1. What do you believe you and your team would gain most from collaboration with Poynter?

Rooted and its reputation will grow more quickly with the help of Poynter. We are dedicated journalists with skills from one end of the spectrum to the other. One thing people sometimes say we lack is experience. We want to move forward, but not without the wisdom and experience of traditional journalism. Collaboration with Poynter will allow us to have access to the greatest knowledge bank of journalism there is. This association with such a well-respected institution will only help our reputation and standing in the eyes of both journalists and the public.

We will also benefit from the in-kind services and assistance from Poynter. We’re hoping that some of that assistance might come in the form of Web development, but we’ll take any help we can get. Rooted will be a successful reality, but we think it will get there much quicker if we can work together with Poynter on the details.

2. How much money do you anticipate your project will require in 2011? How much of that money have you raised already and from what sources? How much of your own money do you expect to invest in the project (apart from your time)? What sources do you expect will provide how much revenue to the project in 2011? Please include your assessment of the likelihood that various revenue streams will materialize.

Rooted’s operating costs are relatively low. We expect Rooted will need about $20,000 for everything if we exclude the founders’ salary. If we add in that payroll, the number goes up to about $100,000 (four founders with $20,000 salaries each). We’ve already raised — and spent — about $1,000 to get Rooted going. We expect to invest as much money as necessary to get Rooted off the ground. We also expect revenue to come from multiple streams.

Our first source of revenue will be advertising. They won’t be typical ads, as most will be interstitial and interactive. Think about Hulu and some of its interactive multimedia advertising and you’ll have a good idea of what we’re talking about.

Our second revenue stream will come from creating content for businesses. This content might be in the form of the aforementioned ads, or it could simply be promotional material that we have the skills to make for our clients. This material could be used on our site, in the clients’ own space, or both.

Our third revenue stream will come from the community in the form of donations. We will have an area on the site for donations, and some of our stories will include a link to that page so users can find it. We will also have a yearly donation drive (think public radio and the like) to raise money for Rooted.

The fourth revenue stream will come from sponsorships. Our plan is to create niche content on the site when we find a topic that resonates with the community. Once we have the niche, we’ll seek out sponsorships for it.

The fifth revenue stream will come in the form of events. We will host and coordinate events around issues that are important to the Rooted community.

The last revenue stream will come from mobile and tablet apps, which will bring in money in two ways. There will either be a small fee to download the apps, or if the user does not wish to pay a fee to download them they will be provided with a version that is supported by advertising.

We expect most of the revenue to come from advertising, sponsorships and content creation. These three streams combined will make up about 60 percent of our revenue. Our initial goal is to bring in $5,000 a month from these areas.

We expect donations to provide 15 percent of our overall revenue for the first year. We’ve seen other, more established, media entities in Austin make more than $60,000 in just two weeks. This makes us confident that we would be able to raise $15,000 or more in a year’s time.

Events will bring in another 10 percent of the revenue. We plan on doing one event at most in 2011, and we’re confident that we could make $10,000 on it if we do it right.

Our mobile and tablet apps will make up the last 15 percent of the revenue. With our strategy, we’ll be making money even if the user wants the app for free. The mobile advertising will follow the same philosophy as the regular site.

All of the revenue streams will be pursued within the first year, with the possible exception of the event. If we don’t do the event, then its 10 percent will be made up in other areas. We expect to be pulling in enough revenue to start paying salaries to the four founders by mid-2011. Until then, all the expenses will be paid by the founders.

3. Tell us more about you and your team. (Fine to paste in bios.)

Becky Rother is a graphic designer and developer. She knows nothing beats a live indie rock show. Becky loves the parts of Austin that keep it weird.

Peter Gaunt is a photographer and graphic designer. He loves riding his bicycle and playing bluegrass music on his banjo. Pete is an Austin adventurer.

Cassandra Adamson is a photographer and storyteller. She doesn’t need an excuse to travel and see new things in her viewfinder. Cassandra is ready to tell Austin’s stories.

Logan Braman is a writer, designer, developer and wanna-be photographer. He’s also a geek. Logan loves Austin almost as much as he loves journalism.

4. We’re tentatively planning to invite the two winners to Poynter for several days during the week of Nov. 8. (Poynter would cover up to $1,500 in travel costs per winning project; if more than one team member would like to come that would probably be OK but the total reimbursement would be $1,500 per team). Would you or a fellow team member be available to come to Poynter that week? (We may be able to reschedule, depending on a variety of factors.)

Yes, at least one of our team members will be available during the week of Nov. 8.

5. How much of your own time do you anticipate devoting to this project between now and June 30, 2011? What potential obstacles to the success of your project (personal, logistic, financial, professional, technical) should you and Poynter consider in that time frame?

We’re devoting every minute possible to making Rooted a successful business. Currently, we have two main hurdles to get over. The first is funding of the project, which is coming from the founders’ day jobs. Obviously, the more time we spend at the day jobs the less time we have to work on Rooted. That said, we’re willing to work on both until the revenue can cover our salaries.

The second hurdle is more technical in nature. We have Web development experience, but it eats into a lot of our time because it’s the one area where efficiency is an issue. We can get the development done, but not nearly as quickly as a full-time developer could. As discussed before, it would be tremendously helpful if we could get some assistance from Poynter in that regard. If not, it will get done but it might not be as quick.

6. What role do you anticipate that journalism will plan in your project? How would you like Poynter to help in that regard?

We’re in love with journalism. We also love the Web. Our third love is data. We see opportunity when the three are combined. Poynter will help us move into the next era of journalism. We know that data will drive some of our editorial decisions, but we don’t know how many. If we relied 100 percent on analytics and metrics to make a profit then we would probably be in the business of making irrelevant YouTube videos. If we rely 100 percent on the old gatekeeper model then we would probably run out of money trying to tell the community what it wants and needs. We want to find the perfect combination of the two, and we think Poynter will be extremely helpful in that regard. In short, we think Poynter will help guide us when we’re relying on data too much and remind us that journalism is at the core of Rooted.

7. What application might your project have in other communities? How might the journalism world benefit from discussion of your project along the way if you’re selected to collaborate with Poynter? Give us a sense of what parts of the project you would prefer to keep confidential, and what parts would be OK to discuss and write about.

Our project will work in any community. We’re trying to find a way to keep journalism in business, and we want to share our ideas and successes along the way. With that in mind, there is no area of Rooted that is confidential. If a business can be considered open source, that’s what Rooted is.

8. Anything else that you didn’t get a chance to say in your video that you think would help us better understand your project?

We are not afraid to push the envelope, and to push it hard. We — and our friends who are like us — have no use for the way stories and information were presented and delivered in the not-so-distant past. That said, we still believe journalism is at the core of Rooted’s future. A collaboration with Poynter will help us keep and promote the areas of journalism that make it great and absolutely vital to our society. It will also help Poynter move forward into tomorrow. We look forward to working with Poynter as Rooted grows into a successful business. Thank you for your consideration.