Labor of Love

Aug. 25, 2010

A year’s worth of work culminates today with the presentation of my independent study project, The City Maven. It's been an interesting year, to say the least. Let’s rewind the tape and see where I was on:

Aug. 25, 2009

Hot. Sweaty, with a thin film of dirt covering my entire body. I'm sitting in a cramped room in the Delhi hostel. There’s a pile of empty plastic water bottles in the corner. This song, then this one, blast through my ear buds until we decide to venture out for dinner. Outside the dirt road is filled with people, children, carts, garbage, excrement and animals. It’s my last day in a country that for two months has pushed me to my physical, emotional and mental limits.

How many nights did I spend on a speeding train, staring out into the darkness of the countryside?

How many times were the sights of begging, suffering and death just too much?

And then, how many times did I think, this may be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen?

The next morning I got on a plane to London, where I met a friend and reacclimated to hot water, clean bedding and meat. It was my transitional week, from one adventure to the next. My last night there, after L had flown back to San Francisco, I turned on the radio and wrote this:

...

game face on. competitive streak polished. with a curl in my hair and a shine on my lips.

...

swapped mountains for skyscrapers. winetasting and cocktail dresses for coffee and sweats in the library.

india. difficult, smelly, dirty, poverty-stricken, loud, congested. and yet, ... something. there's something that's brought me peace. calm in my heart. my fortunes and blessings have never been clearer to me. what is there to complain about? strive for success, love, confidence. bring those to my family and friends.

a return and a beginning.

The first chapter of that beginning has closed. Here’s the next chapter:

To Angelenos who have a financial, business or personal interest in the governmental decisions of Los Angeles’ mayor, city council members and city departments, The City Maven is a news website that produces fair, insightful coverage while providing access to an aggregation of public documents and fostering an online community that encourages readers to voice their opinions and engage with their city.

Other highlights from today's presentation:

Market Analysis—Survey: Preliminary market analysis indicates there is a promising community interest in a news publication like The City Maven.

In July 2010, I contacted 116 Angelenos I identified as potential customers and asked if they would be willing to participate in an online survey regarding their media habits as they related to political and governmental journalism in Los Angeles. The group was made up of City Hall press deputies, political consultants, union and business representatives, and neighborhood council members. Of the 116 people contacted, 47 agreed to participate in the survey; ultimately 34 people started and completed the survey via Survey Monkey. The survey had 10 questions. Some participants received an additional two questions depending on how they answered Question 10.

Market Analysis—Interviews: A series of interviews with heavyweights in Los Angeles’ political and journalism scenes confirmed my findings that there is an audience, and a need, for a publication like The City Maven.

My takeaways from these interviews were:

• Overwhelming support for the aggregation of public documents
• Strong support for live-streaming and live-blogging events such as town hall meetings
• Politicians are always looking for a way to get their message out and would be interested in a weekly, half-hour video chat
• Angelenos are unable to identify with their council members and would benefit from knowing about their backgrounds, personalities and power within council
• The City Maven could empower Angelenos by making public documents available and providing them with an online community in which to discuss policy decisions
• Before launching the site, I need to decide The City Maven’s personality and tone
• There was general agreement from theses interviews that the site needs to have some sort of edge to capture readers’ attention
• Civic-minded Angelenos are a vastly underserved audience
• Material could be sold to the Los Angeles Times and Daily News through a financial partnership similar to the Chicago News Cooperative’s relationship with The New York Times
• Editorial and business decisions must be made in silos

Competitive Analysis: Survey participants identified these publications as their most-visited outlets:

• Los Angeles Times
• The Daily News
• Los Angeles Business Journal
• City News Service
• Los Angeles Weekly
• KPCC 89.3 FM
• KNX 1070 Newsradio
• LAist

Audience Projection: The City Maven’s goal and expectation is to have 100,000 unique visitors per month in two years.

Financials—Expenses: It will cost $47,050 to start the company. It will cost $187,248 to operate for the first 12 months.

Financials—Revenue: There are three revenue streams The City Maven intends to pursue:

1. Advertising
2. Membership
3. Content-sharing

Watch Your Tone, Missy

A frequent comment I heard during my trip to Los Angeles was that my site needs to have an edge. What is it's tone? Here goes:

The maven is a stylish nerd. She loves curling up with RFPs and highlighting all the jargon and numbers. She’s tickled pink when she gets business cards from mid-level City Hall staffers. For her, the best feeling in the world is to post an article and have readers say, “I didn’t know this. That’s outrageous!”

