PODCAST: On Turning Your Newspaper Into an Agency, and Sports Betting

By Darren Johnson
Campus News

In a new CampusXM podcast, I talk about my experiences with now-legal sports betting in New York, and how that’s different than when I had a bookie in my relative youth.

I almost had to break my bookie’s legs! And then he gave me a car with bad brakes.

Hear about it in the podcast.

And then I talk about Campus News, and how I think the future of newspapers is making them a media “agency.”

They not only are a newspaper, but journalists can also use their skills to perform other tasks.

The problem is, journalists need to become more entrepreneurial and — considering they were taught there’s a wall between editorial and profit — that’s no easy feat.

A newspaper agency could:

• Offer photography/videography services. There are so many unemployed journalists. They know how to use cameras. They can do basic photography at, say, $100 an hour. The agency would keep half.
• Offer ad buying — I talk about my experiences selling ads, for print and TV, and what the difference is. If you broker an ad, you get a 15% agency fee. A big business may buy $100,000 worth of TV time, for example. The agency, for brokering that, would make $15,000. Not chump change.
• Offer social media services. Maybe charge a weekly retainer for $100 a week for small businesses. Most businesses in my town seem to be under-represented on the web. The agency can keep their social media pages vibrant and active.
• Offer writing and editing services. Why not? You have all of these wordsmiths on staff.

I argue it’s worth it to stray from the traditional mission of papers to help fund the overall operation and thus keep its print product alive. It’s better than falling on one’s sword.

If you’d like to hear more of my podcasts, visit CampusXM.com.