Newspepper - soft launch for citizen journalism site
January 14 Mike Butcher
Newspepper, a new UK ‘citizen journalism’ site, has soft-launched its first incarnation with a number of flash videos recorded to showcase the site’s future direction. The site intends (but can’t just yet) to allow people to submit stories and multimedia, and aims to receive these by mobile as well as conventional Web methods - something of a competitive marketplace right now.
The site is the brain-child of founder Hermione Way who came up with the idea last year while training to be a journalist. She says on the site she was “frustrated at not having one place to portfolio all of her work.. in a time where you have to be a multi skilled journalist.” Had she not heard of blogs and YouTube? Just a question.
This quibble aside (and what makes the project potentially more interesting), Way appears to have secured some extremely influential advisors as both investors and backers. Michael Acton Smith, CEO and founder of interactive entertainment specialists, Mind Candy, is listed as an investor, while non-executive directors include Jim Lawn (ex-head of innovation for Microsoft in the UK), Bronwyn Kunhardt (MS UK’s former head of corporate reputation and diversity) and Paul Walsh, founder and CEO of Segala, a specialist in ‘content classification and Web based standards compliance certification’.
Not only does Hermione Way have a heavyweight board for a brand new startup, she is also relying on the advice of brother Ben Way, one of the first dot com millionaires after developing a search technology called Waysearch in the late 1990s. Useful to have.
There’s no word yet as to when the site plans a full-blown launch but in the meantime, you can check out a video about the benefits of having Bull sperm rubbed into your hair.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
April 19th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Comments
January 14th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I agree the team is quite impressive, but I just dont get it. What is the key differentiator here? Or is it just another CJ site with a local niche? If its meant to be a journalism training site (there are few mentions about training), will the quality of news be good enough to attract readers? I guess we’ll have to wait for the full launch and see. Good luck to them though!
January 14th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Once again proving its not what you know but who you know. Hermione Way has a famous rich brother working for a VC and she is part of the London in-crowd which includes Michael Smith, Robert Loch, Paul Carr, Paul Birch and Paul Walsh.
For most of us it is hard to raise funding but for the silver spoon brigade like (Glasses Direct) Jamie Murray Wells and (Love Island) Saul Klein its easy to start something if you have a rich parent or brother.
That all said I wish Hermione well but if she raises money and intruders.tv cannot then there is no justice.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:19 am
@Sasha - Fair comment that Hermione Way’s family connections are doing her no harm at all - but how do you account for the involvement of people like Michael Smith, Jim Lawn and Bronwyn Kunhardt, who are no relation? Why would they put their names publicly to a site if they weren’t confident about it? Doesn’t your comment imply that these people are also part of some ‘London clique conspiracy’? Or that they are just plain stupid? Can you back up your allegations? And what have Loch, Carr and Birch got to do with Newspepper anyway? BTW, you realise you imply that people who create a successful startup without the help of family connections or money might as well give up now. Interesting thinking there.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:39 am
This is Jim and Bronwyn’s first active involvement since leaving MSFT, so on that point I am not sure. As for Michael look at his flickr pics to see who he went on holiday with.
As for raising money in the UK. I stick by my guns it is who you know not what you know. Viagogo and WAYN are two more examples of people raising significant money because of their connections not because of their pure business principals, just look at the non-exec boards.
The key is get a named non-exec board who can tap their network to get you the money, don’t waste time on trying to raise the money yourself. There are exceptions such as Huddle who used Bristol VC’s (i.e not the London crowd) but who else can you name Mike?
I’ll give you one Trusted Places and Zoomf who did well to raise money from Hugo Burge but I an struggling after that. Happy to be corrected by those more knowledgeable than me.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:00 am
@Sasha - “get a named non-exec board who can tap their network to get you the money”. I may be being thick here but last time I looked that was a legitimate business practice, and quite a smart one at that. Apparently a lot of people in business happen to be friends and know each-other. You’re implying this is some sort of crime, which is odd. Yes, the business idea may be crap and founded on pure good will, but then that’s their lookout, no? Good luck to outfits like Huddle who may well not even have known their investors prior to the investment, but I don’t see it as a crime to be friends with people on your board. Your argument is nonsensical. Canny startups need all the tricks they can muster.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:27 am
It will be interesting to see how it performs against this offering:
http://www.reuters.com/youwitness/
I suspect it will gain a much tighter community based around Hermonie than a corporate site could attract - but I don’t think you’ll find big “happen across” live news/incidents will see much airtime. e.g. BBC getting photos texted to them from within a derailed train etc.