The maven is also a perfectionist. She gets up at 5 a.m. every morning to hike through the Santa Monica Mountains. Her skirts are perfectly pressed and her hair always has just the right amount of volume. She is one of those women who are always prepared with extra batteries, duct tape, foot petals and Band-Aids.

Everyone smiles when they see the maven, and why shouldn’t they – she’s witty and charming. She makes time to stop by parties for a drink, even when she’s been up all night baking chocolate chip cookies for her fellow reporters.

The maven has great joy for her life.

All that being said, what does it mean for her reporting and writing?

Waste, inefficiencies and lies are personally offensive to the maven. Any hint of a politician behaving in a way that puts himself before his constituents drives her crazy. She believes it’s her responsibility to hold elected officials accountable and empower Angelenos to get personally involved with their city. The maven loves Los Angeles and wants it to be the best city it can be.

The maven believes in tough love.

True Love

The coffee, not the mug.

Tweet Tweet

Tweet, tweet. What’s that, a cute baby chick?

Nope, it’s just the network of friends, coworkers, reporters, gadflys and major corporations pounding down the virtual wall of my computer. Every minute of every hour of every day.

I was a Twitter holdout for a long time. I didn’t see its value and it seemed like one more thing to steal away my time and attention. I finally caved in March when a professor told us we could pick up extra credit by tweeting articles related to our course materials. Extra credit – it’s my kryptonite. I went home that day and joined Twitter as fast as I could. Thank goodness I did because without those two extra points, I’m sure my A would have … still been an A (OK, not the point ).

I am five months into my Twitter experience and I have to say I dislike it even more now than I did before. Seriously – the site is user-unfriendly, unorganized and I’m constantly stuck looking at that stupid whale.

All that said, I still created an account – twitter.com/TheCityMaven – for the project when I started putting together the website and a web presence. I see Twitter as a tip sheet. It’s a way to grab headlines and news updates. Plus, it’s important to keep an eye on the tweets of politicians, department heads and press deputies. If you don’t, there’s the danger of missing gems like this:

Last quarter I took a class called Building Networked Audiences, and one of the areas of study was social media. It wasn't content that we focused on but rather the physical and electronic structures of networks. One site that does this is Klout. It measures Twitter influence based on:

1. True Reach
2. Amplification Probability
3. Network Influence

True Reach is the size of the “engaged audience,” meaning the number of followers minus spammers and inactive accounts. Amplification Probability considers the diversity of the audience, the likelihood that a person’s tweet will be retweeted, and the effectiveness in generating new followers, retweets and @ replies. Network Influence, finally, is the influence level of the engaged audience.

Klout provides an even more detailed explanation on its website but you get the idea.

I looked up Klout scores for a couple of LA media outlets. On a scale of 1 to 100, LAist has a 65. NBC4 has a 31. LATimes has a 78. LAObserved has a 46.

These numbers leave me with some questions: what is the true “influence” that these sites have? I understand within the context of Twitter, but what about within the context of something that actually matters? Do the people behind these accounts actually have clout when they need to get ahold of an elected official? Do they have the ability to set news agendas?

Twitter has critical mass on its side, for now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows itself to be an important tool for marketers. Maybe it will continue to be a tip sheet for reporters (and a place where anonymous strangers hilariously impersonate famous dudes) but I don’t see the staying power. The problem with 140 characters is the same problem with the useless ticker streaming on cable news stations – it trains us to believe we’ve been told the most important piece of information and anything else would be ancillary. Can't we all agree by this point that if a public person's statement includes 2, U, @, ;) , reload, or patently false and misleading facts, then there's more to the story?

Born to Run

The work of Project Goldfish has coincided with my training for the Chicago Half-Marathon. I am not a businesswoman, nor am I a runner so … what better time to take on two huge challenges than at the exact same time. My father has, in the past, referred to me as the Energizer Bunny. I should really look into having one of my batteries removed.

Anywho …

This summer has been about building strength and endurance, challenging myself physically and mentally, and falling short or failing before I – ultimately – succeed. Running has been my greatest stress release when I can’t take one more minute of financial projections and Wordpress widgets.

