Why Splice is building a service to cover the transformation of newsrooms in Asia
I’ve been hammering at this for a while. Now, with a seed grant from Facebook, I’m able to make this happen.
Here’s the problem statement: There’s no service in Asia that captures the transformation of newsrooms in the region — there’s no “Nieman Lab” for Asia. There are no equivalents to Journalism.co.uk, Digiday or Poynter here.
And without such a service, we don’t have insights around best practices, newsroom strategies and case studies.
There’s no perspective on innovation in Asia’s newsrooms, no showcase for emerging talent or resources for funding opportunities. Many have also argued that the region doesn’t even have compelling conferences that capture the unique problems and opportunities of Asia’s newsrooms.
- What are the most progressive newsrooms in Asia?
- What are their best practices in audience engagement?
- What are the new business models in media?
- What are new revenue streams that show promise?
- Who are the leaders of change in newsrooms?
- Who are the upcoming young journalists in this space?
- What are the media startups to watch?
I’m going to take a stab at solving that; to build a media business to cover the transformation of the news industry in Asia.
These are the customer segments I want to serve:
For media executives:
Case studies on strategic transformations, best practices in newsroom operations, industry trends, talent profiles.
For journalists:
Resources for pitching, tools, training, funding opportunities, talent profiles.
For media development NGOs:
Funding opportunities, case studies, newsrooms to support, industry trends.
For media startup entrepreneurs:
Insights to newsrooms, networking, potential customers.
For tech companies:
Industry trends, insights to newsrooms, networking, potential customers.
For academia:
Industry trends, future jobs, talent profiles.
Formats will include articles, white papers, podcasts, and events. The first two months will be spent building a website and filling it with great content.
Looking ahead into the end of our first year, our brag sheet wouldn’t be about page views. We will measure success on our ability to build and serve a niche community of media professionals — how we’re keeping the community informed, how we’re driving the transformation of newsrooms and how we’re part of the discussion on the future jobs needed in the service of journalism. We’ll focus on subscribers — not anonymous, mass numbers, but people we know and can add value to.
Do you see a part for you at Splice? We’re looking for editors and writers to get things moving for the rest of the year. We’ll obviously need more than that for 2018 and I’d like to hear how you can be a part of that.
We’re also looking for funds to take this further, so if that’s your thing, let’s talk; I have a pitch that I know will excite you.
Reach me here: alansoon@thesplicenewsroom.com.
