I thank NYU professor Jeff Jarvis for getting me into online journalism.
Jeff was instrumental in helping me understand SEO and Google, and the risk of partnering with social media sites like Facebook.
Nobody better than Jarvis in explaining the slow decline of newspapers. Re-invention was critical. Jeff was a trusted thought leader in this space.
While at a conference back in 2007, I approached Jarvis. Gave him my card. Told him I was focused on web sales and marketing tactics for newspaper and broadcast. Jeff then asked me if I blogged or had a website about this. Sheepishly, I said no.
A few days later I started a WordPress blog about digital marketing and sales. I wrote about the need for traditional media to monetize online news. I blogged about simple yet effective tactics to do just that.
Years later, I was invited by Jeff to NYU to help brainstorm a business plan for hyper local journalism. An action plan. Best practices, etc.
This lead to some paid consulting work at NYU. A hyper-local news project called THE LOCAL. Great idea. Too bad it was managed by an NYU journalism professor.
In Jan 2010, AOL invited me in to discuss making money with a project they called PATCH.
From my viewpoint, most online jounalism projects were focused on creating tons of content.
More page views = more money, right? Nope. You’re just diluting your valuable ad inventory.
Jeff Jarvis was my hero for many years. He was early to grasp the threat to print journalism.
So what happened? Jarvis embraced WOKE and became less interested in sustainable, new business models for journalism. This brilliant man lost his way.
As is common in the newspaper space, too many publishers, editors and writers have become political activists.
No surprise that newspapers are now reducing staff. Some are closing down. Others cutting back on printed days.
In future posts, I’ll share thoughts on other pioneers in the hyper local space. Regrettably, some got into the weeds.
Once great media companies that took their eye off the ball.
Examples:
DEI initiatives at AUDACY, Editor and Publisher, Poynter, etc.
