Medill Innovation
Innovation Spotlights

About The Innovation Projects

Media companies are looking for journalistic innovators -- people who can create new kinds of publications, experiment with cutting-edge technologies and figure out what media audiences need and want. Medill graduate students participate in pioneering innovation projects, working in an immersive team setting to solve real problems for and with the media industry. The tumultuous changes transforming the media business make these projects increasingly relevant – for media companies and for students who apply their entrepreneurial spirit and experience the process of new-product development.

In just 11 short weeks, students learn everything that goes into successful media product development. They conduct original consumer research, create a new product or products and build a business plan. And they present their projects to journalism and media leaders who look to Medill for both innovative ideas and creative, entrepreneurial students. Recent media guests include Hearst Newspapers, DoubleClick, Meredith Publishing Group, ESPN, ChicagoTribune.com, IDEO and Bonnier Publications.

For more information about the Medill Graduate Journalism Innovation projects, please contact Rich Gordon, director of digital innovation and associate professor, at richgor@northwestern.edu or 847-467-5968.

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Magazine Innovation Project

For almost 30 years, Medill magazine students have collaborated to produce magazine concepts, including editorial content, design vision and advertising strategy. Some classes conceive their own magazine ideas. Others work with industry partners to incubate new ideas for existing brands. As technology and audience behavior evolve, the project does, too – with students spending more time developing online content and strategy. Students elect their peers into the key roles that exist at real magazines: publisher, editor, Web manager, market researcher. And every student creates content for both print and digital platforms. The team then presents print and digital prototypes along with the business plan to industry experts.

Some Medill alumni are lucky enough to see their hard work and creativity come to life. In 2008, Make It Better, a community resource for women dedicated to philanthropy, commissioned the Medill magazine project to flesh out its Web site and to create a print product. And in October 2009, the premier issue arrived in 50,000 mailboxes along Chicago's North Shore.

The most recent project was Insider-Chicago, an online magazine that offers locals and visitors a fresh perspective on the city.

 

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Interactive Innovation Project

Imagine creating a Twitter publishing tool. Or a Microsoft Word plug-in that searches Google from the same screen as your document. Or a tool that lets you to “order up” a light snack of news on demand from MSNBC via your iPhone. This project offers students a chance to launch digital products or explore the potential of new media technologies. Each class is different because the faculty select projects based on current issues or new technologies. Students develop a functional digital prototype, test it with users and document the lessons they learned in a report with recommendations for journalists, news organizations and media companies.

In 2008, the spring class, called "Team LoJo," short for "locative journalism,” used GPS technology and interactive maps to explore the implications for journalism and storytelling using the 2016 Chicago Olympic bid as a topic. The fall class developed NewsMixer, a Web site that demonstrated novel approaches to encourage conversations about local news among young adults.

The most recent project partnered with McCormick engineering students to develop five new media tools to more efficiently gather and analyze news. And though the class has ended, one team was hired to continue developing their software, Stats Monkey, which translates sports data into a narrative.   

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Community Media Innovation Project

Want to create a media product for a targeted community? One you get to visit, and whose residents you get to know personally to find out what they really want? This project is focused on local markets and enrolls students from different graduate sequences.  The class typically partners with a local media company to develop a multiplatform product that meets the needs of a targeted audience. Students in this class conduct original market research and gather information on best practices and innovations in other markets. They use this information – and their own creative insights – to develop ideas for new products that will be embraced by audiences and also offer a realistic chance of profitability.

In 2004, for instance, the class created Your Mom, a pioneering online social network and print publication for teenagers in the Quad Cities area of Iowa.  In 2007, the class developed a concept for a print/online hyperlocal publication geared to young families in Zeeland, Mich.  And in 2008, the class conceived INstride, a magazine and Web site aimed at bringing local health and fitness content to active adults in south central Indiana. These are three examples of projects that were launched by the companies that sponsored the classes.

The most recent project traveled to Fort Wayne, Ind. to create an online resource that residents could use to find local entertainment.