How We’re Changing the Newspaper Industry (Part II)

Planning, Culture, and Success

Dream Local Digital and the Bangor Daily News have embarked on a pioneering journey, to challenge the decline of the newspaper industry and map a path to success in an online world. The first step in this journey was the launch of BDN Maine, the newspaper’s new digital division, being led by our team.

Shannon Kinney, Founder & Client Success Officer at Dream Local Digital, has reflected back on 19 years of ups and downs in the newspaper industry, and is arming a team of digital natives, to tackle the challenge of bringing growth back to the media industry.

This is the second in a series, in which Shannon documents the journey, outlining key areas that position a start-up for achievement. As she outlines in her article, understanding key aspects like priority planning, outlining goals for each 90-day segment (sprints), building a company culture, a product roadmap, and of course sales, are integral in forging a new path to success.

You will read about:

• Priority planning: A key to any start-up figuring out where to begin and where to put its resources.

• 90 day sprints: A way to define work that needs to be accomplished in a relatively short time, yet as she writes, “When you’re running a startup, three months is long-term thinking.”

• Company culture: This is a big focus for Shannon. In her work with other start-ups like Cars.com, and here at Dream Local Digital, her ability to immerse the team in a culture that enables employee buy-in and fosters an environment for achievement, becomes the glue and the drive behind the company.

• Roadmap: Whether in products or otherwise, developing a roadmap allows all participants to see the road ahead and better understand where they’re going. While plans regularly change, creating a base approach and adjusting it on the fly, is critical to keeping focused on the end goals.

• Sales, Sales, Sales: Do we need to say more about this one? Without this key component you cannot achieve success. Setting expectations, the path to pursue, and a culture that is ready and willing, pave the way for attaining goals. But success is not going to happen without sales.

Click below to read Shannon’s full article and gain valuable insights into this journey. We will continue to update you as Dream Local Digital and BDN Maine work to change the newspaper industry and bring growth, once again, to the media industry.

Follow Shannon on LinkedIn.

Learn more about how we help newspapers make the shift to digital and drive new online revenue.