Thirty Days Later: Wins And Obstacles From Inside The DNIC
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel
Take a look at (and listen to) the challenges facing the participating DNIC companies
We’re officially one month into the Digital News Innovation Challenge (DNIC)!
The nationwide competition launched a little over a month ago The five companies selected to participate in the competition are well on their way to innovating the journalistic landscape.
Of course, the world won’t see exactly how these startups will disrupt digital news until the program wraps up at the end of September.
But when the DNIC was first announced, as a partnership between Facebook, Ryerson School of Journalism, and DMZ, some heads turned.
The question on a lot of minds was: why is Facebook, a social media platform, involving itself in the future of journalism?
“I don’t believe Facebook started off with the mission to takeover news or be a big player delivering news,” said Uzair Chutani, entrepreneur in residence (EIR) part of the DNIC and previous Facebook employee.
In the last few years that has changed, said Chutani.
“I think Facebook feels an increasing level of responsibility towards ensuring that Facebook is able to do justice to the world of journalism,” said Chutani, adding “I don’t think Facebook has all the answers.”
That’s where the participating companies come in, all of whom are actively benefiting from the unique resources the DNIC has to offer.
“This specific program, having the corporate side of Facebook, the academic side journalism, and the entrepreneurship side of the DMZ is very unique” said EIR Corrine Sandler, who mentors as part of several other accelerator programs.
“I think it will go a long way” said Sandler.
But what about the companies themselves?
Beating out the scores of other applicants to participate in the DNIC is a feat unto itself. Innovating the realm of digital journalism is a far more difficult task.
Rather than tell you, let’s hear straight from the source and hear from the men and women behind the five DNIC companies: The Sprawl, Ground, Readafined, The Gist, and Trebble.fm.
Want to learn more about tomorrow’s future media leaders? Listen to the DNIC podcast found below to learn more about the program, startup updates, and what they’ve accomplished so far in the program.
