Andrew Lagomarsino & Garrett Morrison

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Goal: 2 million dollars – Investment Opportunity

NewJerseyNewsroom.com is an innovative regional news website with a unique low-risk and profitable regional news model.

PROOF THAT INVESTING IN JOURNALISM CAN BE GOOD BUSINESS

SYNOPSIS:
Raising $2 million from an angel investor(s) for 50 percent stake in regional news network startup. The super-efficient media model we invented and spent over 4 years testing, will change the world and make money for those who invest. Investing in journalism can be good business.

WE HAD A THEORY:
Organize independent journalists and you would have a strategic business advantage over the traditional model of regional media. Prove that journalists have power to run most efficient newsrooms.

WE TESTED THEORY:
We invested in a 4-year pilot with NewJerseyNewsroom.com. It proved theory. Organizing independent journalists in New Jersey resulted in a $6 story cost average and 1 million unique visitors. The major strategic advantage is $6 stories verse traditional model of $300 stories. No other media model can produce stories at a lower cost than independent journalists, and that is the primary moat we have around this new model, which is proprietary in nature. The test also resulted in a 200-journalist army, which is proof that there is a second strategic advantage over current regional newsrooms and Wikipedia.org. We started pilot with $79 dollars and posted profits for each year of operation; and that’s without employing business operations.

PARTNER SEARCH:
We’re looking for the right partner to help monetize what we learned, which is that organizing the independent journalist community can disrupt every regional news market around the U.S. and world, and replace Wikipedia.org with our journalist-driven Journopedia.org. We’re seeing new business models emerge that build value by organizing groups of people. Uber organizes the independent drivers and Tidal has just started to organize musicians. The Internet also allows this startup to organize journalists.

OPPORTUNITY:
An efficient regional news network will be worth billions of dollars (The Philly Inquirer, a money-losing operation, auctioned for $88 million in 2014). In the short term (2 years), we expect each regional market to produce $500,000 in profits. Profits will grow over time. We estimate that there are at least 100 regional media markets in the United States (100 x $500K = $50M; 20 P/E is worth $1 billion; Or $88M x 100 = $8.8B). The $2 million in funds will allow for a 2-year budget to build out the business side of the model. The $6 dollar per story innovation allows for us to avoid major losses. After year two, we expect to use profits for expansion to new regional markets. Journopedia.org, which is a better online encyclopedia model, is a second billion-dollar opportunity. Wikipedia.org is the world’s No. 6 most-visited site. All the other Top 10 sites are billion dollar companies ($30B to $380B).

CONTACT:
For more details, contact Andy Lagomarsino, alagomarsino@newjerseynewsroom.com or Garrett Morrison@newjerseynewsroom.com.

Website: www.newjerseynewsroom.com