How to Start a Business Using Old Newsreels

Maybe it's that they've long since been replaced by television news programming, not to mention the cable television fueled 24-hour news cycle, but there is something people find very appealing about old newsreels. If you're too young to remember newsreels, you're not the only one; even your parents may never have seen one in person! These were short news features shown before movies, back when the cinema was the most important venue for mass media entertainment.

Newsreels may be gone, but many people love these pieces of cinema and journalistic history and there is a market for this material. These newsreels are in the public domain, meaning that you can freely and legally repackage this material in another format and sell it to anyone who is interested on buying it. Given that they're freely available online (from sites including archive.org) and from many libraries, starting a business selling old newsreel material offers a high profit margin. Here, we'll cover how to start a business using old newsreels.

1) Acquire the materials you'll need - there are a number of websites which offer newsreels for download; you'll need to seek these sites out. Download as many newsreels as you can find. If you plan on providing customers DVD copies, you'll need to stock up on blank discs and get some good DVD burning software, if you don't already have this. As your business grows, you may also want to buy a DVD duplicator.

2) Sort your newsreels - it's a good idea from a marketing standpoint to be able to offer newsreel collections on different subjects or from different years. Sort your newsreel files by year, subject and if you've acquired newsreels from different countries, by country or language as well. It's possible you may need to get your hands on some video editing software and learn to use it to create more tightly focused collections; you don't necessarily have to do this right away, but it is something to keep in mind as your business grows. People will be looking for specific types of news stories generally; and no one ever went out of business by giving the people what they want!

3) Set up a website - Once you're confident you have enough material to get people interested, it's time to open up shop and hang out your (virtual) shingle. You'll almost certainly want to have e-commerce capabilities on your site so that orders and purchases can be handled online. This isn't strictly necessary, but it will make your life far easier once the orders start to come in.

If you're starting to see enough orders to warrant it, you might want to consider offering newsreels as downloads as well as on DVDs. This will certainly save time, the cost of blank DVDs and trips to the post office or courier service office. It will probably involve upgrading your webhosting service to accommodate the massive storage and bandwidth usage involved, but if you're doing a brisk business in newsreels, it's a worthwhile investment; after all, your wares really cost you nothing, so you're still in an enviable position compared to most retailers.
4) Market your business - Let the world know about your newsreel business. You should start with some small scale online and offline advertising and by making contacts (and link exchanges) with historical society websites and other organizations whose readers and members are likely to be interested.