Since 2007, thousands of journalists have lost their job. More than 5.000 are currently unemployed. The layoffs in media companies, traditional or not, are constant. There are almost no new job openings, and when they happen, the working conditions are poor. What’s the solution?
In the next BCNMediaLab we want to discuss an option that is increasingly popular among journalists: to become entrepeneurs. Journalists are building online micro news sites, social networks, independent audiovisual production companies, PR and communication agencies… Fortunately, there is a growing.number of examples.
Powerful initiatives like Politico and ProPublica in the US or Cuarto Poder, Periodismo Ciudadano or Bottup in Spain, have shown that the figure of journalist-entrepeneur is possible. Even Jeff Jarvis has launched the Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. Hundreds of journalists are not waiting anymore for the media to provide them with a job. They invent one for themselves.
Is it possible to be a journalist-entrepeneur today in Spain? What kind of knowledge and resources are necessary? Which ideas are more likely to succeed? and to fail? Is it a viable option for anybody, or only for a few?
We have invited four journalists-entrepeneurs to answer this and other questions, and to tell us their own experiences: