We've experienced an unreal amount of unrest within the last year. The crisis behind journalism — both in its sustainability, trust, viability and growth, has only continued to grow. With the COVID-19 pandemic and a hot button election year, we've needed access to good, quality information provided by journalism more than ever, but have failed to connect with journalists of a previous age. On top of this - rising journalists in touch with the skills and tools we need were more likely to be laid off due to cuts made in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The concept of a media solopreneur started to take shape. Advice given to students at countless times has been "start building your audience now," "write something," or "find your followers." We've sacrificed authenticity for klout at times, but in some ways that's the same thing that's keeping some folks going.
Solopreneurship provides an answer to unstable media climates. It offers a solution to continuing your craft and putting your stake in the world, without the burden, restriction, or even dare I say financial, or career instability. Some prominent media solopreneurs have even claimed that a motivation into doing it on their own is the freedom from editorial staff or decisions.
Solopreneurs, while free of some of the bureaucracy and instability of the newsroom, face other obstacles. Serving as your own editorial board, your own tech support, writer, editor, content strategist, designer... the list goes on. Getting started in your career as a solopreneur requires a sort of self-onboarding. Materials to get started and going aren't provided in a sort of buttoned-up onboarding provided by most newsrooms.
Solopreneurship isn't as cut and dry as outlined as above. In fact many creators wouldn't necessarily describe themselves as a media solopreneur or content creator. They've just been doing what they've been doing for a while, and have sort of stumbled into making a living. The most important thing to note, is that you can be considered a solopreneur even if you're not making a single dime. Monetization and solopreneurship are not directly related, however for many can be.
Well, it probably does. Those who are a media solopreneur and those who are building a startup often hold the same traits to a high pedestal. They're extremely passionate, curious, trustworthy, looking for adoption, and often looking for monetization. This isn't a bad thing. If you want to bootstrap a living as a creator, you need to be prepared to think about things from a business angle as well.
Here's where you get real with yourself; ask yourself the tough questions.
The biggest frustration of those who are going it alone is well, you’re not alone. Almost every solopreneur interviewed or surveyed called this out as their biggest issue. Having editors, designers, operational help, heck even a bookkeeper was called out as lifesaving to many. Many folks that work in newsrooms that then went remote realized they took for granted the support staff that was provided by the newsroom.
This isn’t only a problem for solopreneurs, even individuals within legacy organizations or in brands should keep this in mind as well — people do business with other people, not the business or brand.
A quick Twitter search would lead you to believe that for every 1 journalist who launched their own thing, there were at least 10 folks with a tech background. This isn’t to shit on those building with a tech background but rather to dig in deeper as to why. Surveying folks in each of those audiences, I started to notice a bit of a trend in this arena.
Those coming from a journalism background often cited a sort of catalyst event towards going it solo. Whether it was job loss, pay cut, or butting heads with an editor. Those coming from a tech background often considered launching something part of a rite of passage. It was a natural progression to build your own thing.