News Startup

WordCamp NYC 2009 offered a lot of great sessions on how people and organizations are using WordPress, WordPressMU, BuddyPress and BBPress to manage content and build communities. Here is a sampling…

Would you pay $150/night to stay at a Motel 6 in Dayton, Ohio?

I just took a survey asking that question. Here’s what I came up with…

8:28 p.m.
Question for Erica Smith: Do you track hiring online?
She says it was hard to determine if positions were filled or just dropped.
8:25 p.m.
Question: What is the revenue model for Slate? Is it profitable?
Weisberg: Key costs (i.e. printing on paper) are reduced with online content and that’s been born out. He says his business is [...]

Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio had an interesting blog post yesterday in advance of the National Conference for Media Reform being held in the Twin Cities.
Collins interviewed Josh Silver, executive director and co-founder of Free Press. Silver seems to share some similar thoughts I recently blogged about.
Newspaper profits are going down, but there [...]

Metro daily newspapers like the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Strib) might consider taking a day off from the news and try printing some cash. Avista Capital Partners, a private equity company that owns the Strib, recently wrote down its investment in the paper by 75 percent. Now, the Strib is looking to trim its budget by $20 [...]

Here’s what I took away from PodcampNYC 2.0:
Doing 1 thing great > 2 things good > 3 things average…etc.
But how do you do one thing really great as a business? Start by listening.
Provide a space, physical or digital, for your customers to ask you questions, ask each other questions, make suggestions, complain or praise.
Then:

Answer [...]

37 Signals: How to Make Big Things Happen with Small Teams (PDF)
Blue Flavor: Small Teams, Big Things
The 3/2 Rule of Employee Productivity
BusinessWeek: At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity
Wikipedia: Six Sigma
Wikipedia: Bureaucracy
LifeHack: Kill Meetings To Get More Done
Wikipedia: Getting Things Done