Layout 2 - University of Central Lancashire

Creating a new generation
of digital entrepreneurs
Journalism and the internet have a complicated
relationship. While opening up the world to
news content and sources it has been blamed
for much of the decline in revenues at news
organisations.
Finding a way to break that decline is the aim of
François Nel, a Senior Lecturer from UCLan’s
School of Journalism, Media and Communication.
And in the International Press Institute’s News
Innovation Contest 2011, the UCLan academic
was named one of three winners, supported by
a grant from Google, to launch his Media And
Digital Enterprise (MADE) project.
Project MADE, aimed at embracing the web and
looking at ways to make digital journalism
projects sustainable, beat off competition from
300 other projects.
MADE will share a $600,000 grant and aims to
equip digital entrepreneurs from Europe and the
Middle East with the cutting-edge knowledge
and skills required to start up and expand
innovative new journalistic enterprises in the
public interest.
Working in collaboration with developers at
ScaperWiki.com, online community
management experts Talk About Local, UCLan’s
award-winning Northern Lights business
incubation support team, and the Digital Editors
Network, the MADE project will help innovators
to develop compelling content, engage
communities and build commercial strategies
to make them sustainable.
The three-phase project will, in the first instance,
offer up to 60 news entrepreneurs in the UK
and Turkey training in data-driven journalism,
online community engagement and digital
business development. In the second phase,
10 high-potential entrepreneurs will be selected
for specific software and business development
support, as well as mentoring. Finally, the
experiences of the project participants will be
shared through detailed case study reports and
presentations at networking events.
Commenting on the initiative, Project Leader
François Nel said: “With easy access to new and
cheap technology, starting up a new media
enterprise is pretty straightforward; keeping it
up is much more complex. And that’s the key
challenge MADE will tackle. Of course, UCLan is
home to the UK's oldest journalism programme
and has been working to help industry
worldwide address some of its key challenges
for almost 50 years now. This project is another
example of our commitment to supporting the
global news industry as it changes and evolves.”
The International Press Institute (IPI), in line with
its commitment to defending press freedom and
promoting the quality of journalism worldwide,
launched the IPI News Innovation Contest with
a grant from Google in 2010.
The process of selecting the winners was very
rigorous. More than 300 applications were
whittled down to 74 and then, in a second
round, to 26 finalists.
“The contest, a first of its kind for the 61-yearold
IPI, is in line with the organisation’s
commitment to defending press freedom and
promoting the quality of journalism worldwide,”
said IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel
McKenzie, who was on the review panel.
François added: "I'm really looking forward to
linking with others who are committed to
building innovative, sustainable digital news
enterprises. Our aim is to create a blueprint which
can help sustain the industry in the long term."
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