How hacker investors could save the media

I’m conflicted. 

On one hand I agree with Clay Shirky.

“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke. (link to essay) 

On the other I believe that large media organizations (newspapers and broadcasters) are important to democracy. They have the clout to get access, a legacy of fact-checking and the money to afford lawyers. These are not unimportant details.  

So with no general model to replace the work that broadcasters and newspapers do (or did), what do we do? Don’t worry, I have a cockamamie plan to save it all. 

Here are some facts and assumptions grouped together in bullet form. 

• The Internet is a disruptive technology that has mangled the profitability of large media companies.
• Media companies are going through what Clayton Christensen calls the Innovator’s Dilemma. The successes and capabilities of successful businesses can actually become obstacles in the face of changing markets and technologies. 
• It is often entirely rational for incumbent companies to ignore disruptive innovations since they don’t compare well with existing technologies or products. 
• The deceptively small market available for a disruptive innovation is often very small compared to the market for the established technology. As an example, online ad sales for newspapers are a pittance to the money they make selling display ads in the paper. Sales staff have no incentive to push advertisers online. 
• Small startups are able to prove assumptions much faster and cheaper than any large media company ever could. This is especially true in an online environment because the barrier to entry and the cost of failure is so low. 
• Institutional investors (think Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan) and extremely rich people devote a certain percentage of their vast Scrooge McDuckian towers of money to early-stage companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual exit (IPO or sale). This is venture capital. 

Here’s the plan. 

If you’re a large media company scrounge up a bit of money - anywhere from  $5 to $100 million. Take that money and create a seed-stage startup funding firm with a focus on finding, funding and developing the best early stage online journalism, online advertising, social media, video streaming, geo-location, e-commerce and mobile startups. 

This seed-stage startup funding firm would take a page (okay the whole playbook) from hacker investor firm Y Combinator. Y Combinator was founded in 2005 by Paul Graham and has funded 80 startups in that short time. They are an incredible success story. Some of the companies they’ve invested in include;

• social news service reddit (purchased by Conde Nast)
• blogging by email service Posterous
• social geolocation service Loopt
• blog comment web service Disqus
• live video streaming and chat service Justin.tv

Here’s the amazing part of Y Combinator, they barely give out any money at all. Typically $5000 + $5000 per founder and rarely more than $20000. In return they look for a small stake in the companies they invest in (between 2% and 10%).  But the money isn’t even the biggest part. 

“The most important thing we do is work with startups on their ideas. We’re hackers ourselves, and we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to make things people want. So we can usually see fairly quickly the direction in which a small idea should be expanded or the point at which to begin attacking a large but vague one.”

Creating a community that would help entrepreneurs refine their ideas and marshall them through the startup process would be half of the value in creating this firm.

This firm would have to be completely spun off from the parent company. A key to the Y Combinator is their hands-off approach.

“We try to interfere as little as possible in the startups we fund. We don’t want board seats, rights to participate in future rounds, vetoes over strategic decisions, or any of the other powers investors sometimes require. We offer lots of advice, but we can’t force anyone to take it. We realize that independence is one of the reasons people want to start startups in the first place. And frankly, it’s also one of the reasons startups succeed. Investors who try to control the companies they fund often end up destroying them.” (find everything I quoted at Y Combinator about page)

Will this approach guarantee double digit profit margins and top down control? Extremely unlikely. But if large media companies want to be relevant going forward they’re going to have to adapt and change. Identifying great ideas, the best entrepreneurs, helping them along, creating becoming a part of those companies is a drastic difference from what big media does 

This strategy takes one of their greatest disadvantages, their slowness to adapt and farms it out to the fastest people out there. It’s too bad those large media companies spent the last 15 years using all their cash to buy up other large media companies. If they hadn’t done that they might have some cash laying around. 

Will these new companies cannibalize their existing online operations? Yes, that’s the point. If any other type of organization ran the websites that the large media corporations run as standalone operations they’d be laughed out of business school. They’ve never made any money and I doubt they ever will. 

