We recently had the chance to connect with MICHAEL SHAPIRO and have shared our conversation below.
Hi MICHAEL, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
When I wake up, I check and clear out emails since I went to bed. I go on LinkedIn and see if I have missed any notifications or messages and respond to them. I visit TAPinto, Drudge, CNN, and the New York Times, to catch up on the news. This typically takes 30-45 minutes. I then take a walk for 45 minutes to an hour.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
In 2008, I was an attorney working in New York City and commuting from my hometown in New Jersey and had been practicing law for almost five years. My wife and I found out that our 1-year old son needed open heart surgery. During his whole first year of life I barely saw him. I decided to make a change and wanted to do something where I could help my community, do something I was passionate about, and could be home to spend more time with my wife and son. I created an online local news site in New Providence, New Jersey. Soon people in neighboring towns reached out to me and asked me to start an online local news site in their communities, and I did, and I soon found myself running three local news sites. I then left my job to work on this new business full-time. My original goal was to grow those initial sites – their revenue, their traffic, and their content. We were able to build them to profitability within a few years but I kept getting more and more requests from people to launch local news sites in their towns and I had to say no because I did not have the bandwidth. It got me thinking how could we expand yet keep providing original local news reporting every day and building relationships with local businesses in our towns. Eventually I came up with the idea of franchising local news and we rebranded as TAPinto. Today we have more than 95 franchised online local news sites in the United States where we enable entrepreneurs to help fill news deserts in their community with local news and digital marketing platforms that provide original local news reporting every day.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Social media breaks the bonds between people – it disassociates people from reality and fills minds with disinformation and misinformation based on algorithms designed to exacerbate tensions and division. We can restore these bonds by building community, bringing people together through platforms that unite rather than divide, and inform rather than disinform.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes – in the early days of TAPinto a well-funded competitor launched with far more resources (both financial and human) than we had. Many people suggested to me that I give up and go back to being an attorney. But I disagreed and persisted and today, TAPinto is the dominant player in the marketplace.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes, 100%.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I think some people hear the word “franchise” in the context of local news and think it’s like a burger franchise where there is no autonomy and quality is lacking. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Our TAPinto sites produce award-winning journalism and our franchisees are independent publishers who can cover the news in their community as they feel it should be covered. Our TAPinto sites actually have higher professional standards than most other local news companies and deliver more high-quality, original local news reporting than most, as well. Through our low-cost franchise model, we are democratizing local news by putting local news ownership in the hands of community members rather than hedge funds or multinational corporations that have little to no interest in the communities they serve.
Contact Info:
- Website: TAPinto.net and StartTAP.net
- Instagram: @TAPint0Local
- Linkedin: @TAPinto
- Twitter: @TAPintoLocal
- Facebook: @TAPintoLocal
- Youtube: @TAPintoLocal
Image Credits
TAP IP LLC
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