#ej2015

[kuangkeng]

The Curious Case of Maria Sanchez

by Kuang Keng Kuek Ser

A strong sense of curiosity in a wide range of fields have made journalism a perfect career choice for Maria Sanchez.

If I study biology, I would only focus on science, but if I become a journalist, I could write about science and politics and others. It is a profession that involves a little bit of everything.

Born and grew up in Madrid, Spain, Maria however started her journalism career in Mexico. After graduated from a journalism program in University Carlos III of Madrid, she was awarded an unexpected fellowship to intern at El Mundo de Tehuacán, a newspaper based in Puebla, Mexico.

She was immediately fascinated by “the political situation, corruption, poverty and inequality” in Mexico and realized that being a journalist can really make a difference to a society. There Maria also understood that stories written in Spanish can have a wide reach and impact in a long list of Latin American countries.

Following the short stint at El Mundo de Tehuacán, Maria returned home and joined Soitu.es as a reporter, helping the Spanish news startup to win the ONA excellence award, twice. The news website pioneered several bold innovations which Maria described as “ahead of its time” such as allowing journalists and communities to curate content on the website. It was also where Maria acquired all the valuable skills on multimedia storytelling, social media, live blogging and collaborative journalism.

Unfortunately, the startup was forced to fold up when Spain was hit hard by the 2008 global financial which led to a media advertising crisis. Taking a break, Maria, who was once a guitarist in a post-rock band, embarked on a three-month road trip travelling the US, from New York to Los Angeles, Seattle to New Orleans, to investigate the roots of American music. The journey and findings were later published as a blog called ‘Motel Americana’ in El País, Spain’s largest newspaper.

She then worked as a social media consultant and strategist for a company that produces cultural publications, managed an online shorts documentary festival called Notodofilmfest, and later assumed the position of digital editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveler based in Madrid. After successfully launching digital versions of the travel magazine, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship by the US government to pursue a masters degree in CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, followed by the Tow-Knight Center fellowship in entrepreneurial journalism.

I want to learn how media do things in the U.S. in order to apply to future projects. I learnt my lesson (from Soitu.es), I don’t want that to happen again.

I want to make sure high quality journalism is sustainable not just in big companies.

[towknight]

Q&A with Leandro Beguoci

Before his fellowship at Tow-Knight last spring, Leandro Beguoci worked at F451, a media startup in São Paulo, Brazil. He had years of experience as a reporter and an editor, but he wanted to know more about the business of journalism. "I was used to creating editorial content, but my experience developing the product concept was weak," he said. This summer he launched his own startup, Outra Cidade, and is involved with a new project focused on education. "It has never been so challenging and promising working with journalism," he said.   

How are your projects going?

At Tow-Knight I created a journalistic website that promotes urban solutions, Outra Cidade. It's going super well. The idea was to try this kind of journalism focused in the city. I'm also working with Fundação Lehman (a Brazilian non-profit organization that works with education programs) to create a journalistic product focused on education. Our goal is to create something that will speak to both parents and teachers, and will foster education in Brazil. It is very challenging because they are starting from scratch and aim to be a reference in the area.

What has your experience in recent months taught you?

The main thing that I've learned is that each of us has a black hole of knowledge - things that you have no idea exist, and that you don't even know that you don't know. Tow-Knight helped me systemize my knowledge. I learned which tools to use to create value for other people - they will pay for something if it has value for them. And I also learned to think about how to materialize this value. Which business model will sustain that value? These are the main points that I am applying in my projects.

And what challenges have you faced?

It was hard to get used to the vocabulary. When you work with journalism you are used to one group of words, and in entrepreneurship you have another. Business, design, commercial, HR, marketing… If you don't understand what is going on, you can't move forward. And then leave the abstraction to start materializing. You have to stop talking about thousands of concepts and start doing it. The dynamic at Tow-Knight tells you to create something - I usually say that I never slept so little as when I was there. You always have so many things to do and to think - I still have, and I'm still getting used to it.   

What do you see yourself doing in the longer term?

I want to keep on writing about journalism and communication. It has never been so challenging and promising working with journalism. In the longer term, I see myself building new products with high value for people and creating knowledge about communication.

What interesting things you have read/watched/listened to recently?

I've been reading a lot about design, because I think this experience is crucial for the products we want to create. I've been reading The New York Times memo on how the newspaper's sees itself, Nieman Lab (which I read daily) and literature. Literature opens doors; it makes you think, enter a world that is not yours. Now I'm reading Elena Ferrante's new book, "My brilliant friend".

Tell us about cool startups in your country.

One of the most interesting things that have appeared recently in Brazil is Jota, a legal journalism site that has really high quality material and a structured business model. They have a paywall and are succeeding at turning visitors into subscribers. I also like Aos Fatos - we really needed journalists willing to do fact checking in Brazil. And there's also Sergio Spagnuolo's Volt, a platform that teaches data journalism and programming for journalists. There is another initiative called Farol, which is trying to systemize the knowledge about journalism and is financed through paid courses. These are all quite new initiatives covering areas that weren't being covered in Brazil before.

What other international startups have caught your attention?

I really like what Pia Mancini is doing in Argentina. She started as a journalist and helped to create a network that connects politicians and citizens. I also like Chalkbeat and The Marshall Project in the United States. What I think is really interesting is the data journalism group that is being created on Medium. They've just started investigating the story of a boat that disappeared full of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, using very new methods. Those are all very interesting projects that have caught my attention.