The Goal

Secure 50 new monthly supporters to hit 350 by the end of 2023.

The Approach

Leveraging $5,000 of their LION Sustainability Audit program stipend, they created a matching campaign to generate recurring monthly support. The campaign ran from December 12 to December 31, 2023.

The Impact

The Journal signed up 48 new monthly supporters, yielding $14,000 in projected revenue for 2024. Six months later, only one of those supporters has canceled their recurring contribution. ”This is why I love my Monthlies!” said Melanie. “Once they sign up, they are VERY faithful.”

How It Happened

On the heels of a successful Giving NEWSday matching campaign in November, The Journal launched the new matching campaign, appealing to their community across email, social media, and direct outreach. The campaign kicked off with an email to all subscribers with the subject line, “A Sustainability Grant of $5,000 has been set aside to award The Lansing Journal $100 for each new Monthly Supporter (up to 50) who signs up before the end of the year.”

The next day, they sent an email appeal to subscribers who had never given before: “If you’ve been enjoying The Lansing Journal, you’ve been benefiting from other people’s support. We need your support too, and now is the perfect time because of this matching gift.”

The Journal published a video on Facebook about the importance of the work, with an appeal for people to sign up as monthly supporters. Melanie and the managing editor popped up on Facebook Live throughout the campaign and asked people to give.

Melanie also used the campaign to deepen relationships with advertisers. She called local business owners to see if they would enroll as monthly givers in exchange for advertising, resulting in three ongoing advertising clients. Charging the advertising rate to their credit card as a recurring gift not only fulfilled the match requirement, but also freed Melanie up from having to sell and invoice advertisers each month.

The last few days of the year included a final flurry of email appeals:

• 12/27 – “This email is only 49 words”
• 12/29 – “Small gifts help too”
• 12/30 – “It’s New Year’s Eve and the matching gift expires soon”
• 12/31 – “New Year’s Eve afternoon”
• 12/31 – “New Year’s Eve evening – 11 more matches left”

While the initial concept of a matching campaign required some explanation, The Journal’s audience was ultimately eager to participate.

Melanie found appeals with a clear deadline – “Help us finish 2023 strong” and “Before you head out to your New Year’s Eve celebration, could you give one last gift” – and those that highlighted progress toward their goal of 50 supporters performed exceptionally well.

In addition to seeing what appeals resonated with their audience, Melanie learned what tools and processes best support fundraising campaigns. She tracks supporters in Mailchimp to ensure she’s targeting appeals accurately and in their CRM, Bloomerang, to manage donor and payment information. Keeping both up to date requires manual efforts, resulting in occasional discrepancies and another drain on her limited time. She also experimented with GiveWP, as it included a thermometer-style gauge to publicly track the progress of the campaign. She’s since moved away from that tool, particularly to avoid having another database to keep updated.

Melanie says the next steps are to get more efficient at tracking and managing data by setting up automations to connect her email service with her CRM and spending less time designing landing pages and giving forms. 

The Journal recently launched a new “summer promo,” where monthly supporters contributing at $15/month receive a t-shirt. An initial email to existing supporters prompted 12 to increase their monthly gift. A subsequent email to all subscribers yielded only two responses, perhaps suggesting that merch may be more motivating for engaged rather than potential supporters.

The Takeaway

The Lansing Journal took a unique approach to a fundraising campaign, setting aside $5,000 to frame a monthly support campaign as a matching campaign, motivating potential supporters to donate to unlock further support for the organization, which should yield nearly triple that amount thanks to the structure of the ask. Melanie also made repeated appeals to potential supporters on multiple platforms (email, Facebook, and Facebook Live for The Lansing Journal). 

The focus on cultivating recurring revenue is also important since that revenue is easier to forecast and plan against while also reducing the ongoing time devoted to raising reader revenue from one-off contributions.

Melanie’s final thoughts? “Matches work well. And repetition and a shorter time frame works well.”

The post How The Lansing Journal grew recurring reader revenue by 20% appeared first on LION Publishers.

The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations, resources, and up to $20,000 in direct funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability (see how we’ve charted the path to sustainability via our maturity model). These organizations will work with dedicated expert analysts who will offer guidance based on each organization’s needs and ambitions.

In April, we outlined LION’s plan for the future of Sustainability Audits as a tool to assess and support the growth of independent news businesses of all different sizes and ambitions. Toward that end, we are excited to partner with Blue Engine, an organization that coaches news organizations in every area of journalism sustainability, for Cycle 2 of this year’s program. Blue Engine will conduct Audits for 10 LIONs that we classify as being in our “Growing” stage, helping improve how we define sustainability and offer support for larger organizations.

Applications for the Sustainability Audits are open now through September 9, and all U.S.-based LION members who have not yet received an Audit are encouraged to apply. LION intends to complete 173 total Sustainability Audits in 2024.

You can read more about each participating organization and their interest in the Audit below. Congratulations to these 47 news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability!

AfroLA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit:  While we’ve made great strides in our operations and workflows, maintaining the level we’re at now isn’t sustainable.

Mission: AfroLA is solutions-focused, data-driven and community-centered journalism for Los Angeles, told through the lens of the Black community, and with emphasis on how news may disparately impact L.A.’s most vulnerable groups and communities of color.

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

Alameda Post Inc.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are in our third year of operations, and although we have learned a lot, there is much more that we do not know. Our goal is to strengthen our business to ensure our ability to serve our community for many more years to come.

Mission: The Alameda Post serves the community by reporting current news and information, promoting community groups, diversity, and cultural awareness, and preserving Alameda’s history for future generations.

Based in: Alameda, CA

Athens County Independent

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have big ambitions for the Independent and for our publishing entity, Southeast Ohio Independent News. We want to create a replicable model for sustainable local news in rural and impoverished areas. We don’t know what we don’t know, so the Sustainability Audit is a way for us to learn more about our current operations and how we can improve them.

Mission: The Athens County Independent empowers community engagement through accessible public service journalism.

Based in: Athens, OH

Black Belt News Network

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Black Belt News Network covers multiple counties in an impoverished, rural area in Alabama’s midsection where the community gets no regular online news coverage. Filling that news desert is expensive and requires more people than we currently have. We hope the Audit will help us find our future, which could include becoming a nonprofit, so we can stay around and provide news to a community that desperately needs us.

Mission: The Black Belt News Network is a regional online news site that covers six counties in the rural and culturally rich midsection of Alabama. We bring news to readers through traditional in-depth stories written by experienced journalists and through innovative journalism that includes video packages, social media engagement and a live weekly newscast. We are also the community’s news agency, gathering information, photos and videos from a diverse freelance staff made up of moms, teachers, recent grads, retirees and students from throughout the six counties to ensure all corners are reached.

Based in: Selma, AL

BoiseDev (Day365 LLC)

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are five years into our business and have seen great growth. We are working to expand our coverage, improve our staffing levels and pay for journalists; this is a great opportunity to help that.

Mission: We do not have a mission statement as we think it’s self-evident, but instead have adopted these values: We strive to be an innovative and impartial local news source focused on original & transparent reporting. We seek to give a voice to those without power. Our team will be accountable to each other and our readers. We will be gracious and tactful. We put readers first.

Based in: Boise, ID

Borderless Magazine

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to take Borderless to the next level: having a $1 million plus budget, a staff of 10+ and a strong financial reserve.

Mission: Borderless Magazine NFP is reimagining immigration journalism for a more just and equitable future.

Based in: Chicago, IL

Bushwick Daily / Brooklyn New Media LLC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Bushwick Daily is interested in a Sustainability Audit to ensure the long-term viability of our operations and deepen our community engagement. By refining our strategies through insights from the Audit, we aim to enhance operational efficiency and financial health, optime resource allocation and grow revenue to maximize our impact. This process will allow us to maintain and expand our role as a crucial resource for Bushwick’s diverse population.

Mission: Bushwick Daily is the cornerstone of community engagement in Bushwick, Brooklyn, providing thorough local news and dynamic cultural coverage. We empower residents with insightful journalism to understand and influence their surroundings, strengthening connections within the community.

Based in: New York, NY

Chicago Southsider

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Chicago Southsider began as a digital newsletter startup within Facebook’s Bulletin program. After the program was discontinued, we lost our primary source of revenue. Despite exploring various revenue opportunities over the past two years, none have significantly improved our financial sustainability. Through the LION Sustainability Audit, I aim to gain feedback and insights that will help me assess whether Chicago Southsider can achieve financial sustainability within the next 12 months, allowing us to continue serving our more than 30,000 subscribers.

Mission: Chicago Southsider is a Facebook Bulletin newsletter-turned-community news site that helps to “unlock the best of Chicago’s South Side, one community at a time.” Our mission is to amplify the stories, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized individuals and communities by leveraging solutions journalism, and providing community resources and news.

Based in: Chicago, IL

Chilkat Valley News

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: This newspaper has been in business since 1966 but has never meaningfully pivoted to digital either internally or externally. I’m particularly interested in identifying processes that could make our current revenue streams easier to manage, identifying new potential revenue streams that staff are qualified and capable of managing, and identifying ways we could streamline our current news operation.

Mission: We are an independent newsroom telling stories that celebrate the unique spirit of the Chilkat Valley and Southeast Alaska. We focus on systemic disparities, highlight marginalized communities and explore solutions aimed at creating a more equitable society. We aim to create unity and belonging in our communities by writing stories that foster understanding, spark meaningful conversations and value problems and solutions equally. We deliver enlightening journalism that engages and inspires our diverse Southeast Alaska communities. In our work culture, we prioritize fairness and editorial independence while also capturing that spirit of adventure that brings so many to the state. We support that culture through internal processes that prioritize equity in staffing, build resilience into our workflows and commit to fact-based storytelling above all else.

Based in: Haines, AK

clearhealthcosts.com

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are assessing our business model, seeking to bolster existing revenue and working to develop different revenue streams.

Mission: We’re bringing transparency to healthcare by telling people what stuff costs, and also using our knowledge to increase equitable access to healthcare.

Based in: Pelham, NY

Cloudcroft Reader

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To get advice and help to build a sustainable model for a rural news site, including understanding how to get the most from scarce resources and identifying where to place time and effort.

Mission: To serve the village of Cloudcroft and surrounding communities with independent reporting, focusing on governmental agencies to keep them accountable to the people they serve.

Based in: Cloudcroft, NM

Eden Prairie Local News, Inc.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are transitioning from what began as an all-volunteer start-up in 2020 to a more mature online news source where people can earn a living wage. We rely on donations and funding from sponsors, advertisers, community organizations, and foundations, and we’re on plan to do $190,000 in revenue (FYE 6/30). We estimate that we’ll need an annual budget of $700,000 to achieve long-term sustainability. We’re wrestling with how to do that in a market that’s limited to 64,000 residents.

Mission: The mission of Eden Prairie Local News is to serve our community with trustworthy reporting, compelling stories, and news you can use — anytime, anywhere.

Based in: Eden Prairie, MN

Hendersonville Lightning

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to learn more about growing our audience both in print and online. We want to increase both retail print advertising and online advertising. We’d like to explore the feasibility of new products and community event sponsorships.

Mission: When news happens, Lightning strikes. Founded in April 2012, the Hendersonville Lightning is a weekly paid print product and all-the-time website that covers Henderson County, North Carolina, with an emphasis on government and institutional transparency and accountability. We cover politics, local government, business, development/growth management/disruptive land use and the cultural landscape. While the Lightning is not a nonprofit — at least not on purpose — we are a community trust.

Based in: Hendersonville, NC

J. The Jewish News of Northern California

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Always looking for help in finding better ways to earn revenue and achieve sustainability.

Mission: J.’s mission is to connect, enlighten and strengthen the multi-faceted Jewish community of Northern California.

Based in: San Francisco, CA

LevittownNow.com

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I would like to learn how to better run my business and make it last into the future, especially in a more sustainable manner.

Mission: We have committed ourselves to fact-based, in-depth, contextual, and non-partisan journalism. 

Based in: Levittown, PA

LkldNow

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Sustainability Audit is a unique opportunity to catalyze growth by providing outside perspective, expert guidance and learning from other members of the cohort.

Mission: Empower the people of Lakeland with the local news and information they need to be civically engaged.

Based in: Lakeland, FL

Los Angeles Public Press

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a growing digital publisher, we know that we are not reinventing the wheel when it comes to best practices in online news publishing and are eager to learn from all those who have already been working at it for years longer than we have. We look forward to participating in LION’s Sustainability Audit because it’s an opportunity to level set our own understanding of online news publishing and organizational development alongside the expertise honed by countless other thoughtful digital publishers.

Mission: Everyone in L.A. County deserves access to reliable news about our home. We deserve the knowledge and tools to hold powerful people accountable. We deserve a full picture of life in Los Angeles. LA Public Press is an independent, non-profit newsroom advocating for a better Los Angeles. We do journalism that interrogates systems of power while supporting those trying to build more equitable and resilient communities.

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

MuckRock

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As MuckRock approaches our 15th birthday, we know we need to diversify our revenue to ensure a stable foundation for our next 15 years.

Mission: MuckRock Foundation is a nonprofit, collaborative public resource that brings together journalists, researchers, activists and regular citizens to request, analyze and share government documents, making politics more transparent and democracies more informed.  MuckRock provides a repository of hundreds of thousands of pages of original government materials, information on how to file requests and tools to make the requesting process easier. MuckRock is committed to supporting engaging, transparent journalism through projects like DocumentCloud, which thousands of newsrooms use to analyze, annotate and publish primary source documents, and oTranscribe, a browser utility that makes transcribing audio files easier. Our Accounts service allows external projects to make their tools available to newsrooms and journalists.

Based in: Somerville, MA

MyRye.com

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: MyRye.com is looking to continually improve by understanding community news best practices and benchmarks in order to best serve our community.

Mission: MyRye.com’s mission is to be the trusted source for community news in Rye, New York, connecting local residents, businesses, and organizations. We are dedicated to delivering timely, relevant, and accurate information that empowers and engages our community.   Through transparent reporting and inclusive storytelling, we aim to foster civic involvement, celebrate local achievements, and facilitate meaningful dialogue. We are driven by our commitment to integrity, innovation, and community collaboration.

Based in: Rye, NY

NepYork

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: For NepYork, Showcase of Nepalis in the USA, the LION Publishers Sustainability Audit is a chance to identify areas for growth and secure funding to amplify the voices of Nepalis in America. A deeper understanding of best practices will ensure NepYork’s long-term sustainability as a vital platform for our community.

Mission: Showcase of Nepalis in the USA

Based in: Corona, NY

NH Center for Public Interest Journalism / InDepthNH.org

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: InDepthNH.org does great work but we are never more than a couple of months ahead of payroll. I spend too much time looking for money when we need to hire a business person to do that.

Mission: InDepthNH.org gives voice to marginalized people, places and ideas.

Based in: New Hampshire

Peekskill Herald

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: A colleague has participated and said how valuable it was. I credit LION and its workshops as the reason the Herald was able to be formed in 2021.

Mission: To give power to the powerless and be a voice for the voiceless. That purpose grounds the stories we publish and guides the way we value facts over opinions and people over profits. We strive to produce critical information that allows residents of Peekskill to engage with their community.

Based in: Peekskill, NY

Philadelphia Hall Monitor

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are looking to build a sustainable news service that serves working class and poor Philadelphians. As our intended audience cannot afford to contribute, we need to find other paths to sustainability.

Mission: The Philadelphia Hall Monitor is dedicated to bringing vital news and information to Philadelphia’s residents. We do this by covering local government and consumer affairs stories that show our audience how to utilize the services available to them.

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Project Optimist

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want Project Optimist to grow and thrive to serve Minnesota in a changing world and changing media landscape. Instability in the field of journalism has opened up space for startups like Project Optimist to fill gaps and experiment with new models, but I want to make sure we can weather whatever comes our way.

Mission: Project Optimist strives to engage residents of greater Minnesota to help them collaborate across common divides, tackle seemingly intractable problems and grow more optimistic about the future of their communities, region, and world. Project Optimist does this by tapping Minnesota’s creative and independent talent to produce solution-focused stories and local art to inform and inspire. We provide training and spur conversations in support of media literacy, community problem-solving, community journalism, and democracy.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Based in: St. Michael, MN

QCity Metro

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to know that QCity Metro is on a path toward sustainability. It takes money to produce good journalism.

Mission: QCity Metro is committed to providing news and information relevant to Black communities in Charlotte, NC.

Based in: Charlotte, NC

Reno News & Review

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The RN&R is at a crossroads, of sorts. We existed as a weekly, primarily-print pub until the pandemic, when the former owners more or less shut it down, before bringing it back in a limited fashion online. The publication was on the verge of shutting down entirely when our new owners took us over in January 2022; in the months since, we’ve made huge strides coming back both editorially (including a monthly print edition) and revenue-wise — but the owner can’t keep up on the current pace, and we’re looking at transitioning to nonprofit status.

Mission: Since 1993, the Reno News & Review has been the source of independent news, arts coverage, commentary and culture for Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Minden, Gardnerville and the Lake Tahoe area. We believe in true, honest journalism: We want to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted. We want to be a mirror for the entire greater Reno-Sparks area. We want to inform, enlighten and entertain. We will never let advertisers determine what we cover, and how we cover things. In other words, we will always tell it how we see it. If we lose an advertiser due to an unflattering story, a negative review or something else, so be it.

Based in: Reno, NV

Ridge View Echo

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Ridge View Echo has been in operation for a little more than two years, mostly due to the support of grant money with some advertising revenue. While the newspaper has grown substantially in coverage and readership, the management team recognizes the need to become more financially independent to obtain long-term sustainability. The management team would like to be able to identify and implement the methods that will allow it to move forward and continue to grow.

Mission: The Ridge View Echo strives to provide news about local government, school board actions and important news that can affect the local community by providing honest, unbiased and non-partisan coverage. The Ridge View Echo aims to provide important information to community members to enable them to become better community citizens, cover community events and interesting people, provide resource guides, and support local businesses by publishing business spotlights.

