Fridays, April 1 thru June 3, 2022
9 - 10:30 am (Pacific)
Live - Via Zoom
Whether you’re a media company executive, content creator, or entrepreneur, you stand to benefit from developing a thriving content business. In this 10-week live interactive (Zoom-delivered) course, you’ll learn to develop, launch, and build a self-sustaining content business.
We’ve assembled a diverse line-up of distinguished content industry innovators to provide essential strategies for diversifying your revenue streams; building successful products like newsletters, podcasts, and video series; and nurturing online communities. You’ll also explore the latest industry trends and their implications for your business.
You’ll join an international cohort of established and emerging media professionals with a shared commitment to masterinng the principles of content creation, distribution, and monetization. Through strategy and networking breakout sessions, you’ll have opportunities to find prospective mentors, collaborators, and partners.
Speakers Include:
- Amy Adams Harding, Google, Director of Analytics and Revenue Optimization, News and Publishing
- Sarah Marshall, Condé Nast, Global Senior Director of Audience, Vogue
- Joss Fong, Vox Media, Senior Editorial Producer
- Walter Frick, Quartz, Executive Editor, Membership
- Linda Lebrun, Substack, Writer Recruitment
- Jane Friedman, Hotsheet, Publisher
- Emily Ferguson, Marie Claire, Director of Ecommerce, UK & USA
- Nic Newman, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital Strategist
- Brian Wieser, GroupM, Global President, Business Intelligence Group
- Shareen Pathak, Toolkits, Cofounder
- Esther Kezia Thorpe, Media Voices Podcast, Freelance Media Analyst
- Adriana Lacy, Nieman Foundation, Digital and Audience Engagement Editor
- Michael Donoghue, Subtext, Co-founder & CEO; Founder Advance Alpha Group
- Anika Anand, LION Publishers, Deputy Director
- Alexis Grant, They Got Acquired, Founder & CEO
- Kevin Young, The Economist, Head of Audience
- Josh Spector, For the Interested, Founder
- Dmitry Shishkin, Digital publishing consultant, formerly w/ BBC and Culture Trip
- Stephanie Schroeder, Forum Communications, Chief Customer & Marketing Officer
- Matt Lindsay, Ph.D., President, Mather Economics
- Snigdha Sur, The Juggernaught, Founder & CEO
- Daisy Allioto, Dirt, Co-Founder
- Christopher Sopher, WhereByUs, Co-Founder
- Lon Seidman, Lon.TV, Host & CEO
- Dmitry Shapiro, Koji, CEO; formerly w/ Google and Myspace
- Judd Legum, Popular Information, Founder
- Ariel Zirulnick, KPCC and LAist, Senior Editor, Community Engagement
- Greg Moyer, Founder and CEO of Blue Chalk Media
- Cheryl Thompson-Morton, Director, Black Media Initiative, Center for Community Media
Course Outcomes
- Gain a comprehensive understanding of how to develop, design, and deliver a content business.
- Understand how to attract, build, and sustain an audience.
- Make sense of the market forces that impact business models, revenue streams, and growth strategies.
- Learn how to apply content industry best practices in organizational structure, revenue models, and innovation management.
- Build lasting relationships with their cohort, the UO faculty community, and prospective partners.
Over 20 hours, in 10 weeks, you will engage with some of the most successful, innovative content creators, and media executives in the world. They will share the challenges they face and the transferable lessons that you can apply to your own business.
Dates & Session Times
The course will meet on Fridays from 9-10:30 am (Pacific), beginning April 1 through June 3, 2022. Sessions will be recorded for registered participants who have unavoidable schedule conflicts, occasional absences, or time zone concerns.
Registration
Spaces are limited, guarantee your participation by registering now.
