The BW20 Stimulus Plan

President Obama has taken swift action to turn around America’s steep economic downturn by wasting no time and moving an $820 billion stimulus package proposal through congress.  Still, a little more scrutiny could have been used in deciding where the money will and will not be spent.  How is $50 million dollars in grants to arts endowments and a multi-million dollar investment in contraceptives supposed to create jobs and get people to spend more?

Thankfully, I’m not a politician and I don’t have to give you an answer that makes sense (not that they do anyway).  In the spirit of throwing money at anything with a social security number, I’ll raise my hand for the Black Web 2.0 community in hopes of catching something.  Here’s a rough proposal on where the money ought to be spent should any one of us happen to get a hold of a blank check.

Making Sure the Big Players Thrive -If we’ve learned anything from this economic crisis, particularly the financial services industry, it’s that the health of an industry (or even economy) are dependent upon the health of its biggest players, in a very big way.

My first priority would be separating Interactive One from Radio One’s asset-heavy broadcast radio business and turning into a content company.  One way would be to turn Radio One into a content company by selling most of its radio stations and shows, keeping the most popular programs, and syndicating the content.  A more extreme option would be to sell the entire radio operation or spin off Interactive One.

Mobile -Almost everyone has a cell phone now, yet I can’t think of one black digital media company with a strong mobile presence.  There’s a lot of opportunity here and someone has to take the lead.  For now, it seems that Qmobile is best equipped to do so.

Original Content - One of the biggest problems with the website business is that so many entrepreneurs and conglomerates alike want to cut costs by obtaining content on the cheap.  But cheap content isn’t necessarily good content.  And the good content you can get for cheap on one website, you can get almost anywhere else.  More and more, black content sites are simply mirroring each other, using different words to provide short articles and blogs posts of the same news and updates. There are only a handful of sites I can think of that provide truly original content or in depth enough to be considered unique.

Changing this mentality would require a few things.  Blogs and websites that have little money, a small staff, or are just the passion of a sole writer who cares more about what is produced than money earned, need to become much more focused when it comes to content.  It’s why I always will argue (with much backlash) that a website like Baller Alert is way ahead of the game, particularly with its Baller Boards.  Even if Baller Alert doesn’t pay the people who provide content, the site has a specific focus and is run, read, and written by people who actually live the lifestyle, providing an insider’s perspective that is hard to find elsewhere.

Larger companies or entrepreneurs that are in it for the business need to act like they are running one and not expect that they will make their millions in their first couple of years.  Like any new business, the first couple of years ought to be spent building a great product, customer base, and relationship with the audience under the expectation that you may not make and may even lose money to begin with.  One of the few web companies (albeit not a black web company) that seems to understand this is IAC, which invested a substantial amount of money in developing its new news aggregate site, The Daily Beast,  but doesn’t realistically expect to make any money from it until a few years from now.

Understanding What Makes Video Successful -Despite YouTube’s firm grasp on online video, sites like World Star Hip Hop, Flow TV (one of a few sites under the Ripe Digital umbrella), Code Black Entertainment, and others have been able to maintain a loyal and even sizable audience.  Whether through collaboration, shared learning, or consolidation the heads of these companies ought to share with each other what has made them successful.  An entire herd moving in unison will always travel further than any one crab clawing over its brothers to get out of the bucket.

Incentives for Intra-Industry Advertising Spend - Online entrepreneurs spend a lot of time trying to crack the same nut – how to attract advertising revenue and make online media profitable.  It’s a shame they don’t look to themselves more.  Black digital media may not be able to entirely support itself by spending money advertising on each other’s website, but such a tactic would have a few immediate advantages.

For one, it makes targeted traffic a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you spend money to advertise on another black website and it brings you additional traffic, not only do you have a larger audience, but you know who your audience is and that they are interested in your content.  And when you spend ad/marketing dollars you know you are pulling up the industry and eventually fattening your own pockets.

If this ever became a substantial practice it would change the way that non-BW20 advertisers have to negotiate pricing and incentives with websites.  It would be harder to say that websites don’t draw enough traffic or that they are not targeted enough.  And if advertisers refuse to pay fair rates or want one sided agreements, such as percentage of referred purchases only, you don’t have to depend on them.  You have your own community to support you.  This would require disciplined restraint in some areas, such as reducing free promotion through unpaid blog rolls.

It may be pie in the sky optimism, but it’s a dream worth having.