Based in: Blairstown, NJ

Rough Draft Atlanta

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: It feels like we are doing really well overall, but I know there are ways we can increase our revenue and improve our efficiency which would allow us to do more and better journalism.

Based in: Atlanta, GA

Shoresides.org

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: In the next year, Shoresides would like to increase staff salaries to create a more sustainable and healthy organization. Additionally, we’d like to develop a robust business plan to guide our work, capitalizing on our current momentum and allowing us to grow. To solidify our position as a vital local news site serving BIPOC and rural coastal communities in North Carolina, we need to scale our operations.

Mission: Shoresides serves Black, BIPOC, youth, and rural communities in coastal North Carolina traditionally underserved by our media system. Our communities face a rapidly shifting economy, environment, and culture that requires vibrant community-led journalism. Shoresides’ mission is to be a local news platform providing a space for creative expression and civic engagement. We believe communities thrive when they are active participants in discussions that shape our future and region.

Based in: Wilmington, NC

Stet News, Palm Beach County

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a new organization, we know we’ll benefit greatly from working with LION to develop strategies and practices that will help us build a successful business. The program will give us an actionable blueprint we’ll use to improve our capabilities to reach new audiences and grow our revenue.

Mission: To provide accurate, fair and valued journalism that holds public officials accountable, helps citizens engage in civic life and reflects the rich diversity of the Palm Beach County communities we serve.

Based in: Cloud Lake, FL

The Charlotte News

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have quite a lot of data — financial and operational, and from a recent survey — but need professional help to identify business opportunities and then to develop, fund and execute a plan. We have operated at a loss for the past two years and need to reach break-even within the next two years.

Mission: The mission of The Charlotte News is to engage and inform Charlotte and nearby communities by publishing rigorous, in-depth reporting on town affairs, providing a home for stories from our neighbors and friends, and reporting on how other towns have addressed challenges similar to our own.

Based in: Charlotte, VT

The Dial

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Dial is now a year old, and we’re very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. We’ve published more than 100 pieces of writing from over 50 countries, which have been recognized by readers, other publications, awards, and governments around the world. Participating in the Sustainability Audit will help us sort out how to not only build on these successes, but do so in a way that ensures longevity.

Mission: The Dial publishes frontline stories from around the world, elevating the voices of local journalists and writers who write the world as they see it — from wherever they might be.

Based in: New York, NY

The Haitian Times

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Haitian Times is ready to go to the next level by expanding audience and coverage. Without a solid roadmap for revenue generation, it will be difficult to achieve.

Mission: The Haitian Times, founded in 1999 to be a leading voice in the community’s evolution, aims to bridge the generational and geographical gaps among Haitians. We tell the real story of Haiti and Haitian-Americans and of the culture that binds us all across borders.

Based in: New York, NY

The Ingleside Light

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Ingleside Light wants to find a sustainable path for digital neighborhood news publications in San Francisco.

Mission: The Ingleside Light reports on small business, transportation, local politics, education and many other issues of civic concern.

Based in: San Francisco, CA

The Lakeville Journal | Millerton News

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re in the business of maintaining our legacy community newspapers while developing new products and platforms for future loyal readers and advertisers. We recently became a non-profit, so we also seek to create an expanding base of loyal donors. Our goal in participating in the LION Sustainability Audit is to fine-tune all of our operations to ensure that we sustain local news in our communities for generations to come.

Mission: Founded on our longstanding history of distinguished community service, our mission is to help readers make more informed and inspired decisions through comprehensive local coverage of towns, governments, and regional issues, and by reflecting the area’s varied culture and lifestyle.

Based in: Falls Village, CT

The Sierra Nevada Ally

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been a small, online, no-paywall, nonprofit publishing outlet for four years, focusing mostly on improving our content and growing a broad reader base in our region. We continue to refine our content strategy: civics, climate, community and collaboration. Now is the time to grow the business side of our operation to ensure long-term sustainability.

Mission: Our Mission: To build healthy communities informed by facts, with a focus on environmental, civics, and cultural reporting from underserved communities. Our Vision: To create the media alliance model of the future that rebuilds trust and understanding among people, communities and the news media, and democratizes factual information for all residents of the Sierra Nevada and beyond.

Based in: Reno, NV

The Smoky Mountain News

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Like many media companies, we are at a juncture where our print revenues are flat or barely increasing and our digital revenue is growing but not fast enough. I want to see how others are addressing this issue while digging deep into our own business and journalism practices to see if we can improve them.

Mission: We seek to publish factual stories about important issues facing Western North Carolina in hopes of making our region an even better place to call home.

Based in: Waynesville, NC

The following 10 organizations will work with Blue Engine analysts in this cycle:

ARL Now / Local News Now LLC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Recruiting and retaining high quality staff. Growing revenue such that we can expand our operations.

Mission: Local News Now’s mission is to better connect our communities and improve the viability of local news. We will do that by serving the broadest possible swath of our communities with useful, interesting, and important local information, supported by helping local advertisers reach new customers while working to find sustainable and authentic ways to serve additional communities.

Based in: Arlington, VA

Block Club Chicago

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have ambitious plans to grow our audience and our offerings, and to make substantial improvements to our readers’ experiences engaging with our content. We know that successful and instructive experimentation must include thoughtful evaluation. We’re excited to draw on the experience of LION and its members to help us make sure our next big moves are strategic, well-informed and sustainable.

Mission: Block Club Chicago is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods.

Based in: Chicago, IL

Honolulu Civil Beat

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Civil Beat has had steady growth since our nonprofit transition in 2016, and we want to remain proactive as to ways we can further diversify our audience, impact and donor base. We have a dedicated team that embraces data-informed experimentation and are well positioned to implement the findings of the Sustainability Audit.

Mission: Honolulu Civil Beat is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt news organization dedicated to cultivating an informed body of citizens, all striving to make Hawaii a better place to live. We achieve this through investigative and watchdog journalism, in-depth enterprise reporting, analysis and commentary that gives readers a broad view on issues of importance to our community.

Based in: Honolulu, HI

Lookout Local

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Blue Engine’s cross-company expertise is valuable. We have a valuable foundation to build on, and we are now actively working on both Second Wave optimization in Santa Cruz and planning a second city launch.

Mission: We look out for Santa Cruz County and you.

Based in: Santa Cruz, CA

MinnPost

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are always looking at ways to be more sustainable. This includes in terms of revenue, audience, and staff capacity. I hope this Audit will illuminate room for improvement in these areas.

Mission: MinnPost produces independent journalism to serve as a trusted guide for Minnesotans exploring the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing our state.

Based in: Minneapolis, MN

New York Amsterdam News

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are interested in diversifying our revenue streams to adapt to the changing advertising landscape. We need a better understanding of what our strengths and weaknesses are and where and how we can improve.

Mission: For over a century the Amsterdam News has served New York’s, and America’s, African-American community and the diaspora.

Based in: New York, NY

Richland Source

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As we enter our second decade, we are working to ensure the long-term viability of local news for the communities we serve.

Mission: Our solutions-focused local journalism helps readers understand the whole story of their community by eliminating the news fatigue caused by just covering what’s wrong, and replacing it with a more holistic and nourishing local news experience which helps communities we cover reach their true potential.

Based in: Mansfield, OH

Spotlight PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We transitioned to a standalone nonprofit 501(c)3 in August. Now, we’re focusing more time on hardening the organization (succession planning), planning for strategic growth, and further diversifying revenue.

Mission: The mission of Spotlight PA is to hold powerful private and public forces across Pennsylvania — especially governments, businesses and special interests — to account through urgent and compelling investigative journalism that drives change and strengthens democracy, Pennsylvania, and all who live there.

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

The Daily Memphian

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To benchmark where we are 5+ years after our launch.

Based in: Memphis, TN

The Sacramento Observer

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a legacy publication, it is critically important that The Observer continues its transformation as a multimedia news organization. Assistance from LION would help us examine our existing infrastructure with an eye on our future work.

Mission: Our Mission: To positively impact the conditions and lives of Sacramento’s African American community through public service journalism and community service. We do this in the spirit of the Black Press, “pleading our own cause” unapologetically through excellence in reporting, accountability, photography and all forms of content and community engagement. 

Based in: Sacramento, CA

Audit Analysts

The analysts for 2024 are:

Anne Galloway is the founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger, the statewide newspaper of record for Vermont. In addition to her work as an investigative journalist, she has 13 years of experience in business planning, financial projections, management, growth strategies and fundraising. When she stepped down as executive director in 2022, the organization had 35 employees, a budget of more than $3 million, 10,000 contributing members and 600,000 readers a month.

Ariel Zirulnick is the senior editor for community engagement at LAist. She works at the intersection of community engagement, editorial, product, and revenue strategy to ensure LAist’s journalism consistently serves and centers Angelenos’ needs. She also leads an interdisciplinary team experimenting with ways to link engaged journalism and revenue. Prior to KPCC/LAist, she led the Membership in News Fund and Membership Guide at the Membership Puzzle Project, a global public research project studying membership models in news. She previously led The New Tropic, a news startup in Miami; reported from Nairobi; and edited the Christian Science Monitor’s Middle East coverage. She is passionate about doing journalism with communities and building systems that make that sustainable. She’s a member of the 2023 cohort of CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. She’s an alumna of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy and Miami Fellows.

Ashley Woods Branch is the executive director of the Fund for Equity in Local News and manages its digital training program for news publishers. Ashley was founder and CEO of the Detour Detroit newsletter, a visiting Nieman fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a proud LION Awards winner. She is now a consultant who loves partnering with startup news publishers to help them tackle their biggest challenges and stay sane through the process. Ashley also worked with the Google News Initiative on initiatives like the GNI Startups Lab and coached more than 100 publications through a partnership with the Center for Cooperative Media. Before startup life, she led digital strategy for the Detroit Free Press.

Bene Cipolla is an organizational consultant and coach working with news organizations, media companies, and nonprofits. She loves to connect big ideas to on-the-ground execution and to build things — organizations, teams, workflows, projects — using a design thinking framework. In 2022, she wrapped up a five-year tenure at Chalkbeat, first leading the newsroom as editor and then, as publisher, setting up structures and practices to establish a multi-vertical operation, now known as Civic News Company. Over the course of her career, Bene has tackled just about every facet and format of journalism and media across film, video, radio, print, and digital. Her time in digital startups taught her about launching products, scaling organizations, managing operations, and driving revenue — experiences that enriched her work back in journalism when she returned. She’s a systems thinker with a creative streak (or a creative with a passion for systemic analysis), and she’s never believed in the left brain vs. right brain dichotomy. Bene lives in New York City and spends most of her free time cooking, eating, and talking about cooking and eating.

Christian Skotte (he/him/his) is an independent consultant who works with non-profits and media brands to grow their audience, deepen their impact, and craft sustainable futures. During his 20+ year career, he has created impactful digital campaigns, overseen organizational rebranding efforts, and built and mentored high performing teams. He’s passionate about journalism and its place in a functioning democracy. Christian was most recently director of growth and innovation at Grist, where he oversaw the audience growth, product, and partnership efforts. Before that, he spent eight years at Science Friday overseeing their digital, audience, and commercial income strategies. A former RJI fellow, he’s spoken at conferences in the U.S. and abroad on topics like digital media and audience growth. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and child.

Dan Petty is the director of audience strategy for ProPublica. He leads the organization’s audience team, whose focus is to help ProPublica journalism reach wide, loyal and diverse audiences on and off the organization’s platforms. He was previously director of audience development at MediaNews Group, where he worked on editorial strategy, operations and business development and helped build the company’s digital subscription business. He previously spent seven years at the Denver Post in a variety of production and editing roles, and he has consulted for news organizations in Kazakhstan on behalf of the International Center for Journalists and the U.S. State Department. He received a bachelor of science in biology and journalism from the University of Richmond and an MBA with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2022.

Elaine Díaz is the associate director of coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently the founder and editor-in-chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social, environmental issues and climate change alongside fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an ambassador manager for a team of 16 ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Frances Dinkelspiel is the co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside, which runs Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside in California. Dinkelspiel and two journalist friends started Berkeleyside in 2009 and developed it from an all-volunteer, bootstrapped organization to a nationally recognized, award-winning nonprofit with a staff of 24 and a budget of more than $4 million. Since stepping down in 2022, Dinkelspiel has served as an Audit analyst for LION, joined the board of Highway 29, an organization working to strengthen the news ecosystem in Napa Valley, and informally advises other news start-ups. She continues to freelance (her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere). She is the author of two bestselling nonfiction books, Towers of Gold and Tangled Vines.

Graham Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is the vice president of customer success and growth at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Jennifer Mizgata is a consultant and coach who collaborates with organizations on program design, audience research, business and operational strategy. Specializing in digital innovation, leadership development and organizational change, Jennifer coaches managers, senior leaders and entrepreneurs on their careers and business strategies. She helps teams and individuals shift mindset, work more collaboratively and bring new products to market. With extensive experience working at the intersection of journalism and technology, she has worked as a program director, editor and business strategist, using human-centered design to build new products that respond to community needs and help create a more equitable world. She also teaches media, innovation and business strategy at American University and writes about improving work culture.

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for APM Studios, the podcast-production division of American Public Media. She is also the founder of En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in media. Joanne was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, where she worked closely with local newsrooms and independent online news organizations, developing strategies for audience engagement, guidance on editorial projects and training of newcomers and established newsroom leaders. Joanne is committed to diversity and inclusion in content creation, and the audiences that need it.

Lisa Heyamoto is the associate director of membership education at LION Publishers, where she helps LION members reach sustainability by designing and overseeing the creation of training programs, coaching/consulting opportunities and practical resources that help news businesses become more operationally resilient, financially healthy and journalistically impactful. She was previously a journalism educator and program coordinator at the University of Oregon and a reporter at The Seattle Times and The Sacramento Bee.

Maple Walker Lloyd is the senior director of development at Block Club Chicago. She works extensively on their fundraising strategies through philanthropic support, individual donations, events and corporate sponsorships. Previously, she was team coordinator for the Journalism and Media program at the MacArthur Foundation and weekend news anchor for WGN Radio. Maple holds a B.A. in Telecommunications from Bowling Green State University, and a Master’s degree in journalism from Full Sail University.

Ryan Tuck is a consultant and coach, advising organizations on all aspects of revenue-raising and audience-centric practices, in addition to product development, user experience, testing and analytics. He specializes in performance-driven change and strategic planning. He has led programming for and coached organizations of all sizes and forms throughout the world. Previously, he worked for about two decades in various roles in and outside the newsroom for a range of organizations, from The New York Times to digital-only startups. He has a B.A. in journalism and political science (and Spanish) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s certificate in technology and communication also from UNC, and a law degree from the University of Georgia. Ryan believes that life is best lived busily and with empathy and a constant hunger to learn — and grow. Because he believes so deeply in staying busy, he lives in the eastern United States with his five children and a dog.

Shay Totten is the newsroom success manager at the American Press Institute. Shay works with newsrooms that utilize API’s proprietary analytics tools, Metrics for News and Source Matters. Most recently, Shay led the growth and membership strategy at The Compass Experiment (a collaboration between the Google News Initiative and McClatchy) that launched digital newsrooms in underserved communities. He has previously worked as a consultant for the News Revenue Hub, LION Publishers, Inside Climate News, as well as other mission-driven organizations on audience engagement and membership best practices as well as strategic communications. Before working in audience and membership roles, Shay spent more than 15 years in publishing and communications — in top editorial and communication positions at a national nonfiction book publisher, as well as an investigative reporter, political columnist, newsroom editor, and founder and publisher of a digital-print hybrid news organization in Vermont in the early 2000s.

Shira T. Center is the general manager for editorial revenue and strategy at Boston Globe Media. In this role, Shira oversees news programs and products that drive commercial revenue growth, such as the editorial calendar, live journalism events, sponsorships and newsletters. Before pioneering this unique role, Shira was a political journalist for 15 years, both in Washington, D.C., and Boston. She is an alumna of the Poynter Institute’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media and, in 2023, she graduated with her MBA from the Yale School of Management. She has served previously as a coach for LION’s Sustainability Lab, “Unblocking Revenue Barriers.”

Todd Stauffer currently serves as the association manager for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and AAN’s lead digital specialist and lab director for grant-funded revenue labs. Before joining AAN, he was the publisher and co-founder of the Jackson Free Press, an alternative newsweekly (sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes monthly) that served Jackson, MS, from 2002 until 2022 when its journalism assets were acquired by the non-profit Mississippi Free Press. Todd has enjoyed the opportunity to participate in Sustainability Audits and revenue coaching for LION Publishers in the past. As a staunch believer in the First Amendment and a proponent of the Fourth Estate, Todd enjoys working with startups and legacy publishers who seek to improve revenues, add a revenue stream or dig deeper into opportunities to sustain their journalism.

The post 47 LION members selected for Sustainability Audit’s 2024 May-July cycle appeared first on LION Publishers.

The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations, resources, and up to $20,000 in direct funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability (see how we’ve charted the path to sustainability via our maturity model). These organizations will work with dedicated expert analysts who will offer guidance based on each organization’s needs and ambitions.

Applications for the Sustainability Audits are open now through September 9, and all U.S.-based LION members who have not yet received an Audit are encouraged to apply. LION intends to complete 173 total Sustainability Audits in 2024.

You can read more about each participating organization and their interest in the Audit below. Congratulations to these 43 news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability!

Archetype

Based in: Rancho Cordova, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a bootstrapping, startup newsroom with zero dollars in funding, I am interested in exploring and developing a game plan for taking Archetype from concept to launch in just three months. I have spent months developing the infrastructure on my own dime and with little help. As we set our sights on launch this year, the business of Archetype begins now. This program will help me take practical steps to develop a sustainable digital publication.

Mission: Archetype aims to become the leading source of essential news and information happening in and around Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Black Girl Media / Black Girl in the CLE

Based in: Cleveland, OH

Mission: We create award-winning content that informs, educates and amplifies the voices of our community.