I loved the hacker journalist meme that ran through the online journalism world (you know, last month) and while it’s awesome that the Chicago Tribune has hired a person the calibre of Brian Boyer, it’s a drop in the bucket. Imagine dozens of companies and thousands of entrepreneurs devoting their time, energy, money and ideas to figuring out this problem. 

There it is. It’s not the best plan but it’s certainly not the worst. What do you think?

#yyc photo tweetup recap

Photo courtesy of Tony Field

By any standard you set it’s safe to say that the #yyc photo tweetup was a success. There was 25 people wiling to come out, drink and discuss a collaborative project with total strangers and we even had money left over to tip the waitress. Never let it be said that the #yyc crowd doesn’t know how to tip. 

Sometimes an idea sounds good in your head and amongst your friends but the real test is pitching it to people who you don’t hang out with on a daily basis.

(If you don’t what I’m talking about check out the yycphotobook website)

The response was amazing and people really stepped it up with solid suggestions. Linda Cunningham and James Tworrow brought up two great ideas, one a launch party the other getting a gallery showing.

The event was meant to act as a forum for people who were interested in the project to ask questions, to find out more and to pitch in with their ideas and suggestions. Sometimes things get lost in translation and if anyone has any more questions at all about the project, pictures, where you fit in etc. do not hesitate to email me.

The yycPhotobook  will show Calgary in a dynamic, different light. It will put a spotlight on the parts of Calgary that wouldn’t necessarily associate with this town. Calgary is a growing, dynamic, changing place and I want to show it. 

D’Arcy Norman described it as a community art project. Another great way to approach the subject. 

During the tweetup I was able to make the logistics clear. You know the fun stuff, the logistics, the contracts, the deadlines etc. This leads to the contract, if you want to participate in the project you will have to submit a signed (either hand or electronically signed) copy of the contract to me before June 25. A publicly available contract will be available this weekend. There will be a very public push once this occurs so if you’re one of those who are interested but couldn’t make it to the tweetup, don’t worry I will make sure you know.

But we couldn’t let all the people who showed up to the tweetup get nothing for their time. In return for being there they get first access to the project. When I finalize the contract (probably tomorrow) the tweetup attendees get the chance to hand it in first. You will get several days to submit the contract before I make the contract available to everyone. 

Can’t wait to see who signs up and see you all at the next one!

Will yycBlogs and the yycPhotobook change Calgary?

After much planning, tweeting, blogging, meetings and other assorted foofaraw yycBlogs and the yycPhotobook are up and running, with websites and everything. 

yycBlogs is an opt-in blog aggregator for Calgary’s blogging community.

yycBlogs wants to be the destination to visit if you blog or read blogs in Calgary. We serve Calgary’s blogging community through aggregation, linking and promotion

The yycPhotobook is a crowdsourced/crowdfunded photobook that will ignore the cliches and show a vibrant, creative Calgary in a different, funkier light. Voici le raison d’etre.

If you could show someone only one picture that displayed the most important part of Calgary, what would you show? Now take that idea with 32 different Calgary-based photographers and what kind of book would you get? That’s what we’re going to find out with this project.

First off I have to give much thanks to the people who are making this possible. yycBlogs is only possible because of the herculean efforts of one Chad Payne. An incredible designer, in the process of getting the site off the ground he has learned pretty much everything anyone would ever want to know about RSS feeds, custom parsers and the Feed API module of Drupal. Connor Turner of Armadillo Studios has been instrumental in the planning of the yycPhotobook and didn’t hesitate to jump in and start helping when I pitched the idea. Thanks to him we have a kickass site and a great designer on board. While the yycPhotobook is still in its nascent stages I’d like to send out an advance thank you to all the wonderful photographers who I know are going to contribute some kickass work. 

Most importantly to me these projects are local. With Sarah Blue wondering if Calgary is on the cusp on the greatness, I just have to quote her. 

