Robb Montgomery

Do you think like an entrepreneur? If you have ideas for building future business models for sustainable journalism, you should join me in applying for this free seminar at the USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles.

I just signed up for the offered by the Knight Digital Media Center. Here’s the catch - the week long seminar is free but you have to earn your seat in the classroom by applying by Feb 16.

Vikki Porter, the director of the Knight Digital Media Center e-mailed me via my blog today about promoting this cool camp and I told her that I could only do so if I felt a strong desire to either want to lead a session or be in the class. I read through her course offering and messaged her back that that I wanted to be a student. I have ideas and I need this class.
So I applied.

If you have ideas for building future business models for sustainable journalism, I think you should too. If nothing else, the exercise of completing the helps refine your thinking. You submit your CV, describe your idea for a new business and then answer a few questions like:

Describe your technological/cyberspace strengths and weaknesses including specific skill sets.

Describe and provide examples of your online expertise particularly in content development and in online communities.

Describe the knowledge and experience you bring to the project that uniquely qualifies you to be successful.

That’s it. If you are among the 12 people accepted as a fellow all lodging, meals, training and materials are provided without fee. You do have to pay your own travel expenses.

For a guy like me who runs a non-profit charity and a one-person consultancy, this is the kind of training I can budget for. How about you?
Here’s what they will be teaching. Wish me luck on my application.

The Knight Digital Media Center in partnership with USC Annenberg School for Communication, the Center for Communication Leadership and the Online Journalism Review is accepting applications for its special News Entrepreneur Boot Camp to be held May 16-21, 2009

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, in Los Angeles.

This intense one-week boot camp is designed for 12 competitively selected digital entrepreneurs with great ideas for community news and information initiatives in the public interest.

Topics to be covered include:

Identifying the best business model for sustained success.
Developing a sustainable business plan.
Marketing and audience development.
Content production and management models.
Legal and tax issues.
Identifying capitalization sources.
Developing and implementing revenue and advertising strategies.
Successful social networking models.
Selecting and implementing technical platforms.
Understanding and using metrics.

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Traditional news organizations are floundering as business models collapse and audiences are increasingly turning to alternative news and information sources. This special boot camp is designed for digital journalists and others who are passionate about new ideas for serving the information and news needs of their communities but who lack the grounding in business and startup skills.

Expert faculty from both academia and the private sector will provide intense instruction, coaching and mentoring on developing marketable business plans for providing news and information in the public interest.