As digital journalism evolves, this presentation offers a summary of five key lessons learned from successful new— and traditional— news organizations.

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2. Today’s Agenda
5 Lessons
Learned:
Design
Experimentation
Revenue
Curation
Skills
Plus:
What’s Next:
2020
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Q&A
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3. About Me
Jeremy Caplan
@jeremycaplan
jeremy@jeremycaplan.com
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4. Slides and Hashtag
Share thoughts, questions or responses
Slides: bit.ly/jc5lessons
Twitter: #Journalism2020
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5. Case Studies:
5 Lessons Learned
in American
Digital
Journalism
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6. I.
Prioritize Design
Narratively
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10. Narratively’s Editorial Approach
Building a New Journalism Organization From Scratch
Focus on Design
Clean, simple presentation
In-Depth Stories
Creative Multimedia
One high-quality story a day
Blending photo, video + text
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11. Narratively’s Revenue Streams
A New Multifaceted Approach
Sponsorship
Syndication
Custom Content
Providing sponsors with subtle branding on and off the site
Supplying high-quality content for use in education
Creating content commissioned by companies
Events
Drawing paid attendees and sponsors to local events
Premium Content
Selling special ebooks and special content collections
Membership
Giving members extra benefits, access and discounts
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19. Case Study #1: Prioritize Design
Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals
Case Study #2: Experiment
New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas
Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue
From sponsored content to events, services and products
Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate
Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest
Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills
Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business
What’s Next?
Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism
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20. II.
Experiment
Texas Tribune
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21. New News Organization
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22. 38 Employees
$4.5 Million Revenue
550,000 Unique Visitors
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24. 1/3 Traffic to Data Pages
1/3 Traffic from Mobile
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25. 70 Events
Texas Tribune plans almost-weekly events,
from panel discussions to a big ideas festival
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26. 2000 attendees
$225/ticket
@Texas Tribune Festival
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27. $3,000
Cost to sponsor typical Texas Tribune event
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28. $1,200,000
Texas Tribune’s 2013 event revenue
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29. Case Study #1: Prioritize Design
Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals
Case Study #2: Experiment
New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas
Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue
From sponsored content to events, services and products
Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate
Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest
Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills
Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business
What’s Next?
Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism
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30. III
Explore New Revenue
Forbes & Buzzfeed
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34. Forbes’ New Approach
Strengthening a Traditional Journalism Organization
Diversifying Content
Diversifying Revenue
Social Distribution
More than 1,000 new writers
Several new revenue streams
Emphasizing reader sharing
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36. 20%
Ad revenue at Forbes from sponsored content
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38. Case Study #1: Prioritize Design
Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals
Case Study #2: Experiment
New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas
Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue
From sponsored content to events, services and products
Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate
Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest
Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills
Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business
What’s Next?
Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism
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39. IV
Curate & Aggregate
Upworthy
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41. Upworthy
87 Million
Unique monthly visitors
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42. 4.95 Million Likes on Facebook
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43. V
Sharpen Skills
Skillcrush
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44. Journalism Skills for 2020
Supplementing reporting, writing and editing with new strengths
Multimedia
Social Media
Data & Design
Coding
Business
Photo, Video, Audio
Building Community
Numbers & Graphics
Digital Flexibility
Entrepreneurial Mindset
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45. Case Study #1: Prioritize Design
Cleaner, simpler, deeper storytelling with engaging visuals
Case Study #2: Experiment
New story forms, new partnerships, new apps, new ideas
Case Study #3: Explore New Revenue
From sponsored content to events, services and products
Case Study #4: Curate & Aggregate
Do what you do best and link to, collect and share the rest
Case Study #5: Sharpen Skills
Coding, algorithm design, multimedia, social net, business
What’s Next?
Some thoughts on what’s ahead for digital journalism
1
2
3
4
5
6
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46. !
What’s Next:
Kickstarter +
Beyond
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47. Kickstarter
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51. Up to a two line subtitle, generally used to describe the
takeaway for the slide
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52. Up to a two line subtitle, generally used to describe the
takeaway for the slide
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53. Bionic
Publishing
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54. Narrative Science
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55. Automated Insights
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58. Data Algorithms
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59. Sources and Resources
To find out more about the sites and data used in this
presentation, here are some follow-up sources and resources
‣ bit.ly/localsites = J-Lab’s list of 1250+ local U.S. sites
‣ submojour.net = Research on Journalism Startups
‣ bit.ly/cjrstartups = Columbia Journalism Review Startup Coverage
‣ niemanlab.org/encyclo = Nieman Lab’s Future of News Encyclopedia
‣ bit.ly/ejboard = Quora Resource Board on Entrepreneurial Journalism
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60. Thank You
Jeremy Caplan
Director of Education
Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
@jeremycaplan
jeremy@jeremycaplan.com
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