Spot.Us has been operating for two years with the goal of bringing transparency and community participation to journalism. While the model of community-focused sponsorships has worked at a small scale, becoming self-sustaining will require scaling up revenue from sponsorships to $15,000 per week through increased community engagement. Strategic options include continuing as an experiment, aggressive scaling as a non-profit focused on local news, or spinning off as a for-profit company. Next steps are pursuing grants and relationships with media agencies to help sell community sponsorships at a larger scale.

1. State of the Spot
Two years in......2011
Trying to plan for another two....2013

2. Not Just About Journalism
• Spot.Us doesn’t want
to save journalism for
journalism’s sake.
• This is about serving
the information needs
of local communities.

3. How Spot.Us Worked
• Original Model:
Principle: Bring transparency and participation to the process of journalism

4. Added to Model
• One aspect of journalism is advertising. Our version of this, based on our
principles of transparency and participation is “community-focused
sponsorships.”
• Acts of engagement are monetized by letting community members
decide where the sponsorship funds go.
+ = $
Opt-in Act of engagement Fund a Story
A user clicks
“Free Credits”
+ Provide anonymous
feedback
= You decide where
the funds go.
to the sponsor
Our advertising budget - your decision

5. Sponsorship possibilities.... endless
• Included with Spot.Us credits are coupon codes.
• Acts of engagement that incorporate Twitter, Facebook to
increase ROI and shareability of sponsorship
• Survey results shared publicly, if sponsor approves, to
stir conversation about topics (the Pew effect)
A new form of
advertising that is....... • Transparent and participatory.
• Empowers people to act as humans
rather than treats them like
“This is one of the best advertising eyeballs.
experiences I’ve ever had. I gave
something of what I know, I got • Inspires engagement - making it
something of what they wanted me valuable for the sponsor as well.
to know, and I gave the resulting spot
$ to a story I wanted to support.” • Mutually beneficial relationship.

6. Strategic Options for Spot.Us
Boldness Scale
1 • Consider it a successful experiment. Extrapolate lessons
until funds run dry and we experience the Spotocalypse.
3 • Continue as open-source lab experiment with incremental
additional effort. Would require a sustaining grant in late
2011 early 2012 to continue at pace.
7 • Scale aggressively, remain not-for-profit with focus on local
news. Aim for self-sustainability within 2-3 years after
Politically incorrect crosshairs of victory
investment from a foundation.
10 • Spin-off into a for-profit company. Seek private funding for
growth.

7. Ideal Revenue Numbers
What David has sold personally in 6 months What is needed to become sustainable.
with all of his copious spare time.
• $35,000 in sponsorships • $15,000 in sponsorships a week.
“sold” (one 5k donation)
• Rate at $6 every ‘act of engagement.’
• Average sponsorship:
$5,000 • Spot.Us takes 20% ($1) every act of
engagement.
• Average 1 sold a month. • 2,500 active engagements a week.*
• $20,000 grant from • Roughly 25 pitches a week at $500 each,
Harnisch Foundation every pitch getting 100 community members
allowed us to build and to take action.*
subsidize some
* Selling sponsorships is the hard part. If we have the
sponsorships. sponsorships I’m confident we can scale up to 30 pitches a
week with 100 community supporters (over time).

8. To Sell sponsorships - Must answer the following
• Audience demographics and numbers
• Metrics: Average time of engagement (2:45)
• Average response time (Currently: 1,000 users
in two-three weeks - need to get this to 2,500
in one week)
• Show ROI for sponsors (Can we build a coupon
model?) Compare this with Cost-per-action
rates.
• The time problem: Need a sales person (team?)
(In short: What’s the measurable ROI on top of the concept which most agree is sound

9. To increase number of pitches
• Find organizations that see benefit in
making money (that’s not a hard sell).
• Branded experience via an A.P.I. and
widget.
• Find percentage of survey takers who
become donors (for nonprofits).
• Let them publish first.
• Cross pollination of communities/linking,
etc.

10. Conclusions and Next Steps
CONCLUSIONS
• The model DOES work at our current scale.
• We aren’t going to disappear in 2011 - but in 2012 we face serious hurdles we need
to address.
• Redesign #3 in progress - reaching optimal user-interface.
• See slide #4 - make a decision. How can we tackle what is in the crosshairs?
NEXT STEPS
• Find a way to apply for grants without distracting from forward momentum.
Kauffman Foundation (rejected) Omidyar Network, Whitman Institute, McCormick
Foundation, Knight Foundation, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism, Harnisch
Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, MacArthur Foundation. etc.
• Pursue relationships with media planning and buying agencies that will take on
this exciting challenge of selling community-focused sponsorships. Note: Without
foundation support, many won’t take the time to learn how to sell unique adverts
for an organization that isn’t at a high scale and might not live past July 2012.