Publicity from winning a New Voices grant in 2010 placed The Morgan State University MOJO Lab on the map, noted professor and lab director Allissa Richardson. At the same time, she and her team remained focused on developing an editorial strategy and distribution partnerships.
In the first 90 days of the grant, Richardson worked with other professors this summer to define the Lab’s concept and devise a plan of action. The most controversial decision, she said, was the decision to not cover crime, “simply for crime’s sake.”
“We decided as a team then to highlight specific incidents only as building blocks to write more solution-oriented stories,” Richardson said.
After appearing on a Baltimore NPR affiliate, WYPR 88.1 FM, the Governor’s Secretary of Planning invited her to meet to learn more about the Lab and suggest ways the Governor’s office could help. “As a result of that meeting, the Lab’s reporters will have generous access to cover the gubernatorial campaign, city and state planning meetings and many other political functions,” Richardson said. All this came before the site’s planned launch in December 2010.
Seeking Distribution Partnerships
Richardson has begun exploring partnerships with three other news organizations. News One, a website that targets an African-American could put the lab’s reports in front of an audience of roughly 9 million unique visitors a month. In a syndication deal, News One will pay the university $99 per month. The editor of an NBC website, The Grio, met Richardson and discussed plans to launch a college site for African-American students. Richardson has submitted a proposal to be included, which may serve as an additional revenue stream. And MOJO signed on with Baltimore Sun’s advertising team to create a pre-roll video ad for the MOJO site.
Richardson, a committee member of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Digital Media Task Force, will organize Morgan State’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities Student Media Institute in April 2011, designed to help replicate the Lab’s community news approach at other HBCUs. That may bring in additional revenue as well.
But Technically, Not So Rosy
With all of its success, the Lab has experienced some logistical problems on the web front. The Lab is on the same Ingeniux content management system that Morgan State uses, in order to retain consistency in format and security. However, the rest of the MOJO Lab website is run on the WordPress platform. Richardson discovered their site prototype had been hacked after logging on while at a convention.
“All of the designs and coding were gone. A blank screen stared back,” Richardson said. The University’s information technology team found that the open source nature of WordPress made it easy for hackers to plant viruses.
Fortunately for the Lab, the team was able to restore the site prototype after finding the server’s last known configuration of the Lab’s website. The Lab since fortified the site to add better security to the platform.
“We are happy to report that the website has not been hacked since the hardening efforts! This is a great relief,” Richardson said.
Making the Most of the MOJO
Like all startups, MOJO Lab had to find ways to fundraise, particularly to generate the New Voices $8,000 matching requirement. In a fortuitous string of events, the cybercafe in the campus center closed, leaving the campus with a coffee void. The MOJO Lab developed a “News and Brews” fundraising effort that sells coffee and newspapers in the cafe.
Here’s how it works: The Journalism Department at Morgan subscribed to the Times, which delivers daily 150 copies of the newspaper. A student worker is then paid through the Times to distribute the paper. “The student also serves coffee as a barista. We sell the coffee with the free newspaper. We keep the money,” explained Richardson. Students also took orders from professors and deliver coffee and a newspaper daily, with a renewable subscription fee.
“It is already taking off,” Richardson said. “The University Comptroller has created a special account to collect our fundraising money.”
With the launch date in December 2010 set, the Lab has ordered equipment and established legal protection for intellectual property.
“We are enjoying the learning curve,” Richardson said. “The MOJO Lab is on its way.”
- Briona Arradondo
