For digital startups, dealing with extreme uncertainty

Versión en español. When you are starting out with a digital product, it makes sense to get advice from experts. But experts can’t help you learn as much as you can on your own. In fact, most of the successful digital entrepreneurs I know give the same advice: develop a prototype as quickly as possible. […]

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What venture capitalists like about Latin America

Versión en español.   Venture capitalists in Latin America are looking for digital media startups with rapid growth, a plan for monetization, and international potential. Francisco Coronel: digital media well positioned Obviously, most new media don’t fit that profile. But startups with these characteristics are starting to attract angel investors who provide the first rounds […]

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Land of opportunity in digital news: Buenos Aires

Miranda Mulligan, right, and me, left, with the startup teams. Versión en español aquí. We hear a lot about the next Silicon Valley, but we don’t hear much about the Valley of Death. That is where 80 percent of tech startups go to die. Startups die or join the walking dead mainly for two reasons: […]

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12 revenue sources for digital news organizations

So much innovation is occurring on the revenue side of new digital media that it’s time to review, update and aggregate. Some of the material has appeared in this blog before.    Let´s start with the basics. Versión en español.   1. Create community, don’t just publish news. An audience is just a group of observers.  […]

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Narrative in Latin America: conscience and credibility

Versión en español. For a class on narrative techniques here in Mexico, I was looking for examples of the kind of writing you find in New Yorker. The magazine Gatopardo has that reputation. Alejandro Almazán. Photo: MasPorMas.com It was there I found the story of “A hapless narco” (“Un narco sin suerte) by Alejandro Almazan and […]

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An optimistic book about the collapse of print media

Bernardo Diaz Nosty published a book last year that chronicled the sad history of the collapse of print media in the developed world over the past 70 years. It wasn’t bad enough that revenues had tanked and readers had fled, he said. The worst part was that news media had lost their credibility. Being the […]

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Video: How Policymic is capturing millennials

PolicyMic.com aims at millennials who are dissatisfied with traditional news outlets. It reaches 14.5 million unique users a month, according to Jake Horowitz, co-founder and editor-in-chief.  The site started 2 1/2 years ago, and “the goal all along has been to empower young people who want to be a part of the conversation around the news […]

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