Paul was kind enough to include me in a prelaunch mailing list of journalists where he discussed his vision.
At the time I have to confess I was not convinced Newstilt was the right product at the right time. It was an interesting vision (in a nutshell: to have journalists establish their own brands and syndicate content more directly to publishers/websites) but I did forsee traction trouble:
- Firstly because I felt journalists would have difficulty "getting" the new concept EDIT: by this I mean there was far too little content coming into Newstilt, I'm guessing because the writers didn't see instant returns and therefore gave up. As the email says Techcrunch took dedication and unfortunately for Newstilt they needed dedicated writers aiming for the same vision, hard to find.
- But mostly because publishers and websites would be resistive and negative about this concept (or simply uninterested).
I actually think it is a good model. A few years ago myself and others tried to form a similar style collective for UK tech magazines. It was a very hard to sell and ultimately failed because it was so radically difference.
I suspect one of the major problems was that it is such a different approach to media that it put many people off.
I've come to the conclusion that, for this sort of thing to work, it has to be built by journalists with both the contacts and the ability to placate both of the above problems.
(also, taking a honey moon in the first few months of a startup is never going to end well!).
Good luck Paul and Nathan - I really was rooting for you and it sucks that such a cool model never got off the ground.
At the time I have to confess I was not convinced Newstilt was the right product at the right time. It was an interesting vision (in a nutshell: to have journalists establish their own brands and syndicate content more directly to publishers/websites) but I did forsee traction trouble:
- Firstly because I felt journalists would have difficulty "getting" the new concept EDIT: by this I mean there was far too little content coming into Newstilt, I'm guessing because the writers didn't see instant returns and therefore gave up. As the email says Techcrunch took dedication and unfortunately for Newstilt they needed dedicated writers aiming for the same vision, hard to find.
- But mostly because publishers and websites would be resistive and negative about this concept (or simply uninterested).
I actually think it is a good model. A few years ago myself and others tried to form a similar style collective for UK tech magazines. It was a very hard to sell and ultimately failed because it was so radically difference.
I suspect one of the major problems was that it is such a different approach to media that it put many people off.
I've come to the conclusion that, for this sort of thing to work, it has to be built by journalists with both the contacts and the ability to placate both of the above problems.
(also, taking a honey moon in the first few months of a startup is never going to end well!).
Good luck Paul and Nathan - I really was rooting for you and it sucks that such a cool model never got off the ground.