I think these next few years could be the tipping point. Now, we all just need to figure out how to do our part so it tips in the direction we want it to. I’m not quite sure how to do that, but I’m working on it.

I’ve grown up in the Global Village (thanks Marshall!) and frankly, it’s not as cool as it sounded back in the ’60s. Don’t get me wrong I’m a card carrying member of said village but lately I’ve been finding so much more value in connecting with people locally. Think about it, you can actually meet them for lunch! There’s way more nutritional value in that than Skyping someone.

For too long Calgary has relied on oil and gas and business acumen to drive it but that reductive, zero sum game type of thinking can only take us so far. Collaboration, openness, transparency, entrepreneurship. These are values and ideas that I’ve come to value and this is why I’ve spearheaded the projects I have. Will these projects change Calgary? Tough to say. I hope so but I’m starting small and I can’t do it without you.

Here’s the obligatory shameless plug.

If you’re a Calgary-based photographer or photo enthusiast come the #yyc photo tweetup. Meet, eat and drink with like-minded folk and contribute to the genesis of the #yycPhotobook. All details are on the Facebook events page. Don’t forget to RSVP. 

If you’re a Calgary-based blogger email me at info@yycblogs.com with your blog feed URL and a link back to yycBlogs and I’ll add you to the site. Check out the site here.

#yyc photo tweetup details [#yyc photobook]

The Purpose

• To meet, drink, eat wings with and network with Calgary based photographers and photography enthusiasts
• A discussion on photographer’s rights
• To pitch the #yyc photobook, a crowdsourced/crowdfunded photobook on Calgary shot by Calgary photographers.

The Particulars

• Date: Monday, May 25th, 2009
• Location: Molly Malones (Click here for map and address)
• Time: 5:30 to meet and chat and we’ll officially start at 6
• Happy Hour until 7 p.m. and according to the always valuable hotwings.ca, the wings are 0.10$ each.

Who is this guy? Photographer’s rights?

I’m Duncan Kinney. I’m a multi-platform journalist who wants to put his money where his mouth is. I think collaboration is going to be one of the most important facets of journalism going forward (to get a brief summary of this idea, check out my last post) and I want to prove it.

I’m a freelancer who occasionally shoots for the Calgary Sun. I’m one of the co-founders behind yycblogs (a local blog aggregator still in development) and I write about local technology for Techvibes.

Photographer’s rights is a subject I’m very keen on and given my experience and research on the subject I hope I’ll be able to impart a few nuggets of wisdom about what your rights as a photographer are.

This tweetup (and don’t worry if you’re not on Twitter, you’re still very welcome) is an important first step in finding out who is interested and who wants to participate in future photo tweetups and the #yyc photobook.

#yyc photobook?

I want to go beyond the cliches, the Saddledome, the Rockies, the Stampede and create a photo book that reflects the talents and interests of those photographers who contribute to the project. We will be using blurb.com for the printing, the designer will be Connor Turner at Armadillo Studios and we’re still working on how to handle the funding.

A basic premise of the project will be that every photographer who contributes content and the money (amount still TBD) will get a book. We’re looking for photographers of all interests, skill levels, ages, races, sexes and so on. We want this book to represent how vibrant and awesome Calgary really is.

You do not have to attend the tweetup to be a part of the #yyc photobook but it will be a way to have your voice heard. We will also go over any questions you have and given the collaborative nature and the early stage this idea is still in I expect and hope there will be many questions.

What’s all this #yyc business?

yyc is the airport code for Calgary. On Twitter it’s convenient shorthand and a way to broadcast that what you’re talking about is relevant to Calgary.

If you have any more questions about the tweetup or the photobook, send me an email at duncankinney@gmail.com or leave a question in the comments.

UPDATE

We now have a Facebook events page. If you’re into that kind of thing.