Bucks County Beacon

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have seen substantial growth in our first two years of existence. Now, I think the time is right to make sure we have all of our systems in place, and that we can grow sustainably from here.

Mission: We are a reader-supported, participatory media outlet that catalyzes community building and increases civic engagement, while protecting democracy by exposing right wing extremism and the rise of authoritarianism.

Burlington Buzz

Based in: Burlington, MA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Buzz has expanded beyond my expectations, and we are ready to take some tangible steps to solidify our practices and be sure our operations are scalable.

Mission: Burlington Buzz connects the Burlington, MA community via daily reporting on local government and current events.

Dallas Free Press

Based in: Dallas, TX

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to be able to hire and equitably pay the employees we need — both on the business and journalism sides — in order to thoroughly report on, and tell stories for and with Dallas’ disinvested neighborhoods, as well as to involve neighbors in civic and journalism processes. DFP also needs a solid plan for growth and a way to make decisions about when and how we grow. We are excited for the opportunity to go through this program and receive the professional feedback and support we need to continue working towards our vision of what sustainability looks like for us.

Mission: Dallas Free Press’ mission is to amplify voices in disinvested neighborhoods and explore solutions to our city’s systemic inequities.

dineSarasota

Based in: Sarasota, FL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To keep dineSarasota growing and thriving, we need revenue. We’re hoping that the Sustainability Audit will help provide a roadmap to future revenue streams.

Mission: dineSarasota seeks to provide Sarasota-Bradenton area residents and visitors with timely, accurate, and actionable information on our local restaurant community. We have a large density of independently owned and operated restaurants. Since 2002, we have strived to spotlight these places through our Sarasota Bites newsletter, our annual printed Sarasota dining book, and our website.  And we hope to be doing it for a long time to come!

East Lansing Info

Based in: East Lansing, MI

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are a local nonprofit news source for our community. We are small and would like to grow; however, we don’t have the staff bandwidth. If we can increase funding by having a more concrete fundraising strategy, as well as improve our internal operations, we could do so much more.

Mission: We bring East Lansing the news.

edhat

Based in: Santa Barbara, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are looking for support in terms of financial growth, operational flexibility, and audience reach. We’d like to increase revenue through consistent streams in order to expand our journalistic impact and continue providing fresh daily content while maintaining a healthy work-life balance for our staff. Additionally, our goal is to prove that our hybrid model of journalism will work in small local markets.

Mission: Our mission is to provide a hyper-local platform that offers a unique hybrid of traditional and citizen journalism to keep readers informed and engaged in local happenings.

Enlace Latino NC

Based in: Raleigh, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Conducting this Sustainability Audit represents a significant opportunity for our digital news outlet, providing us with deep insights into sustainable practices and effective implementation strategies. We hope that this Audit will offer us a clearer picture of where we currently stand and unveil new opportunities for the future.

Mission: Enlace Latino NC is North Carolina’s first nonprofit digital news organization in Spanish. Our mission is to empower the diverse community of Latinx immigrants in North Carolina to become more involved in the political and social changes that affect them.

FāVS News (formerly SpokaneFāVS)

Based in: Spokane, WA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Our publication is over a decade old, but we recently came into some money and feel like we have new energy to do new things! We are growing our staff and redesigned our website, but want to reach more audiences and gain new members. We also want more of the community to know about the good and unique work we are doing.

Mission: FāVS News informs and builds faith and non-faith community through digital journalism and online and offline engagement opportunities.

Hudson Valley Pilot, Inc.

Based in: Rhinebeck, NY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We got off to a good start in 2023, outperforming our initial estimates of audience, editorial output and revenues. Now we need to refine our plans to target our staff and resources in a way that gives us the greatest chance to retain staff and build our service in a way that local citizens will view us as a major piece of civic infrastructure.

Mission: The Hudson Valley Pilot is a vital news, information and community service serving the people of Rhinebeck and our neighboring towns and villages. We will provide unbiased, fact-based reporting and analysis about our local government, our schools, our businesses, arts and community affairs. We will analyze the challenges we face as a community and look for insight and solutions that will impact us now and in the foreseeable future. We will provide a platform for sharing stories, journalistic collaborations and opinions, all in the public interest to reflect the growth, history and diversity of the region. We will partner with other regional news providers to build a strong, widely used, sustainable local news network for the towns and villages throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley. We believe that independent, community-supported journalism is essential to the future of Rhinebeck and the region.

Ipswich Local News

Based in: Ipswich, MA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been in business for just over four years and have passed our initial start-up period. We still need to grow a little to become fully sustainable.

Mission: To report the news fairly and accurately in our area.

Knock LA

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: This is a crucial time in Los Angeles politics, and Knock LA is carrying out an essential mission to inform Angelenos on the issues that impact them, from housing to police violence to LGBTQ+ rights. Knock LA is bursting with potential, and we have grown considerably over the past two years, but we require guidance on how to handle that growth efficiently and responsibly grow further.

Mission: We believe in the tradition of community organizing and journalism as a public service. We believe that, when unobserved and underreported, power leads to corruption. We believe that corporate media outlets are too often forced to serve as publicists for institutional power. Knock LA is powered by passionate journalists, editors, and photographers working together to bring a new perspective to Angelenos.

La Esquina TX

Based in: Houston, TX

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a young, independent local news organization, we want to ensure we build a sustainable business from the ground up. The Audit will provide an in-depth analysis of where we currently stand when it comes to long-term stability and growth opportunities. The insights from the Audit will allow us to diagnose strengths and pain points across areas like leadership, finances, operations, and audience engagement.  

Mission: Our mission is to inform, educate, and provide the necessary tools so that the community, home to the fourth largest Latino population in the United States, can empower itself in the face of complex social situations.

Lake County News

Based in: Lucerne, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To improve our publication’s financial stability while also increasing the impact of our journalistic coverage.

Mission: Lake County News is dedicated to faithfully, accurately and contextually reporting on rural Lake County, California, applying its core values of tried and true journalistic techniques and the highest ethical standards to the ever-evolving medium of hyperlocal online news publishing.

LINK Media, LLC

Based in: Covington, KY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a young news organization, heading into our third year, sustainability is our key focus. We want to be around for our community not just today, but far into the future, and a sustainable business model is the only way to ensure longevity.  

Mission: With a focus on the public interest, LINK Media advances the Northern Kentucky Metro in the region, the commonwealth and the nation by providing transformative coverage of the news of the day with focus on the deeper issues that matter most to our community.

North Carolina Health News

Based in: Chapel Hill, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have a great product, we want to get it to more people and to deepen the relationship that readers, sponsors and donors have to NC Health News. Our founder is looking to create a five-year plan to transition out of the ED role, this will require creating a stronger, more sustainable operation that can be carried forward by someone else. And we want to increase revenue, both by developing new revenue streams and by strengthening the existing ones.

Mission: North Carolina Health News is an independent, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering health care in North Carolina employing the highest journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy and extensive research. We were founded in response to the decrease in health reporters around the state. We were founded because we believe that to make the best decisions about their health care and about the state’s health care system, the citizens of North Carolina need the best information possible. NCHN seeks to become the premiere source for health reporting in North Carolina.

NowKalamazoo

Based in: Kalamazoo, MI

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Sustainability is the primary goal, right? We’re big fans of LION’s model for sustainability, and we’ve been using that to guide our development thinking. We very much want to grow a community institution that’s built to last. We value the insight LION’s team brings in this area — there’s perhaps no opinion and advice we want more.

Mission: NowKalamazoo is a nonprofit community news service and a public resource for all who live, work and play in Kalamazoo County. We produce high-quality journalism that serves the public good, and we assist citizens in accessing civic information. Our mission is to empower our readers with the information they need to make informed decisions, hold those in power accountable, and create positive change in our community.

Open Vallejo

Based in: Oakland, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Open Vallejo seeks to participate in this Sustainability Audit to ensure our organization can serve Vallejoans well into the future. We also seek to grow our nonprofit to serve and sustain other newsrooms in communities throughout California.

Mission: Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, non-partisan, nonprofit newsroom serving the public interest. We seek to illuminate a small city long burdened by police violence, corruption, and neglect. As the first project of the Informed California Foundation, Open Vallejo is also a permanent design laboratory for open source, high-impact, broadly-accessible frameworks for ensuring local transparency, accountability, and information justice.

Q Voice News

Based in: Long Beach, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to look at our business in a holistic manner. We want to examine our technology side, revenue generation, audience engagement, and coverage to see where we can improve.

Mission: Q Voice News publishes compelling journalism that connects, elevates, and engages the LGBTQ+ community.

RANGE Media

Based in: Spokane, WA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Through two cohorts, LION programs have been extremely useful in helping us think through the business needs and case for RANGE. We’ve now grown to the point that we can really see the need to get more rigorous with process, planning and growth. Looking forward to the next step in that evolution.

Mission: RANGE is a media organization for people who love the Inland Northwest and want to make it better. We are building an anti-racist, equity-minded, class-focused newsroom striving to spotlight the perspectives and expertise of members of marginalized communities, from the ground up. We report honestly and fairly, and host incredible conversations with folks whose talent, vision, and expertise isn’t always heralded in traditional media.

Reporte Hispano

Based in: Princeton, NJ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We would like to update our content management system and grow our digital revenue.

Mission: Reporte Hispano is NJ’s Hispanic newspaper and website — the only Spanish-language website in NJ, which is one of the largest Hispanic markets in the U.S. and the world.

Rockton-Roscoe News

Based in: Roscoe, IL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We need consistent funds to pay our dedicated journalists, to attract more qualified staff, and to allow this work to continue when we’re gone.

Mission: To deliver local news and information for and about Roscoe, Rockton, and South Beloit, Illinois that is accurate, relevant, useful, and builds community.

Southasia Peace / Sapan News

Based in: Cambridge, MA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are a mission-driven, volunteer organization trying to become professional. We need to be sustainable in order to continue our work, but we are not sure if we are going about it the right way. We hope that participating in the Sustainability Audit will help guide us and provide a framework as well as some funds to help us move forward.

Mission: Sapan News Network aims to produce honest, non-partisan, nuanced, reliable journalism that connects and covers Southasia*, the Indian Ocean, and the diaspora and furthers the narrative of peace, dialogue, and regionalism, expanding spaces for empathy and compassion.

Spotlight Schools

Based in: Seal Beach, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m a journalist passionate about local news. But I need help and guidance to turn Spotlight Schools into a thriving newsroom that’s sustainable and serves the public interest. I think the Audit can help me achieve this goal.

Mission: Spotlight Schools helps you better understand, navigate and participate in the K-12 public school experience in Orange County.

Springfield Daily Citizen

Based in: Springfield, MO

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Springfield Daily Citizen has had a promising start, but as we celebrate our second anniversary, we’re looking to improve our operations to ensure our sustainability long into the future. Our goal is to achieve financial sustainability after five years, and as could be expected, we know adjustments are needed to meet our objective. The Sustainability Audit program provides an opportunity to get advice and insights from outside experts who can help us improve and achieve our ultimate goal to serve our community.

Mission: The mission of the Springfield Daily Citizen is to inform our community and be a catalyst for good.

Technical.ly

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: After more than 10 years of a working model, the pandemic changed everything for us. We’ve done considerable work to update who we are and what we do, but coming into our 15th year of publishing, we need a solid outside assessment of where we are now and need to go next.

Mission: We believe innovation should come from anyone anywhere so all communities can thrive. Technical.ly is a news organization that connects and challenges a community of technologists and entrepreneurs who are invested in where they live.

The Berkeley Scanner

Based in: Berkeley, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I launched The Berkeley Scanner in 2022 and have been astounded by the deep community interest and support from the start. As a one-person operation, it can be tough to zero in on the top priorities and find any kind of work-life balance. I believe the Audit will help in both these areas and also help me plan for future growth.

Mission: The Berkeley Scanner is an independent daily news outlet devoted to robust, authoritative crime and public safety reporting in Berkeley, California.

The Coronado News

Based in: Coronado, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a new publication with a small staff, we want to be the most productive while expanding our coverage to neighboring Imperial Beach. We would like insight into how to obtain additional resources through grants. And we want to identify revenue sources to have long-term sustainability.

Mission: The Coronado News is a daily website and weekly paper serving the communities of Coronado and Imperial Beach to be the go-to news source for breaking news while providing in-depth, investigative journalism that impacts the communities.

The E’ville Eye Community News

Based in: Emeryville, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’ve reached a point where my organization’s growth has stalled and I need outside insights, accountability and direction from others to advance this to a sustainable level. I’m also considering pivoting to a nonprofit model and would like guidance from others familiar with this transition.

Mission: Making every resident, employee and visitor of Emeryville and the adjacent neighborhoods more informed and aware citizens.

The Eastsider LLC

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We now rely on three sources of revenue: grants, advertising and reader revenue. I’m interested in the Audit to help provide guidance on how to boost revenue from each source and how we can become more effective and efficient tending and growing these very different operations without having to hire three different managers. On the editorial side, we need to figure out how we can create and manage a network of neighborhood correspondents to provide deeper coverage.

Mission: Our mission is to keep readers on the Eastside of Los Angeles informed and connected by delivering timely news, stories and information in a concise and engaging manner. Recognizing the diversity of our communities, we endeavor to highlight our shared experiences and cultivate a sense of pride and unity.

The Lawrence Times

Based in: Lawrence, KS

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’ve been publishing for almost three years, and we’re ready to take things to the next level. We want to focus on the bigger picture so we can keep doing this work for a long, long time to come. Every single priority on the list above applies.

Mission: The Lawrence Times values people over power and profit; individuals over institutions; and community above all else. We want to cover the news that matters most to our readers and amplify voices that have historically been silenced. 

The Lens

Based in: New Orleans, LA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Our community depends on The Lens. Understanding the current state of our business operations, including financial, will help inform our future planning.

Mission: The Lens is the New Orleans area’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom, dedicated to unique investigative and explanatory journalism. Our mission is to educate, engage and empower readers with information and analysis necessary for them to advocate for a more transparent and just governance that is accountable to the public.

The New Bedford Light

Based in: New Bedford, MA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I would like to have an informed and agreed upon growth vision for The Light. We have differing internal ideas about our future and direction. 

Mission: We seek to inform and nourish the civic culture of New Bedford and surrounding towns by providing in-depth, fact-based journalism and a broad platform for diverse community voices. Through our innovative Journalism Incubator Project, we promote media literacy and educate the public about the vital role of a free press in bolstering our democracy.

The News Reporter

Based in: Whiteville, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a family owned, independent legacy publisher, we could benefit from a skilled, outside set of eyes on our books and operation. While we’ve seen success with some digital initiatives, including our metered paywall and e-mail newsletter, we’re still heavily reliant on print advertising revenue. We need to ensure that we’re diversifying and cultivating revenue sources to ensure long-term sustainability.

Mission: The News Reporter improves our readers’ lives, fosters community and holds public institutions and leaders accountable by producing high quality news and information that can’t be found anywhere else. 

The Triangle

Based in: Williamsburg, VA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I believe my news organization would benefit tremendously from the thorough assessment offered through the Sustainability Audit. This process will help me to step back and do the much-needed work of more deeply analyzing the current strengths and weaknesses of my business. I look forward to receiving recommendations and resources to help guide my organization toward sustainability.

Mission: The Triangle strives to promote community engagement and inform the civic dialogue by providing relevant and accessible news and information. We pledge to offer nonpartisan, non-biased coverage of topics that matter to local residents. In all that we do, earning the trust and respect of our audience is imperative. We are a locally owned and operated publication that puts the community first. 

Tri-State Lookout, LLC

Based in: Milford, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m looking for guidance about optimal ways to bring in paid subscribers and sponsors to pay freelancers to do more coverage, as now I do most stories. I would also like some guidance about how best to work with my editorial advisory board and other community supporters. And I’m interested in funding that would jumpstart more funding via fundraising or other sources.

Mission: The Tri-State Lookout is looking out for you in Port Jervis and Warwick, New York; Milford, Pennsylvania; and neighboring New Jersey towns. We report on local government, public health, education, the environment, social issues, cultural events and more.

Tucson Agenda

Based in: Tucson, AZ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We launched the Tucson Agenda in July 2023 and while our subscriber base started off strong and grew quickly, it’s slowed down a lot. We are both reporters, so the business side of running a news operation is completely new. We want to learn how to continue to grow our audience so that we can become sustainable, and also explore ways to expand our reach in the community and produce stories that resonate and impact the community.

Mission: The Tucson Agenda provides rigorous reporting on local government, politics and government-adjacent organizations. We connect the dots between who is doing what and why at Tucson City Hall, the county building, and beyond to help Tucsonans understand local political machinations, so our readers — our fellow voters — can make informed decisions, show up to town halls, or otherwise agitate for what matters most to them, whether it’s advocating for policies or just voting them out. We also explain how neighbors step up, take on problems and find solutions. We aim to help readers understand the effects of political decisions and the motives of the people behind them. We’re here to make sure you know your Tucson and Pima County politicians, how your government works and how you can change it.

Tucson Sentinel

Based in: Tucson, AZ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re looking forward to taking part in the Sustainability Audit process to determine how Tucson Sentinel can leverage our current strengths and continue to grow the capacity and impact of our independent nonprofit newsroom. As a founding member of LION Publishers, the Sentinel’s going on our 15th year of serving our community in the Borderlands of Southern Arizona, and we’re confident this program will help us integrate business-side strategies to support our work to listen more intently, learn more comprehensively, diversify our revenues and approaches, and dig where no one else does to tell stories that you just can’t read anyplace else.

Mission: Tucson Sentinel’s independent nonprofit newsroom is an award-winning journalism pioneer that learns from and informs Southern Arizonans about the community challenges and unique culture of our Borderlands. Through watchdog reporting, local commentary and expert analysis, the Sentinel inspires residents to be meaningfully engaged with our community, promotes transparency and understanding, seeks solutions that empower, and holds the powerful accountable.

