Author’s note: My friend and former colleague Hector Farina Ojeda at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico invited me recently to be interviewed on his radio show and podcast.
Professor Farina knew of my interest in media entrepreneurs and wanted to know how covid-19 was affecting them, among other topics. What follows is a translation of the article he wrote about the interview, with some editing (original here, in Spanish).
In an interview with Hector Claudio Farina and Daniela Herrera on the program Franca Controversia, James Breiner, a specialist in entrepreneurial journalism, emphasized that a crisis is really the best time to launch a digital startup.
“Journalists and their audiences are more receptive to change during a crisis,” he said, mentioning that people already were forced to change their routines because of the pandemic. They had to learn new skills for work, school, communication, and living together. (Breiner was founder of the Digital Journalism Training Center–el Centro de Formación en Periodismo Digital–the first in Latin America, at the University of Guadalajara.)
New business model
Because of the pandemic, news media organizations that depend primarily on advertising “are suffering terribly”, and consequently are looking to change their business models, said Breiner. For many, that change means trying to generate revenue from their audiences and ending their dependency on advertising.
“The future is multimedia, and the entrepreneurial journalists who want to be successful, who want to develop new audiences and a news organization that is viable over the long haul, need to find out what their audiences prefer,” said Breiner.
As examples of the transition to a user-financed business model, Breiner mentioned that some news organizations have begun asking for donations from their audiences in the form of “memberships” or “partnerships”. However, some traditional media have been unable to adjust and make changes, mainly because they lack the technology or the people with the right skills.
Know your audience
That said, Breiner described the key elements necessary for a news media startup. First, they have to have a clear idea of “the information needs or the problems of the community” and be ready to offer solutions.
Then they have to figure out how to produce the content that the community will really consider useful in their daily lives. Breiner said it’s important to focus on “creating value” for users, which could take the form of speedy reporting or deep investigative journalism.
At the same time, a news organization will have to confront the reluctance of journalists accustomed to traditional forms [the 750-word article, the 2-minute video package for TV] to change their ways.
Veteran journalists “have thought of themselves as authorities because of the reach and influence of their publications”, so they find the need to change intimidating. “Technologies change so rapidly that even the experts in these areas need to educate themselves constantly,” he said. “And for many people, that is too much stress.”
Asked for a recommendation to young journalists about their professional development, Breiner suggested that they study the humanities, including the arts. In his personal experience, the arts “take you deep into the kinds of human problems that we are now experiencing”.