Buy your tickets for the 2023 Southeast Meetup and LION Awards Ceremony

Join independent newsroom leaders, funders and supporters for two days of community, connection and celebration in Durham, North Carolina. You can now register for LION Publishers’ upcoming Southeast News Sustainability Meetup from Tuesday, Oct. 3 to Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. The Southeast Meetup is the second of two regionally-focused, LION-led events for this year, the first being the Deep South News Sustainability Meetup we hosted in Jackson, Mississippi in May. The Southeast News Sustainability Meetup will primarily engage news organizations based in the Southeast, but all LION members and other independent news organizations are welcome to attend.

These meetups stem from the success of our inaugural Independent News Sustainability Summit in 2022, and are a direct response to requests from independent publishers for more local opportunities to connect with and learn from one another. Attendees will have ample opportunity to meet new faces and connect with old friends, gain and share industry insights, and celebrate the inspiring work of local, independent newsrooms from across LION’s membership.

We’ll host the LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony and Dinner on Oct. 3, the evening after the first day of our meetup, and celebrate the accomplishments of LION members building sustainable news businesses. This year we received nearly 300 entries — a record for the Awards Program — and we’ll announce the finalists in early August. At the in-person Ceremony, we’ll give out at least $55,000 in cash prizes to the winners. In 2022, we honored more than 45 winners and finalists with $68,000 in total prize money at our Summit in Austin.

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS HERE.

Early-bird pricing for tickets to the Southeast News Sustainability Meetup is $55 for LION members and $85 for non-LION members until August 14. The ticket price includes two days of programming, two catered lunches, coffee and tea and an opening reception. We’ll have more updates to share soon on speakers and programming.

You must purchase separate tickets to the Awards Ceremony, which is $35 for all LION and non-LION members. This ticket price includes a seated dinner.

We will also be offering a limited number of travel scholarships for Meetup attendees. We’ll be giving priority to newsrooms with the smallest operating budgets, and you can apply here.

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 the Southeast News Sustainability Meetup or the LION Awards, please contact LION Executive Director Chris Krewson at [email protected].