CJET is coming to Austin, TX

INN’s Community Journalism Executive Training (CJET) is coming to Austin, TX, from September 10 to 12, 2014.

CJET is an annual training conference that gathers journalism entrepreneurs for a crash course in news-industry leadership and the essentials of running a sustainable news and information business. INN’s goal is to provide hands-on training and guidance from mentors to build sustainable, independent journalism organizations.

Since 2012, CJET has served as a training ground for independent news executives in both for-profit and nonprofit news organizations in areas critical to building momentum and sustainability at news startups:

  • Sales: How to build diverse revenues, managing sales operations, from hiring to compensation; how to build and work a prospect list; how to identify and close new underwriters and supporters
  • Building a membership base: How to become a member-supported news institution, from running membership drives to tracking and retaining supporting members; understanding and tracking the process of converting visitors to supporters who donate to further your work
  • Traffic & analytics: how to understand web and mobile analytics; how (and how not) to use those to drive decisions
  • Impact measurement: how to keep track of who views content and where, how to measure engagement across multiple platforms including increasingly important social and mobile channels
  • Financial management: How to build and track a budget; budgeting for projects to expand the reach of your brand or add new lines of revenue

“The way I see it, CJET exists to help journalists sprout entrepreneurial wings,” says Anne Galloway, founder of VTDigger. “CJET 1 made me realize that I had to get out of reporting and editing mode and start investing my energy in the business side. ”