How Ostrower started The Air Current because of his existing audience

Jon Ostrower

Memberful profiles former CNN aviation editor Jon Ostrower, who was laid off earlier this year and launched The Air Current, which covers the aviation industry.

Memberful writes, “As much as he enjoyed and appreciated his time with large media companies, he felt that going independent was the best way for him to cultivate that relationship with his readers. Now, he’s Editor-in-chief of The Air Current, a sustainable business that just rolled out a mirror site in China.

“The number one key to his successful rollout, he believes, was his existing audience; had he needed to build a following from scratch, he doesn’t believe The Air Current would be viable today. In our conversation, Jon shared three major takeaways from his first six months of independent journalism: know your audience, put content first, and automate business processes.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.