Inspiration for The Strategic Digital Media Entrepreneur comes from the many media innovators and entrepreneurs we’ve met in the profession and the classroom. During a time of immense uncertainty in the industry, they have focused their sights and energies on developing strategies that will allow their enterprises to thrive in the digital age.
A book is always a collaborative effort with many participants, who have generously shared insights and provided feedback that helped us refine concepts and ideas, and then communicate them in multiple venues—in print, in person and through online outlets.
We are indebted to our colleagues in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, especially Dean Susan King and UNC Provost James Dean, who have been strong advocates for our research and for the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. The Center is funded by generous grants from the Knight Foundation and the University. The mission of the Center is to support both start‐up and existing news organizations by researching and developing sustainable business models, as well as innovative digital tools, and then disseminating that information widely. We have received invaluable support from both faculty and staff associated with the Center. We thank senior researcher Erinn Whitaker for her extensive and committed editing and research effort, Lorraine Ahearn for her editing advice, as well as John Prudente and Jill Fontaine for their research assistance. Craig Anderson, Madeline Brown and Pamela Evans provided timely administrative support.
Finally, our thanks to the editors at Wiley Blackwell. We are grateful to acquisitions editor Elizabeth Swayze, who saw the need for a book on this topic and approached us in 2015, and to Executive Editor Haze Humbert and Project Editor Janani Govindankutty and her team, who have seen the idea through to completion.