Waterbury Roundabout

Based in: Waterbury, VT

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: When our weekly print newspaper shut down in late March 2020, Waterbury Roundabout was created as a class project to fill the information void as reliable, accurate local news was in high demand in our community as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. We dove in as volunteers, without a business plan and without expectations other than to presume we would figure things out along the way. Now nearly four years along, we know our work is valued, but our challenge is to determine if and how our community can sustain this new online news model into the foreseeable future for it to thrive and even grow.   

Mission: Our mission is to provide readers with news about local government, schools, businesses, community organizations, events and the people who live, work and play in and around the Waterbury region. We hope readers will find our coverage a reliable source of objective, accurate information. We hope to provide a source of connection. Through photos and stories, we hope to hold up a mirror to our community.

Watershed Voice

Based in: Three Rivers, MI

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to increase our capacity and revenue so we can focus on what truly matters: the work. Over the past four years, I’ve had two staff writers for less than a year each; otherwise, I have been the lone journalist. We just had our best year financially, and I want to continue that momentum.

Mission: We aim to serve as a reputable source for local news and culture for communities across Southwest Michigan. We believe when citizens are informed on local issues they are more likely to be active members in their community. We work in direct contact with people affected by problems, and aim to listen and respond to our readers’ priorities and questions. We seek to highlight solutions to this area’s pressing concerns, in an effort to make our community a better place.

WisCommunity

Based in: Menomonie, WI

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I have struggled with maintaining sufficient sustainability to expand beyond a one-person operation. I want to learn how to fix this.

Mission: WisCommunity brings you community-based news about Dunn County, Wisconsin. Our news is the information you need to engage with the community and to understand more deeply what is happening in your home.

WitnessLA

Based in: Los Angeles County, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: For me, the possibility of being part of the LION Audit has come at the right time. We are doing critically important reporting, but I need help in creating a plan for fiscal sustainability that will also allow us to grow our newsroom. 

Mission: WitnessLA is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan source of criminal justice news in the public interest. We have a special focus on the ways that the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems affect the health and well-being of communities and their residents in Los Angeles County and beyond.

Audit Analysts

The analysts for 2024 are:

Anne Galloway is the founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger, the statewide newspaper of record for Vermont. In addition to her work as an investigative journalist, she has 13 years of experience in business planning, financial projections, management, growth strategies and fundraising. When she stepped down as executive director in 2022, the organization had 35 employees, a budget of more than $3 million, 10,000 contributing members and 600,000 readers a month.

Ariel Zirulnick is the senior editor for community engagement at LAist. She works at the intersection of community engagement, editorial, product, and revenue strategy to ensure LAist’s journalism consistently serves and centers Angelenos’ needs. She also leads an interdisciplinary team experimenting with ways to link engaged journalism and revenue. Prior to KPCC/LAist, she led the Membership in News Fund and Membership Guide at the Membership Puzzle Project, a global public research project studying membership models in news. She previously led The New Tropic, a news startup in Miami; reported from Nairobi; and edited the Christian Science Monitor’s Middle East coverage. She is passionate about doing journalism with communities and building systems that make that sustainable. She’s a member of the 2023 cohort of CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. She’s an alumna of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy and Miami Fellows.

Ashley Woods Branch is the executive director of the Fund for Equity in Local News and manages its digital training program for news publishers. Ashley was founder and CEO of the Detour Detroit newsletter, a visiting Nieman fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a proud LION Awards winner. She is now a consultant who loves partnering with startup news publishers to help them tackle their biggest challenges and stay sane through the process. Ashley also worked with the Google News Initiative on initiatives like the GNI Startups Lab and coached more than 100 publications through a partnership with the Center for Cooperative Media. Before startup life, she led digital strategy for the Detroit Free Press.

Bene Cipolla is an organizational consultant and coach working with news organizations, media companies, and nonprofits. She loves to connect big ideas to on-the-ground execution and to build things — organizations, teams, workflows, projects — using a design thinking framework. In 2022, she wrapped up a five-year tenure at Chalkbeat, first leading the newsroom as editor and then, as publisher, setting up structures and practices to establish a multi-vertical operation, now known as Civic News Company. Over the course of her career, Bene has tackled just about every facet and format of journalism and media across film, video, radio, print, and digital. Her time in digital startups taught her about launching products, scaling organizations, managing operations, and driving revenue — experiences that enriched her work back in journalism when she returned. She’s a systems thinker with a creative streak (or a creative with a passion for systemic analysis), and she’s never believed in the left brain vs. right brain dichotomy. Bene lives in New York City and spends most of her free time cooking, eating, and talking about cooking and eating.

Christian Skotte (he/him/his) is an independent consultant who works with non-profits and media brands to grow their audience, deepen their impact, and craft sustainable futures. During his 20+ year career, he has created impactful digital campaigns, overseen organizational rebranding efforts, and built and mentored high performing teams. He’s passionate about journalism and its place in a functioning democracy. Christian was most recently Director of Growth and Innovation at Grist, where he oversaw the audience growth, product, and partnership efforts. Before that, he spent eight years at Science Friday overseeing their digital, audience, and commercial income strategies. A former RJI fellow, he’s spoken at conferences in the U.S. and abroad on topics like digital media and audience growth. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and child.

Dan Petty is the director of audience strategy for ProPublica. He leads the organization’s audience team, whose focus is to help ProPublica journalism reach wide, loyal and diverse audiences on and off the organization’s platforms. He was previously director of audience development at MediaNews Group, where he worked on editorial strategy, operations and business development and helped build the company’s digital subscription business. He previously spent seven years at the Denver Post in a variety of production and editing roles, and he has consulted for news organizations in Kazakhstan on behalf of the International Center for Journalists and the U.S. State Department. He received a bachelor of science in biology and journalism from the University of Richmond and an MBA with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2022.

Elaine Díaz is the Associate Director of Coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social, environmental issues and climate change alongside fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an Ambassador Manager for a team of 16 ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Frances Dinkelspiel is the co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside, which runs Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside in California. Dinkelspiel and two journalist friends started Berkeleyside in 2009 and developed it from an all-volunteer, bootstrapped organization to a nationally recognized, award-winning nonprofit with a staff of 24 and a budget of more than $4 million. Since stepping down in 2022, Dinkelspiel has served as an Audit analyst for LION, joined the board of Highway 29, an organization working to strengthen the news ecosystem in Napa Valley, and informally advises other news start-ups. She continues to freelance (her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere). She is the author of two bestselling nonfiction books, Towers of Gold and Tangled Vines.

Graham Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is the Vice President of Customer Success and Growth at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Jennifer Mizgata is a consultant and coach who collaborates with organizations on program design, audience research, business and operational strategy. Specializing in digital innovation, leadership development and organizational change, Jennifer coaches managers, senior leaders and entrepreneurs on their careers and business strategies. She helps teams and individuals shift mindset, work more collaboratively and bring new products to market. With extensive experience working at the intersection of journalism and technology, she has worked as a program director, editor and business strategist, using human-centered design to build new products that respond to community needs and help create a more equitable world. She also teaches media, innovation and business strategy at American University and writes about improving work culture.

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for APM Studios, the podcast-production division of American Public Media. She is also the founder of En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in media. Joanne was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, where she worked closely with local newsrooms and independent online news organizations, developing strategies for audience engagement, guidance on editorial projects and training of newcomers and established newsroom leaders. Joanne is committed to diversity and inclusion in content creation, and the audiences that need it.

Lisa Heyamoto is the Associate Director of Membership Education at LION Publishers, where she helps LION members reach sustainability by designing and overseeing the creation of training programs, coaching/consulting opportunities and practical resources that help news businesses become more operationally resilient, financially healthy and journalistically impactful. She was previously a journalism educator and program coordinator at the University of Oregon and a reporter at The Seattle Times and The Sacramento Bee.

Maple Walker Lloyd is senior director of development at Block Club Chicago. She works extensively on their fundraising strategies through philanthropic support, individual donations, events and corporate sponsorships. Previously, she was team coordinator for the Journalism and Media program at the MacArthur Foundation and weekend news anchor for WGN Radio. Maple holds a B.A. in Telecommunications from Bowling Green State University, and a Master’s degree in journalism from Full Sail University.

Ryan Tuck is a consultant and coach, advising organizations on all aspects of revenue-raising and audience-centric practices, in addition to product development, user experience, testing and analytics. He specializes in performance-driven change and strategic planning. He has led programming for and coached organizations of all sizes and forms throughout the world. Previously, he worked for about two decades in various roles in and outside the newsroom for a range of organizations, from The New York Times to digital-only startups. He has a B.A. in journalism and political science (and Spanish) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s certificate in technology and communication also from UNC, and a law degree from the University of Georgia. Ryan believes that life is best lived busily and with empathy and a constant hunger to learn — and grow. Because he believes so deeply in staying busy, he lives in the eastern United States with his five children and a dog.

Shay Totten is the Newsroom Success Manager at the American Press Institute. Shay works with newsrooms that utilize API’s proprietary analytics tools Metrics for News and Source Matters. Most recently, Shay led the growth and membership strategy at The Compass Experiment (a collaboration between the Google News Initiative and McClatchy) that launched digital newsrooms in underserved communities. He has previously worked as a consultant for the News Revenue Hub, LION Publishers, Inside Climate News, as well as other mission-driven organizations on audience engagement and membership best practices as well as strategic communications. Before working in audience and membership roles, Shay spent more than 15 years in publishing and communications — in top editorial and communication positions at a national nonfiction book publisher, as well as an investigative reporter, political columnist, newsroom editor, and founder and publisher of a digital-print hybrid news organization in Vermont in the early 2000s.

Shira T. Center is the general manager for editorial revenue and strategy at Boston Globe Media. In this role, Shira oversees news programs and products that drive commercial revenue growth, such as the editorial calendar, live journalism events, sponsorships and newsletters. Before pioneering this unique role, Shira was a political journalist for 15 years, both in Washington, D.C. and Boston. She is an alumna of the Poynter Institute’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media and, in 2023, she graduated with her MBA from the Yale School of Management. She has served previously as a coach for LION’s Sustainability Lab, “Unblocking Revenue Barriers.”

Todd Stauffer currently serves as the association manager for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and AAN’s lead digital specialist and lab director for grant-funded revenue labs. Before joining AAN, he was the publisher and co-founder of the Jackson Free Press, an alternative newsweekly (sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes monthly) that served Jackson, MS, from 2002 until 2022 when its journalism assets were acquired by the non-profit Mississippi Free Press. Todd has enjoyed the opportunity to participate in Sustainability Audits and revenue coaching for LION Publishers in the past. As a staunch believer in the First Amendment and a proponent of the Fourth Estate, Todd enjoys working with startups and legacy publishers who seek to improve revenues, add a revenue stream or dig deeper into opportunities to sustain their journalism.

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It’s a big question –– and one that’s not easily answered alone. That’s why, over the past two years, 175 LION member newsrooms have enrolled in the program to receive a detailed assessment of their news business and a roadmap for moving closer to sustainability. Each participant was also given $20,000 to implement recommendations from their Audit report. And after completing the program, 93 percent of participants say they feel more confident in their organization’s ability to reach sustainability.

This year, we’re excited to extend the opportunity to at least 170 additional LION members. Applications are open for three remaining cycles in 2024, and we’ll accept applications on a rolling basis (you can apply now for any or all of the three cycles). The first cycle, which will begin in February, is full. For consideration in the second cycle (May-July), apply by April 15. The deadlines to be considered for cycles three and four are July 8 and September 9, respectively. Our 2024 Audits are available to U.S.-based LION members who did not receive an Audit in 2022 or 2023.

We know that capacity is a major challenge for news leaders, so we’ve designed the Audit to make the most of your time by having an expert analyze your organization, then directly address your primary challenges with support tailored to your specific needs. The total time commitment to participate is just five hours over the course of about ten weeks.

Here’s what the Audit experience looks like in three steps –– you will:

1. Fill out a questionnaire that details your business’s operational readiness, financial health, and journalistic impact.
2. Schedule and complete an interview with one of our Audit analysts to dig more deeply into questionnaire responses, goals, and organizational practices.
3. Review the Audit report your analyst provides, including a high-level summary, a list of sustainability indicators, benchmarking data, a prioritized list of recommendations, and more. You’ll have a chance to reconnect with your analyst after you receive the report to ask questions and gain any necessary clarity.

After the program, you’ll then submit a funding request to receive the $20,000, outlining two to three recommendations your business will act on. 

Here’s what past Audit participants say about their experience:

What opportunities might your Audit report uncover, and how could those findings propel your organization forward? Find out by applying for your Audit today. To learn more about the program, sign up for our virtual Q&A on Friday, January 19, at 2 p.m. ET, or contact Andrew Rockway at andrewrockway@lionpublishers.com.

Sustainability Audits are provided at no cost to LION members. If you’re not a LION member, check out our membership benefits and how to enroll.

The post Applications are open to receive a Sustainability Audit in 2024 appeared first on LION Publishers.

The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations, resources, and up to $20,000 of funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability (see how we’ve charted the path to sustainability via our maturity model). These organizations will work with dedicated expert analysts who will offer guidance based on each organization’s needs and ambitions.

Applications will reopen in early 2024 and all LION members who have not yet received an Audit are encouraged to apply. LION intends to complete an additional 170 Sustainability Audits in 2024.

You can read more about each participating organization and their interest in the Audit below. Congratulations to these 38 news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability!

Billy Penn at WHYY

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Billy Penn has grown organically for nine years now, with half of those as part of WHYY, but the process is still very hands-on and not as systemized as it could be. Additionally, recent hires mean we’re back in the red. We could greatly use an outside eye and voice to help assess the best ways to get organized and make sure we’re moving forward strategically. Thank you for the opportunity!

Mission: Billy Penn at WHYY is a local news team with a mission to connect Philadelphians and improve Philly by reporting on and explaining the city’s political, physical, and cultural infrastructure.

Bridge Michigan

Based in: Ann Arbor, MI

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: For nearly a decade, we have followed a national nonprofit best practice of thoughtful growth that maximizes organizational sustainability. Along with that growth, the Center for Michigan / Bridge Michigan has entered into a new stage of development, with significant leadership changes taking place across the organization. We look forward to participating in the Sustainability Audit to ensure that we identify and implement best practices for maintaining a healthy balance of operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. 

Mission: Making Michigan better through high-quality, nonpartisan journalism & engagement.

Broadband Breakfast

Based in: Great Falls, VA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Broadband Breakfast has built an avid, even cult-like following among those who follow broadband policy and Internet technology. We’ve proven our staying power through our commitment to aggressive fact-based reporting and engaging weekly events, including Broadband Breakfast Live Online every Wednesday at noon ET. As the publication of record for the United States’ broadband buildout, Broadband Breakfast is seeking to tap new revenue opportunities within the broadband community through deeper engagement, more robust reader interactions, and ongoing in-person events.

Mission: Better Broadband, Better Lives

Carolina Public Press

Based in: Asheville, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As the development director for CPP, I am very interested in this opportunity so that we can ensure sustainability.

Mission: Carolina Public Press is an independent nonprofit news organization dedicated to nonpartisan, in-depth and investigative news built upon the facts and context North Carolinians need to know. Our award-winning, breakthrough journalism dismantles barriers and shines a light on the critical overlooked and under-reported issues facing our state’s 10.4 million residents.

Charlottesville Tomorrow

Based in: Charlottesville, VA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are at a growth phase that is challenging to manage, but we’re also facing uncertainties in the nonprofit landscape that I want to steward us through well.

Mission: Charlottesville Tomorrow delivers in-depth reporting and analysis that improves local decision-making. We seek to expand civic engagement to foster a vibrant, inclusive, and interdependent community.

Columbia Missourian

Based in: Columbia, MO

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We would like to find strategies to add value and grow digital subscribers without a hard paywall. 

Mission: The Columbia Missourian strives to serve the Columbia community through its journalism, telling the stories of the community while serving as a watchdog for elected officials and university administration. The Missourian also serves as a training ground for journalists and a lab for the broader industry. We strive to prepare students to enter newsrooms as ethical journalists. 

Conecta Arizona

Based in: Phoenix, AZ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Conecta Arizona was born as an experiment; I became an entrepreneur in the pandemic with zero experience in leading a news organization. I want CAZ to grow and expand and I do not want my inexperience to be an obstacle to getting there. We want to learn and grow.

Mission: Our mission is clear: to create dialogue between Spanish-speaking communities in the border region with accurate, engaging, and accessible news from a bicultural and bilingual perspective. 

Decaturish.com

Based in: Scottdale, GA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to make more money so I can hire more reporters and cover more stories.

Mission: At Decaturish, it is important that coverage recognizes and represents our diverse community. We will do our best to present factual information that represents multiple points of view. 

Future Tides

Based in: Seattle, WA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To best serve my community, Future Tides needs to consider sustainability every step of the way. The Sustainability Audit is an opportunity to open up to analysis and benefit from tailored guidance. It’s an opportunity to tap into deep experience and refocus.   

Mission: Future Tides provides news and information for people who work, play and live on the Pacific Northwest’s waterways, to help them understand the modern maritime community and navigate what’s next.

Greenpointers

Based in: Brooklyn, NY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Greenpointers started as a passion project that served as a personal creative outlet. It has since grown into a respected resource that would be a huge loss to our community if it closed. As my circumstances have changed, I would like to position Greenpointers to thrive in the long run, beyond me, in case I need to take a step back.

Mission: Greenpointers is committed to delivering news when it is most critical. We believe that trusted information is essential to the democratic process and community-driven impact. At a time when local news is collapsing and misinformation is rampant, our hyperlocal focus gives us the ability to stay connected to the community we serve, online and offline. We are on the ground, living and breathing in the area that we serve and keeping an authentic pulse on what is happening.

