News Circle
News Circle is a market place where news contributors sell their work to editors and publishers.
The two-fold problem
1. UNEMPLOYMENT
Newsroom employment has been declining
over the past years giving rise
to the number of freelance journalists,
also known as contributors.
2. EXPOSURE
New freelance writers find it hard to
reach editors, and established freelance
writers find it hard to expand
their editors network.
The solution
A platform in which freelance writers can sell their stories to editors looking for fresh, real time, high quality content.
Freelance journalism is on the rise and News Circle lowers the barriers of freelancing contracting by allowing editors to purchase exclusive content in real time.
The process
My process started with a holistic, yet in-depth quantitative research, that provided a good understanding of the news market, its success areas and major pain points. The key findings of the research were then compiled in an infographic which was presented to the project's stakeholders. At this point I was interested in learning what revenue strategies were working, and the role contributors were currently playing in the industry.
After getting a good understanding of the market from the quantitative research I started my observations. I observed 12 stakeholders including readers, editors and writers from different demographic groups. I found patterns in those observations which I then edited down to a 5 min video.
Once the qualitative research was concluded I started the ideation phase of the project. I kicked off a series of workshops with a brief presentation of my research. My goal with these workshop sessions was to discover what kind of articles readers are willing to pay to read and other possible revenue streams for news organizations.
The findings that resulted from the workshops were then grouped by categories and laid out in an opportunities map. The map gave me a holistic view of all the insights that led to the
final product.
Design thinking tools
