The MEDIA AND DIGITAL ENTERPRISE (MADE) Project

“Starting up a new media enterprise is pretty straightforward; keeping it up is much more complex. And that’s the key challenge the MADE project will tackle,” says project initiator François Nel of the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, UK.  Working in collaboration with developers at ScaperWiki.com,  UCLan’s award-winning Northern Lights business incubation support team and the Digital Editors Network, the MADE project aims to equip digital entrepreneurs  from Europe and the Middle East with the cutting-edge knowledge and skills required to start up innovative new journalistic enterprises in the public interest - as well as with competencies and the networks that are essential to sustain them.

In particular, this innovative training, mentoring and research programme will work to create sustainable news enterprises - whether for social or commercial purposes – by helping innovators:

• develop compelling content by using advanced data journalism tools and techniques;
• engage communities through a range of social media technologies, informed by an understanding of online market intelligence;
• build commercial strategies that consider a variety of direct and indirect revenue streams;
• manage teams and resources effectively and efficiently;
• continue their learning by sharing their experiences with others through the project reports and by actively participating in professional networks;
• disseminate the learning to thousands of other potential news innovators through the project reports and presentations.

Nel, who also helped start up both the Journalism Leaders Programme at UCLan and Digital Editors Network (UK), outlined the key activities that the MADE project will deliver during 2012:

• News Entrepreneurship Workshops in the UK and Turkey that will equip up to 60 participants (30 in each of the two regions) with both advanced data journalism skills and core business competencies through intensive, hands-on training workshops.
• Enterprise Development Mentoring for up to 10 high-potential projects.  At the conclusion of the workshops, up to five ventures in each region will be able to apply for up to three months of on-going business incubation and software develop support from Northern Lights and ScraperWiki. “Our aim is to help give some of the best ideas the legs they need to run,” said Nel.
• The MADE Project research and reports, which will be widely shared through the project website, the trade press and presentations to professional forums (Note: speaking invitations are most welcome).  The project process and outcomes will be critically evaluated and reported on by the project team and the participants, who will be expected to contribute to these reports.  The full report, which will include case studies of the mentored projects, will be freely available.

To find out more about how you can participate in The MADE Project, contact François Nel at FPNel(at)uclan.ac.uk, on Twitter @francoisnel. 
Further details will also be posted on the Digital Editors Network blog at www.digitaleditorsnetwork.blogspot.com.