Halifax Examiner

Based in: Halifax, NS

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: For nine years, we have done well for a subscriber-based publication; despite our steady growth and loyal, engaged, and generous supporters, we have reached the limit of the writers and admin staff we can hire, and therefore the number and depth of stories we can cover. To do our job effectively, we need to reach potential subscribers who still haven’t heard of us and convert readers who have been hesitant to subscribe; we also need the financial support of unions, businesses, and government agencies.  During earlier participation in the GNI program, we learned how to streamline our processes and improve our publication; we hope this Sustainability Audit will help us identify new opportunities, expand our reach, and build a solid base for future growth.

Mission: The Halifax Examiner is an independent, adversarial news site devoted to holding the powerful accountable. We pry the lid off Halifax City Hall and offer a fresh look into Province House. We expose grifters, bullshitters, and business interests putting profit over people and the environment. We keep an eye on the police, and amplify the voices of the marginalized. And we focus on the health, housing, and climate crises of our time.

inewsource

Based in: San Diego, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: inewsource is interested in participating in the Sustainability Audit to get a thorough assessment of our business, including our revenue sources, staffing resources, workflows and tools. Through the Audit, we hope to gain insights from the experts on ways we can improve and reach sustainability.

Mission: inewsource is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to improving lives in the San Diego region and beyond through impactful, data-based investigative and accountability journalism.

Khasokhas

Based in: Corona, NY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We believe that the Audit would help us identify any areas where we can improve our efficiency, effectiveness, and financial stability. The Audit would provide us with access to expert advice and resources that we can use to strengthen our news organization. The Audit would be a valuable opportunity for us to learn and grow, and to become a more sustainable news organization.

Mission: Khasokhas is the number one Nepali news source in the USA.

KHOL – Jackson Hole Community Radio

Based in: Jackson, WY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have grown a lot over the past four years – tripling our annual revenue – but how do we sustain what we’ve built? How do we grow from here? 

Mission: To serve the Jackson Hole community of residents and visitors through independent local and regional news and by creating a forum for the free exchange of ideas and music discovery that informs, entertains and promotes a deeper understanding of the world around us. 

Long Beach Post

Based in: Long Beach, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Long Beach Post is at a critical juncture in terms of our ability to sustain our journalism into the future. Our brand and editorial product are strong, but what we need is a solid business plan, clear leadership and a strategy for execution.  

Mission: The Long Beach Post aims to create an informed and engaged community by providing a platform for our city’s diverse voices, holding those with power and influence to account and reporting the truth with authority, integrity and heart. Our coverage should always inspire the public to think, feel, question and act.  We continue to ask, “What’s next?”

Montana Free Press

Based in: Helena, MT

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Montana Free Press was created to cover a gap in statehouse and statewide news at a time when legacy papers were laying off reporters en-masse, but the recent and rapid decline of corporate-owned daily papers in Montana has created a new and significant news gap at the local level. As MTFP continues to meet the growing news needs of Montanans, it is critical for us to grow strategically and sustainably. This means finding new ways to generate reliable revenue, identifying new product opportunities, and developing strategies to serve new audiences.

Mission: Montana Free Press is an independent, nonprofit source for Montana news, information, and analysis. Our mission is to produce in-depth public-service journalism that creates positive change and helps move society toward justice and equity.

New Jersey Urban News

Based in: Newark, NJ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To strengthen our editorial and operational capacity. To help us assess our next best areas of focus for growth and gain access to insight and resources that will help our long-term sustainability.

Mission: Journalism that informs, enriches, and inspires.

Oil City News

Based in: Casper, WY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m interested in learning and incorporating best practices for digital-only publishing businesses. I believe that participating in the Sustainability Audit will help us to uncover new efficiencies to help us continue to build our platforms AND the digital news industry in our state.

Mission: Our mission is to build more informed and connected communities.

Queen City Nerve

Based in: Charlotte, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We started from the scraps of a shuttered alt-weekly. As we’ve built our organization and grown over the past five years, we need the assistance of experts on how to maintain that growth sustainably and manage ourselves to make the best impact on our community.

Mission: Our community-based local journalism helps Charlotte residents who want to be informed by a range of diverse voices by reducing focus on the narratives of those in power, and intensifying focus on residents and establishing trust in our community to identify solutions, with a diverse range of writers to ensure representation in our long-form storytelling. Our mission is to promote diversity and inclusion in all areas of our daily lives through making informed decisions.

Ricochet Media

Based in: Vancouver, BC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Ricochet Media is focused on accountability-driven, public-interest investigative journalism and on-the-ground coverage of Indigenous movements. These are very resource-intensive types of journalism, so increasing revenue is a top priority at Ricochet Media. We want to expand the coverage we do best and our readers depend on. 

Mission: Independent, dedicated to investigative journalism and incisive opinion, Ricochet seeks to illuminate the cultural and political diversity within Canada. We practise public-interest journalism.

Right Down Euclid

Based in: Cleveland, OH

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Independent news is essential. Having a trusted source to help clarify what’s happening in your neighborhood is fundamental to living an informed, connected life. Right Down Euclid’s focus and goal is to provide Clevelanders and Northeastern Ohioans with a reliable community asset to fuel and assist in keeping everyone informed. 

Mission: Right Down Euclid’s vision is to build a nonprofit news network that ensures all people in the greater Cleveland community have free, unfiltered access to trusted independent news throughout Northeastern Ohio.

San Antonio Report

Based in: San Antonio, TX

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re always looking for additional ways to achieve greater long-term sustainability for the organization. Sustaining a local news enterprise has constant challenges, and we believe it’s our responsibility to continue to not only sustain but grow in our reach and coverage to better serve even more of our community.

Mission: To provide journalism and civic engagement opportunities, enabling citizens and institutions to build a better city to live, work and play. We aim to go beyond simply reporting the news to deeply engage our readers and mobilize people to make San Antonio a better city in which to live.

Santa Cruz Local

Based in: Santa Cruz, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Santa Cruz Local’s largest revenue stream last year was major gifts from local donors. To become more sustainable, we need to figure out an operational way to scale this high-touch revenue stream with a tiny team until we can hire more help. We also would like to grow advertising and corporate sponsorship, but feel limited by staff time.

Mission: Santa Cruz Local produces fair and accurate local journalism that holds power to account.

Saucon Source

Based in: Hellertown, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to feel like I’m controlling my business. Far too often, it feels like the business is controlling me. I want help with developing higher and more consistent revenue streams so I don’t have to constantly worry about making ends meet month-to-month, and my hope is that this Audit will give me the insight and tools to do that.

Mission: Saucon Source is a hyperlocal news site and information hub for Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley area.

Shawnee Mission Post & Blue Valley Post

Based in: Shawnee, KS

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re proud of the work we’ve done to get the fundamentals of a working business model in place. But we know there are a number of areas we need to improve to guarantee we can continue to serve our community for decades to come. We’re looking to gain insights into what’s worked — and not worked — for other publishers in our space.

Mission: We started the site because we believe the most populated and prosperous county in Kansas deserves its own source for community news. Our goal is to be the “user’s guide to Johnson County” — a resource available for anyone who wants to make sure they’re plugged in to what’s happening in the place they call home.

Silicon Hills News

Based in: Austin, TX

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Silicon Hills News is looking for sustainable revenue to continue to service the Austin-San Antonio community. We are also interested in launching new products and would like to do so profitably. 

Mission: At Silicon Hills News, our mission is to empower and inform the Central Texas communities of Austin and San Antonio through insightful and inclusive coverage of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. As a women-owned media company with over 12 years of dedication, we strive to connect, inspire, and celebrate the diverse voices and stories shaping our region’s tech ecosystem. We are committed to fostering a vibrant, equitable, and informed tech community that thrives on knowledge, collaboration, and opportunities for all.

The Atlanta Voice

Based in: Atlanta, GA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As we compete in an everchanging dynamic media ecosystem, it is imperative that we grow as an organization and not just as individuals. This Audit would assist in providing an external unbiased look at how we are utilizing our current tools, give insights into our structure and provide recommendations for improvement and establish the necessary foundation for organizational sustainability. It is an evaluation we need and most certainly welcome. 

Mission: The Atlanta Voice serves the African American community, giving voice to the voiceless, without fear or favor with honesty, integrity and truth.

The Austin Chronicle

Based in: Austin, TX

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Chronicle is in a unique position from a funding perspective, and I don’t believe that will be the case indefinitely. I believe our current revenue can be sustainable, without outside help, if the organization transforms holistically. Creating that new model is difficult when you’re in the middle of the old one. 

Mission: The Austin Chronicle is an independent, locally owned and operated newsweekly that reflects the heart and soul of Austin, Texas. Founded in 1981 and committed to a progressive point of view, the Chronicle addresses the community’s political and environmental concerns, expresses Austin’s rich cultural scene, and provides in-depth coverage of the Capital City’s live music and entertainment venues, performing arts centers, restaurants, and recreational activities.

The Bowie Sun

Based in: Bowie, MD

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As a one-woman startup, The Bowie Sun welcomes expert feedback on a growth strategy for 2024.

Mission: The Bowie Sun is the hometown alternative to other local media that are countywide or statewide in scope and only occasionally cover Bowie. Our core mission is to provide authentic community journalism focused on greater Bowie, a population of 100,000.

The Gleaner

Based in: Hinchinbrooke, QC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Gleaner serves a minority language population in a rural area, so critical mass is a key issue for the publication’s long-term viability. Our core subscribers, advertisers and supporters are solid but limited, so we need to look at other ways to serve audiences and generate revenues without compromising our mission that is anchored on quality local news. We’ve become a not-for-profit, acquired charitable status and undertaken some projects to move towards sustainability, but we still need to do more.

Mission: The Gleaner is an independent not-for-profit media outlet that publishes in English and in French.  We are dedicated to providing accurate news and features, reflecting the needs and interests of all those in and from the Chateauguay Valley in southwestern Quebec. We chronicle the social, cultural and economic life of our communities and celebrate our rural heritage. The Gleaner informs readers, promotes discussion, facilitates connections, and contributes to the well-being of individuals, groups, and businesses, just as it has since the newspaper was founded in 1863.

The Green Line

Based in: Toronto, ON

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: More than any other organization, LION seems to know exactly what local indie publishers need to get to the next level. The Green Line is at a critical point in development just over one year after launch; we’ve won awards and are profitable, but with the C-18-driven Canadian media blackout underway, my team and I have to navigate additional barriers to building and converting audiences, which is key to reaching financial sustainability.

Mission: The Green Line investigates the way we live to help young and other underserved Torontonians survive and thrive in a rapidly changing city. Together, let’s breathe new life into Toronto’s conversations so we can build a livable city for all.

The Jersey Bee

Based in: Bloomfield, NJ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’d like to develop a plan and secure resources to grow revenue and editorial production while maintaining fair wages and working conditions.

Mission: The Jersey Bee works with the people we serve to produce news and reporting that meets local information needs, inspires civic participation, and improves the quality of life in our community.

The Mendocino Voice

Based in: Ukiah, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Our goal is to develop a clear plan for long-term sustainability by growing existing revenue streams and funding sources, along with streamlining operations and our tech stack, to ensure we can continue to provide and expand reliable community-centered local journalism for our readers.  Founded in 2016, we are at an important stage of growth in which building long-term revenue plans and operational capacity is crucial to expanding on our existing editorial impact, and having the guidance of an external auditor to identify actionable priorities will be a useful opportunity for our outlet to effectively navigate future growth.

Mission: Useful news for all of Mendocino: The Mendocino Voice is a community-centered local news outlet providing accessible tools and original reporting towards a more engaged and equitable Mendocino County.

The Xylom

Based in: Atlanta, GA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I have seen too many peer newsrooms shutter despite having more resources at their disposal. We want to develop a replicable, scalable model of science journalism that challenges the way coverage has always been done, because it is not working.

Mission: We grow science with words. Gen-Z-led nonprofit exploring the communities influencing and shaped by science.

Tri-Cities Dispatch

Based in: Victoria, BC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been operating the Dispatch for two and a half years. We have not been able to make enough progress towards making the outlet sustainable.

Mission: The Tri-Cities Dispatch is a local media non-profit covering the Tri-Cities area of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. Our mission is to provide residents of the Tri-Cities area with the news and information they need to stay in touch with their community, along with quality original reporting and journalism.

Twice As Good Media

Based in: Halifax, NS

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m at a point where I’ve gained some positive attention and recognition, as well as grant funding, but I need to work on sustainable income and audience growth/engagement.

Mission: Help Black journalists and the people who engage with their work tune in to what matters by consuming mindful journalistic narratives on Black life so they can experience the news without burning out.

Underscore News

Based in: Portland, OR

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want Underscore to grow and help make Indigenous-centered reporting accessible across the Pacific Northwest. To fulfill our mission we need to steward our resources effectively and grow both our organization and revenue streams thoughtfully—that’s a tall order for a newsroom that only has two folks working on the business/operations side. We are grateful and excited for the opportunity to learn where our strengths lie and discover new strategies to overcome the challenges facing start-up newsrooms.

Mission: Underscore produces Indigenous-centered journalism that illuminates the intersections of sovereignty and justice and showcases the rich diversity of Native communities in the Pacific Northwest.

VTDigger

Based in: Montpelier, VT

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Solving for sustainability (financially and individual capacity wise) is the key to our future, and being able to produce the journalism Vermonters deserve and need.

Mission: VTDigger produces rigorous journalism that explains complex issues, promotes public accountability and fosters democratic and civic engagement.

Audit Analysts

These news organizations will be working with our expert analysts who will offer guidance and recommendations based on each organization’s needs and ambitions. The analysts for 2023 are:

Anne Galloway is the founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger, the statewide newspaper of record for Vermont. In addition to her work as an investigative journalist, she has 13 years of experience in business planning, financial projections, management, growth strategies and fundraising. When she stepped down as ED in 2022, the organization had 35 employees, a budget of more than $3 million, 10,000 contributing members and 600,000 readers a month.

Ariel Zirulnick is the senior editor for community engagement at LAist. She works at the intersection of community engagement, editorial, product, and revenue strategy to ensure LAist’s journalism consistently serves and centers Angelenos’ needs. She also leads an interdisciplinary team experimenting with ways to link engaged journalism and revenue. Prior to KPCC/LAist, she led the Membership in News Fund and Membership Guide at the Membership Puzzle Project, a global public research project studying membership models in news. She previously led The New Tropic, a news startup in Miami; reported from Nairobi; and edited the Christian Science Monitor’s Middle East coverage. She is passionate about doing journalism with communities and building systems that make that sustainable. She’s a member of the 2023 cohort of CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. She’s an alumna of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy and Miami Fellows.”

Ashley Woods Branch is the executive director of the Fund for Equity in Local News and manages its digital training program for news publishers. Ashley was founder and CEO of the Detour Detroit newsletter, a visiting Nieman fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a proud LION award winner. She is now a consultant who loves partnering with startup news publishers to help them tackle their biggest challenges and stay sane through the process. Ashley also worked with the Google News Initiative on initiatives like the GNI Startups Lab and coached more than 100 publications through a partnership with the Center for Cooperative Media. Before startup life, she led digital strategy for the Detroit Free Press.

Bene Cipolla is an organizational consultant and coach working with news organizations, media companies, and nonprofits. She loves to connect big ideas to on-the-ground execution and to build things — organizations, teams, workflows, projects — using a design thinking framework. In 2022, she wrapped up a five-year tenure at Chalkbeat, first leading the newsroom as editor and then, as publisher, setting up structures and practices to establish a multi-vertical operation, now known as Civic News Company. Over the course of her career, Bene has tackled just about every facet and format of journalism and media across film, video, radio, print, and digital. Her time in digital startups taught her about launching products, scaling organizations, managing operations, and driving revenue — experiences that enriched her work back in journalism when she returned. She’s a systems thinker with a creative streak (or a creative with a passion for systemic analysis), and she’s never believed in the left brain vs. right brain dichotomy. Bene lives in New York City and spends most of her free time cooking, eating, and talking about cooking and eating.

Christian Skotte (he/him/his) is an independent consultant who works with non-profits and media brands to grow their audience, deepen their impact, and craft sustainable futures. During his 20+ year career, he has created impactful digital campaigns, overseen organizational rebranding efforts, and built and mentored high performing teams. He’s passionate about journalism and its place in a functioning democracy. Christian was most recently Director of Growth and Innovation and Grist, where he oversaw the audience growth, product, and partnership efforts. Before that, he spent eight years at Science Friday overseeing their digital, audience, and commercial income strategies. A former RJI fellow, he’s spoken at conferences in the U.S. and abroad on topics like digital media and audience growth. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and child.

Christina Shih is an independent consultant focused on journalism sustainability, revenue growth and entrepreneurship. Previously, she served as the Senior VP of Revenue at the News Revenue Hub. Christina has been involved with major initiatives like NewsMatch and the Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant. She has over 10 years of nonprofit fundraising experience and recently obtained her MBA from UC San Diego.

Elaine Díaz is the Senior Manager of Coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social, environmental issues and climate change alongside fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an Ambassador Manager for a team of 16 ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Frances Dinkelspiel is the co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside, which runs Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside in California. Dinkelspiel and two journalist friends started Berkeleyside in 2009 and developed it from an all-volunteer, bootstrapped organization to a nationally recognized award-winning nonprofit with a staff of 24 and a budget of more than $4 million. Since stepping down in 2022, Dinkelspiel has served as an audit analyst for LION, joined the board of Highway 29, an organization working to strengthen the news ecosystem in Napa Valley, and informally advises other news start-ups. She continues to freelance (Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, and elsewhere). She is the author of two bestselling nonfiction books, Towers of Gold and Tangled Vines.

Graham Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is a senior director at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for APM Studios, the podcast-production division of American Public Media. She is also the founder of En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in media. Joanne was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, where she worked closely with local newsrooms and independent online news organizations, developing strategies for audience engagement, guidance on editorial projects and training of newcomers and established newsroom leaders. Joanne is committed to diversity and inclusion in content creation, and the audiences that need it.