Things are moving right along with Project Goldfish and, in addition to my family, friends, peanut butter and the Real Housewives of New Jersey, a major source of inspiration and motivation has been the book Born to Run. Written by journalist Christopher McDougall, it is the true story of an incredible tribe of super athletes living in the canyons of Mexico. These men, women and children run incredible distances with apparent ease. Running defines their way of life. Running frees them.

I read this book with a pencil in my hand to underline, star and mark quotes and entire passages. What I love about these quotes is that they are not simply about running – they’re a way of looking at life. (Disclaimer: I’m starting to sound sort of hippy-dippy. This is very unlike me. However, this book hit me in a way that most materials do not.)

“… I should have been there when this ninety-five-year-old man came hiking twenty-five miles over the mountain. Know why he could do it? Because no one ever told him he couldn't. No one ever told him he oughta be off dying somewhere in an old age home. You live up to your own expectations, man.”

When I made the decision to enroll at Medill, I told people I was sick and tired of reporters wringing their hands and worrying “What will become of journalism?” I decided I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. Someone needs to find a new economic model for journalism, so why shouldn’t it be me? I am smart and enthusiastic and capable – I am just as likely as anyone else to make a major contribution to journalism. I’m not saying Project Goldfish is the answer but I think it’s something.

“Make friends with pain, and you will never be alone.”

At first, this sentence seems pretty dark, doesn’t it? I imagine a disillusioned 15-year-old, sitting in her bedroom, picking at her black nail polish and crying that the world Just. Doesn’t. Get it. So dark, so dramatic. OK, but the more I thought about this line, the more I liked it because pain can be frustration, anger, stress, anxiety or fear. Sometimes these are necessary because …

“Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, may we find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstructions.”

There is a light at the end of that pain. I completely agree that to grow, we have to push through all the “fatigue and distress.” Did I ever, in my wildest dreams, think I would run 10 miles? No, but I can, and I can do it because I pushed through miles 7, 8 and 9.

“You had to love running, or you wouldn’t live to love anything else. And like everything else we love – everything we sentimentally call our ‘passions’ and ‘desires’ – it’s really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We’re all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.”

There is nothing else I want to be doing right now. I love this project. I believe in it. I’ve barely left my apartment in three days because of it (I left yesterday to stock up on more peanut butter and Pirate Booty. I have the diet of a 5-year-old). We’re meant to push ourselves. Finishing this project, so I can get my master’s degree, so I can get back to my career, so I can make journalism better for the audience – as oppose to advertisers and moguls – is as necessary to me as food, rent and Facebook.

The mental challenge of running is a wonderful way to think about the challenges of school, work and life. When all else fails, I take a deep breath, relax and repeat the words of my Coach Richard:

If you’re not fainting or puking, KEEP GOING.

So Close

Think Tank of Awesomeness

And I’m back!

It was a very busy but incredibly productive four days in Los Angeles. The good news is that it sounds like I’m on the right track with Project Goldfish. People agree there is a need for the type of reporting I want to do. It was encouraging to see other people get excited about an idea that I have spent so much time putting together.

The three aspects of Project Goldfish are:

1. Original reporting on city government and its policy decisions
2. An online community to foster discussions on those policies
3. An aggregation of public documents that give readers access to ordinances, motions, letters, reports

With that structure in mind, here are some of the highlights from my interviews last week:

Overwhelming support for the aggregation of public documents:

There are two major benefits to providing a one-stop shop of documents – it can empower readers to get involved and feel connected to their city government and it can be a useful tool to businesses and groups that need to stay up-to-date on legislation.

Strong support for live-streaming and live-blogging events such as town hall meetings:

It’s difficult for reporters to write stories on town hall meetings. The meetings are typically in the evening and run past newspaper and television deadlines. Plus, you usually have to sit there for two or three hours to get anything that is useable. But, that doesn’t mean town hall meetings aren’t important – they are. With Project Goldfish, I propose live streaming these meetings onto the web site while a reporter live blogs the public comments. At the end of the evening, the video could be edited down to a two minute highlight reel. This has the added benefit of giving readers the opportunity to watch and listen to meetings that take place halfway across town.

Politicians are always looking for a way to get out their message and would be interested in a weekly, half-hour video chat:

I’ve mentioned this on here before but I would love to spend a half an hour a week with a newsmaker via a video chat. Readers could send in questions (maybe even Skype in questions) to find out what is going on in that council district, neighborhood council or city department. It is a way of making City Hall real and accessible.