Registration Fee: $895 • Extended Early-bird Tuition: $795 (Before February 28, 2022)
Topics Include:
- Session One: Media Trends and Forecasts
- Session Two: How to Create, Launch and Iterate Your Product
- Session Three: How to Grow a Paid Membership or Subscription Offering
- Session Four: Thinking Outside the Box With Revenue Streams
- Session Five: How To Reduce Churn and Increase Engagement
- Session Six: Driving Audience and Engagement Through Social Media
- Session Seven: How to Recruit and Promote Underrepresented Voices
- Session Eight: How to Build a Newsletter-First Business
- Session Nine: Beyond Text: Growing a Video/Audio Driven Business
- Session Ten: Building it to Last
Course Instructors
Simon Owens publishes a media industry newsletter and hosts The Business of Content, a podcast series about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize their digital content.
Previously, Owens was an associate editor at PBS MediaShift. He has conducted PR, content marketing, and social media strategy for dozens of companies, organizations, and individuals, including Google, Comcast, Forbes, ESPN, C-SPAN, and Nike. For two years, he was an assistant managing editor at US News & World Report, where he built out the company’s then-nascent social media presence.
His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Scientific American, Forbes, Harvard’s Nieman Lab, The Next Web, Daily Dot, PBS.org, and US News & World Report. Twitter: @simonowens
Ed Madison began his multifaceted career in media and journalism as a high school intern at the Washington Post owned CBS television affiliate in Washington, D.C., during the height of Watergate. Shortly after graduating from Emerson College in Boston, he was recruited by CNN as a founding producer/director.
He is an associate professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) and has affiliated faculty status with the College of Education (COE). Madison’s research centers on how journalistic learning methods can enhance overall student achievement.
He is the author of Newsworthy: Cultivating Critical Thinkers, Readers, and Writers in Language Arts Classrooms” from Teachers College Press - Columbia University (2015).
Madison is also a co-founder and executive director of the Journalistic Learning Initiative (JLI), a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit organization that uses journalistic strategies to empower student voice and academic success through a collaboration between UO’s School of Journalism and Communication and College of Education. Website: edmadison.com Twitter: @edmadison.com
Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, a Professor of Practice, an affiliate faculty member of the Department for Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA) and the Agora Journalism Center, and a Research Associate of the Center for Science Communication Research (SCR), at the University of Oregon. He is also a three time Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.
An experienced digital analyst, consultant, journalist, and researcher, Damian has worked in editorial, research, policy, and teaching positions for the past two and a half decades in the UK, Middle East, and the USA. This includes roles in all media sectors (commercial, public, government, regulatory, academic, and nonprofit/civil society) and all platforms (print, digital, TV, and radio).
Damian continues to be an active journalist, writing monthly columns for ZDNet (Red Ventures) and he also writes regular features for the International Journalists' Network (IJNet), What's New in Publishing, journalism.co.uk, and other outlets. His work focuses on digital trends, social media, technology, the business of media, and the evolution - and practice - of journalism.
His most recent industry-focussed reports include: 50 Ways To Make Media Pay, (What’s New In Publishing, November 2021), Understanding and Implementing Innovation in News Media and Journalism (Center for Media, Data and Society, November 2021) and The Publisher's Guide to Navigating COVID-19 (What’s New In Publishing, October 2020).
Website: damianradcliffe.com Twitter: @damianradcliffe
Course FAQs
Who will benefit from this course? Media executives, creators, entrepreneurs, or students who are launching or sustaining a content business.
What if I can’t attend some sessions? Live participation is optimal. However, sessions will be recorded for registered participants who have unavoidable schedule conflicts, occasional abscences, or time zone concerns.
Will this course be offered again? Based on feedback and demand, the organizers intend to offer subsequent courses. Let us know if you have specific requests.
Do course participants receive university credit, grades, and/or a certificate? Building a Content Business is a noncredit, nongraded 10-week course. Participants who complete eight or more sessions (live or asynchronously) will be mailed a certificate of completion.
The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication reserves the exclusive right to record, edit, repurpose, and distribute the course sessions in perpetuity in all media.
ABOUT THE UO SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION
The UO School of Journalism and Communication is a community dedicated to excellence in learning, research, and creative projects. We study issues that champion freedom of expression, diversity and equity, and democracy in service to current and future generations. By integrating theory and practice, we advance scholarship and prepare students to become professional communicators, critical thinkers, and responsible citizens in a global society.