Lisa Heyamoto is the Programming Director for Membership Education at LION Publishers, where she helps LION members reach sustainability by designing and overseeing the creation of training programs, coaching/consulting opportunities and practical resources that help news businesses become more operationally resilient, financially healthy and journalistically impactful. She was previously a journalism educator and program coordinator at the University of Oregon and a reporter at The Seattle Times and The Sacramento Bee.

Maple Walker Lloyd is the director of development and community engagement at Block Club Chicago. She is working extensively on their fundraising strategies through philanthropic support, individual donations, events and corporate sponsorships. Previously, she was team coordinator for the Journalism and Media program at the MacArthur Foundation and weekend news anchor for WGN Radio.

Neil Chase is the Chief Executive Officer of CalMatters. He was formerly Executive Editor at The Mercury News and the East Bay Times and has worked as a journalist at the San Francisco Examiner, Arizona Republic, CBS MarketWatch and The New York Times.

Todd Stauffer currently serves as the association manager for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and AAN’s lead digital specialist and lab director for grant-funded revenue labs. Before joining AAN, he was the publisher and co-founder of the Jackson Free Press, an alternative newsweekly (sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes monthly) that served Jackson, Miss., from 2002 until 2022 when its journalism assets were acquired by the non-profit Mississippi Free Press. Todd has enjoyed the opportunity to participate in sustainability audits and revenue coaching for LION Publishers in the past. As a staunch believer in the First Amendment and a proponent of the Fourth Estate, Todd enjoys working with startups and legacy publishers who seek to improve revenues, add a revenue stream or dig deeper into opportunities to sustain their journalism.

The post 38 LION members selected for Sustainability Audit’s 2023 September-November cycle appeared first on LION Publishers.

We’re thrilled to extend this program to an additional 75 LION members this year, starting with the 37 news businesses selected to participate in the 2023 June-August cycle.

The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations and up to $20,000 of funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability.

Applications are open until August 28 for publishers interested in participating in the 2023 September-November cycle. LION also intends to complete an additional 125 Sustainability Audits in 2024.

Congratulations to these first 37 news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability!

You can read more about each participating organization and their interest in the Audit below.

2PuntosPlatform

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We need help and you guys are great.

Mission: Strengthen the identity and visibility of Latin American and Caribbean communities, with an emphasis on women, to promote respect, inclusion, and solidarity in the city of Philadelphia. 

Arizona Agenda

Based in: Arizona

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want to improve internal editorial and business processes as we develop new publications and products and expand into new areas. 

Mission: To help Arizonans better understand the state’s political scene and how the government works so they can make informed decisions and hold their leaders to account.

Arizona Luminaria

Based in: Tucson, AZ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Arizona Luminaria is a startup that’s ready to grow and scale. We’re learning how to fundraise to expand our coverage and impact at a critical time in Arizona.

Mission: Arizona Luminaria is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to truly local news and community-centered journalism.

Ashland.news

Based in: Ashland, OR

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We need to practice the best methods for increasing sustainable revenue to support adequate editorial staff, manage sponsor/underwriter sales, and convert more free subscribers to monthly donors.

Mission: The mission of Ashland.news is to establish a sustainable news service that will inform the civic dialogue and promote cultural engagement by providing accurate, trustworthy and timely local and useful news and information about Ashland and surrounding areas.

BoldLatina.com

Based in: Miami, FL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I need confirmation that we are working on building up the right existing products, for example, membership, native sponsorships, etc., while building new offerings. I’m feeling overwhelmed and not sure if our prioritization is correct.

Mission: Empowering Hyper-Cultural Latinas With Essential News + Stories Covering Ground Beyond The Usual You See.

Broke-Ass Stuart

Based in: San Francisco, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re interested in becoming a platform that can be supported by donations, grants, and private industry in the arts. We want to expand our arts coverage and audience and build out an events calendar that’s like an Eventbrite specifically for non-profit arts.

Mission: Since 2007 BrokeAssStuart.com has been dedicated to bringing you the most important news, arts, culture, nightlife, and progressive activism in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Our goal is to amplify voices that may not always get heard and stick up for working people when no one else will.  Our contributing writers come from all walks of life. We prioritize publishing voices that reflect our diverse readership and we strive to bring vital information concerning housing, labor, and activism to the young, broke and beautiful. We write for busboys, poets, social workers, students, artists, musicians, magicians, mathematicians, maniacs, yodelers and everyone else out there who wants to enjoy life not as a rich person, but as a real person. Namely, we write for you.

CivicLex

Based in: Lexington, KY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I am excited to learn how we can better structure CivicLex and our revenue streams to ensure that we are adequately caring for our staff.

Mission: We are a nonprofit working to improve the civic health of Fayette County, Kentucky. We help residents understand local government, help local government connect with residents, and are building a community in which everyone can meaningfully participate in the decisions that shape where they live.

Education in Atlanta

Based in: Atlanta, GA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I am interested in learning how to scale my news site for it to have an impact on the news in the metro Atlanta area. I want to learn how to turn a profit while expanding reach.

Mission: Education in Atlanta is an equity-led newsroom committed to covering one of Atlanta’s most underreported stories: the effort to improve schools for all children within the metro Atlanta area, especially those who have been disenfranchised from quality education due to race, socioeconomic status, or disability. We are focused on a mission that believes a child’s education should not be incumbent on their zip code. To ensure our work stays authentic, we value the stories of teachers, parents, administrators, community members, and students.

Gig Harbor Now

Based in: Gig Harbor, WA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Gig Harbor Now has been publishing now for about 18 months. We have been successful so far in our fundraising efforts, our journalistic content, and our business planning, but we are ready to grow sustainably in all regards. Having experts to guide us in our growth would be tremendously helpful.

Mission: To create and sustain a community-supported nonprofit news organization that informs, educates and connects our community.

Green Philly

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Green Philly is celebrating 15 years since our creation, and we’ve frequently evolved in that time. We’re looking forward to evaluating our news organization and adapting for the current environment for continued success.

Mission: Green Philly is a digital media publication that connects people to sustainable solutions through our resources and events. Our mission is to make sustainability local, accessible, and affordable; while also facilitating the local sustainability community’s growth.

IndigiNews

Based in: Victoria, BC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are currently unsustainable in terms of financial health. We have foundation funding for the next two years, but I am hoping to get a new revenue plan in place that takes us off of dependence on foundations. This includes evaluating what business model will serve IndigiNews best going forward.

Mission: We don’t yet have a mission statement, but we do have published intentions.

Island Edition

Based in: Charlottetown, PE

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I will benefit immensely from having a third party take a critical look at Island Edition and offer actionable steps that I can take to build a better business around my news product.

Mission: To connect Islanders with their communities.

Lost Coast Outpost

Based in: Eureka, CA

Mission: We are Humboldt County’s home page.

Mainstreet Daily News

Based in: Gainesville, FL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We hope to increase our journalistic impact, operational efficiency and financial health through participating in the Sustainability Audit.

Mission: To inform, engage, and inspire our readers to make a difference in the communities and neighborhoods we serve.

McKinley Park News

Based in: Chicago, IL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Audit is a key next step toward our sustainability that will dovetail so well off the business planning and development work we’ve already accomplished with the help of the Metro Media Lab at Northwestern University’s Medill School.

Mission: To build a thriving local news business.

MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

Based in: Memphis, TN

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: MLK50 wants to make sure we grow with integrity, in a way that matches our justice-oriented values. We hope the Sustainability Audit will give us the space to think through how we better serve our communities AND better sustain our people.

Mission: Our mission is to report on the intersection of poverty, power and policy, and to bear witness to movement making and lived experiences.

NancyonNorwalk

Based in: Norwalk, CT

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been providing hyperlocal news to the Norwalk community for more than a decade, thanks to our determined (and underpaid) founder/editor/reporter and a supportive volunteer board. As we look to the future, we recognize that we must build a more solid financial base to bring in the resources (particularly reporters) needed to continue.

Mission: NancyOnNorwalk informs and engages Norwalkers with watchdog journalism and a digital town square.

Ocala Gazette

Based in: Ocala, FL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are going to turn three years old on July 6 and revenue has gone down rather than up. We are at a tipping point where I’m not sure how long we will be able to sustain ourselves and I am not too proud to ask for help because the mission is too important.

Mission: To deliver trustworthy local journalism so corruption, misinformation and abuse are not hidden from the public and are not left unchallenged. We also record the local history of our community so it can be recalled years from now.

Oklahoma City Free Press

Based in: Oklahoma City, OK

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Oklahoma City Free Press was conceived as a local news source for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area while primarily targeting government, life, and the people of the City of Oklahoma City. We have never carried any debt and have always been in the black meaning that we have and are growing slowly. We are at the point where we need more revenue and a different way of thinking about revenue and our workflow.

Mission: Provide high-quality, credible news and information about and for the people of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County. Goals: Be physically present when gathering news to gain a better understanding of the story. Expose those who exploit the poor and the powerless and who profit from the hardships of others. Expose intentional misdeeds, lapses in judgment, mistakes by public officials, and those who depend upon public trust for any kind of gain. Report on subjects that are under-reported or ignored by other media. Report news from cultures and neighborhoods in Oklahoma City that are often ignored in English language publications. Fund our operations through a mix of individual contributions and smart advertising that emphasizes a network of relationships.

Philomath News

Based in: Philomath, OR

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’ve been on my own with this venture with little outside help and thought it might be helpful to pursue an objective point of view on the operation. Perhaps there will be ideas or observations that can help me take this to the next level and help me better work through current challenges.

Mission: The Philomath News is a hyperlocal digital news site providing news, features, sports and information to our valued readers. The News strives to partner with and support local businesses and organizations, provide a voice to Philomath citizens, report news with accuracy and fairness, promote community events and recognize our achievements. We want to build a reputation as a trusted source of information that adds to the lives of our readers.

Planeta Venus Online

Based in: Wichita, KS

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to establish our bilingual newsroom as a respected media platform that produces high quality journalism for our bilingual community in Kansas.

Mission: To connect communities through effective communication tools, such as reliable information in Spanish and informing our overall community in Kansas with journalism from a Latino perspective.

PublicSource

Based in: Pittsburgh, PA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: PublicSource has seen success in generating new revenue outside of philanthropy through individual donations and advertising. We’re excited to take a look at our full picture and plan for our next phase, developing our vision for how sustainable revenue streams will support a growing PublicSource.

Mission: PublicSource is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, digital-first media organization dedicated to serving Pittsburgh and the region. PublicSource inspires critical thinking and bold ideas through journalism rooted in facts, diverse voices and the pursuit of transparency.  We listen. We investigate. We tell stories for a better Pittsburgh.

Saco Bay News

Based in: Old Orchard Beach, ME

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I would like to be able to continue operating Saco Bay News with a clear plan for the future.

Mission: Saco Bay News provides accurate, timely local news to the Maine coastal communities of Saco, Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach.

Seaside Post News & The Pacific Grove Press

Based in: Seaside, CA

Mission: Seaside Post News Group is an independent media publishing company that provides news in underserved and marginalized communities on the Central Coast of California. Founded 75 years ago, the Seaside Post has been a trusted leader in delivering important good and bad news in a fair and balanced way. Our content is culturally relevant and not regularly provided by the general circulated media. We actively foster news literacy, volunteerism and civic engagement through our news coverage and events with our readers.

Taproot Edmonton

Based in: Edmonton, AB

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: While we’re pleased with the progress we have made building our business, we know there’s much more to be done. Accessing external expertise and perspectives have always proven helpful in the past and we believe that will be the case with the Audit too. We’re hoping for a fresh look at our business, to reduce the unknown unknowns, and to leave with some actions we can undertake to improve our sustainability and set ourselves up for future success.

Mission: We help communities understand themselves better.

The Assembly NC

Based in: Durham, NC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Assembly is in a season of growth, but in order to keep growing, we want to make sure we set ourselves up for success with strong infrastructure.

Mission: The Assembly is a digital magazine about the people, institutions, and ideas that shape North Carolina. Founded in 2021, we feature interesting, deeply reported, nuanced stories about our state.

The Border Chronicle

Based in: Tucson, AZ

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been plugging away for almost two years and we are growing our audience. We still aren’t bringing in enough revenue to make it our full-time job. I’m wondering if it’s time to bring in a development director or someone who can help us with fundraising.

The Buckeye Flame

Based in: Cleveland, OH

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m hoping this will help a bit more with our intentionality. We’re forging quickly ahead without as much of a plan as we likely should have. This creates hesitation in making some big decisions as I fear they are not based in long-term sustainability.

Mission: The Buckeye Flame amplifies the voices of LGBTQ+ Ohioans to support community and civic empowerment through the creation of engaging content that chronicles our triumphs, struggles, and lived experiences.

The Flatlander

Based in: Cold Lake, SK

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I am hoping this Sustainability Audit will help me identify how I can grow my revenue stream and minimize expenses. Growing my audience, increasing my membership conversion rate and improving my sponsorship outreach are all areas where an Audit would be helpful.

Mission: The Flatlander untangles complex issues impacting Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Through unbiased reporting and comprehensive analysis, The Flatlander strives to empower readers with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. The Flatlander amplifies the voices of Prairie people and uncovers stories that celebrate this land we call home.

The Food Section

Based in: Charleston, SC

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’ve built a strong startup organization, but want to make smart decisions about growth.

Mission: Our motto is “Covering food as though it mattered as much as crime and politics–because it does.”

The Frisc

Based in: San Francisco, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have been moving a mile a minute for years, it seems, and with little chance to pressure-test the editorial and business systems that we have built. We have strong ideas on how to improve them, but we lack the resources to move as fast as we would like. It’s definitely time to have outside help assessing priorities, strengths and weaknesses.

Mission: The Frisc is independent 100% San Francisco journalism that fights for a more affordable, inclusive, and accountable city. With every report, feature, and investigation, we provide readers a deeper understanding of San Francisco — how the city got this way, how it works, and how to make it better.

The Highlands Current

Based in: Cold Spring, NY

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We have many dedicated readers and members but need to cultivate major donors and find additional revenue streams for sustainability and growth. How do we do that? How have others done it? Should we expand our reach or double down on our current coverage area? Those are all questions we hope to answer.

Mission: Our mission is to be a trusted independent and nonpartisan source of information on topics of importance to our Hudson Highlands communities. Through both our print edition, The Highlands Current, and our website, HighlandsCurrent.org, we seek to provide a vital forum for wide-ranging views and to reflect the diverse interests, concerns and experiences of our readers.

The JOLT – The Journal of Olympia, Lacey & Tumwater

Based in: Olympia, WA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: After three years of operation it’s time for us to take a fresh look at our news site, internal processes and staffing plans.

Mission: The JOLT nourishes the civic lives of Thurston County residents by publishing accurate, relevant and entertaining news and features that help people to become better informed and more involved in local issues and events.

The Lansing Journal

Based in: Lansing, IL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Lansing Journal is the only independent news source serving Lansing, Illinois, and surrounding small towns in Cook County, a region notorious for political shadiness. If we cease to exist, I fear that involved citizens will disconnect, new businesses will choose other locations, and our sense of community will erode into hopelessness.

Mission: The Lansing Journal builds community by keeping people informed and connected.

The Raincross Gazette

Based in: Riverside, CA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Raincross Gazette spent years as my “side project” and I recently left my role as a founding partner in a creative agency to give it my full focus and give Riverside the news coverage it deserves.

The Record North Shore

Based in: Wilmette, IL

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, from impactful reporting to revenue growth; however, I am not an expert in evaluating the latter. The Record needs advice, fresh eyes and innovative ideas related to our resources and how they are used.

Mission: The Record Community News is dedicated to producing credible, courageous, community-first journalism on a variety of platforms, including a daily website and weekly newsletters and podcasts. Our goal is to build a reliable and sustainable community-news outlet that enables a better informed and engaged local populace and a more educated and understanding generation of news consumers.

YourArlington.com

Based in: Arlington, MA

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We need to have a broader income stream to move forward, and that includes strategies to reach out to larger donors.

Mission: YourArlington is a local news organization that publishes facts and opinions about Arlington, Mass. We aspire to the highest journalistic standards of accuracy, impartiality and fairness. Our aim is to bolster an engaged citizenry and so strengthen our community and democracy.

Audit Analysts

These news organizations will be working with our expert analysts who will offer guidance and recommendations based on each organization’s needs and ambitions. The analysts for 2023 are:

Anne Galloway is the founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger, the statewide newspaper of record for Vermont. In addition to her work as an investigative journalist, she has 13 years of experience in business planning, financial projections, management, growth strategies and fundraising. When she stepped down as ED in 2022, the organization had 35 employees, a budget of more than $3 million, 10,000 contributing members and 600,000 readers a month.

Ariel Zirulnick is the senior editor for community engagement at LAist. She works at the intersection of community engagement, editorial, product, and revenue strategy to ensure LAist’s journalism consistently serves and centers Angelenos’ needs. She also leads an interdisciplinary team experimenting with ways to link engaged journalism and revenue. Prior to KPCC/LAist, she led the Membership in News Fund and Membership Guide at the Membership Puzzle Project, a global public research project studying membership models in news. She previously led The New Tropic, a news startup in Miami; reported from Nairobi; and edited the Christian Science Monitor’s Middle East coverage. She is passionate about doing journalism with communities and building systems that make that sustainable. She’s a member of the 2023 cohort of CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. She’s an alumna of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy and Miami Fellows.”

Ashley Woods Branch is the executive director of the Fund for Equity in Local News and manages its digital training program for news publishers. Ashley was founder and CEO of the Detour Detroit newsletter, a visiting Nieman fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a proud LION award winner. She is now a consultant who loves partnering with startup news publishers to help them tackle their biggest challenges and stay sane through the process. Ashley also worked with the Google News Initiative on initiatives like the GNI Startups Lab and coached more than 100 publications through a partnership with the Center for Cooperative Media. Before startup life, she led digital strategy for the Detroit Free Press.

