Comments on: How to bring a startup culture into the newsroom

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:51:43 +0000

This is pretty good, though I dont think a 5% planning 95% doing is the correct ratio…indeed there is an infamously abundance of time wasted on planning in the corp. world, but let’s be real: what’s the survival ratio of startups in the last 15 years?

History of startups has been to promote with conviction and enthusiasm, and hope you can catch up to your promises in the time between…when stuff starts falling through the cracks, you lose credibility, you lose audience, you lose funding.

planning has been around for thousands of years, it’s a not a new concept…unlike twitter.com.

just sayin

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:41:44 +0000

I’m a person from a startup background working in a newsroom now and I have to say, it’s been a huge, frustrating adjustment. I’m used to shooting an idea back and forth with a handful of people and executing within a couple of days. If it fails, it fails and you try something else. But in the newsroom it’s just meeting after meeting after meeting and almost nothing ever comes of it. We are too management/editor-heavy when what we really need are reporters/content producers.

By: Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:51:18 +0000

Gotta say, this is going on the assumption that the newsroom has enough of the people with right skills and attitude to make a change.

Attitude, seems likely.

Skills not so likely.

By: Mark Briggs

Mark Briggs — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:17:11 +0000

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I just finished an article in the most recent Inc. magazine with Paul Graham on the cover. In it he says: “Running a start-up is like being punched in the face repeatedly. But working for a large company is like being waterboarded.”

If you don’t feel like your company is waterboarding you, you’re probably not meant for a startup. Or the “fail fast, fail often” culture that is needed to reinvent old media companies.

By: Scott Porad

Scott Porad — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:08:47 +0000

Thank you for the very thoughtful post…I’m glad my blog inspired you!

An additional thought regarding the paragraph starting with:

2. We report, you decide: Use the weekly…

reminds me of something I was told recently (although I can’t remember by whom): the key to success in the new media business is experimentation and learning; those who can learn the fastest will win.

By: Jason Preston

Jason Preston — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:18:51 +0000

Startup culture vs corporate culture is one of the reasons that, when industries change, the incumbents usually get replaced by the new players.

The biggest hurdle, though is this:

“the difference between the type of person that chooses to work at corporate jobs vs. those that are drawn to startup companies.”

In many ways, for newspapers to morph and compete in the new marketplace, they need to be able to fire everyone who is a corporate type and hire startup people. Again, easier said than done.

By: Vadim Lavrusik

Vadim Lavrusik — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:01:37 +0000

I agree completely with this. I worked at a college paper that has a very structured and corporate culture (believe it or not). Though planning can be helpful, if the company has a vision and good knowledge of how to best articulate it and bring it to fruition, planning should then serve as a small portion of the days work for all involved. Plus, a lot of times you don’t really know what will work until you try it. It doesn’t matter how much you plan.