Hello from Athens, Greece, and Santiago, Chile,
 

During the last two weeks, we’ve been focusing exclusively on our product since we are getting closer to delivering an alpha version of our MVP before the end of the year. 
 

The blueprint of Qurio is getting its flesh and bones. We decided to take our time a bit longer than usual for startups. Because we aren’t technical founders, we wanted to find someone who would be passionate about the idea, commit to it and build it with us. The second reason is that building on paper helps teams de-risk and save time on iterations. 

Even though we have a very concrete idea of how the initial Qurio product should feel and look, we’ve been working closely with the design team of Startech Ventures, listening to our potential early adopters about their needs, and now with Akel’s work trying to bring together all the bits and pieces in an efficient, user-friendly and competent manner. 

Reflecting on 2019, when we conceived the first ideas about the whole project, we were thinking too big about how we could combine feedback from the readers and engaged journalism into a super-charged tool.

What we build now is a pretty straightforward tool that allows you to do two things: create engaging call-outs for your community, and have all the responses pleasingly organized so you can make sense of them.

Would you like to take a sneak peek? Just respond to this email! We’ll be telling you more as we have parts of the MVP ready; in the meantime, we’d love to hear from you.

Our latest blog post

Following a very kind invitation to the “Spark to Journalism: Engaged Journalism” workshop earlier in October by Media4Change, Spyros had the chance to travel to Lithuania, meet exceptional journalists and researchers from all over Europe, and represent Qurio in a vitalizing 4-day workshop at Antalieptė, in Central Lithuania.

The workshop was headlined by Mrs. Gerd Maria May, founder of Room of Solutions. She is an expert on strategic media development. Previously she has been a journalist for 20 years and is now a speaker, author, consultant for media companies, and a Fellow at Constructive Institute.
 

Click here to read more about the STEP model and how it can be helpful for some solutions journalism.

Some coaching news

We’ve been working with the audience team of a very creative publication from Toronto, Canada, Sliced. They are the marketing arm of FED, a healthy meals startup focusing on food creatively. Sliced wanted to hear from their community so they could understand their needs and produce high-quality content that would boost FED and add to the brand. That’s why we partnered up and organized a call-out/reader survey. Check it out! 
 

For your news industry radar

The Los Angeles Times has launched a new civic engagement tool that shows Angelenos how to get involved in their communities.
 

Dubbed “the people’s guide to power,” Shape Your L.A. allows users to type in their address and get maps and relevant information about their local government and institutions, and how to contact their representatives in the state capitol and Washington, D.C.

“One thing readers tell us over and over again is that they want to know how to get involved in their communities and government at the smallest possible level,” said Times Utility Journalism Editor Matt Ballinger, who edited the project. “While they get information every day on topics like the status of the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, they don’t know how to go about getting a speed bump put on their street or helping someone who’s struggling with homelessness. That’s what this app is all about.”

Deputy Design Director for Digital Projects Alex Tatusian said the tool would continually evolve as the team receives input from readers. “We have a robust feedback form that will allow for readers to guide the product with the issues and features they’re most interested in seeing in future iterations,” he said.

News Nerds of the World, Unite! 

There’s a new book about journalism by Allie Kosterich. Allie Kosterich is an Assistant Professor of Communications and Media Management at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, and a fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. She researches transformation in media industries.

The book called “News Nerds” explores how technological, economic, and societal changes are impacting the institutionalized profession of journalism. Allie Kosterich draws on a mixed-methods research design that blends interviews, social network analysis of LinkedIn data, job postings, and industry publications to make sense of how skills and practices become entrenched throughout the news industry. Taken together, these data reveal the ways in which the profession is evolving to incorporate new technological skillsets and new routines of production.

Mrs. Kosterich explains more about the book in her own words in this Twitter thread!