Bene Cipolla is an organizational consultant and coach working with news organizations, media companies, and nonprofits. She loves to connect big ideas to on-the-ground execution and to build things — organizations, teams, workflows, projects — using a design thinking framework. In 2022, she wrapped up a five-year tenure at Chalkbeat, first leading the newsroom as editor and then, as publisher, setting up structures and practices to establish a multi-vertical operation, now known as Civic News Company. Over the course of her career, Bene has tackled just about every facet and format of journalism and media across film, video, radio, print, and digital. Her time in digital startups taught her about launching products, scaling organizations, managing operations, and driving revenue — experiences that enriched her work back in journalism when she returned. She’s a systems thinker with a creative streak (or a creative with a passion for systemic analysis), and she’s never believed in the left brain vs. right brain dichotomy. Bene lives in New York City and spends most of her free time cooking, eating, and talking about cooking and eating.

Chris Krewson is the Executive Director of LION Publishers, working with LION Publishers’ Board of Directors to set the organization’s vision and strategic direction, execute its strategic plan, lead fundraising and budgeting, and engage with industry groups. He’s a former VP of strategy for Spirited Media, former top editor at Philadelphia’s Billy Penn, and the former top digital editor for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. He is based in Havertown, just outside Philadelphia.

Christian Skotte (he/him/his) is an independent consultant who works with non-profits and media brands to grow their audience, deepen their impact, and craft sustainable futures. During his 20+ year career, he has created impactful digital campaigns, overseen organizational rebranding efforts, and built and mentored high performing teams. He’s passionate about journalism and its place in a functioning democracy. Christian was most recently Director of Growth and Innovation and Grist, where he oversaw the audience growth, product, and partnership efforts. Before that, he spent eight years at Science Friday overseeing their digital, audience, and commercial income strategies. A former RJI fellow, he’s spoken at conferences in the U.S. and abroad on topics like digital media and audience growth. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and child.

Christina Shih is an independent consultant focused on journalism sustainability, revenue growth and entrepreneurship. Previously, she served as the Senior VP of Revenue at the News Revenue Hub. Christina has been involved with major initiatives like NewsMatch and the Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant. She has over 10 years of nonprofit fundraising experience and recently obtained her MBA from UC San Diego.

Elaine Diaz is the Senior Manager of Coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social, environmental issues and climate change alongside fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an Ambassador Manager for a team of 16 ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Frances Dinkelspiel is the co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside, which runs Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside in California. Dinkelspiel and two journalist friends started Berkeleyside in 2009 and developed it from an all-volunteer, bootstrapped organization to a nationally recognized award-winning nonprofit with a staff of 24 and a budget of more than $4 million. Since stepping down in 2022, Dinkelspiel has served as an audit analyst for LION, joined the board of Highway 29, an organization working to strengthen the news ecosystem in Napa Valley, and informally advises other news start-ups. She continues to freelance (Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, and elsewhere). She is the author of two bestselling nonfiction books, Towers of Gold and Tangled Vines.

Graham Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is a senior director at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for APM Studios, the podcast-production division of American Public Media. She is also the founder of En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in media. Joanne was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, where she worked closely with local newsrooms and independent online news organizations, developing strategies for audience engagement, guidance on editorial projects and training of newcomers and established newsroom leaders. Joanne is committed to diversity and inclusion in content creation, and the audiences that need it.

Lisa Heyamoto is the Programming Director for Membership Education at LION Publishers, where she helps LION members reach sustainability by designing and overseeing the creation of training programs, coaching/consulting opportunities and practical resources that help news businesses become more operationally resilient, financially healthy and journalistically impactful. She was previously a journalism educator and program coordinator at the University of Oregon and a reporter at The Seattle Times and The Sacramento Bee.

Maple Walker Lloyd is the director of development and community engagement at Block Club Chicago. She is working extensively on their fundraising strategies through philanthropic support, individual donations, events and corporate sponsorships. Previously, she was team coordinator for the Journalism and Media program at the MacArthur Foundation and weekend news anchor for WGN Radio.

Todd Stauffer currently serves as the association manager for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and AAN’s lead digital specialist and lab director for grant-funded revenue labs. Before joining AAN, he was the publisher and co-founder of the Jackson Free Press, an alternative newsweekly (sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes monthly) that served Jackson, Miss., from 2002 until 2022 when its journalism assets were acquired by the non-profit Mississippi Free Press. Todd has enjoyed the opportunity to participate in sustainability audits and revenue coaching for LION Publishers in the past. As a staunch believer in the First Amendment and a proponent of the Fourth Estate, Todd enjoys working with startups and legacy publishers who seek to improve revenues, add a revenue stream or dig deeper into opportunities to sustain their journalism.

The post 37 LION members selected for Sustainability Audit’s 2023 June-August cycle appeared first on LION Publishers.

Still on the fence about participating? Here’s what members say they’ve gotten out of the program, and why you should apply.

1. The ability to step back and see the big picture.

Time and again we’ve heard Audit participants express some variation of the following: “I knew (or thought I knew) what I needed to do, but I wasn’t sure where to begin.”

That’s not surprising. LION members are driven, entrepreneurial and are experts on their communities and their news businesses. But the possibilities for revenue streams, product development, audience growth strategies, staffing and all the other aspects of running an independent news business are countless, and deciding which to pursue can feel overwhelming. 

The Sustainability Audit report offers a digestible, actionable set of recommendations tailored to the unique circumstances you’re facing, written by experts who’ve been there. Those recommendations help establish a clear roadmap for each publisher, which eases the decision-making burden and makes it easier to start acting on operational and financial goals.

Here’s what a few participants had to say:

2. A clear set of next steps.

Okay, so you’ve set priorities for your news business. But acting on them is a whole other challenge. Which CRM or email provider should I use? What do I need to include in an employee handbook? How should I structure my media kit? How can I get the most out of my analytics set up? How do I get started with financial reporting and budgeting?

We’ve got you! 

The Audit report doesn’t just identify areas on which to act, it also offers structured steps and specific resources to help you evaluate your options, decide what’s right for your business and implement your plans.

Here’s an example recommendation, edited to remove identifying information:

Recommendations will ultimately be tailored to your capacity, aspirations and current state. 

Again, here’s what LIONs had to say:

3. Help getting started.

It can be difficult to take action on something new in hectic day-to-day of running a news business. The $6,000 in funding associated with the Audit can have an outsized impact by providing leaders with the opportunity to try something new. Many Audit participants cited the funding as the catalyst they needed to implement something they’d been wanting to try or putting off.

Here’s what LIONs had to say about their experience allocating the funding: 

Apply now!

Applications are due for Cycle 1 by May 30 and for Cycle 2 by August 28. Applications will open again in early 2024. We’ll host a Q&A on Thursday, May 11 to answer any questions you might have about participating. You can also email questions at any time to andrewrockway@lionpublishers.com. 

The post Three things LIONs love about their Sustainability Audits appeared first on LION Publishers.

The Sustainability Audits program offers a comprehensive process for LION members to identify and respond constructively to roadblocks to sustainability within their organizations. The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, followed by recommendations, resources and up to $6,000 of funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability. 

Having met our goal to serve 100 publications in 2022, we’re looking forward to launching another round of 100 audits next year with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. We’ll share more details soon.

Congratulations to this latest cohort of news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability.

BikePortland

Based in: Portland, OR

Mission: To inform and inspire.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’ve been at this a long time and am still not feeling “sustainable” financially. I also feel like we’ve made several major recent steps to up our game and we are primed to capitalize on our work and brand with smarter revenue strategies.

California Health Report

Based in: Los Angeles, CA 

Mission: The California Health Report partners with communities across the state to create solutions journalism that strives for social justice. Our mission is to report from communities that are disproportionately affected by inequality. We partner with communities of color, immigrants, low-income Californians, domestic violence survivors, people with disabilities and many others to listen to their lived experiences and help them share ideas for making our world more equitable.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’re looking forward to collaborating with experts on how to better grow and serve our communities. We are committed to the work we do, but are eager to have help planning for growth and long-term sustainability.

Cardinal News

Based in: Roanoke, VA

Mission: We tell the stories of Southwest and Southside Virginia so that we know more about ourselves and our communities, and so that our region is not forgotten by our state’s political and economic leaders.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We just celebrated our first birthday and are proud of our accomplishments so far.  We have secured 3-year funding commitments from major donors and are continuing to grow our small donor base as we build a sustainable organization. We would like to understand where we are on the sustainability path, and what other avenues we should consider.

CatchLight

Based in: San Francisco, CA

Mission: We leverage the power of visuals to connect, transform and inform communities. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are at a critical growth point. The next year could literally make or break the organization and we are scrambling on operations. 

CityView Media

Based in: Fayetteville, NC

Mission: To provide objective news reporting to citizens to help them make informed decisions.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Navigating a sustainable business model that provides objective news reporting is critical to our American democracy. [This program] provides the opportunity to work with others around the country to identify best practices and learn from each other. 

CT Mirror

Based in: Hartford, CT

Mission: The Connecticut Mirror’s mission is to produce original, in-depth, nonpartisan journalism that informs Connecticut residents about the impact of public policy, holds government accountable, and amplifies diverse voices and perspectives.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We recently began a strategic planning process with a general planning consultant whose process and approach we liked a lot but whose only drawback was insufficient knowledge of our industry to be able to assess a news organization’s sustainability. By marrying the LION / GNI sustainability audit and the right engagement process, we think we have an excellent combination for a successful strategic planning process.

EnergeticCity.ca

Based in: Fort St. John, BC

Mission: Energeticcity.ca connects the communities of Northeast B.C. and brings issues that matter to our readers to the forefront through local and independent journalism.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Energeticcity.ca had tremendous growth over the last 18 months. Our newsroom staff has doubled due to various funding opportunities. We are now working on a plan to grow our revenue so we can maintain our current staff levels, and we believe this program will help us understand the challenges and the opportunities ahead for Energeticcity.ca

Fresnoland

Based in: Fresno, CA

Mission: To make policy public – by, for, and with all residents of the central San Joaquin Valley.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Since Fresnoland’s launch as a newsroom in 2020, we have had a strong focus on thoughtful, investigative reporting in engagement with the community. We have now reached a point where we need to build a more robust operations infrastructure. Of strong strategic importance to our organization this year, in addition to hiring, is increasing the amount of small donors, growing our digital audience even further, and diversifying our revenue streams. We look forward to participating in the sustainability audit and receiving actionable feedback on how to deploy our existing resources and launch new ones that will help us continue to grow.

Gales Creek Journal

Based in: Gales Creek, OR

HeyReprotech

Based in: Toronto, ON

Mission: HeyReprotech explores the societal fallout of assisted reproduction.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I would like to make the newsletter more financially stable. I would like to reach a wider audience. I would like to explore a few new ways of interacting with my subscribers.

Indonesian Lantern Media

Based in: Philadelphia, PA

Mission: To be the trusted resource for Indonesian culture, history and business and to celebrate and promote Indonesian and AAPI voices. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to know our strengths and weaknesses. We want to increase our revenue. We want to be sustainable.

Investigative Journalism Foundation

Based in: Toronto, ON

Mission: The Investigative Journalism Foundation is dedicated to strengthening Canadian democracy through public interest journalism.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: The Investigative Journalism Foundation has grown a lot in the past two years, with both revenue and staff more than tripling. We are hoping to learn from LION best practices on structuring our operations and finances to help make our current expansion sustainable for years to come.

L.A. TACO

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

Mission: We aim to bring street-level journalism from all corners of L.A. County to our loyal readers, supporters, and members, and partners who share our passion for Los Angeles. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We’d like to learn how to capitalize on our success, maximize our resources, and be able to create long-term sustainability. 

La Noticia

Based in: Charlotte, NC

Mission: La Noticia’s mission is to be the leading source of accurate and valuable local news and information for the Latino community. We keep our audience informed on important issues that strengthen their lives and keep our democracy alive and well.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We feel that participating in this program will help us understand where we are in this process of building a sustainable news organization and make plans to grow from there. We come from 25 years in the printing industry. Our digital transformation has been a long journey. We have attended many of the GNI programs and have learned so much from each of them to help us with our growth. We are confident this one will help us as much as the others have.

Local Switchboard NYC

Based in: New York, NY

Mission: Local Switchboard NYC is a local news-driven podcast that aims to tell important and engaging stories about New York City at the level of its neighborhoods and communities. It is created and managed by a collective of women journalists and media producers who identify and shape stories around today’s issues, movers and shakers, and local politics.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are a small women-lead news organization looking to increase our funding and stability.

Now Habersham

Based in: Clarkesville, GA

Mission: To deliver timely, accurate news with integrity to the underserved communities of Northeast Georgia.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I’m interested in LION’s sustainability audit because I need help transforming my news organization into a business. I’ve spent eight years growing an audience and reputation for timely, fair, and accurate reporting, but have not succeeded in building a sustainable business model. Communities in our rural region have come to rely on us and I want to better serve them, but I need guidance on how to achieve that. 

Rockland County Business Journal

Based in: Valley Cottage, NY

Mission: RCBJ (rcbizjournal.com) is Rockland County’s premiere source for business news. RCBJ’s 24/7 digital platform is out front on relevant stories – covering issues from a hyperlocal perspective but with regional and global relevance.  We are the county’s first digital-only news organization founded to serve the community with stories about the economy, retail, real estate, business profiles, and more. We understand how important it is to have a local news source that focuses on issues that matter, and that do so in a timely way. News organizations have turned their gaze away from local news – we fill that void.  RCBJ promotes excellence in journalism, social connectedness and civic engagement through our platform.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We hope to benefit from the experience and knowledge of others who have participated in the sustainability audit so that we can serve the best experience possible to our readers and supporters.

The 016

Based in: Worcester, MA

Mission: Using local news to connect readers and businesses.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: What I’d like to do through this audit process is to use the funds to automate our front end. Automating this solves multiple problems. Primarily, it allows me to transition to more of a sales role, as we’ve found hiring for sales is harder than hiring journalists.

The Appeal

Based in: Landers, CA

Mission: The Appeal is a nonprofit news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety. The Appeal’s journalism exposes the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism. We equip people with the information necessary to make change, and we elevate solutions that emerge from the communities most affected by policing, jails, and prisons in the U.S.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: As one of the first worker-led nonprofit newsrooms in the U.S, The Appeal is excited to take part in this audit that perfectly aligns with our strategic goals. In 2023, we hope to have a greater sense of both operational and financial sustainability, while also increasing the scope and impact of our journalism. We’re excited to benefit from the audit’s external expertise that will help us take concrete steps towards these goals.

The Bedford Citizen

Based in: Bedford, MA

Mission: The Bedford Citizen informs and engages the Bedford community through reporting news of local significance, promoting local events, fostering connectivity, and encouraging participation.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are anxious to ensure our organization’s sustainability as we are undergoing significant organizational change and this is the time to make sure we have the right people, systems, and processes in place.

The Examiner News

Based in: Mt. Kisco, NY

Mission: Our mission at The Examiner News is to publish community journalism that allows readers to live their most intelligent local life. Our motto is “Small News Is Big News.” We try to embody that spirit in all of our work. Our audience across Westchester and Putnam counties in New York’s lower Hudson Valley demands excellence and we try our very best to deliver it. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: Pushing every day to create the most sustainable and durable local news organization possible is what animates all of our publishing efforts. Learning how to enhance those efforts with the Google News Initiative is much more than a welcome opportunity. There are countless ways we can improve our game — it’s impossible to know what we don’t know — and GNI will certainly help illuminate those deficiencies. 

The Southern Maryland Chronicle

Based in: Federalsburg, MD

Mission: To provide our community with timely, unbiased reporting they care about. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: To create a better news organization for the communities we serve.

The Tributary

Based in: Jacksonville, FL

Mission: The mission of The Tributary is to tell the missing stories of our community – however we can. The Tributary strengthens the local news ecosystem by investigating entrenched problems and proposed solutions, holding those in power accountable, and transforming journalism from words on a screen into a civic engagement movement that shapes our city into a more just society for everyone.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We want to better know how to (1) Build the organization’s capacity, including hiring additional staff, expand the board, and formalize processes and procedures; (2) Advance the community’s understanding of local news as a public good, including events and outreach; and (3) meet and exceed our revenue goals through a fundraising plan that includes strategies for reaching grassroots donors, mid-level to major donors, and institutional support.

Trenton Journal

Based in: Trenton, NJ

Mission: To address the information gaps and to highlight the positive voices in the capital city.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: I want my business to be sustainable and to grow. Trenton, New Jersey needs a reliable news source that reports original news.

W42ST.nyc

Based in: New York, NY

Mission: Keeping Hell’s Kitchen connected, updated and upbeat.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: It’s always important to take a step back and work on the business rather than in the business. This is an ideal opportunity to reflect on the potential that W42ST has — and how we can plan to achieve success and sustainability. The outside input would be most welcome.

Meet the publishers who participated in the first cohort, second cohort and third cohort of our LION-GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program.   

Sustainability Audit Analysts

These news organizations will be working with our expert analysts who will offer guidance and recommendations based on each organization’s needs and ambitions. The nine analysts for this cycle of the Sustainability Audits are:

Adriana Pena is a passionate media business strategy consultant committed to supporting the efforts to defend people’s right to know and the ideal of ethical journalism as a pillar in functional democracies and thriving communities. Adriana helps clients grow their revenue, audience, and social impact, with an emphasis on media business strategy, branded content, advertising sales and SEO for journalism. She has consulted and trained media organizations and B2B clients across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, has trained more than one hundred journalists, and has worked with numerous international organizations that support journalism including the Media Development Investment Fund, DW Akademie, Open Society, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, The Membership Puzzle Project, International Center For Journalists, and the American Embassies in Mexico and Bolivia. Adriana has served in senior leadership positions at Televisa, Havas Media, CNet, and Univision’s biggest TV affiliate, Entravision.

