And they're off! News entrepreneurs nominated for the (first) MADE:UK Startup Weekend

This much is clear: the participants selected for the MADE: UK Startup Weekend aren't cowards. 

Starting up a new business is never easy. But starting up a new media enterprise in the midst of what is some argue is the most severe economic downturn in recent memory takes real chutzpah. 

"That shone through all of the more than 90 expressions of interest that came from around the UK and as far afield as Eastern Europe, Africa, US and the Middle East," said MADE director  François Nel."Choosing amongst them was certainly not straightforward. But in the in end, we whittled the number down to 30. And they are all particularly talented. And diverse." 

Here are some of the key numbers:

• 50 is percentage who have journalistic experience in the mainstream media
• 42 is the percentage of women
• 38 to 1 is the range of years of work experience in fields that include IT, film making, tourism management, art curating, public relations, marketing and education
• 21 is the average years that the professional journalists have plied their trade 
• 8 is the percentage of participants from outside the UK
• 100 is the number of exceptionally creative individuals who plan to meet up from June 15-17 to spend 48 (or so) hours in the Media Factory in Preston with the express aim of working together to find innovative ways to build sustainable news enterprises.

At the end of the weekend, three to five projects will be selected for the MADE Hothouse, a 12-week business incubation support programme. 

In addition, the MADE participants will also have the opportunity to take part in DJCamp2012, a two-day data journalism workshop in September, that will be led by Paul Bradshaw  and the team from Scraperwiki. "If there are some extra spaces available, we'll open up the workshop to others," said Nel. 

While the discussions during MADE Startup Weekend will be subject to the Chatham House Rule ("We need to have a safe space for entrepreneurs to share sensitive information in confidence," said Nel), participants are being encouraged to share their own stories.

Throughout, the project activities are also be researched and, in the end, the team aim to share their findings in a series of MADE Insight Reports, said Nel. "We're doing our best to use the grant we got from winning the International Press Institute's inaugural News Innovation Contest to help as many news startup as we can to stay up."

 

The MADE: UK  2012 Project Participants are: 

Rachel	Matthews
Stuart	Goulden
Alan	Qualtrough
Isah	Momoh
Gemma	Collins
James	Oldfield
Jenny	Shepherd
Angie	Sammons
Paul	Brotherton
Chris	McCormack
Michael	Niskin
Anne	Gould
Claire	Miller
Mary Ann	Sieghart
Glenn	McMahon
Melissa	Allison-Forbes
Phil	Creighton
Christopher	Litherland
Michael	Brightman
Alison	Smith
Anthony	Beswick
Scott	Heslop
Simon	Perry
Jonathan	Frost
Mary-Ann	Horley
Rebecca	Stasko
John	Baron

The first call for participation in the MADE:Turkey Startup Weekend is expected to go out in the coming month.

Who's talking about MADE?

Here's some of what the industry press is saying about UCLan MADE:

Hold the Front Page - University to host masterclasses for journalism entrepreneurs

How-Do.co.uk - UCLan seeks entrepreneurial journalists for startup weekend

Press Gazette - News project to help journalism startups

as well as introducing MADE to the wider conversation about entrepreneurship in journalism:

Saddleworth News founder explains why hyperlocal doesn't pay

"I'm a journalist, not a salesman," writes Jones. "And I found selling ads on Saddleworth News difficult. Despite my site's reach of more than 20,000 unique users per month in an area of only 24,000 people, it was hard to persuade the butcher and the baker of the value of taking an ad: much easier for them to do what they've always done and use the glossy magazines or the daily paper.

These are exactly the sort of problems MADE was set up to deal with. If you're a hyperlocal news site and finding it hard to monetise your content then speak to us.

How to apply for the MADE: UK Weekend for media startups and get into the MADE: Hothouse

MADE is looking for creative, motivated communicators who want to start or grow digital news enterprises for civic, educational or commercial purposes.

In June, we kick off with a 48-hour MADE: UK Weekend for media startups for up to 30 news entrepreneurs from anywhere in Europe with creative flair, energy and ability coupled with a willingness to learn. Successful applicants will work with a team of mentors including the cream of digital talent from ScraperWiki, Talk About Local and UCLan’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication and Northern Lights’ business support team.

The MADE: UK Startup Weekend will run from 5pm on Friday, 15 June to 5pm on Sunday, 17 June in the Sandbox at the Media Factory, UCLan’s creative and digital industries centre in Preston.  

(The MADE: Turkey Weekend for media startups is being planned for the Autumn in Istanbul. If you’d like to be kept in the loop, please add your contact details here)

Following the Startup Weekend, up to five projects will be invited to join the the MADE Hothouse, a 12-week mentoring and support programme that will give you one-to-one access to expertise to help you develop and grow your news enterprise. Those in the MADE Hothouse will get to work directly with developers from ScraperWiki, who will help you create bespoke solutions for your online news and information venture, and will get additional business development training and coaching from industry professionals and UCLan staff. You’ll also get to connect and share with other innovators in the MADE Hothouses in the UK and Turkey.

Sounds good. But how do I know I qualify?

