|
|
| English: Neuttro Page (not online) from the Magazine (not in circulatrion anymore) Frecuenciarock (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In-class exercise/Build
a Magazine
You
have been divided into two teams by a group of deep-pockets entrepreneurs who
wants to create an online product for college students, age 18-24. They believe
in group competition, group intelligence and in brain storming, that is, in
tossing ideas around in an uncritical environment before forcing a decision.
Your aim is to come up with a concept for an online magazine that has both news
and entertainment value.
Near the end of this process, you will choose
among the stories the class has written this semester to illustrate in a
concrete way what the content of your publication will look like. It may also
be useful in explaining the nature of your publication to point out why something
written this semester – even though written by someone in your target demo – is
not suitable for your publication.
One
possible way to begin is by Thinking Big, coming up with what you think is a
fresh concept, and only then looking about you to compare it to existing
products. What you may discover, of course, is that you have reinvented the
wheel, that such a publication already exists and that your ‘fresh’ idea adds
no nuance, no value to an existing product already in the market. Happily,
often our new ideas are not identical to old ones; there are, in fact,
differences. The question is whether or not these differences are significant enough to provide the wedge that will enable us to compete.
It is not meaningless to assert that we want
to do the same thing but do it better. However, some supposed distinctions do
not foretell competitive success, as in the case of “Seven-Minute Abs.”
A
second way to come up with a product is at once to look at existing publications
you find useful and appealing, but all of which fall short in some way. That
is, you conclude that an existing concept can be tweaked or altered or
reimagined in such a way that your variation on an existing product will steal
eyes away from the existing product – though keep in mind the lesson of
Seven-Minute Abs. Take the historical perspective. When does variation become failed
imitation? Worst movie remakes are an amusing example.
Or
you may choose to start small, with small questions rather than large
assumptions. At some point in this process – whether you start large or small -
you will ask these questions. (The advantage you have is that - more or less –
you are your audience.)
1.
What
does your potential audience care about?
2.
What
are they reading/watching/listening/doing?
3.
What
are their problems/issues/challenges?
4.
What
are your potential audience’s/demographic/psychographic/geographic
characteristics?
5.
How
many people are in your target group or groups?
6.
How
much do they spend on a news/entertainment product of the kind you have
imagined?
7.
How
much time do they spend online enjoying products of the kind you are proposing?
The
answers to NONE of these questions are matters of opinion. All can be explored
through consumer research. But for this brief exercise, we will proceed on the
basis of ‘best guess.’
At
some point in this process - possibly early on - you will identify your ‘key
competitors,’ your rivals in the media marketplace. You will ask:
1)
What
are they doing well?
2)
What
are they missing?
3)
What
elements of what others are doing can you use as a model or models? What
elements can you learn from?
Later
in the process, you will begin to build content,
1.
Preparing
such basic elements as a mission statement, an ‘about’ page, a series of
initial blog posts heralding your arrival on the scene.
2.
Developing
key multimedia assets – a set of photos, a short video trailer, a slideshow.
3.
Developing
pitch materials for potential partners/investors/advertisers. Such materials
will be short, one pagers and ‘elevator’ pitches.
4.
Reaching
out to your potential audience by building a social media presences on key
networks relevant to your ‘community.’
5.
Listening
to and learning from your community.
6.
Developing
a rapport with key community members/influencers.
Now
things get serious, as you begin the tough task of balancing costs with
potential revenues,
1.
Considering
six proven revenue approaches – ads, memberships/subscriptions,
expertise/services, events, products, donations.
2.
Identifying
revenue approaches that seem to be working for competitors, particularly those
in related coverage areas.
3.
Testing
the water with potential paying customers/audience members.
4.
Working
with ‘first customers,’ perhaps on a trial or ‘alpha’ basis.
5.
Working
up hard numbers for production and build a preliminary budget.
Creative
is fun, but now you must begin to think like a manager,
1.
Assessing
your own strengths and weaknesses with the help of friends, colleagues and
mentors to determine what gaps you need to fill and what gaps you should focus
your immediate energies on, while never forgetting your big picture and your
long-term goals.
2.
Finding
colleagues to work with, and developing community collaborators.
Finally,
you are ready to begin, but from the beginning you will be measuring your
progress,
1.
Having
determined what your key indicators are, what metrics you need to track and how
you will define success. (External metrics)
2.
Having
put in place a system to measure progress regularly toward internal project
goals. (Internal metrics)
3.
Already
thinking about what you may need to change, what to do even more of and how
best to pivot and what to fix at each stage of your progress.
We do not have the time to work through to the end of this process. However, we should be able to get far enough for each team will submit to me the answers to these
questions:
· Generally speaking, you
are going after the 18-24 demo. Specifically, who inside that group is going to
be your audience?
· To the best of your
knowledge, who is your competition? Where are the ‘eyes’ of your intended
audience now directed?
· What are you going to do
that is not currently being done?
· Express that intention
as a 50-word mission statement.
· Brainstorm some possible
names for this new publication.
· Choose, or reject, for
publication stories the class has written this semester.
As you get into this, you can “play.” That is, you may assign tasks, one group
member thinking about overall design, one about art, one about the big stories
that anchor each issue, one about the smaller stories in continuing divisions
of the magazine like People or Music or Dining – or far more inventive and
focused divisions than that.
These comments
are based in part on the ideas of Dr. Ed Lenert, USF adjunct professor, and on a
presentation by Jeremy Caplan, professor of interactive and entrepreneurial
journalism at the City University of New York, “7 Steps to Success:
Entrepreneurial Journalism” (2011).
