Local Journalism Super Structures

Eric Prock brings his background in advertising and marketing in startups and tech giants to combat the local news crisis in America

Eric Prock is the founder of Wave 3 Advisors, a consultancy focused on redesigning the economic model of journalism, reducing risk for journalists and restoring trust.

Eric started his career in advertising, working at a large agency before leaving to join the early internet at Real Networks, a pioneer in streaming audio and video (think Real Player).

After years at the start up, Eric left to work with Microsoft, specifically on their MSN network.

Most people don’t think of news when they think of Microsoft (at least I didn’t), but Eric points out that they are a huge player in the space, garnering hundreds of millions of viewers primarily on desktop, and partnering with over 1500 news publishers.

In this week’s episode of Small Press, Big Ideas, I spoke with Eric about his take on the local news crisis.

Eric discusses several factors that he sees that have damaged local news in the US including technological disruption, as well as publishers being slow to adapt to the internet boom, the financialization of the news industry, and the entrance of hedge funds into the space.

He talks about the need to come up with new models apart from the traditional broken ad only revenue model, as well as the role that non profits should take in taking the space.

We talk about how philanthropy can never solve the whole problem, and the importance on smaller, more nimble organizations to gain traction

Eric shares a fascinating concept called “journalism super structures”, which he defines as a stand alone entity that attracts philanthropy and other funding, partners, education and mentorship for small publishers, and help allocating national funding efficiently into local news ecosytems.

Eric is passionate about reviving local news in the US and brings a ton of value in this conversation. You can listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app, or in the player at the top of this page.