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March 30 - April 5, 2001
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Age: 34
Background: Rohn grew up in Washington D.C., as the youngest of three siblings. His mother is Japanese American and his father is white. He describes his genetic make-up as half-Japanese, part-Swedish, part-Irish and part-Norwegian.
Education: Rohn attended the University of Maryland, College Park. He has degrees in business management and journalism.
AsianWeek: How did you get started in journalism?
Dan Rohn: My first paying job was at The Washington Post. I was a copy aide. Basically, it was a low-level, entry-level type of job. I delivered press releases, faxes, sorted mail and did some research. Real grunt work. I worked my way up to a better job as a news aide, to editorial assistant and then to copy-editor. And along the way I had a couple of hundred articles published there. I created a new column called “New Corporations,” where I wrote about new companies in the Washington D.C. area, basically profiled them. I proposed the idea for the column about six months after I got to The Washington Post when I saw that a competitor of the Post was doing something similar. I thought, “Hmmm, this is a good way to get my name in the paper, make my mark.” So I pitched it to the business editor and she liked it, and we took it from there. I continued to write for the different sections and honed my journalistic skills.
AW: What made you want to get into journalism?
DR: Growing up in Washington D.C., I was surrounded by great journalism. Of course I’m biased toward The Washington Post. I started off delivering that paper when I was 13 years old. In D.C., you’re surrounded by politics and people are very vocal and outspoken, so journalism is kind of a natural progression.
AW: Where did you go after The Washington Post?
DR: When I left The Washington Post, I had several options open to me. I thought about getting into magazine journalism, PR, even academia. But, I thought, “The Internet is here, it’s going to be here, this is our future. Maybe this is a good chance to see how the Internet is going to bring news to people.” I thought it would be a great way to pick up some new skills, and see how it all works. So, I went to America Online as an editor.
For me, it was a frustrating transition, especially because I had worked for this storied newspaper. Meg Greenfield, who is this legendary editorial page editor, was the top at what she did. I was surrounded by Pulitzer Prize winners, Rhodes scholars, you-name-it.
I went to America Online and, not to take anything away from them, but the journalistic environment wasn’t as serious. I found that I was the one who had more experience. It was hard to get used to the culture, where everybody communicated through email, even if you were sitting next to that person, all this instant messaging. I didn’t like that aspect. I found it to be a cold environment.
I did learn a lot of things about the Internet, though — what works, how to interact with people, how to build online communities.
AW: How did JournalismJobs.com get started?
DR: I got the idea when I left The Washington Post and I was thinking about the Internet. I found my previous jobs through connections, through networking. I thought it would be great if there was a Web site that listed all the job openings for the media industry to see what was available. At the time, there was Editor and Publisher and American Journalism Review. They did a good job of covering newspapers, but they didn’t do a good job of all the industries.
I stored that in the back of my head when I went to AOL. After I left, I thought it was time to give it a shot.
I founded JournalismJobs with my own money in April of 1999. I kept it in a free format, meaning the employers didn’t have to pay to post adds, for about seven or eight months. Then I switched to a paid format. And within about roughly two months or so of being in a paid format, I was able to recoup all my investment.
When I first put the site up, I was doing a lot of cold calling. I would call around to different employers saying I saw their job listing on some other site or whatever and asked them if I had their permission to reprint it on my site. I was trying to generate a buzz. They all said “sure,” and wished me a lot of luck. After I introduced them to the site, they would come back and post on their own.
Once I got them addicted to the site, then I switched it to a paid format. I think I got only two e-mails complaining about the change. I was really happy about that.
AW: How many listings do you have? How many hits?
DR: Well, because the economy’s slowing down, my listings are probably down about 30 percent or so. At my peak, I had about 600 to 700 and now it’s about 375 or something like that. I get close to 1 million page views a month.
AW: Are you worried about the economy?
DR: I’m worried about the economy, but not that much. This is a small operation, one-person operation. The money that I make is more money than I ever dreamed of in terms of what this site could do. It is a very, very good living — in the six figures. I run a very lean operation. I run it out of my home. I do some of the programming work myself.
