If You Could Put All Your Resources Into One Revenue Project, What Would It Be and Why?

If you could put all your resources into one revenue project, what would it be and why?  

Dean Galiffa, 21, junior, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.

Galiffa recently transferred to Temple University from Delaware County Community College (DCCC) and completed his first semester at the university. He has interned for multiple media outlets, including the Online Reporter Project for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association and was executive editor of the DCCC school newspaper. 

If I could pour my funds into a revenue project of my choice, I would begin my own podcast about the north Philadelphia area, specifically the surrounding neighborhoods of Temple.

Since high school, I have been interested in broadcast journalism. I took a course in which we produced the school news every morning and quickly developed the required skill sets, such as writing, reporting and directing, for a local broadcast news operation.

After becoming camera and audio equipment savvy, I found that applying my interviewing skills to my newfound knowledge of broadcast media could fulfill my genuine interest in telling people’s stories. I felt natural in front of a camera or behind a microphone.

As a revenue project, podcasting is a fairly new and inventive way for young journalists, like me, to share their ideas and adapt to the ever-changing world we live in. By using the booming platform of podcasting in the news, I would have an outlet to showcase a combination of my creativity and journalistic skills.

I want to make a significant contribution to the important content being produced in mass media, and turning a profit is just a benefit. That is why, for my revenue project, my podcast would center around how Temple has implanted and gentrified the surrounding north Philadelphia neighborhoods and the impact that has had on community members, students, faculty members and the like.

Each episode would spotlight a specific topic of Temple’s continuous attempts at expanding. Between the constant constructions on campus, to the empty lots being built up for a new apartment building, the podcast would focus on interviewing subjects in direct line with these topics. Sources would likely include students, faculty members, realtors and land owners and community members.

Scott Pickering, 47, general manager, East Bay Media Group, Bristol, R.I.

In his current position, Pickering is responsible for a handful of tasks as a general manager, publisher, news director and sales director. He has been an editor and managing editor for the same company, and a regional editor for Patch.

I would launch an innovative, accredited, high-performing and tuition-free university program for students of journalism and communications.

Fresh and exciting, boosted by waves of positive publicity from a highly enthusiastic media community, we use the promise of free tuition, world-class education and real-world experience, to attract young, talented minds into an industry that needs a jolt of adrenaline.

A decade of cuts to our personnel and products have damaged more than just our image; they’ve stunted the next wave of young talent and killed too many of the feeder programs for this industry. Our newsrooms are talented, with a priceless array of experience and local knowledge—but they are old and getting older.

We need more than just better technology to boost our revenues. We need better minds and better energy. We need the top 5 percent of college students to enter the fields of engineering, IT and communications.

We need them to be excited about this industry, and we need doors opened to them when they graduate (debt-free) and launch their careers.

The next great revenue idea will not come from a new widget, sales tactic or piggyback on Google or Facebook, which is like a flea hitching a ride on an 800-pound gorilla. It will come from the next wave of smart people who work together, collaborate, brainstorm and discover new pathways.

We don’t just need youth; we need creative, intelligent and entrepreneurial youth. We need enthusiasm for the industry. And we need a great story to tell. Free tuition plus the promise of a great job would be a great story to tell the next generation of journalists and communications leaders.

Is it fanciful? Well, the premise of the question is to dream big. Perhaps a university president and a few angel investors are listening.