Future of Journalism panel a starting point for Calgary

The Vicious Circle was home to a panel discussion on the future of journalism. Panel members included columnist Don Braid from the Calgary Herald, David Taras of the U of C and Roger Kondrat (@Roger) of Mighty Mouth Media. The event was organized by Lyn Cadence (@LynCadence) of Cadence PR. 

With the introductions out of the way let’s proceed to the summary. Braid, the 40-year news vet, was illustrative in comparing the present news scape with the super competition amongst the many newspapers in Montreal in the ’70s, Taras, ever the academic, backed up his speech with facts and figures from studies (research and studies? Who uses those?) and Kondrat, a self professed “social media guy” provided an excellent counterpoint to the somewhat greying panel. 

It was refreshing to see Don Braid acknowledge competition and that if you’re good you win, if not you fold. Too often newspapers (especially the dominant dailies) see themselves as too big to fail. 

An unfortunate byproduct of the discussion was the characterization of aggregators as “plunderers” by David Taras. A funny aside was Taras then turning around and saying that he uses those aggregators for personal use. If newspapers really believed that aggregation was illegal they would have sued. I’m not talking about the theft and reposting of entire articles, I’m talking about the art of linking and pointing to quality content. Newspapers have ignored the value that quality aggregation brings to readers at their loss. Ignoring the ecology of the web has characterized the newspapers relationship with the internet and while they are improving (from this meeting I discovered that the Herald does in fact link out, though not in their stories and not to some competitors) it’s still an uphill climb.

There was also the somewhat related blasting of citizen journalists and bloggers as people unfit to join the discussion of journalism. A trope I brought out during the question period was something David Cohn at Spot.us (a crowdfunding journalism startup) has consistently talked and blogged about. It’s a chess analogy; Content is king while collaboration is queen. I may not have explained it in the most eloquent way so I’ve put the link in and quoted it here. 

Some cultural traditions of journalism, however, should be questioned and rethought.

Online: Content is king. I don’t disagree. But collaboration is queen.
In chess the king is the most important, but the queen is the most powerful.

I am idealistic but not ignorant that what will come below goes against the gospel of journalism for the last 50 years. But I also strongly believe it is something that needs to be addressed in our industry, right now, because it is killing the business - and more importantly the reputation of journalism.

A fault of mine was using the word contempt in a question I posed to Don Braid about newspapers collaborating with the citizenry. It was keyed upon by him and subsequent newspaper employees but I felt the question went unanswered while Braid kept talking about sources and only being as good as the people you talk to. This fundamentally misses the point, I wasn’t talking about sources I was talking about the participation that new readers feel is necessary. Journalism is going to be defined by so much more than just who reporters talk to.  

I’d also like to take a moment to completely rule out something that David Taras brought up. Newspapers are not going to become foundations or not-for-profits nor will the government step in and take over. Those kind of charitable foundations have no history in Canada of having any interest in journalism  like they have had in the States and the government operating newspapers or even floating loans to them. Come on, anyone can see the conflict of interest. 

Still, I’d classify the event as a success merely because of the quality of conversation and the topics brought up. We’re not changing the world or creating revolutionary game-changing ideas but for a place like Calgary we need baby steps. Can’t wait for the next one.

Startup School - A Recap

Take Michael J. Sikorksy’s brain and everything he’s learned from the five companies he’s founded, the 17 companies he’s invested in and the countless pitches he’s produced and try to stuff it all in your noggin over two days. It’s a bit like trying to stuff a pig into a turkey. That was Startup School this past weekend. 

I participated with 8 other entrepreneurs and while all had different motivations everyone was looking to learn and grow. 

The process of starting your own business can be intimidating. Share structures, how venture capitalists work, company discovery vs company building, capital efficiency, scale, cap tables, pre-money vs post-money evaluations, how to find investors, how to build a team, advisors, the niceties of boards and on and on. All of this was greek to me prior to Startup School afterwards I knew how far away I was from starting my own projects.

