Business Planning 2008

Welcome to the CJP’s business planning meeting.

Primary audiences:
1. Working journalists
2. Journalism educators
3. Journalism students
4. General public with an interest in journalism

Secondary audiences:
1. PR/Communications professionals

Targets or measures (two years):
– survey results suggest that working journalists don’t know about us
– # working journalists in Canada about 5,000; goal for two years from now: 2,000 more working journalists
– determine whether meeting audience goals through surveying vs. registration
– # outside sources linking back to site ?: goal ?
– first step is getting audience to visit, second step is asking them what they thought (in 9 to 12 months time)
— Survey 1: after four months
— Survey 2: after eight months

Marketing tactics:
– creating more databases/distribution lists
– working with ambassadors to target certain audiences
– more e-marketing, audience-specific incentives (eg. highlight content by beat)
– taking advantage of PR, clipping services, cross-linking partnerships
– designed to generate awareness vs. traffic (launch marketing more print-based, didn’t succeed)

Sponsorship opportunities:
– corporate presence wouldn’t compromise editorial but audience wouldn’t welcome it
– CAJ participation dependent on no corporate funding; others would object to government funding
– credit on CJF site vs. CJP sites to avoid conflict? not as appealing as credit on CJP sites
– currently all credit is listed on “Our Supporters” page; additional credit may need to be considered
* open to the concept but must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis

Other funding:
– CJP needs to be considered in CJF fundraising plans
– CJF needs evidence of CJP meeting goals and future business plan before investing further

Under each goal, what area (marketing, content, tech) needs to be invested in most?
GOAL: A source for news, research, resources/commentary & discussion
#2 Marketing – send out daily newsletter
#1 Content – need resources to update daily, ability to aggregate “big story” coverage
#3 Tech – CNW media monitoring service feed, other aggregating, daily newsletter generation

* make sure that investment is reflected in ProjetJ as well

Content investment ideas:
– someone junior to take existing ideas forward on a regular basis
– more senior ME to commission and solicit content
– Mary Dee; Don Sellers; higher profile editor would increase interest among audience
– DS: more reflective; MD: more action-oriented
– someone who can complement Ivor’s role and take over in his absence
– first choice is experienced ME, second choice is editorial assistant, dependent on budget

Business plan next steps:
– develop 3- or 4-page plan in time for CJF Board meeting
– prioritize marketing, content, tech investments
– balance needs to be struck between content and marketing; needs addressed through different phases over the two years
– list out technological needs to see how they can be addressed