Angelenos are unable to identify with their council members and would benefit from knowing about their backgrounds, personalities and power within council

Before launching the site, I need to decide Project Goldfish’s personality and tone:

There was general agreement from theses interviews that the site needs to have some sort of an edge to capture readers’ attention. One of my interviewees gave me the same advice he received from Warren Christopher – CRUSADE. He said I should find angry, young reporters and unleash them. Hmm, I think that is a little too extreme for my taste (I’m all for anger but it has to be directed and it has to be productive). Though the reporting will be fair and accurate, I do agree that Project Goldfish needs to start from a point of view. How do I see City Hall?

Civic-minded Angelenos are a vastly underserved audience

Material could be sold to the Los Angeles Times and Daily News through a financial partnership similar to the Chicago News Cooperative’s relationship with The New York Times

Editorial and business decisions must be made in silos

With these thoughts in mind, I'm updating my business plan and imaging how I'll incorporate everything into the website. I’m hard at work. Really, see:

Coffee! Papers! Pens! Work! Work! Work!

Los Angeles Weecap by the Numbers

4 days

11 meetings

240 miles

5 Starbucks, 2 Coffee Beans and an IHOP

1 parking ticket

1,000 ideas

10 days to go

Sometimes It All Feels Like This

Members Only

This past week I found myself in a flood of articles on membership, subscriptions, paywalls and the monetization of online journalism.

An opinion piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal makes the argument that consumers are willing to pay for news. Peter Funt argues that we’ve already seen consumers are willing to pay for television if it includes “convenience, commercial-free viewing, high video quality, plus various ‘bonus’ features that (create) perceived value.” The same is true with radio when it has “high-quality audio, largely free of ads, with a vast array of channels to please many tastes.”

Funt is correct in pointing out that in paying for television and radio programming that has traditionally been free, consumers expect added benefits in terms of quality and exclusivity. DVDs, HBO, satellite radio all improve the experience of watching TV and listening to music or talk radio. What can news outlets do to improve the experience of reading or watching the news?

Sites like The Texas Tribune and MinnPost are looking to answer that question and pick up revenue in the process via membership. Ken Doctor explains the state of membership in a recent piece for the Nieman Journalism Lab. According to the article, The Texas Tribune has 1,700 members, with a goal of reaching 10,000 members. Members, on average, pay $100. Over at MinnPost, there are 2,000 members. In 2009, membership brought in $360,000 for the site.

Doctor then gets into some interesting math. MinnPost found people who visited the site at least twice a month were the most likely to sign up as members. Of those 40,000 visitors, executives hope to turn 5 percent – 2,000 people – into members.

GlobalPost is another news site that is pursuing membership as a revenue source. Phil Balboni, who runs the site, hopes to get 1 percent of his 900,000 unique monthly visitors to become members. With each member paying $30, that would generate $270,000.

After reading these articles, I started playing around with some numbers for Project Goldfish. I am proposing that the revenue streams for the site be:

• Advertising
• Membership
• Subscription

My current proposal and business plan call for all articles to be free and available to everyone. Membership would provide access to the online community, The Watercooler, where readers could pose questions, converse and debate with other audience members. I would hope and expect that with paying customers posting under their real names, the conversation would elevate above derogatory and off-topic comments.

To figure out how many members I can expect, I first had to estimate the overall traffic to the site. Using Compete, I researched traffic metrics for 27 news sites in Los Angeles. Specifically, I looked at unique visitors. My goal with Project Goldfish is to have 100,000 unique visitors two years out from the launch date. That would put my traffic somewhere between The Jewish Journal and LAObserved.

With 100,000 unique visitors in mind, I used a 1 percent conversion rate and 5 percent conversion rate and assumed members would pay an annual fee of $30:

Membership, I think, would appeal to individuals.

A subscription would appeal to firms and corporations. A subscription would provide access to pay:

• PDF copies of ordinances, government reports and non-confidential correspondents
• Budgetary documents and amendments
• City contracts
• Complete listing of City Hall council and committee meetings
• Complete listing of Neighborhood Council meetings and events
• Weekly video chats with newsmakers
• Access to early morning and late-night news roundups via email

It is basically an aggregation of documents, both paper and electronic. Think of it as a one-stop reference tool. The subscription would cost $100 a year.