How to make money as a journalist: Be your own boss

For every minute you spend worrying about the future of journalism, don't you spend at least a few seconds feeling excited about all of the new stuff that's out there? Pillars of journalism are faltering all around us, but they are leaving room for visionary startups to find footing.

Poynter Online interviewed Muckety and ePodunk founder Laurie Bennett about entrepreneurship in journalism. Muckety is a website that tracks and charts the connections between powerful people in the news. Useful databases like Muckety have the potential to make money because they are offering tons of information that's not already out there. Start-ups have to be original. If they're not doing something new, they have to do something better than anyone out there. Take it from Bennet:

"Unless you come up with a way to offer additional content that users can't find elsewhere -- whether it's through a database such as (the ones) we compile, or photos, graphics, interactive features, opinion, sources, whatever -- you don't have a chance."

I think we should all be on the lookout for holes in the web's content, or at least places where there is a frustrating lack of quality content. That's where we can thrive. Even if you are happy working for someone else, keeping tabs on money-making ideas will make you invaluable to your boss.

I like the idea of combining some elements of journalism with another type of business. Yes, that raises all kinds of ethical red flags, but I think it's possible in some cases. Another article on Poynter talks about how some newspapers are teaming up with local high schools to teach journalism to students and produce online yearbooks. Print yearbooks are dying out, so there is a hole there. The guy Poynter interviewed, Bill Ostendorf, thought the yearbooks should be ad-driven. I think he could probably convince students and schools to chip in, too.

I wish the IJ program included a class on news enterpreneurship. It would be great to have a forum to talk about new ways for journalism to sustain itself. The class could cover everything from google ads to business licenses.

Lots of journalists get queasy when money comes up in the newsroom. It's true that in order to have credibility, you can't be biased or pro-business. But talking about the business side of journalism could actually help your newsroom's ethical quandaries. As money gets tighter, we're going to get more and more pressure to bend over backwards to hold onto advertisers. Now is a good time to start brainstorming other ways to stay afloat.