Newspapers, television, publishing, magazines are all being fed into the crusher
We have become used to technology changing things irretrievably, but it is still a shock when the familiar goes into crisis. The Scottish Press is in freefall with newspaper circulations dropping and market share being stolen by better funded papers hailing from furth of Scotland.
But today's predators are tomorrows prey. Strange US hybrid online publications roam the land.
Never let a crisis go to waste
There will be new media giants, there will be news on the other side of the catastrophe - and this is our opportunity to make sure some of them are global-reach, English-language and Scottish-based.
Because while the internet allows them to come here, it allows us to go there.
Success to the bold
The Edinburgh Tech Scene faced this dilemma a few years, back. How to compete with behemoths, funded up the ying-yang and based in cities dripping with talent and experience.
Edinburgh now has 2 billion dollar companies - punching far above its weight globally. Skyscanner's main competitor is Google, and FanDuel's is Yahoo.
There are hard-won lessons to be learnt: share experience, train and learn as a community, be madly ambitious, get the smallest thing possible going that is profitable and grow that.
Exciting times, risk and opportunity, crushing failure and the lure of immense global success. Looking at the stars, tempered by lying in the gutter.
Business models for the new media in Scotland
This is a community-based event that brings together the emerging new media in Scotland, built painfully from the ground up during IndyRef, the rich crop of excellent Scottish journalists trapped on the slowing shrinking islands of the traditional Scottish media scene and experienced operators from Edinburgh's tech community to see what collectively we can achieve, for ourselves, for each other, for Scotland and for the world.
The Programme
10 – 10:30
Nobody knows what they are doing
Marie Le Conte - Buzzfeed
10:30 – 11
The decline of the Scottish Press
Peter Geoghegan – The Ferret
11 – 11:15
Coffee
11:15 – 11:45
New business models and success in Scottish Tech
Gordon Guthrie – tech founder, conf organiser
11:45 - 12:30
Panel Discussion – Getting paid
Mike Small - Bella Caledonia
Angela Hagerty - Common Space
Plus others to be confirmed
12:30 – 1:30
Lunch and networking
1:30 – 3:30
Product Tank – 15 minute presentations about business models by new media companies in 3 tracks. Organisations presenting include:
- Mike Small - Bella Caledonia
- Jenny Tough - Tough Adventures
- Da Monkey - Monkey Loves Cherries
- Gordon Guthrie - Make Glasgow Flourish
- Dave Tait - Black Bitch Magazine
Plus more to be confirmed
This session will be compered by Russell Henderson
The Product Tank are open call - tweet @newmediascot if you would like to present
3:30 – 4
Session in planning
4 – 4:45
Panel Discussion - New Media and power, sport, politics, culture and sexual identity
Gerry Hassan - author and Sunday Mail columnist
Kathleen Caskie - feminist, Women For Indy
Others to be confirmed
4:45 -
Drinks and socialising
If you work in new media, you need to come...
Journalists, bloggers, people working in new media: journalism, news, video/tv/film, cartoonists, digital design but also advertising and marketing, subscriptions and community development, political activists, public intellectuals, authors, writers and publishers - the world is changing, some and shape it.
Talk isn't enough, but its a start...
We need frank discussion of where we find our selves now. This is an opportunity for people working in the new media to discuss how they make (or don't make) money now - to explore the challenges they face in building sustainable new media businesses and expanding them, both for a Scottish audience and the world.
Tell us what you do, how you make money
There will be sessions for you to outline your idea or your work, and talk about your business model and get advice on how to get to sustainability.
