flime.ru: what can four economists and one programmer do?

The project of business online media, which you want to talk about, has two interesting features. The first is a rather ambitious goal - to create something new in the field of business media - in an area in which there are already a lot of traditions and something new for a long time. The second feature is that the project team consists of a programmer and four economists, and not the usual newspaper editorial staff with the “army” of journalists.

What have we done? In a nutshell, the following:

• instead of long and boring texts, they began to write short and understandable notes;
• the figures scattered under the article were replaced by infographics;
• focused on current affairs discussions.

The result was probably the most unusual (judging by the reviews of competitors and visitors) business online media in RuNet: understandable, easy, friendly and absolutely not “black and white”.
')
Well, a brief introduction is left behind, and those who do not like to read a lot can go to flime.ru and see for themselves. Those who are interested in the history of the project and a more detailed description of the format, read under the cut.

Instead of introducing

Understanding the events of the business world of economics and finance has become useful and profitable, and this is understandable to more and more people. However, it has long been the norm that the main sources of necessary information - business media - write long, gray, boring, and often abstruse, even for those who make considerable efforts to sort it out. There are many reasons for this state of affairs, among which are the “love” of the paper format, and the lame economic literacy of journalists, which even they themselves sometimes admit.

The idea is clear and visual business media.

Eliminate the disadvantages mentioned and create a more transparent, understandable and enjoyable online media. This was the main idea that enough people believed in to form a team and get to work.

History of concept and format creation flime

Not surprisingly, the work on the concept was begun with an analysis of the shortcomings of the materials of existing business media, the search for opportunities to eliminate these shortcomings and the study of consumer preferences. It turned out that one can single out the main problems of the materials that are characteristic of most business media:

• too much of often logically inconsistent text;
• lack or low quality of infographics;
• a large number of terminology;
• lack of high-quality discussions (comments, opinions, etc.);

Acquaintance with business processes by the “kitchen” of business publications indicated the reasons: materials are created by non-economists, often only on the basis of a survey of experts, and the remuneration depends on sensationalism, speed and number of signs. It is not surprising that in such conditions there are no incentives to weigh the information, look for additional data and spend time creating visual materials, which, according to surveys, are often not enough for readers.

Flime format

Having identified opportunities for improvement, we set about developing a concept. At its core, it was decided to lay three simple ideas:

1. All materials must be structured.
From our experience in consulting and investment companies, we took an excellent reception - structuring information. It assumes a logical alignment of the ideas of the text in such a manner as to make reading as convenient, comfortable and understandable as possible.

2. Infographics should be wherever it is appropriate.
The abundance of data that is present in many business and economic materials is much more effectively perceived in the form of tables, graphs and diagrams. We decided to spend more time and effort than other business publications, but always accompany, where possible, materials with infographics.

3. Minimum text without prejudice to the meaning.
If in traditional business media more characters are desired, then we have the opposite - the shorter the text, the better. So we decided to say goodbye to tedious articles, according to which they like to "smear" half-ideas.

So, the flime format is short, light and structured text with visual infographics.

What happened

The format formed the basis of the business online media flime.ru. We've made headings for economic articles, blogs, and news. In each of the rubrics, the possibilities of using the flime format were found and nice little things were added. In addition to the materials themselves, we paid maximum attention to the creation of conditions for discussion. Surprisingly, none of the major business online media is serious about the quality of the discussions, and now on flime.ru you can find one of the most constructive economic discussions in RuNet.

Interesting features

All that has been created up to this point is the result of the efforts of the flime team only. For example, the site design is designed and created without the involvement of external designers or design companies. All infographics are designed and created by themselves.

Evaluations and prospects

The site flime.ru has been operating for more than three months and is gradually gaining an audience. Well-known economists and managers of business publications positively responded about it and, what is especially pleasant, about our format of presenting information. At the moment, the project is at the stage of attracting investments to expand the number of covered events and develop new services. We are preparing for a serious advance and in the near future we expect to take our place in RuNet along with the largest business media.

We invite everyone who is interested in the events of the business world to go to flime and invite their friends. We would also be happy to hear valuable feedback; This is best done through a special form on the site. Thank :)