Two AHCJ members are among the inaugural class of the Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp.
Nancy Shute, a contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report, and Michael McCarthy, editor of Seattle-based LocalHealthGuideOnline.com, will join 13 other journalists in Los Angeles for a week of training in audience development, market research, legal issues, entrepreneurial decision-making and business practices and management.
Shute says she is “excited about this chance to test new entrepreneurial models for delivering high-quality health and medical journalism. Maybe MySpace is the best place to reach 12-year-olds on Ritalin, and maybe mommy blogs are the best places to reach their moms. This is an experiment, and one that might never get off the ground. But isn’t all journalism an experiment these days.”
The program is intended to prepare journalists to develop and launch new and sustainable news and information services in the public’s interest. More than 120 journalists applied for the program.
“Interest in health news is high, but many of the traditional sources of health news are in trouble and shutting down. But it’s not clear how online news sources are going to make money,” McCarthy says.
“The workshop offers me the chance to sit down with some no-nonsense business people who know how startups work and thrash out a business plan, business model, that has some chance of success.”
