponsorships,” or flat-rate digital ads, they avoid the eye-glazing discussions about CPM. (“Talking to [advertisers] about CPM is like speaking Arabic,” Knobel says.) Knobel also describes a low-cost membership strategy focused on “letting people pay”—offering them an opportunity to feel like they’re fulfilling a civic duty—and , an annual “ideas festival” tailored to Berkeley’s intellectual, college-town identity.
Across the news business, thinking like a startup has yet to take hold. For obvious reasons, it’s scary (or unacceptable) to “fail fast” when you’re fighting for your company’ finding time for experimentation and user testing feels impossible when you’re on deadline.
But I’ve always believed that when it comes to innovation, alt-weeklies have enormous opportunity. We’re scrappier, and our staffs are usually young, diverse, and irascible enough to lead change in their respective markets.
Most importantly, though, we need to shift our thinking from conserving what we have to exploring new territory that’s up for grabs. We need to kill our fear of failure and start innovating—even in small ways, even if it doesn’t work. As the inimitable Dan Gibson put it, “Let’ let’s do something different. If we have an issue that sucks, next week we have another one!”
Alexa Schirtzinger is a
at Stanford University, where she is working on innovative business models for local journalism. Contact her at aschirtz[at]stanford.edu or .
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Writing Great Alt TextWhat does Alt + F4 do in WoW?
Need an account?
What does Alt + F4 do in WoW?
It doesn't damage your system or change any settings, does it?
Mechagnome
lol'd. It closes down your client.
Scarab Lord
Closes the game.
0/10, maybe next time.
The Lightbringer
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My name is Cernunnos, I will love you like no other, I have died a thousand deaths, each time I died I thought of you.
It's the hotkey for ragequit!
CPU: I7 2600k @ 4GHz - Cooler: Corsair H100i - GPU: 2 x GTX970 Strix -
MOBO: MSI Z68-GD65 G3 - RAM: Crucial ballistix sport 16GB - SSD: MX100 512GB - HDD: WD Blue 1TB/WD Green 2TB - CASE: Define R4 - Monitor: Samsung SA300 23& + Medion 23& (2x 1080p) - PSU: Corsair TX 850 - OS: Win7 Ultimate 64
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
And 97% of the Internet knows that 99% of statistics are made up on the spot!
Gives you 1000g of course!
and this is why I cant stand being an experienced computer user let alone wow player
The Patient
Well, even if this might not be what the OP was asking for it's worth noting that Alt+F4 will close your client almost instantly but it won't log out your char from the server immediatly. Which means if you're getting ganked I'm afraid stamping your hand on Alt+F4 will only make you spend a few more minuts re-opening the client. :3
The Patient
actually u get insta log off if ur not in combat, this isnt vanilla/tbc
The Lightbringer
God what an awesome troll, they just keep coming up with new things..
Brewmaster
To those that actually replied... he has 1 post and that post is asking what ALT + F4 does. Don't you get it?
Scarab Lord
Closes the game. Thread closed.