Entrepreneurial journalism: sign up for free online course in Spanish on how to monetize and manage digital media

Faced with the crisis of the traditional newspaper industry and thanks to the opportunities offered by digital technologies, new media outlets proliferate on the internet. However, journalist-entrepreneurs face many challenges in their attempts to achieve financial sustainability with digital native media.

In order to help all entrepreneurs in the region solve this problem, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and SembraMedia are offering the online course, in Spanish, “Entrepreneurial Journalism: how to monetize, promote and manage digital media.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN-w6YFo–w&feature=emb_title%20aria-label=Herramientas%20Digitales%20para%20el%20Periodismo%20de%20Datos

Click here to learn more about the course and to register.

This four-week-long MOOC (massive open online course) will be taught in Spanish and has no live activities. Each student can take the course during the days and hours most convenient for themselves, within the four-week time period.

The course “Entrepreneurial Journalism: how to monetize, promote and manage digital media” will be taught by Janine Warner, James Breiner and Mijal Iastrebner from Oct. 17 to Nov. 13, 2016.

The program is designed to teach practical skills to people who are creating, thinking of creating or who have launched digital journalism projects. Instructors will place special emphasis on the following points:

• How to develop a business model.
• How to build value in your business, starting with little investment.
• The importance of diversifying sources of revenue.
• How to develop different sources of revenue that include levels of advertising, sponsorship, membership, and more.
• How to create, measure and study both the audience and the competition.
• How to innovate with your metrics.
• How to create and manage a team.
• How to prepare a budget and manage cash flow of a company.
• And, how to promote your idea.

“I have learned that the best projects are almost always made in a team, so I am very happy to work with the great Knight Center team and with two popular and beloved teachers: ‘Mij’ Iastrebner and James Breiner,” Warner said .

“Using the experiences of previous classes and what we are learning with the creation of the media directory at SembraMedia, we have put together a new version of this class that is even more powerful, so that you can get the most out of it, whether you already have your own project, or if you are thinking of creating one,” she added.

This is the third version of this course offered by the Knight Center with instructor Janine Warner, but this time, she has the participation of two co-instructors.

Warner is a pioneer in digital journalism, the author of 25 books on the subject, a Knight Center instructor, founder of SembraMedia and an ICFJ Knight Fellow. Her experience in media, digital technology and business paved the way for her work as a consultant in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Russia and Asia. She has taught at the universities of Miami and Southern California (USC). She was director of operations at MiamiHerald.com. In 2013, she was instructor of a Knight Center MOOC that had more than 5,000 participants and content similar to this course: “Development of journalistic projects for the web.”

Breiner is visiting professor of communication at the University of Navarra in Spain and consultant in digital journalism, with specialties in journalism entrepreneurship. He has consulted for Poynter Institute, Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism, the International Center for Journalists, Bizjournals and Crain Communications. In 2015, he and Warner taught an online course for the Knight Center on “Entrepreneurial Journalism.” The course was a big online course (BOC) with more advanced topics on development of digital projects and had a limited number of students.

“Journalists from Latin America encouraged me over the years to create my first classes on entrepreneurial journalism. I hope to return the favor: that the lessons will inspire them to launch the media outlet or innovation of their dreams,” Breiner said.

Iastrebner is a journalist by profession, but has worked with entrepreneurs for more than a decade. In 2010, she founded the magazine Cultra after winning the contest award as part of Desafío Joven (Youth Challenge). She is co-founder and regional director of SembraMedia, and professor and creator of materials of Journalistic Ventures (2014 to present) of the TEA Journalism School and the University of San Andrés in Argentina. This is the first online course that she will teach with the Knight Center.

“A little less than two years ago, I was a student of this wonderful course with Janine and James, and it really changed my life,” Iastrebner said. “I believe that one of the strengths is the course forum. Exchanging experiences, I met many other entrepreneurs whose projects continue today.”

“The Knight Center team is very happy to launch this initiative with SembraMedia, an organization Janine Warner created just after teaching similar courses through our platform journalismcourses.org and after being inspired by these programs,” said Professor Rosental Alves, founder and director of the Knight Center. “The quality of this course greatly benefits from the work of Janine, Mijal and James at SembraMedia, where they have contact with journalist-entrepreneurs of all Spanish-speaking countries.”

The course will have the same format of other Knight Center MOOCs. It will be divided into weekly modules and is asynchronous, meaning it has no live activities.

Although each participant can take the course in the days and hours that suit them, there are a number of activities stipulated for each week, like video classes, required readings, participation in discussion forums and quizzes at the end of each module.

This Knight Center course is free, but participants who are interested in receiving a certificate of completion must pay an administrative fee of US $30. The certificate will be available for download in PDF after a review process is done by the Knight Center to ensure the student met the requirements. No formal college credit is associated with this certificate.

SembraMedia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and quality of content in Spanish and helping digital media entrepreneurs to become more successful and sustainable. One of its objectives is to form a community that represents the new voices of journalism. To do this, it is creating a comprehensive directory of digital media and is presenting online classes. It was created in 2015 by Professor Janine Warner, ICFJ Knight Fellow, and Professor Mijal Iastrebner, acting director of SembraMedia.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created in 2002 by Professor Rosental Alves, Knight Chair in Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. The Knight Center’s distance learning program continues with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas and other donors; as well as income from registration fees and the issuance of certificates. Since 2012, the MOOCs and other online journalism courses from the Knight Center have reached more than 75,000 people from 169 countries.