MADE is for you if you’re keen on making and sharing “factual content in the public interest” (the definition of news that MADE initiator François Nel uses). That could a news and information project about a geographic community, such as Ventnor Blog , or specific niche content theme, such as How-Do, or issue, such as the data-driven Ethical Consumer cooperative. Whether your motivation is civic, educational or commercial (or all three), MADE wants to help your start-up stay up. So, whether you’re a professionally trained journalist or just an enthusiast. Young or old. Experienced in business or a novice. If you’re either thinking about starting up a digital news site or your project has been going for less than three years and you'd like to find ways to take it to the next level, we’d like to hear from you.

 I’m excited. How do I apply?

We want you to send a copy of your CV along with a short statement about why you as a news innovator think a new set of skills and connections will help your enterprise.(400 words maximum). Deadline for Applications is Friday, 18 May at 5pm. Your application will be considered by a panel of industry professionals and a representative from UCLan, who will compile a shortlist of candidates.

 What happens next?

If you make it to the shortlist you will be notified via email no later than 28 May and may be invited to participate in an interview. For the interview you’ll be asked to discuss how you intend to make use of the opportunity offered by MADE. This will be followed by questions from the panel.

 Then what?

You’ll be told whether or not you have a place on the MADE Startup Weekend by 31 May 2012.

 What else do I need to know about the process?

Applicants must be available to attend every day of the MADE Startup Weekend. Anyone who does not attend the weekend will not be eligible for one of the 12 week mentoring opportunities in the MADE Hothouse. There is no charge for the MADE Startup Weekend, but MADE does not cover the cost of travel to and from the workshop. A limited number of accommodation and subsistence scholarships are available. Please contact the project leader François Nel at FPNel@uclan.ac.uk for more details.  

Where do I send my completed CV and short statement?

You can email your CV and short statement to: FPNel@uclan.ac.uk. Please put the words ‘#uclanMADE Application’ in the subject line of your email.

Anything else?

Yes, plenty. The MADE team is hard at work researching news entrepreneurship and we’ll be sharing what we find on our blog and, eventually, in MADE Insight reports. We’ve also got more networking events, hangouts and workshops - including a MADE DJ Camp (yes, that’ll be a follow on Data Journalism Camp from the booked-out DJCamp2011) - in the works for the Autumn, so keep following @uclanMADE  or, better still, join sign up to get MADE Updates and MADE GoogleGroup.

Attention digital media entrepreneurs: we want to help your news startup stay up!

One of three winners in the International Press Institute’s News Innovation Contest 2011, the co-convenor of the Digital Editors Network plans to use his funding to support news entrepreneurs.

François Nel, Director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at UCLan, beat off stiff competition from 300 other projects, to be named as one of only three winners who will share a $600, 000 grant from Google for projects in across Mali, Turkey, France, the Netherlands and the UK.

Nel said he will use his grant to launch the Media And Digital Enterprise (MADE) project, which aims to equip digital innovators in the UK and Turkey with the cutting-edge knowledge and skills required to start up and sustain innovative new journalistic enterprises in the public interest.

“With easy access to new and cheap technology, starting up a new media enterprise is pretty straightforward; keeping it up is much more complex," said Nel. "That’s the key challenge MADE will tackle."

Nel, who researches and consults widely on online business model development, will be working in collaboration with software developers from ScaperWiki.com and Sarah Hartley, interim managing director of UK hyperlocal experts Talk About Local and community strategist for Guardian Media Group.

Over the course of the next year, the MADE project will, in the first instance, offer up to 60 news entrepreneurs training in data-driven journalism, online community engagement and digital business development - kicking off with the 48-hour MADE:UK Weekend for media startups  from 15-17 June in the Media Factory (Update: applications being accepted until May 18th)

Next,10 high-potential entrepreneurs will be selected for the MADE Hothouse, a 12-week business incubation and support programme that will include mentoring through UCLan’s award-winning Northern Lights business incubation support team.

Finally, the experiences of the project participants will be shared through  the MADE Insight Reports, which will include detailed case studies of the activities and learning of the project participants.

If you're interesting in keeping in the loop on how the MADE project develops in the UK and Turkey, add your contact details HERE.

The International Press Institute (IPI), in line with its commitment to defending press freedom and promoting the quality of journalism worldwide, launched the IPI News Innovation Contest with a grant from Google in 2010.

The process of selecting the winners was very rigorous. More than 300 applications were whittled down to 74 and then, in a second round, to 26 finalists whose submissions were reviewed by a panel of experts including Jeff Jarvis, Director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York; Torsten De Riese, former Director of CNBC Europe and Managing Director of NewsCred Ltd; Daoud Kuttab, General Manager of the Community Media Network in Jordan, Amy Webb, CEO of Webbmedia in the US and Anthony Dara, founder of NN24 Network News 24) in Nigeria’s first 24-hour news channel.

“The contest, a first of its kind for the 61-year-old IPI, is in line with the organization’s commitment to defending press freedom and promoting the quality of journalism worldwide,” said IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie, who was also on the review panel.

" Of course, UCLAN is home to the UK's oldest journalism programme and has been working to help industry worldwide address some of its key challenges for almost 50 years now, " said Nel. "This project is another example of our commitment to supporting the global news industry as it changes and evolves.”

"I'm really looking forward to linking with others who are committed to building innovative, sustainable digital news enterprises," said Nel, who can be contacted at FPNel [at] uclan.ac.uk, or on Twitter @francoisnel .