New Business Models for News Survey

Fellow bloggers, independent journalists, web site publishers and entrepreneurs, you are the future of local news!

With newspapers and other news organizations finding their businesses rapidly eroding, you are the ones providing your communities with the news and information they need.That’s why I’m asking for your help in developing and defining the new business models and revenue sources that will sustain journalism in the years ahead – and help grow your site.

As a professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, I’m heading the New Business Models for News project, funded by the Knight Foundation. We are reaching out to local websites like yours to gather information and innovative ideas from across the country. We want to bring facts, figures, and business analysis to the debate over the future of journalism.

I ask you to join us in this effort by filling out this simple survey – it should take you only 10 minutes. Your information will be treated confidentially. The data we collect will be used only in the aggregate and will not be associated in any identifiable way with an individual website.

Go here to fill out the survey!

In the coming weeks, we’ll share our ideas and research on the project’s blog and we’ll develop a set of best practices that you can use to increase traffic to your site and enhance your business. Also, please send this survey to your colleagues around the country who are building great, independent local news sites. We want to hear from as many folks as we can.

We all have a stake in making sure journalism has a healthy future and with your help we’ll get there. Again, here’s the link to the survey.

– Jeff Jarvis