Building It From The Ground Up with Eric Barnes

Driven By with Sam Coates

My guest today is Eric Barnes. Eric is the CEO of the Daily Memphian, the largest single market digital-only local news site in the United States. Starting his career as a staff reporter and worked his way up as an editorial assistant, editor, publisher, and now CEO, Eric has seen the downward spiral of traditional print firsthand and the digital growth of how news is consumed. What's fascinating about Eric's past is that he started working as managing editor of the internet division in the late 1990s Fast Forward 20 years later, and the Daily Memphian is the largest single market digital-only local news site in the United States. I hope you enjoy this episode with Eric, where you will hear:

• Why growing up in a blue-collar town never leaves you. How this has shaped his career and his ability to lead as an operator
• How he saw the shift to desktop in the late 90s and how traditional print has declined from its heyday. What New York Times got right and most everyone else didn't
• What can happen when you go for something big with ample capital- how the Daily Memphian was launched and what it did from the start to build traction
• Why a local newspaper matters and how it's success affects the future of a city
• Plus much more!

Please enjoy this episode with Daily Memphian CEO Eric Barnes! Links: Daily Memphian launched- https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2018/jul/16/the-daily-memphian-to-launch-in-fall-as-citys-definitive-news-source/ Traditional print declined- https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/04/12/gannett-newspaper-print-days/