My Top 4 Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program

EJCP Cohort 5’s 35 journalism entrepreneurs from across the world

To supercharge my passion project to support family caregivers of people suffering from debilitating chronic illnesses like ME/CFS and Long COVID, I applied to the CUNY Newmark J-School’s 100-day program for Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators last fall. I was thrilled to be accepted and joined 34 other journalism entrepreneurs based in 19 different countries around the world for the 5th cohort of the fellowship program.

While I knew the program was well-regarded, I wasn’t sure how much I’d learn since I’ve already had exposure to a lot of entrepreneurial, product development, marketing, and content strategy thinking over the last 30 years of my career as a journalist, content marketing director, content strategy leader, and online content product manager, as well as a leader at nonprofit organizations.

Now, 100 days later, I can see how the program has given me more confidence to take action on my passion project, which has been sitting on my backburner for the past few years. I’ve been wanting to expand on the support group I’ve been leading over the past four years for partner caregivers of people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The illness causes deep, unrelenting fatigue that’s worsened by physical or mental exertion, and accompanied by a range of other debilitating symptoms. There is no cure yet for the 17–24 million people who have ME/CFS, and most are unable to work. Now millions of people with Long COVID are suffering from the same debilitating symptoms. Recently caregivers of people with Long COVID have joined our monthly video conference meetups.

Over the 100-day program, I deepened my knowledge of how to launch and sustain a new business, was inspired by others who have already gone down the challenging path of entrepreneurism, and discovered a community of like-minded content creators who want to build meaningful ventures to make an impact on the world. EJCP director Jeremy Caplan has created a strong curriculum, assembled an all-star crew of instructors and speakers, and answered questions with a warm, generous spirit.

Our instructors and guest lecturers — all successful journalism entrepreneurs and/or newsroom leaders — discussed lessons learned from launching their own ventures. They outlined best practices in product development, community engagement, membership models, audience revenue models, newsletter strategy, podcast creation, and creating pitch decks.

Top lessons I’ve learned from the program:

1. Importance of audience surveys
   Since I’m in my venture’s target audience of caregivers, I had assumed I know what content will resonate and thought I could skip conducting an audience survey. Instructors like Anita Li, founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of The Green Line, and speakers like Bola Awoniyi, co-founder and COO of Black Ballad, made me realize I can use audience surveys to do more than guide my content creation strategy. Audience survey results can also be used for marketing, partnership projects, and potentially new revenue streams.
2. Soft launch vs. big bang launch
   Before the program, I was gearing up for a “big bang” launch and was stressed about all the content, services, and functionality I wanted to build. Anita Li talked about a “soft launch” approach. So during the program I “soft launched” my monthly email newsletter using my Google Groups email list. I will eventually transition to using an email service provider, where I can track newsletter engagement metrics. For the website, I plan to do a soft launch with a few splash pages before building out the site on a more robust platform, just as Anita did for her venture.
3. The importance of building community and engagement
   As a former B2C and B2B content marketing director, I initially focused on creating content strategies to build audience reach. After hearing instructors Ariel Zirulnick, senior editor for community engagement at Southern California Public Radio, Amanda McLoughlin, founder/CEO of the Multitude, and Eric Silver, head of creative of the Multitude, talk about community and membership programs, I realized I also need to focus on community engagement. It dawned on me that I’ve always loved bringing people together throughout my life. That’s because I know the power of community can be life-changing, as I’ve seen in the support group I lead and other nonprofit organizations I’ve been involved with. Now I want to measure success not only in traditional digital marketing KPIs such as PVs and UUs, but also with meaningful community and engagement KPIs, such as user satisfaction, referrals, and partnerships we develop across ME/CFS/Long COVID chronic illness and caregiving communities.
4. The need to sustain my mental health and create a support network for my journey as an entrepreneur
   I’ve heard from other entrepreneurs that the biggest personal growth challenge is to start your own business. There is much to learn, and there will be experiments and failures that test your commitment and resolve. You need to be able to ride the rollercoaster of ups and downs. Over the last few weeks of the program, we heard from alumni who spoke candidly about their mental health challenges as entrepreneurs who care passionately about their ventures. This deeply resonated with me, as I have tended to be a workaholic throughout my career because I have cared so much about my projects and co-workers. I now realize I need to invest in self-care practices to avoid burnout, especially since I am so passionate about helping family caregivers and can easily work around the clock. I also plan to intentionally create my own network of colleagues, advisors, and mentors to support my journey as an entrepreneur. As part of this, I’m helping plan a monthly meetup with other EJCP cohort fellows from across the world, so we can continue to support each other’s efforts.

I am deeply grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and the personal connections I’ve made during the EJCP fellowship program. If you are considering launching a journalism entrepreneurial venture, I highly recommend this stellar program.