At the same time as the worldwide newspaper industry is in serious trouble, UK startup Newspaper Club is making newsprint cool and attracting works and commissions from the likes of the BBC, Wired, Penguin and Last.fm.
Currently in beta, Newspaper Club is an online service that makes it easy for “people and communities make their own newspapers” – although they seem to be gaining more ground with brands looking for something a little different to get their message out.
The standard 12-page tabloid newspaper can be printed from PDF in both black and white and full-colour, in print runs as small as 5 copies. Pricing is kept in check by making use of downtime on newspaper printing presses and would-be media moguls can get help with design through ARTHUR:
“… if you need a bit more help, we’ve got a tool called ARTHR, where you can upload your own text and pictures and we’ll help you lay it out on the page so it looks lovely. Then you can get it printed”
A bespoke service is also available to help source writers and artists as well as handling the complete design and print process.
Funded by 4iP, Newspaper Club has a lot in common with HP Labs’ MagCloud (print-on-demand magazines) – both of which take a retropreneurial spin by putting ‘old school’ media into the hands (and price ranges) of funky brands, communities, interest groups and small business.
Spikeball is a volleyball-like game where two teams of two compete to keep the ball in the air before spiking it off a circular sprung net on the ground. Originally marketed as a beach game, it’s now taking off in backyards and parks across America.
But it’s also a rather unconventional business.
Spikeball actually launched way back in the early 90’s but failed to take off, before being brought back to life – and given a new attitude – by a group of 7 friends from Illinois.
We caught up with co-founder and company president Chris Ruder to learn a little more about Spikeball and the business behind it:
Let’s imagine that you want to create a forest from scratch.
You’ve got two basic options: transplant one big tree or plant thousands of native seedings.
If you decide to transplant one big tree, the hope will be that that one tree drops a few nuts, which turn into little seedlings, which grow up to be more trees, which drop some more nuts and so on. A big tree will also provide shade and fruits from the start – perfect if you’ve got a hungry population to feed.
Of course, there are a few problems with this idea. First off, you’ve got to get the tree – which is gonna cost – and the transplant might not take; the big tree could wither and die and you’re back where you started. You’re also placing all your proverbial eggs in one basket, if that tree gets hit by lighting of falls foul of some illness then, again, you have to start all over.
Planting hundreds (or even thousands) of tiny saplings is a lot more work and there’s a lot less to look at from the outset. It could be years before you start to see the results, and, chances are an awful lot of your precious saplings won’t survive the winter.
But with hundreds to choose from the chances of a few taking root and growing strong are pretty good – and you’re also much more likely to attract lots of other little plants and animals to add depth to your budding ecosystem.
That, and you’re teaching your community to become growers – so when you have one forest, you also have everything you need to keep adding new trees.
Needless to say I’m not talking about trees, or forests or plantlife of any kind.
I’m talking about business. More particularly I’m talking about the transplanted trees of large multinational employers (foreign direct investment) versus the saplings of indigenous startups.
Not a perfect metaphor I know, but where would you place your bet?
So what happens when an event sales manager and an IT professor / consultant encounter a delicious French fancy on their travels?
They spend the next five years launching a niche bakery business of course.
After becoming smitten with French macarons on a trip to Paris, husband and wife team Katharine and Justin Greis decided to track down the delicate pastries when they returned home to Chicago – only to find they couldn’t lay their hands on them.
Suitably motivated, they set out to create and sell their own under the brand Panna Dolce and have notched up some impressive sales since launching in December. I decided to get in touch to find out what motivated them and what they’ve learned so far.
[NB: Huge thanks to Justin for taking the time to share his thoughts with us.]
A few weeks ago we featured Ooh.com a marketplace where (mostly) micropreneurs can promote courses, workshops and events that they run.
Given the range of interesting ideas that have already found their way onto the site, it seems to me that there’s an entire ’show and tell’ economy that offers talented people (and forward-thinking businesses) an opportunity to profit from their skills and passions.
Run by equipment manufacturer Carpigiani, Gelato University features a series of six courses (each lasting 3 days) designed to help train entrepreneurs who want to enter the gelato business – and help ‘upskill’ people who are already involved in the industry.
Around 6,000 take the courses every year and additional short (1/2 day) introductory sessions have proven popular worldwide.
But even if ice cream isn’t your thing, Gelato University has something to teach us. In fact, it has two somethings:
People will pay to learn to do what you do
Education is big business but there’s also a sizable market for ‘experiences’ – people interested in trying out something new rather than spending their weekends at the mall or holidays stuck in tourist traps. Put the two together and you’ve got a useful and usable market for both professional development and ‘fun’ courses.
If they can do it with ice cream then you can do it with flower arranging or pottery or property or animation or whatever it is that floats your own particular boat.
And existing businesses can do it too
Carpigiani not only generate revenues from their courses but they also do a good job of growing their potential market and brand awareness. Zappos does something very similar with customer care courses.
And a jeweller could do it with jewellry making courses, a plumber with DIY workshops or a restaurant with a cookery school and tasting nights. A nightclub could generate new revenues with DJ training or ‘DJ for a day’ events. A writer could earn a bit extra with a creative writing club.
In fact, it’s a lot easeir to think of businesses and professions that can do this than come up with a list of those that couldn’t.
So creamy Italian treats aside, what could you teach people to do?
