Short Analytical Memo

The presentations we saw in class were extremely impressive. I was amazed at how different each of the pitched projects were from each other. There was very little overlap. 

In terms of feasibility, I think the top three presentations were: MORP, JournalisKit, Speak Now. All three of these ideas target weaknesses in the marketplace, which is why I think they all have pretty good odds of success. 

MORP, which was presented by Maura, seeks to inspect and grade media outlets. As Maura mentioned in her presentation, there are a lot of industries that get scrutinized in that way. But there has been no successful organization that I am aware of that grades media outlets. Now it's a lot easier said than done. It's not easy to come up with a fair way of assessing media outlets and Maura didn't provide a lot of details of how it would work, but I think the concept has a tremendous amount of potential. This is especially true considering all the public distrust of the media. Having an organization with a good brand name among mainstream outlets (and ideally conservative outlets as well) could push the media to improve drastically over time. So even though I have concerns about the lack of details and that it would end up as a fell-good liberal org, I think the concept was really good. 

Peter's presentation on JournalisKit was also really good. The tech industry is an extremely competitive market to enter, but I think there are a lot of media startups and professional media outlets struggling to find good web tools for them. The user interface of any website is extremely important, but it can be very difficult for established media outlets and startups, which are focused on content, to develop a solid user interface on their own. They are generally forced to hunt all over for good tools and then they have to take those tools and make them work in a journalistic way. I think an outlet that makes these web tools specifically for media outlets, would do really well and fill a vacuum in the industry. I also think Peter has a solid grip on motion graphics and making web content user friendly, which likely means that he has a lot of great ideas. One example in particular was how he mentioned the transparency feature. I love that. Ultimately, it is not easy to build a tech startup from scratch, as there is a lot of competition out there, but I think the idea Peter presented was solid.

Finally, Kyle's presentation on The Road Ahead seemed pretty viable. In the era of the internet, an outlet that travels around the country and produces videos about American culture from all those different places, seems likely to produce viral content that would make a lot of money. It's not guaranteed to work, but I think it would because I think people have an appetite for this stuff. There are a lot of popular travel shows and stuff, so I think spinning that in a way that's unique and social media-friendly would tap into that market.