UPDATE 11/30/04: A reader (see Rex's comments) points out that our description of open source journalism is pretty silly in the wake of the Rathergate scam. That's the beauty and danger of blogging a startup-- that language came from the early days of Rathergate and didn't seem so ridiculous way back then. It's since been dropped from our official literature, but the post lives in infamy. Here's the current and still-evolving language for our elevator pitch:
Great ideas often start with a conversation. Pegasus News is the product of a conversation between seasoned media folk, young journalists and “outsiders.” The starting point of the conversation was:
“Laying aside the structures of the old-model newspapers, and starting from scratch—how, in 2005, does it make sense to find and deliver local news and advertising in a major metropolitan area?”
The “answer” (which will continue to evolve as the content market changes), looks almost nothing like the incumbent model, which is in an admitted state of catastrophic decline. While the incumbents realize their troubles, because of entrenched infrastructures and slavery to the public capital markets, they are incapable of enacting the revolution that is necessary to create and implement a new model.
Our model has five key differentiators:
- Hyper-local (neighborhood-level) content updated continually and archived for long-term access
- Journalism 2.0: A conversational method of reporting that engages the end user in the process, as opposed to the traditional monologue
- Creation of textual and graphic content without regard to constraints of any specific medium to be delivered via as many mediums as possible
- Subscription price is based on level of engagement, with more specialized content at a higher price; and users who allow us to gather data on their online reading and real-time purchase behaviors paying less (or even nothing)
- Primarily pay-for-performance advertising across all mediums, including print
We will launch our suite of products and services in Dallas, Texas in late 2005. At launch, the offerings (for content and advertising) will include:
- A deep and robust website, which can be customized to each individual user
- A limited-circulation daily print tabloid edition
- Self-printed PDF edition (home, office, other public computing centers)
- Email newsletters
- Customized Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds
- Wireless text messaging
- Rip-and-read syndicated content for radio and television
- Business intelligence consulting for local retailers, enhancing the value of the pay-for-performance advertising
After proving our concept in Dallas, we will leverage the scalable system built for these offerings to launch in other major U.S. metropolitan areas, focusing first on large markets with monopoly incumbent newspapers.
We finally have a circulatable elevator speech (executive summary with the financials and proprietary stuff redacted) that I created for some folks at the Harvard Business School who are helping us out.. Since it looks like we'll be getting some Carnival o' the Capitalists traffic (thanks. Evelyn!), today seemed as good a day as any to unveil it:
Pegasus NewsÔ
The Local Media Revolution
==================================
Pegasus News is a local news company that has reinvented the broken content and business model of daily newspapers. We are launching in Dallas, Texas, in 2005 with a hyper-local, news-rich website that will have as many editions as it does users. Within a month of launch, the most broadly interesting and immediate content from that site will be published in a daily tabloid print newspaper. Once we have achieved key benchmarks with the Dallas product, we will leverage our scalable systems to roll out in every top-25 U.S. market with a monopoly newspaper.
Key distinguishers of our product include:
- Hyper-local news, with neighborhood coverage producing 10x the local news and information of the incumbent providers.
- “Open source journalism”: The immediacy of blogging with the spelling, punctuation and fact checking of “real” journalists.
- Edgy, insightful news with opinion and personality.
- Fully integrated local news model: Website, email, text messaging, print, radio and TV.
- Innovative subscription model: Price based on level of engagement – more active and engaged users pay less (or nothing).
- Innovative advertising model: Pay-for-performance advertising on both digital and analog (print) products. Proprietary processes allow for performance tracking in real-time.
- Lower cost structure than legacy media.
- Experienced team with leadership experience across all media streams.
Contact: publisher@pegasusnews.com.
Follow our progress on the Peg blog at www.pegasusnews.com.
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