Editor’s Notebook: The ‘Contributor Guide’ – Defining our focus

In a post earlier today, I welcomed a new batch of writers to the Silicon Prairie News team: “Welcome our new writers: Adams, Ellingson, Beenken & Rosol.” With these writers aboard, we now have 10 individuals across five cities to cover the activity on the Silicon Prairie. But what does that mean? As in, what…

Silicon Prairie News contributor Steven Adams (right) interviews Steve Dee (left), chief technology officer at Hayneedle, for a recent series titled “Building the Foundary.” Photo by Danny Schreiber

In a post earlier today, I welcomed a new batch of writers to the Silicon Prairie News team: “Welcome our new writers: Adams, Ellingson, Beenken & Rosol.” With these writers aboard, we now have 10 individuals across five cities to cover the activity on the Silicon Prairie. But what does that mean? As in, what activity are we covering?

When I speak with those unfamiliar with Silicon Prairie News, the most common question is, appropriately, “What do you cover?” My response is always some version of: “We cover entrepreneurs and creatives mainly located in Omaha and Des Moines,” and then I list off a number of the past individuals and startups we’ve covered. After that exchange, the person that I’m speaking with often volunteers a recommendation for us to interview their friend, relative, neighbor, and sometimes, themselves.

BECOME A SPONSOR

These recommendations are greatly appreciated and often times lead to stories on Silicon Prairie News, items in our Prairie Moves, or a new line on our “Potential Leads List.” Very rarely, however, do we completely dismiss something for consideration. We archive all our email (the medium where we receive the most pitches) and we keep the “Potential Leads List” of individuals or companies that are could be covered.

How do we then decide what to cover? What is our focus?

This past August, we internally approved and have since had all current and future contributors sign the “Silicon Prairie News Contributor Guide.” From a content perspective, this eight-page document lays out our mission, focus, process, and guidelines. Before this document, we didn’t have an agreed upon definition of “startup,” or with regards to our process, who would be the one adding the tags to posts. Putting this document into place was very important to our evolution as both an organization and trusted news outlet.

As we look to hire a second editor in the coming year, one with a background in journalism, and we continue to increase our volume of content, I can guarantee that this document will be constantly reviewed and revised. All, of course, in the name of better covering the activity on the Silicon Prairie.

Today, I’d like to share the section titled “Focus.”

From the Silicon Prairie News Contributor Guide, Version 1.0, Published August 27, 2010:

III. Focus

The description displayed on our site’s homepage:

Silicon Prairie News interviews the region’s leading entrepreneurs and creatives, reports on startups and established companies and announces events.

Breaking it down:

Entrepreneurs: Ninety percent of our interviews are with high growth business entrepreneurs versus lifestyle business entrepreneurs

  • High Growth – One where the owner intends to build real assets with a growable, tangible value that can be bought and sold – either as shares or the entire business. Success would be defined as the increase in value of the business over time. (From allbusiness.com) e.g. RockDex, Dwolla
  • Lifestyle business – One where the entrepreneur seeks to generate an “adequate” income while living where s/he wants, doing what s/he loves, or having the flexibility to be around when the kids come home from school or take long weekends in the winter to go skiing (From allbusiness.com) e.g. Mad GringoMcClanahan Studio

Creatives: Most often, these individuals or companies are involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in some way, for example, a web design firm designing the user interface of a web application, e.g. What Cheer, DownsDesign

Startups: We subscribe to this definition from Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup and author of the blog “Startup Lessons Learned” – A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Nothing to do with size of company, sector of the economy, or industry.

Established Companies: Those that at one time were startups or have a high-profile entrepreneur now at its helm, e.g. Hayneedle, Palisade Systems

Events: Those that are held with a core purpose of serving one of the above or to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. e.g. Cornstalks, Techbrew

Priority Story Subjects:

From a profile story to coverage of a product release, we prioritize our time commitment to stories in this order:

  1. Consumer-focused tech startup
  2. Enterprise-focused tech startup
  3. Venture capital / angel investing landscape
  4. University entrepreneurial activity
  5. Government support of entrepreneurship
  6. Veteran entrepreneurs
  7. High-profile investors
  8. Complimentary businesses: incubators, design firms, attorneys, accountants, bankers, consultants, coworking spaces, institutions, etc.
  9. Successful entrepreneurs or investors originally from the Silicon Prairie, i.e. “The Silicon Prairie enabled my success…” stories
  10. National startups with local relevance

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

Channels:

Get the latest news and events from Nebraska’s entrepreneurship and innovation community delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday.