Discussion on Media and Entrepreneurship in Digital Era

 

The Unlock Series Opens Discussions on 

Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era

By  Dipti Kumar, Prem Shanker, Vinoth Poovalingam, Honorary Secretaries

On 7th August 2022, Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) launched the Unlock Series, exploring topics of interest in the digital media era. The first of the series was a conversation on Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era with K.N. Arun, a professor of Media Studies at The Asian College of Journalism, Pratiba Raman, an independent digital journalist, Ramanathan Subramaniam, Head of Revenue and Product for The News Minute, and Vinoth Poovalingam, Founder of Hocalwire. The programme was moderated by Prem Shankar and Dipti Kumar, Honorary Secretaries of DiJAI. 

The audience for this discussion was a mix of mid-level career professionals looking to enter the entrepreneurial space in digital news media and seasoned journalists looking to startup. Over 60,000 startups are operational in India and while they are in different stages of development, the onus on digital news media startups is to identify audiences, create compelling content, and crack the delivery mechanisms to build a sustainable revenue stream. 

Several digital news media outlets like The News Minute, YourStory, The Better India, NewsLaundry, The Quint have emerged as a result of breaking away from the media conglomerates and forging a new, albeit tougher road to success. Tougher because audience selection is critical to content creation and dissemination. Breaking away from mainstream media outlets provides freedom to create, but also opens up doubts on resources to get good content that would drive engagement. Keeping a small team is not a bad idea. 

“Staying lean is extremely important,” said Ram, adding that it’s prudent to start “slow and small.” 

K.N. Arun helped ACJ construct the entrepreneurial journalism course to equip students in making it in the “business” of news. He reiterated that students are taught how to identify the “existing ecology and the gaps…then identify the audience gaps and know what content works.”

But the question remains- how do you know what content works?

Vinoth shared examples for tools from Google Analytics to trademarked data processing platforms to understand audience demographics, consumption patterns, underscoring the importance of investing wisely in the early days of an entrepreneurial venture. Technology is an equal player in the success of a business and with over 70 percent of web traffic to a website originating on either Google or Facebook, the relationship of technological investment to marketing success is a close one indeed. Using the right technology can serve as a marker to identifying audience personas. 

While independent news startups are cash strapped and will often dip into personal savings and or goodwill of supporters, the commercials of running a business is pegged on positive revenue. Despite donations or paywalls and exclusive offers, Pratiba highlighted that a subscription to an entertainment website or an e-commerce page happens more easily than news websites. She noted that the collective opinion among Gen Z is that news is unattractive. The realization marked an important step for her own entrepreneurial journey toward building Newssence, news posts published on Instagram. 

Revenue is a top priority and Pratiba highlighted the importance of partnerships to help grow revenue. Pratiba’s venture into independent consulting work has been a learning curve on understanding the dynamics of different partnerships and tapping into the specific areas of the client’s CTA to yield profits. 

Ram emphasized that engagement is the true metric to assess success of a startup. While page clicks, reach, and traffic are lucrative, the impact of those don’t necessarily transform to actual money in the bank. 

The four key takeaways for anyone looking to explore news media entrepreneurship would be:

• Stay lean in your venture

• Metrics matter- invest in technology 

• Know your USP/audience- nail down the specific audience your venture will impact

• You matter

The DIJAI team looks forward to bringing more such open discussions and expert opinions for the benefit of the Digital Journalism Community.

The full proceedings of this discussion can be watched at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYVmzu2SQE 

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Conclave on "Digital Transformation : A Reality" jointly with MMA

The Madras Management Association (MMA) and Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) organised a Conclave on "Digital Transformation: A Reality on Saturday, November 2^nd 2019.  Many eminent experts and speakers shared their views. The event was webcast live by MMA.

The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions where eminent speakers and professionals shared their knowledge with the audience. 

The final session was a Panel Discussion conducted on the topic "Challenges and Opportunities in Digital Space".  Dr D Janakiram, Professor of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was the moderator.   Six eminent experts from different domains shared their views.

