Launched the week of the floods in 2007. Founded by two journalists from the county.
**Do:**
1. **Be great!** – Niche websites work, they can capture audiences. All of our content is exclusively written by professional journalists – it’s about high-quality content.
2. **Search engine optimise** – 5,395 pages – 75% of traffic comes from Google.
3. **Know your market and products** – make sure you know who your advertisers will be and target them with research, clear suite of products. Keep clear differentiation between ad and ed.
4. **Establish a clear sales strategy** – Either divide your role to focus on sales some of the time, or get a professional. Make the process as easy as possible – and provide great reporting.
5. **Forge partnerships** – work with radio and print. Syndicate your content in a controlled fashion – but cash is almost always better than a contra deal.
**Don’t**
1. **Compromise your model** – stick to the plan
2. **Be afraid to stand up for yourself** – lots and lots of problems with plagiarism. 25 organisations have plagiarised 200 individual infringement.
3. **Spend all your time on Twitter** – make sure your social media activity is bringing you an audience and money.
4. **Rely on UGC** – think this decade will see a resurgence in professional journalism
5. **Stop moving forwards** – Redesign coming, iPhone app, franchise model for sites…
Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 25. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.
Sign up for e-mail updates
Join the newsletter to receive the latest posts in your inbox.
Ah, I love NEXT. Unlike many tech-based conferences, which are very rooted in the now, they have a remarkable knack of looking about two years into the future, and giving you a sense of what the world might look like then. I’ve been working with them since January, and
[http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/assets_c/2014/03/startups-journalism-3609.html]
Don’t you hate it when somebody leading a journalism business slips into jargon?
Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily does exactly that when quoted in a Quartz piece on why
funding is piling into new journalism ventures
[http://qz.com/