This is the third Startup School under the name but Sikorsky has been coaching entrepreneurs for four years. Unlike some Startup Schools where a couple of billionaires come in to speak and inspire the aim here is to give the participants the base to launch a successful company. Along with the two-day workshop, Michael makes available a host of “files, documents, contracts, spreadsheets, term sheets, grant applications and presentations he has created over his last 12 years (under NDA, and with redacting).”

Super Hyperlocal News

As in news that relates only to me. 

I’m now writing for Techvibes.com: A hyper-local technology blog, events calendar, job board, and company directory across a growing network of 12 cities. If you have a technology event in Calgary or related news drop me a line at (duncankinney at gmail dot com).

I just completed Startup School, a weekend workshop for entrepreneurs run by Michael Sikorsky. I’ll have an article up on the experience by tomorrow on here and Techvibes.

We’re getting ready to debut yycblogs tomorrow at Demo Camp at Seven Restolounge. (I’d link out but the site seems to be down). I’m super excited and can’t wait to get it going. If you have a blog and live in Calgary, drop me an email (duncankinney at gmail dot com) or follow @yycblogs on Twitter.

I Will Help You Set Up A Blog [Bloggy]

Photo Courtesy of Mike Licht

If you are a reporter/photographer/editor/anchor or anyone connected with either the reporting or business end of the news business I will help you set up a blog. 

Why would I do this? Five reasons. 

• I want Calgary to have a more robust blogging community so that yycblogs (a local blog aggregator I’m developing) has more great stuff to link to. 
• I want journalists and those on the business side of journalism to get their fingers dirty and participate in the online conversation. 
• I have a lot of free time. 
• It’s a great networking opportunity. 
• I have launched 4 different blogs and I have a bit of experience in the nuts and bolts back-end stuff. 

Now, you may be asking yourself, “What do I blog about. No one wants to hear me babble on” or some variant of that argument. If you’re a real-live human being I’m willing to bet that you have interests that you are passionate about. Boom, there is one idea for your new blog. Blog about your neighborhood, about a particular issue close to your heart, heck you can even blog about your cat if you really want to.

I will sit down with you and hash out a game plan. I will go over the pluses and minuses of platforms, hosting your own vs. having it hosted by the platform, SEO, linking, blogging etiquette and any other issues you have. 

Send me an email at duncankinney@gmail.com and let’s get it going.

Who Am I?

I was reading Clinton Skakun’s blog last week and came across a tremendous post called Screaming What You Are—Is It Really Necessary? and it inspired me. 

It inspired me to really think about what I was putting in my bio fields on my photography portfolio, my blog and on my various accounts across the social media world. Far too often I would just label myself with title after title. It would usually look like this photographer/blogger/videographer/writer/filmmaker/editor/grip/lamp op/journalist/entrepreneur and on and on into irrelevancy. I was way too focused on titles but a title isn’t going to tell someone who I am it’s what I actually do that’s important. 

If someone asks me what I do and I list off the 12 things that I do do, it’s a bit awkward. Clearly defining who I am, what I can do and what I want to do makes it plain to me and potential clients and employers what I am capable of. 

Here’s what I came up with. This going to evolve but I felt it did an alright job. 

I’m interested in the point where technology, social media, local journalism and geo-location mix. I’m a storyteller, an entrepreneur and a filmmaker.

I’ve Been Everywhere Man [Experience]

Sometimes as a photographer you take for granted the incredible access you get. Luckily you get little keepsakes, press passes, that you collect and then promptly forget about. My press pass collection was sitting on my door handle, I had some time today to check them out.  

• FIS World Cup Halfpipe Snowboard event
• PC Alberta victory celebration after winning the 2008 provincial election
• The Eddies
• The Minto Cup
• Venom at the Snake Pit, MMA event 
• Spruce Meadows 
• Fringe Festival 
• Global Fest 
• Calgary Stampede 

and many more that I didn’t keep, threw away or have no idea what they were after the fact.