The Vote of Thanks was rendered by Bharathi Thamizhan, President, DiJAI

The messages by the dignitaries and the proceedings of the Panel Discussion are shared in the following video recording links:

Inaugural Session:

Group Captain Vijayakumar, Executive Director, MMA (Welcome Address)

and Prime Point Srinivasan, Chairman, DiJAI (Introductory Message):

https://youtu.be/O6JxtXS-qkA

Manikandan Thangarathnam, Director, Software App Store, Amazon Development Centre, India (Special Address):  https://youtu.be/XBRxVRrhX0M

B Srinivasan, Managing Director, Vikatan Group of publications:

https://youtu.be/MQUsjaUTw20

Technical Sessions:

Geetika Rustagi, Google News Lab: https://youtu.be/cfSWvWrx474

Ankit Lal, social media strategist and campaign consultant for political parties:

https://youtu.be/ot3EFjG1fL0

N Balaji, Partner of Africa India Middle East Advisory Services:

https://youtu.be/jx2-V9nZ6pY

Panel discussion: https://youtu.be/V4brjTNZUes

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How to write for Digital media - Presentation by Prime Point Srinivasan

Anna University organised a three-day workshop on "Writing for Media" from 5th October 2017 to 7th October 2017.  In this unique workshop, professionals from different segments like Print Media, Television Media, Cinema, Researchers, etc. shared their views.  Media Science students of the University were the participants. 

Prime Point Srinivasan, Founder of the Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) made a presentation on "How to write for Digital Media"   During his speech, Srinivasan explained the difference between writing for conventional media and digital media, including the reading habits and expectations of readers.  He also gave tips to make the articles scannable and readable in the screen.  

Dr. Arutselvan, Asst. Professor of Media Science Department organised this workshop.  The ppt presentation by Srinivasan is embedded here.

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Fundamentals of Digital Journalism - Workshop at Soka Ikeda College - 12th Sep 2017

A workshop for 90 minutes was held at Sokda Ikeda Arts and Science College for women on Tuesday, the 12th September 2017.  The  purpose of the workshop was to educate the student members on the steps to be followed for writing an article.

Dr R Jagannathan, President of the Management Committee of the College also participated.  Bharathi Thamizhan, President of DiJAI interacted with the students on the current trends in digital journalism and the expectations of the readers.

K. Srinivasan, Founder Chairman of DiJAI made a presentation on the three steps to be followed while writing an article.  He also made announcement of the Mentoring Scheme for the student Members.

The power point presentation made by K. Srinivasan

Fundamentals of digital journalism from Prime Point Foundation, Chennai

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Sree Sreenivation cautions journalists about the storm that may change the journalism

Digital Journalism Association of India (DiJAI) organised an interactive session with Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, Columbia School of Journalism, New York at Chennai Press Club on 13th August 2016. During his discussion, he cautioned all the working journalists and the students about the storm that may change the journalism itself at one point of time. 

He informed that more than 15000 journalists have lost their job in the print media in US.  He said, Digital Journalism is growing at fast rate.  He requested all to get ready for the changes and be prepared by adopting to new skills.

Prime Point Srinivasan, Managing Trustee and Chairman of DiJAI said that in India 'DIgital only' journalism was growing fast. These digital news media offer the information in a fastest manner.  But Srinivasan regretted that these 'Digital only'  journalists were not recognised by the Government and other Authorities.  Prof. Sree agreed with this observation and said that they faced the same situation few years ago in western world.  Now the other countries give due recognition to the digital journalism.  He suggested that the bodies like DiJAI should take up with the Government Authorities and convince them.  

He also touched on varied areas like the current trends in journalism, the urgent need for acquiring new skills, revenue model for digital journalism, etc. 

The programme was organised by Bharathi Thamizhan (President of DiJAI) and Nurullah (Vice President of DiJAI) at the Press Club.  Susan Koshy, Secretary proposed vote of thanks.  Many senior journalists and students attended the session.

DiJAI plans similar sessions at various educational institutions to create awareness about digital journalism and to get ready for the changes. 

All the photographs can be viewed and downloaded form this link.

https://goo.gl/photos/6cybrNnp9zoEBAy86

Please listen to a brief podcast of 9 minutes covering important aspects of his speech. 

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Interactive session with Prof. Sree Sreenivasan on Emerging trends in social media and digital journalism

Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) organises an interactive session with Sree Sreenivasan,(internationally well known social media and digital evangelist and Technology Journalist based at New York) on Saturday, 13th August 2016 at 10.30 am  at Chennai Press Club.  

Working journalists and digital journalists may participate.  Since the seats are limited, please confirm participation through SMS or WhatsApp to Prime Point Srinivasan over 9176650273.  No participation fee. Only confirmation is needed. 

Please also share this information for the benefit of all journalism students and working journalists.   You may also kindly share with journalism faculty members of other colleges.

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