“Journalists, Bloggers Have a Sorry History at Startups.” So writes Mark Glaser over at PBS MediaShift:
“As a journalist covering a particular business, there is a temptation to believe that we know enough about that business to actually become a full participant in that business. We have been writing about it, we see what works and what fails, so we should know enough to try our hand at it too. But more often than not, we don’t succeed. …Perhaps the problem is that we think we know more than we do.”
As one of the journalists cited by Glaser for being “entrepreneurially challenged” (that’s my description, not Glaser’s), I have to respond to this one.
My first point echoes Glaser: It’s a mixed bag, and while there are plenty of journalists who have failed with start-up companies, there are success stories. One who comes to mind is Nick Denton, a former Financial Times journalist who’s done well for himself in the start-up world, having created the innovative blog media company Gawker Media. Glaser cites Rafat Ali, Josh Marshall and Markos Moulitsas as success stories. There are plenty of others.
Yes, there are loads of start-ups founded by journalists that failed. Of course, there are lots of start-ups founded by MBAs that didn’t make it. The vast majority of start-ups fail. I wonder if our (journalists, that is) failure ratio is any worse than formally trained business people? I doubt there’s that much difference.
Where successful journalists-turned-entrepreneurs don’t seem to have a great track record is in creating Internet companies that went ballistic. In the last couple years I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interact with people who clearly are brilliant at making a lot of bucks. I don’t recall meeting many journalists with that kind of skill.
Of course, any journalist who goes into a start-up lacking key business and entrepreneurial skills is in for a rough ride, unless he/she does the obvious: Finds partners who possess the skills that he/she lacks. I did that with the Enthusiast Group, and I was glad to have a partner who knew the ropes of the start-up world, not to mention connections to important people necessary to know to have a chance at success — and who were outside of my contact network.
I don’t think journalists should shy away from going into business for themselves. It’s an exciting media world out there, and there’s plenty of innovation yet to come. My advice would be that if you went to journalism school and not business school, recognize that you’re probably not a start-up genius, so find business partners who complement your skills and make up for what you lack. Don’t choose a business partner who’s just like you. It’s the team that gets assembled (plus a solid business idea) that will determine success or failure — not the strengths or shortcomings of one journalist founder.
