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Burt Herman shares lessons from launching Storify

Joe Grimm by Joe Grimm Published Nov. 7, 2011 12:29 pm Updated Nov. 8, 2011 4:33 pm

In today’s career chat, we talked with Burt Herman, CEO and co-founder of Storify. Herman worked as a bureau chief and correspondent for the Associated Press before creating Storify, a tool that lets journalists pull together content from various social networks to tell stories. Herman is also a founder of Hacks/Hackers.

Herman talked about how he got the idea for Storify and what it took to launch the site. He offered tips about how to effectively pursue journalism-related ideas and projects, and also talked about how he made the transition from reporting to running Storify.

Herman made a distinction between being a journalist and being an entrepreneur, saying: “There’s a key difference between journalism and entrepreneurship: Being a journalist is being careful to never make a mistake … Doing a startup is about making mistakes all the time and not being afraid to fail.”

You can replay the chat here:

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  • Katie Hammock

    I really like the idea of Storify. As a journalism student we often discuss in class how we are going to  incorporate with the constantly changing and growing social media. Fortunately for me, as a young journalist, I am growing up with social media, but for other, more experienced journalists, that may not be the case. Regardless of the age, it is vital for journalists to embrace and use social media to our best advantage. With a journalism-based site such as Storify that allows people to make stories using social media, I think will be helpful to journalists everywhere in building and adding their stories. 

    I also enjoyed reading the live chat with Burt Herman, thank you. In my business of media class we often discuss entrepreneurship and starting up different media business ventures and Burt definitely had some excellent advice. Although I am sure some journalists have both the entrepreneurial gene and the journalistic one as well, but many do not. And when Burt talked about how the main difference between journalists and entrepreneurs is not making mistakes and making a lot of mistakes I think that is why it would be key for many journalists wishing to start up a new media business to have a partner who has more experience in the entrepreneurial field. I think with someone from both ends you would have the best chance at creating a successful new business. 

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