I’m Jay Neely, a Boston digital publisher & community builder active in the local tech, startup, and media ecosystems. I’m most known as the creator of Boston Startups Guide, a free online resource that connects nearly 200,000 founders, job-seekers, and partners with local startups each year. I’m also one of the founding organizers of Startup Boston, a week-long 2800-attendee annual conference.
After doing consulting for several small & medium publishers, and having worked at New England’s largest and most established publisher, Boston Globe Media… the lack of a media industry cluster in Boston stood out in sharp contrast to the many events, organizations, incubators, and professional development programs available in other Boston industries like tech, education, even food. Everything media-related I’ve found focuses heavily on the editorial side, even though we’re clearly in a period where publishers & media entrepreneurs everywhere are rethinking business models, product strategy, distribution channels, etc. to be able to thrive.
Out of Tech and Into Media
I’ve been moving out of tech and into media because frankly, media is more important. Cultural media influences our values; political media sets the agenda of our democracy; industry media directs capital and talent. Our media consumption is a common foundation for what we talk about with the people we know, and how we think about the people we don’t know.
But media companies need new models to operate profitably, to build audiences they can reach reliably, and to give those audiences the quality and experience they deserve. And I believe Boston can be a place where we figure those models out.
Building Audience Leaders in Boston
We already have the ingredients for a strong media ecosystem. Our universities produce thousands of capable writers, journalists, video producers, audio engineers, designers, and other fresh talent every year. We do have a variety of at-scale companies (Boston Globe Media, NESN, Harvard Business Review, America’s Test Kitchen) with experienced talent, and a number of founders working on new and innovative outlets. We have strong complementary ecosystems of digital agencies, PR firms, advertising & marketing tech companies.
What we need is an org that consistently brings these people together, creates opportunities for them to learn from each other, highlights examples & insights from national leaders, and provides an entry point for entrepreneurs & talent to discover opportunities in this space.
That’s what I’m building with Audience Leaders. If you’re interested in helping, I’d love to hear from you: jay [@at@] jayneely [.dot.] com