LION to host regional News Sustainability Meetups in Mississippi and North Carolina in 2023

Building on the success of our inaugural Independent News Sustainability Summit in 2022, LION Publishers will host two regionally-focused events in 2023.

LION will host The Deep South News Sustainability Meetup in Jackson, Mississippi on May 18, 2023 and The Southeast News Sustainability Meetup in Durham, North Carolina October 3-4, 2023. 

LION plans to host a larger-scale conference focused on independent news sustainability for publishers across the U.S. and Canada every other year. In 2024, LION will host an event similar to the 2022 Sustainability Summit, which gathered 500 independent newsroom leaders, funders and supporters from across the U.S. and Canada to discuss how to operate sustainable news businesses. 

LION’s News Sustainability Meetups will be a more intimate, local opportunity for independent newsroom leaders, funders and supporters from a specific region to connect with and learn from one another. 

Over the last couple of years, our members have increasingly asked us to help foster regionally-focused connections and to create more local opportunities to gather and learn. The 2023 News Sustainability Meetups are our way to experiment with an additional type of in-person event besides our inaugural Sustainability Summit in 2022 and past LION Summits leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Deep South Meetup in Jackson will focus on helping publishers based in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia — as well as Tennessee, Arkansas and North Florida —  connect with and learn from one another. Register here for the one-day event on May 18, 2023! If you would like to request a travel scholarship to attend, please submit this form by Friday, April 14, 2023. 

The Southeast Meetup in Durham will primarily engage news organizations based in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia, as well as Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and other states extending into the Mid-Atlantic. Complete this form to be among the first invited to register when we open official event registration in the coming weeks. 

The Southeast Meetup in Durham will also include an in-person celebration of the 2023 LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony. 2023 LION Awards finalists will be highly encouraged to attend our in-person ceremony, as well as the entire Southeast Meetup, regardless of where their organization is based.  

Our goal is to celebrate the LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony in-person each year during either a regional event or a larger-scale conference. 

LION’s 2023 News Sustainability Meetups and the 2023 LION Awards are sponsored by The Walton Family Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Google News Initiative. If your organization is interested in sponsoring LION’s News Sustainability Meetups or the LION Awards, please contact Chris Krewson, LION’s executive director, at [email protected].