As the startup community strives to become a truly regional presence, one thing becomes increasingly clear and problematic: it’s difficult to follow what’s going on in provinces other than your own.
This is a problem for two reasons. First, startups in the region need to get their message out to international markets, and the factors preventing news from travelling between provinces also prevent it from travelling around the world. And second, there are provincial policy decisions that affect startups around the region, and it’s often difficult to follow the debate on these policies in adjacent provinces.
As I describe the situation, I’m not assigning blame to anyone. The vanishing revenues at news organizations have been well documented, and different organizations have chosen paths to deal with it, as any businesses would. Basically, the options in traditional newspapers range from limited paywalls (headlines can be viewed and non-subscribers get a certain number of free stories per month) to complete paywalls (no one can read even a headline until they’ve subscribed).
It’s difficult to overstate how important media coverage is to a young company. And it’s all the more important if an article can be emailed to a potential client or investor in a far-flung market. But if the media coverage can’t reach from Fredericton to Halifax or from Halifax to St. John’s, it’s not going to reach New York, San Francisco or London.
Media coverage helps startups to build up the case that they are validating their product, and the complete paywall usually prevents startups from doing this.
(If journalists say their job is to report the news, not to help young companies, I’d respond by saying the growth of these companies is essential to making sure the economy grows enough to support daily newspapers in the long term.)
More important, the technical age should allow an exchange of news and opinions across provincial boundaries, and this isn’t always possible.
A case in point: the New Brunswick government has launched a five-year, $80-million innovation program. It could help the formulation of policy in the other provinces to learn how the Fredericton government is distributing the money. A second case in point: all universities are developing entrepreneurship programs, and each would benefit to know what the others are doing.
Yet it can be difficult to find information on these issues.
The more I think about this, the more I believe it’s a factor affecting all business in the region, not just startups. I’m interested in the debate on fracking in Nova Scotia, and am fascinated by the more contentious debate in New Brunswick. I find I have to go looking for news on this highly important issue.
So what’s the solution? First, we should pay for news in our own market. Second, we should go looking for news in neighbouring provinces. If there is to be one regional startup community — or one regional business community — then the debates and policies in any one province will affect the performance of the entire region.
There are effective regional news sources such as The Chronicle Herald’s Business Insider and cbc.ca. And there are some great blogging sites, like David Campbell’s http://www.jupia.ca (now being rebuilt) in Moncton and Parker Barss Donham’s contrarian.ca in Cape Breton. And yes, I would add that Entrevestor helps to combat this problem.
Link with social media followers in other provinces. Once you see what they’re discussing, it’s possible to find the information. Google Alerts help, as well, to be notified of stories.
These aren’t elegant solutions, but they help.
