My Entrepreneurial Journalism Program, 4 months later
What I learnt and what I’m doing now
It began as a conference on the future of journalism, a bit of a wait at the end to meet a respected colleague and snatch some advice. My EJCP adventure too began like that, like all the best opportunities I have had. My colleague, Valerio Bassan and gave me advice in the form of an acronym: CUNY, the City University of New York. The faculty of guru Jeff Jarvis, one of the very few in the world to offer a course in “Entrepreneurial Journalism.” A sort of gym for news startups, where new business models for journalism are studied, as well as strategies for making online revenues and involving readers. Just what I was looking for.
To get in, I took pointers from two Italians who had already succeeded in the past, Valerio and Elisabetta Tola, then a month of late-night efforts to prepare the application and a lot of luck. Well, it happened: in March 1 was admitted to Cuny’s Entrepreneurial Journalism Creator Program along with 31 professionals from 15 countries, of all ages and backgrounds. From the Indian engineer-reporter to the Lebanese journalist-developer to the African and American talents: a group of outstanding people who opened my mind and that I now have the privilege to call ‘friends.’
Here we are today. Today is four months since the last lesson. Just the right distance to take stock.
Spoiler: I got a new job
On June 30th my career changed suddenly: I finished my training at CUNY and my experience with Specchio dei tempi and Specchio d’Italia, the charitable foundations where I was in charge of digital activities for two years. On July 1st I returned to work at Gedi as social brand manager of La
Stampa.
Gedi is the country’s leading publishing group, the one where I grew up. La Stampa is my hometown newspaper, the one where I first learned to read, and then to write, as a sports reporter. My new job is a wonderful challenge, in the heart of digital transformation. I manage content strategy and production, dealing with the newsroom and Gedi Digital data analysts and marketers too.
100 days of school
The Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program (EJCP) is a practical, remote course with interactive lectures, seminars, and small group meetings. It lasts 100 days and is designed for workers. The aim is to help existing start-ups find sustainability and encourage journalists to innovate in the media by starting new businesses.
During the quarter they invite you to develop a personal project, and I threw myself into Undici.org: a newsletter on Italian women’s football, to tell stories, raise funds and support a team of girls in difficulty. It is a dream that combines all my passions and that I have put aside for now to concentrate on my new adventure at La Stampa.
A path to the future
A lot of what I have listened to in the program should be cultivated in the coming months and I hope it will bear fruit. I’m thinking of Ariel Zirulnick’s lectures on how to build a membership program, Amanda McLoughlin’s on how to turn a hobby into a storytelling company for Netflix. I have been taking courses in digital marketing, project management, and media innovation for a few years now, but I had never found anything as specific as the EJCP. I would like to continue studying these subjects and I think they are my path.
The standard of the lecturers I met is very high. To give an idea: we started with Anita Zielina, journalist and entrepreneur, an institution of “product development” for the news industry. We ended with Dan Oshinsky, the leading expert on newsletters for newspapers. In the group sessions I was able to meet with Pit Gottschalk, who writes one of the most widely read
newsletters in Germany. The mentor they entrusted me to, on the other hand, is a Pulitzer Prize winner: Jan Schaffer, a wise and resolute woman who teaches you something with every word. She helped me to have courage and to look much, much further ahead.
For three months I followed the lessons from home and it felt incredible to be in a virtual classroom with people connected from all over the world. I learned to keep a date with myself and my future, despite the urgencies of work. I found myself between finishing one assignment and starting another, a hellish time. Somehow I still managed to lock in that training time and concentrate well by switching off the rest. I hope to always remind myself: it can be done!
Ten things that have stayed in my head
I didn’t get bored for a second because the lectures were impeccably prepared and hosted on the best platforms. Proof that distance learning can work, you just have to use the right technology.
The material they left us is easy to consult, beautiful, tidy. I am going through it again in these weeks, because in the spring I was not able to read as much as I would have liked. And because at CUNY they changed my thinking: they taught me that “it’s OK,” we are fragile and full of demands, we don’t have to get upset and feel guilty if we can’t finish. There is always time to catch up, to add, to improve. The important thing is to prioritize. And then start: “Better done than perfect.”
I had come across this phrase in several books on productivity and time management. But these ideas, and certain mechanisms, have to be internalized: like when you move from studied grammar to the ability to translate and speak a language.
That is why I am sure I learned so much at CUNY. Because several times a day, when faced with a problem or a choice, I find myself repeating, to myself, one of the most important lessons I have received. Here they are.
- Going from 1 to 2 is much easier than going from 0 to 1. Start, don’t procrastinate!
- Your time is limited. Your calendar must reflect your priorities and values, professional and personal.
- Constantly ask yourself: what can I stop doing?
- Your satisfaction and growth depend on only one quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix: important-not urgent. Every day you have to work for this quadrant.
5. Move away from passive-aggressive people and toxic situations. Do not do or suffer micro-management.
6. Divide a big goal into small tasks. And mark them on your calendar. If your to-do list doesn’t intersect with your agenda, it’s no use.
7. People are willing to pay a lot more than you think. Ask.
8. Take care of yourself: listen to your emotions and remember that creativity needs rest. Mental health is very important and the risk of burn-out for startups is very high.
9. Product, community and sustainability are intertwined. Everyone thinks about how to sell subscriptions, but sustainability starts much earlier: from product development.
10. A product works if it meets the needs of a community. Constantly ask yourself: Who am I serving? What value am I bringing to my target audience through my product?
Two thanks and one unforgettable person
Thank you to Meta, who offered me a scholarship from the Facebook Journalism Project, and fully covered the costs of my course. Thanks to James Morgan and Virginia Giammaria, and to the American and European teams who supported me. It was so simple: I sent an email, they
made me welcome. Wow.
Thanks to Jeremy Caplan, the director and the soul of the course. I had amazing professors in high school, a couple at university and I didn’t think it could happen again. It did. Jeremy is the nerdy friend everyone wishes they had (sign up for his Wonder Tools newsletter), the one who always
recommends the right software. He is a generous journalist and entrepreneur, ready to share his contacts, his time and his advice. One who explains with facts that “feedback is a gift.” One born to teach, who at the last lesson is moved and gets an applause from “The Dead Poet’s Society.”
Because he deserves it.