Go for it anyway, it’s great to see - I enjoy the style of the clips there already.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:04 am
I kind of like the idea but I’ll reserve judgment til I see the website.
At the moment the idea, if I get it right, is citizen journalism. That seems just to be seesmic/Qik with a specific purpose. I’d go as far as to say that this is potentially just a channel in a service like seesmic.
I’d love to know what will make this a business as opposed to just a feature. I’m not sure the scope (ok I mean motivation) is there among enough citizens to make this viable.
But then I don’t know what’s in the business model regarding revenue sharing or anything or what’ll be in the final package of the service itself so I’ll wait eagerly for that.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
@Sasha - I don’t think GlassesDirect should be put into the same category. Despite the fact the business is pretty boring, they sell a product for more than it costs them to make, and then do this millions of times a year. Revenue and profits (fairly novel concepts!) can’t really be argued with, especially in today’s web 2.0 world. I would have invested in them.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
@Sasha - I do agree to some elements of what you are saying… there is a core group of people in the UK Internet startup industry, who all seem to be friends and the majority are based in London. You could call this a clique or you could look at it as the UK is a pretty small country for Internet startups and of course the top people are going to know each other.
With regard to the comment “its who you know…” then yes, this is always going to play a very big part in any business. You can have the best product in the world but if you can’t get it out to market or in front of the right people who can help you get it to market then its worthless. There is nothing wrong with this, its normal part of business.
Big named non-exec’s are not just there to look pretty… they serve are real purpose and a big part of that is their network and connections.
Their is a downside to having big names though… some people may think that is the only reason your business idea is a success.
And yes… I wish I had access to some of these people when I started by first business, but I didn’t and it was very hard work but we are now growing very well. I say good luck to any startup, whether funded, connected or not!
January 15th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Sasha,
A lot of effort has gone into re-building the London internet startup community. When I started doing events the community was close to non-existent.
The community is now in far better shape. Michael Smith has contributed greatly through Second Chance Tuesday and is also now supporting by making a few investments. Paul Walsh has also helped to build the community through his BIMA events. I hosted over 50 dinners last year. All 3 of us are trying to support the sector and through our events we are doing it in a very inclusive way. Our actions do not support the idea that we have created a clique.
I also think that you misunderstand the structure of the scene. There isn’t an in crowd (many would say that knowing myself or Paul Carr is a hindrance to success, but that’s another story). There are lots of groups and they overlap. I personally believe that in order to thrive and attract talent that sectors need a strong work scene (which I support through Internet People) and a strong social scene (which I support by hosting social events).
Hermione has been very proactive at networking over the last 8 month. Yes it is advantageous that her brother introduced her to people like myself (that was over 3 years ago), but after that all her progress has been on her own back. She has reported on events, built relationships and worked very hard. She should be congratulated for showing initiative.
Jamie started Glasses Direct using his student loan, something that is available to everyone, and did an exceptional job building up a business from there. He raised money based on the traction that he achieved and his forward plan. He also had the help of First Capital who they hired to run the funding process. His funding has nothing to do with who he knew and all to do with what he had achieved.
Last year, Robin and Saul Klein were the most active and effective force in the UK internet sector. Your comment regarding Saul is very miss informed. His personal track record speaks for itself.
At the time that they raised funding, WAYN didn’t have a high profile non-exec supporting them. They were profitable and had over 5 million members. They met DFJ at one of my events on my suggestion. Again they raised money based on what they had achieved, not who they knew.
The VC’s who invest in the UK internet sector are very accessible and attend events regularly. You don’t need to be part of any group to reach them.
Sasha, you’ve clearly got a beef, but the basis of that beef is inaccurate.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Good luck Hermione!
January 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Either way it looks interesting. Clearly if your starting in business and you have a network you are going to use it. Is it fair? Perhaps not, but when has business always been about fairness. Good luck to Newspepper.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
This looks really interesting, although there do seem to be new ‘citizen’ journalism networks sprouting up everyday. I disagree with Hermione that there was nowhere to put her porfolio though - start a blog, link to Flickr for your pictures and Blip to your films (or numerous other photo and hosting sites and you’re set to go).
As a loan journalist and blogger out in Mexico, I rack my brains every day trying to find a financial model that doesn’t require pitching to foreign bureaus and UK newspapers - trouble is that running a one man multi-media show doesn’t leave much time for drafting funding documents and the London networking scene is a long way from downtown Mexico City.
I do think it helps to know people, but equally this sounds like a good idea. What I will be waiting to see is the quality of the work. Yes every one has a camera on their phone these days and a phrasebook in their pocket, and I know journalism is not the more popular of professions, but it does take skill to witness, process and report. Will their journos be trained?