While reading the assigned articles I was immediately impressed with the vast opportunities available to media entrepreneurs. There is no limit to what can be done with the internet as a resource. As Bill Gates said, “But the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate.” On their own any person can begin to create and has the opportunity to be wildly successful.
Additionally, as explained in “Journalists-Turned-Entrepreneurs on How They Built Their Businesses” by John Dyer, media entrepreneurs have countless examples of failing and successful ventures since the introduction of the internet in the 1990s. With failure being a real possibility for many entrepreneurs I found Dyer’s topic of finding a community to be especially interesting. Finding a loyal following and community as Sherrell Dorsey did with BLKTEC CLT allowed her to combine her passion and success with that of the African American community in Charlotte.
Hussain Marhoon, author of “Thinking as an entrepreneurial journalist”, thought about his community, which he identified as Arab immigrants in the United States, before he had a product. While pursuing one idea Marhoon was able to identify a completely different problem: people don’t trust the news sources available to them. Although he was not yet sure of the solution, this idea was much more viable. This article really made me think about how there are entrepreneurial opportunities all around me and I should always have my eyes open for where inspiration may strike.
The way the internet has increased opportunities for entrepreneurs is immensely interesting to me. As discussed in “Ecosystem 3 White Paper” there are numerous new resources that provide creators to capitalize on their own success rather than Facebook and other social media sites. Resources such as Substack do just this and provide much more stability and independence to creators. The concept of a “third ecosystem” captured my attention. Ecosystem two has held creators back from being able to continue to expand their successes as their revenue flows are cut off by big name media outlets. I do believe that start-ups will flourish in ecosystem three. With smaller numbers of paying subscribers media entrepreneurs can make even more money. I firmly believe that resources like Substack will change the way people create and view creative content.
