Special Thanks to Aparna Mukherjee for bringing this to our attention – contact her at AMukherjee06 (at) gsb.columbia.edu for more information….
Project: Identify revenue potential, branding opportunities and
audiences and distribution channels for high quality education
coverage produced by a non-profit enterprise.
Client: An Institute housed at Teachers College, Columbia University
that has been serving the professional development needs of
journalists specializing in education coverage since 1997.
How to apply: Individuals or teams are invited to apply. Applicants
(individual or group) should submit a one to two page proposal that
sketches the steps to be taken to complete the work. Applicants also
should submit a letter of no more than one page explaining their
interest. Applicants also will need to submit a resume(s) highlighting
relevant experience or knowledge. (See below). Please submit two
references, including one from the business school faculty.
The Issue:
The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media is a privately
funded organization within Teachers College, Columbia University.
Since its founding in 1997 its purpose has been to promote “fair,
accurate and insightful coverage of education” by the nation’s
journalists. The main strategy for achieving that purpose has been
through organizing professional development seminars and producing
related training publications.
The Institute is now setting a new course. The Institute’s new mission
is to “Inform the public about education through quality journalism.”
This new mission requires the Institute to, in addition to continuing
its professional development activities, create the internal capacity
to provide high level coverage of education. The Institute will
produce magazine articles, news analyses, backgrounders, op-eds, blogs
and other forms of journalism. This content will be placed with
existing news organizations and/or be distributed by the Institute,
through multiple delivery channels.
The Institute expects private foundations that have supported our work
in the past to provide capital to increase the Institute’s capacity.
But, to reduce its reliance on grants, the Institute also wants to
explore potential revenue sources. Some potential sources of income to
be considered include: syndication, licensing of content, fee for
hire, consulting, subscriptions, and advertising. Other potential
revenue sources, perhaps through strategic partnerships, also should
be examined.
Where We Are:
The Hechinger Institute (www.tc.edu/hechinger) was launched in 1996 in
honor of Fred M. Hechinger, the late New York Times education editor
who also served as a Teachers College trustee. It was Fred’s idea to
have an institute for professional journalists, spurred by his belief
that few education reporters come to the beat with a background in
educational issues.
Since its launch in 1996, the Institute has sponsored approximately 70
seminars that have been attended by 2,100 journalists who write,
broadcast or editorialize about education or who edit coverage of
education. Those attending seminars have come from the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, NPR, and many other
major publications and broadcast outlets.
The media industry today is vastly different than it was in 1997. When
founded, the Institute’s main activity was offering seminars aimed at
a target audience of education journalists at newspapers with
circulations of 100,000 or larger. In the past two years newspapers in
the major cities have reduced the size of their reporting and editing
staffs. This trend is accelerating. Just this fall, the Los Angeles
Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Newark
Star Ledger and others have announced layoffs or buyouts. One result
is that reporters covering education today are less likely to be
specialists in that topic. Another is that reporters who remain are
being asked to write far more stories while also producing coverage
using video, audio, podcasts, blogs and other technologies. The third
result of the downsizing of many newsrooms is that highly skilled,
well- trained education journalists have left their news
organizations. This is a pool of talent that could be put to work to
produce the kind of high-quality journalism that the Hechinger
Institute has come to stand for.
The most important effect of the industry changes is that high quality
coverage of education in all forms and formats occurs far less often
today than in the past. The volume of education coverage has probably
not declined, as education remains an area valued by news consumers.
However, this coverage tends to be superficial rather than analytical,
authoritative, and contextualized. This has left a vacuum that major
foundations want to help fill. The reoriented Hechinger Institute
plans to build on its already strong reputation among funders,
journalists, and educators to begin filling that vacuum.
Where We Are Going:
The consultant will be expected to examine three related problems to
help the Institute make the transition to this new strategy.
1. Revenue: Currently we do not sell any of our products. Our Web
site, publications and the professional development Seminars and
Webinars are all offered without charge. As we begin creating
educational journalism in-house, what is the potential for generating
revenue from that activity? Are there opportunities for revenues from
our training activities and publications that have not been pursued?
As part of this effort, we will be creating and re-launching a new Web
site. Are there revenue possibilities that should be considered as
that effort is undertaken?
2. Branding: The Hechinger Institute is well known for its
professional development offerings. Our publications and Web site
supplement the Seminars and Webinars. For us to succeed in our revised
mission, we must connect with a broad (though probably elite) news
audience, both directly through our own distribution channel(s) and
indirectly by placing our work in other publications and on other Web
sites. We also plan to offer coverage in a variety of digital
formats—audio, video (archived as well as real-time), and others. To
become known to a general news audience the Hechinger Institute needs
to create a strong brand. How can we do this?
3. Audience/ Distribution: Our main audience is education
journalists. We now need to reach new audiences, including policy
makers, news consumers, journalists, educators and others. We need to
develop the means of reaching these audiences, hopefully in ways that
generate revenues. How is this best done? In what format and using
what technology?
Skills Needed:
The consultant or consulting team should have a strong background in
business marketing and financial modeling. The consultant or
consulting team also should be broadly aware of current trends in news
publishing, broadcasting and new media or be willing to quickly get up
to speed on those trends, with the help of the client. The consultant
or team will need to become familiar with the rapidly changing
communications technologies and protocols such as Twitter, YouTube,
online learning, Webinars, Web 2.0, and others that are relevant.
Outline of Work:
In the course of the project, the consultant(s) will examine Web sites
such as Huffington Post, Slate, Education Week, Washington Post, Utne
Reader, Environmental Health News, Grist, Education Writers
Association; and blogs such as ThisWeekInEducation.com, Eduwonk, and
the education blogs of the Dayton Daily News, Dallas Morning News,
Grand Rapids Press, Los Angeles Times and others.
The consultant(s) also will need to contact publishers or senior
editors of The Atlantic, Slate, New Republic, New Yorker, New York
Times magazine, and other elite publications to determine the market
for high quality education coverage.
Other relevant contacts and background reading will be provided by the client.
Deliverables:
A report analyzing the issues described (as well as other relevant
issues that the client has overlooked) is to be presented as a Word
document, electronically as well as in hard copy, and also as a
powerpoint. The consultant will present the report and answer
questions about his or her analyses by the Hechinger Institute staff
and possibly its key funders.
One possible format for the report would be to present one
more business models with potential revenue projections over several
years. The report also should consider the risk and reward of the
enterprise, factor in possible changes in the media landscape and
economy, and the political economy.
The consultant may make recommendations of the strategy to
follow and the initiatives required immediately to pursue that
strategy.
Non-disclosure agreement
In the course of this work the consultant(s) will gain access to
private information about the Hechinger Institute’s staffing, budget,
endowment, and strategic plan. The consultant will be asked to
complete a non-disclosure agreement.