Otherwise, I have someone who helps me with the programming work, someone who helps me with marketing. My wife, who is a former producer for Wolf Blitzer at CNN, helps me with some of the billing and marketing stuff. So, that is basically it. If I had a staff, I would be in trouble. But even with the listings slowing down, it is a very profitable site and is probably something that I will be doing for awhile. Or if someone decides to come along and buy me out, that’s fine, too. I have some other ideas.
AW: Where do you think the future of the media is — online or print?
DR: I think that online media is going to get bigger in the future. From 1996 to 1999, there was a big rush to get on the Internet. The audience wasn’t really there to support all those numbers and all the money that was being spent. There was too much competition, there was too much duplication. There were too many places to get your news, too many places to buy things. You had 50 million sites doing the same thing. That’s what happened with the bubble, it just burst because it wasn’t able to support everything.
I think overall, though, online media is definitely the future. As more people get computers in their houses, more people are going to be looking at online media. But as far as original content sites, that really hasn’t proven to be a money winner. Online advertising is just not the same as TV, which is probably the best form of advertising because when you are watching TV and an ad for something comes on, you can’t get away from it. It’s the only thing that is in front of your eyes. Whereas on the Internet, you’ve got a page and a bunch of things going on — some small banner ad on the top of the screen will probably be ignored. It doesn’t really translate into quality advertising.
Magazines and newspapers will always have a place in society. People will always want a hard copy of these things to carry around on the bus or subway or whatever. Print media will always be safe to a certain extent.
AW: Has been Asian American affected you as a journalist and entrepreneur?
DR: Being an Asian American has helped me because through my connection with the Asian American Journalists Association, I have been able to make a lot of contacts that have been very helpful to building the Web site. Being Asian American has allowed me to see other avenues, to promote the site and make connections. If I weren’t, I think I would be targeting it to a more limited audience. So, it definitely helps.
Also, I met my wife at an AAJA dim sum gathering and things just went from there. Her name is Janice Hui, and she is Chinese American. We were married in Berkeley in August of 2000.
AW: Do you work long hours?
DR: I work long hours. But I love what I do. Because I am at home, it gives me a lot of flexibility. I can work on the site really hard for a couple of hours and then I can take a break, go get some coffee or walk around the block. That’s the great thing. My parents are retired, and it gave me the freedom to be able to meet them for lunch or do things that other people wouldn’t be able to do. And now, being in San Francisco, it allows me to spend time with my wife’s parents. But I definitely have late nights and early mornings.
People tell me, “I love your site.” But I feel like I have to make it better and add more things. That’s what drives me.
AW: What kind of advice do you have for people in both these fields?
DR: If you want to be a journalist, start at a small paper or get into a big paper and really work as hard as you can, get as many clips as you can. If your goal is to become a reporter, use all your spare time to research story ideas and try to get published. Get somebody to mentor you and really get them to work with you to develop your skills. If you are in college, work with the school newspaper or radio station and just try to be a sponge. Absorb as much knowledge as you can.
When I was at The Washington Post, I separated myself from the other copy-aides by sorting mail just a little bit faster, learning things just a little bit quicker. I was really able to move forward because I took my job a little more seriously.
As far as being an Asian American entrepreneur, the key thing is managing your time well and keeping your expenses low. Really try to get by with as little as possible. I sort of laugh at a lot of these companies that get all this venture capital money and buy all this fancy office furniture and have to have a great location. I think that’s nonsense. You don’t really need all that. I am more under the philosophy of “start small and make it big.”
AW: Where do see yourself in 10 years?
DR: I see myself continuing to be involved in entrepreneurial pursuits, maybe launching some other Web sites, somewhat similar to what I am doing now, something creative. I see myself possibly teaching a journalism class at a local college in the Bay Area, and being more active with the AAJA and helping them with their cause, helping Asian American journalists move ahead with their careers.
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