Becca Aaronson is a news product strategist and executive consultant. She co-founded the News Product Alliance, a global community of support and practice for news product thinkers, and served as their founding executive director. She previously worked as the Director of Product at Chalkbeat, a non-profit, digital-first network of local newsrooms, overseeing digital product development and visual storytelling. Becca spent the first eight years of her career at The Texas Tribune, where she became their first-ever product manager. She was responsible for creating and managing the Tribune’s product roadmap and ensuring that technology products aligned with audience and brand strategy. She also co-founded the Tribune’s data visuals team, where she designed, built, and managed several award-winning investigative projects. In 2018, Becca was selected for the Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Becca has a bachelor’s degree in cultural theory from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif.

David Arkin has 25 years of experience as a reporter, editor, consultant, and executive working in newspapers, television, media associations and news startups. His work in content and product development has led to significant audience growth, new revenue streams and improved processes and technology for family-owned companies, brands, nonprofits and large media organizations. Most recently, David co-founded Check Out DFW, a website covering the Dallas area with information about moving, things to do and development. The site was built around sponsored content and eventually had 20 paying customers (advertisers) and nearly 1 million page views and 70,000 users a month. As owner of David Arkin Consulting, David helps media companies develop and implement strategies that improve products, processes and people.

David Yoder is a founding member of the Richland Source team & is currently the Senior Ad & Marketing Manager. His 10-year career has spanned sales, marketing, and aspects of audience development. David’s contributions to Source Media’s award-winning revenue work are defined by vibrant creativity and advocacy for the underdog. David was a part of Meta’s inaugural Membership Accelerator and now coaches for Meta & LION’s Revenue Growth Fellowship.

Elaine Díaz Rodríguez is the senior manager of coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently founder and editor-in-chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social and environmental issues and climate change alongside doing fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an ambassador manager for a team of ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Graham Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is a senior director at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Jennifer Preston is the former VP for Journalism at the Knight Foundation, where she founded NewsMatch and funded capability and capacity building for local news orgs to help get them on a path to sustainable growth. She can help with audience development, reader revenue, tech, DEI, leadership, community engagement, philanthropic giving, and more. She is a connector and will help connect news orgs to resources that will help them grow. Before joining Knight, Jennifer spent almost 20 years at the NYT as a staff writer, editor, first social media editor and senior news executive, where she developed expertise in strategic planning, HR, financial planning, budgeting and analysis. She is on the board and treasurer for The City, a nonprofit local news org in NYC.

Maple Walker Lloyd is the director of development and community engagement at Block Club Chicago. She is working extensively on their fundraising strategies through philanthropic support, individual donations, events and corporate sponsorships. Maple has also participated in the Texas Tribune Events Bootcamp, GNI-INN Sponsorship Lab and Meta Journalism Project Reader Revenue Accelerator to increase Block Club’s earned revenue.

Maria Catalina Colmenares-Wiss has been working with independent media organizations for the past 15 years, focusing on sustainability, diversifying revenue streams, aligning digital strategies and finding operational efficiencies. Maria believes deeply in the mission of independent media and loves providing strategic business advice to foster growth and health. She has worked as a consultant, strategic advisor and program director for an impact investment firm with a mission to support independent media across the global south.

The post 25 news businesses selected for the final cycle of LION-GNI Sustainability Audits in 2022 appeared first on LION Publishers.

The Planning for Revenue Growth Lab, hosted in partnership between Google News Initiative and LION Publishers, aims to address that challenge by helping news businesses assess and prepare for the right revenue opportunity.

Earlier this month, we announced the 32 news publishers taking part in the GNI Startups Lab on Managing Money and Risk and Building and Managing a Team. Now, we’re thrilled to announce the 16 participants in the Planning for Revenue Growth Lab, the last of the three GNI Startups Labs we’re running this year.

These 16 publishers were selected from nearly 100 applications in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, having demonstrated the capacity to launch or grow a revenue stream. Each outlined an informed idea for a revenue opportunity and is looking to explore, refine and operationalize their plan. 

The program will provide training, funding and coaching on:

• Opportunity sizing
• Market and audience research
• Financial planning
• Setting goals
• Building revenue operations
• Planning for the future

Training associated with all three Labs is available to all LION members on the LION News Entrepreneur Academy.

“The Google News Initiative works to create and support sustainable publisher business models, and so we are excited to partner with LION Publishers on this next GNI Startups Lab,” said Conor Crowley, Head of the GNI Startups Program. “Prioritizing revenue opportunities and setting financial goals are essential for news entrepreneurs, and we’re eager to see what this cohort can achieve and share learnings so others can benefit.”

The publishers will be supported by an incredible group of coaches: Maria Archangelo, Sam Gross, Scott Rosenfield and Todd Stauffer (more information below).

Congratulations to all the participants!

9 Millones

Interest in the Lab: For the past couple of years we have established diverse revenue streams but have had a hard time setting financial goals. I’m excited to dive deeper into market research with the insights we’ve gained and identify where there is room for growth. I’m also grateful that the Lab comes with funding so we can implement what we learn.

Mission: 9 Millones’ dream is that the nine million Puerto Ricans around the world have the necessary information to advocate for a healthy, prosperous, and joyous society.

Anchor Media, LLC / The Hingham Anchor

Interest in the Lab: We are thrilled to participate in this program as it validates the need for what we are doing for our community. We started the Anchor as a passion project to meet the news needs of our community and we are grateful for the coaching and expertise of the GNI and LION as we operationalize, grow and scale to meet the growing need for dedicated local news in our geographic area.

Mission: The Hingham Anchor is a hyper-local digital news and lifestyle resource produced by locals, for locals, in Hingham and South Shore Massachusetts in a fresh new way. Founded in 2019, the Anchor is Hingham’s go-to local news source, focused on serving all residents to create a more united community.

Austin Monitor

Interest in the Lab: We just shifted to a member-supported revenue model, and we are at a critical inflection point in our life cycle. We are excited to build a strong foundation to accelerate and amplify our work and impact.

Mission: To strengthen our shared information space and democracy with you.

Bay City News Foundation

Interest in the Lab: We recently completed the LION-GNI Sustainability Audit program, and all three of their top recommendations focused on revenue generation. Our primary goal is to improve our internal capacity to pursue revenue growth, with a focus on earned revenue from corporate sponsorships. Participating in this lab would help us determine the best next steps for this process, and will allow us to learn from other lab participants who may already have successful earned revenue strategies in place.

Mission: Bay City News Foundation serves the San Francisco Bay Area and is backed by charitable donations from contributors who care about local news, a free press, democratic values and an informed citizenry. We target geographic and topical news deserts. We collaborate with other media. We experiment with technology. We work with journalism schools to train the next generation of reporters.

Queerency

Interest in the Lab: FY 2022 has served as a “possibility model” and market validation for the types of advertising partnerships that we can secure, as well as the appetite amongst our readers to financially support our work. Over the past year, we’ve built relationships with large and small advertisers, and are putting in place the systems to streamline reader revenue. This program will be the perfect set-up to develop the plans and operations to maximize our advertising and reader revenue growth in FY 2023.

Mission: Queerency is the leading source for LGBTQ+ business news. We’re building a world where LGBTQ+ people can be seen and heard in business media and our mission is simple: to offer possibility models for who queer people can be and what we can achieve.

Santa Cruz Local

Interest in the Lab: Santa Cruz Local is building a news product to serve Spanish speakers in Santa Cruz County. We want this program to size the opportunity and create a sustainable revenue plan that includes philanthropy and other sources.

Mission: Santa Cruz Local produces fair and accurate local journalism that holds power to account.

Shasta Scout

Interest in the Lab: In our second year, we’re ready to build on a foundation of powerful content and innovative structure by increasing and strengthening our revenue streams. We’re excited to work in partnership with GNI to develop the projects, products, and structure that will serve our coming growth. Rebuilding local news requires strong and strategic revenue processes and we’re ready to make it happen!

Mission: We are an innovative and trustworthy online news service that empowers our readers to engage in our community and strengthen our democracy.

Southwest Voices

Interest in the Lab: In less than a year, we have grown Southwest Voices into an indispensable source of news for our corner of the city. Our daily email newsletter hits more than 2,000 inboxes every morning (or 2 percent of the residents of our service area), and close to 7 out of every 10 who receive it open and read it. In other words, we have built a solid foundation for a sustainable news organization, and are ready to take the next step of building a thriving revenue operation on top of it. We’re excited to learn from others, as well as to draw from best practices gleaned from many newsrooms around the country (and the world) via the 2022 GNI Startups Lab.

Mission: Southwest Voices is a news and information service by and for the residents of Southwest Minneapolis. We believe our corner of the city deserves a news source that both celebrates its strengths and reveals its shortcomings so it can become a more welcoming and caring community. We believe that we, the residents of Southwest Minneapolis, are capable of telling our own story. We use email, text messaging, and other communications channels to cultivate a conversation with residents living in every neighborhood we cover. ‍We report not just what’s happening in the community, but also what’s possible when everyone’s voice can be heard.

Springfield Daily Citizen

Interest in the Lab: We launched on February 14, 2022, and although we’re barely six months into our publishing journey, we’ve made rapid progress toward meeting or exceeding our 2022 revenue goals. At the same time, we know that enlarging our revenue base toward sustainability, especially in our market, will not be easy. As we look down the road five years, we feel this is an excellent time to engage in some reflection toward aggressively growing our revenue streams while (1) we still have some objectivity about the process, and (2) we’re still young enough to be able to pivot if we need to.

Mission: The mission of the Springfield Daily Citizen is to inform our community and be a catalyst for good. The vision of the Springfield Daily Citizen is to reinvent local news in Metro Springfield by telling the stories of our community, bringing issues to light, encouraging discourse and inspiring citizens to take action.

The Assembly NC

Interest in the Lab: The Assembly is in a real season of growth, and part of that includes developing a robust strategy for advertising, sponsorships and subscriptions. We want to really jumpstart that growth as we go into 2023, to support our expansion goals for the year ahead.

Mission: The Assembly is a digital magazine about the people, institutions, and ideas that shape North Carolina. Founded in 2021, we feature interesting, deeply reported, nuanced stories about our state. 

The Breach

Interest in the Lab: The Breach had great success with our initial sustainer campaign, and we have been publishing groundbreaking and agenda-setting investigations and analysis for a year now. We’re excited to level up our reader revenue goals and find ways to expand our audience.

Mission: The Breach brings together diverse collaborators to publish investigative journalism and analysis about political, social and economic processes in Canada with the intention of fueling social movements that can address crises, avert disasters and put forward a compelling vision of the future.

The Buckeye Flame

Interest in the Lab: The Buckeye Flame is still relatively new (~2 years) and we’re looking to lean into our nonprofit status and plan for the future.

Mission: The Buckeye Flame amplifies the voices of LGBTQ+ Ohioans to support community and civic empowerment through the creation of engaging content that chronicles our triumphs, struggles, and lived experiences.

The JOLT News Organization

Interest in the Lab: Although my background is in advertising sales, since launching The JOLT 27 months ago I’ve devoted most of my time to the editorial side. I want to learn more about ways we can generate revenue that are either continuing or renewable, such as events, as well as how to explain our place in our communities.

Mission: The JOLT nourishes the civic lives of Thurston County residents and grows community capacity by publishing accurate, relevant and entertaining stories that help people become better informed and more involved in local issues, events and activities.

The Kansas City Defender

Interest in the Lab: As the founder and sole staff member, my background is in web analytics, editorial, social media content production, and other areas more on the editorial side. While we have made tremendous strides in recent months regarding revenue growth, exponentially increasing our monthly recurring revenue/monthly donors, this remains the area I am least experienced in and what I believe is most urgently needed for our organization.

Mission: To produce information for the survival and flourishing of Black people, and to distribute it in innovative and accessible ways.

The Kerr County Lead

Interest in the Lab: To help me develop better long-range revenue opportunities.

Mission: A daily source of news for Kerrville, Kerr County and the Texas Hill Country.

Tostada Magazine

Interest in the Lab: Tostada Magazine has built up an organic following, however, it needs support to realize sustainability. Specifically, Tostada needs to develop strategies to monetize some of its programming, in particular its forthcoming dining guide.

Mission: Tostada Magazine is a Detroit-based independent digital media company that was founded on the premise that food journalism has the power to unify communities and preserve culture. Since its launch in 2017, Tostada has published the work of dozens of journalists of color who uplift stories in their own communities and is part of a growing movement redefining how media approaches food journalism.

Planning for Revenue Growth Lab Coaches

Maria Archangelo

Maria Archangelo is an enthusiastic, strategic and tactical leader with more than 20 years of experience with large and small for-profit and nonprofit media organizations, including Chalkbeat, the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Stowe (Vt.) Reporter and Waterbury Record and The (Barre-Montpelier, Vt.) Times Argus. Maria managed and developed local, regional, national and global teams ranging in size from 3 to 120. Strength areas include raising millions of dollars from foundations and individuals to power innovative journalism, creating new digital and print products, sales leadership, developing client relationships, earned revenue generation, editorial leadership, personnel management and strategic planning. She is a graduate of Times Mirror’s Leadership in Management Program.

Sam Gross

Sam Gross is the co-founder of Stacker, a 60-person data journalism publisher that produces and syndicates stories to1,500+ publishers, including major networks like Hearst, Advance Local, and Tribune along with hundreds of independent news organizations. Sam leads newsroom product and strategy, focusing on expanding access to data-driven storytelling for partners while building alignment between revenue and coverage strategies. Prior to Stacker, Sam worked on the publisher partnerships team at Graphiq to provide interactive data visualizations to journalists.

Scott Rosenfield

Scott Rosenfield is the chief of staff to the CEO at The Atlantic. He sits at the intersection of advertising, subscriptions, product, audience, and editorial. He works deeply with the subscription and advertising teams to define their strategies and collaborates with product and engineering to bring them to reality. He helps lead the annual strategic planning and budgeting process. And he jumps in to push forward important cross-functional projects, such as the launch of subscriber-only newsletters. He was formerly the site director at WIRED. He was responsible for working with editors, product managers, designers, and audience development managers to lead WIRED’s digital publishing strategy. He had extensive experience working on advertising and subscription programs in this role. He helped launch a Games section and AI expansion, the Get WIRED app, a new podcast, audio experiences, and subscriber-only newsletters. He also championed an expansion of review and commerce coverage. Prior to joining WIRED, he worked at Outside magazine where he was focused on implementing strategies to diversify revenue and reach new audiences. He was responsible for developing new ad products, launching an affiliate program, introducing a subscription offering, and overseeing the redesign of the website. He also managed the audience development team. Rosenfield graduated from Northwestern University and is an avid cyclist and outdoor enthusiast.

Todd Stauffer

Todd Stauffer is association manager and digital specialist for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, responsible for general operations and as liaison to programs such as the GNI Ad Transformation Lab. From 2002-2022, he was co-founder and publisher of the Jackson Free Press in Jackson, Mississippi, overseeing sales and operations for the weekly print and daily web publication. Jackson Free Press, Inc. also generated revenue through events, seasonal glossy magazines, commercial printing and digital marketing agency services for clients. When JFP sold its journalism assets to the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press news organization, Todd renamed the company Changemaker Media Services, Inc, which offers digital marketing solutions and consulting for nonprofits and newsrooms.

The post Meet the 16 news businesses selected for the 2022 GNI Startups Labs on Planning for Revenue Growth appeared first on LION Publishers.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the 16 publishers selected for this year’s 2022 GNI Startups Lab on Building and Managing a Team. The Building and Managing a Team Lab is the second of three GNI Startups Labs LION is hosting in partnership with Google News Initiative. Earlier this month, we announced the 16 news publishers taking part in the GNI Startups Lab on Managing Money and Risk. Training associated with both the Managing Money and Risk and Building and Managing a Team Labs is available to all LION members in the LION News Entrepreneur Academy.

These 16 publishers were selected from nearly 100 applicants in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, having demonstrated a commitment to learning and acting on best practices for hiring, managing and retaining employees and contributors as they seek to grow their organizations. 

The program will provide training, funding and coaching on:

• Planning for team growth
• Knowing when you can hire a new team member
• Hiring a new team member
• Onboarding a new hire
• Developing key employment policies and processes
• Addressing and avoiding burnout
• HR best practices
• Management best practices

“We are thrilled to continue partnering with LION to support such inspiring digital news entrepreneurs through these lab offerings,” said Conor Crowley, Head of GNI Startups Program. “The Google News Initiative works to strengthen the news industry globally in the digital age and that starts with developing a strong foundation of team-building.” 

The publishers will be supported by an incredible group of coaches: An Xiao (Ana) Mina, Bene Cipolla, Dick Tofel and Jennifer Mizgata (more information below).

Congratulations to all the participants!

Cabin Radio

Interest in the Lab: I have no formal business training and would like to hear from professionals in the industry about how I can better structure and grow my company.

Mission: Keep residents of the Northwest Territories informed and entertained.

CivicLex

Interest in the Lab: Our organization is growing quickly, and we’re so excited for this opportunity to learn about industry best practices for building a strong team!

Mission: We are a non-profit civic education organization building civic health through education, media and relationship building. We envision a Lexington in which all residents are able to meaningfully participate in the decisions that shape where they live.

Epicenter-NYC

Interest in the Lab: I’m new to managing people and I want to learn how to be an effective and supportive manager, especially as our team continues to grow!

Mission: Epicenter-NYC connects communities to news, information and each other. We listen and share tips across an array of platforms, from flyers, podcasts and newsletters, to vaccine drives and insider tours. Our on-the-ground ambassadors report, organize events and discover cool things across New York City and equip our neighbors with tools and knowledge to better their neighborhoods. We highlight artists and small businesses, culture and civic life. We believe all of us are in a position to give and get help. We are driven by the belief that together we can shape our neighborhoods, our city and our world. Because we live here too. We are based in Jackson Heights, Queens, which basically means the whole world meets in our neighborhood.

Excelsior Citizen

Interest in the Lab: We’ve identified several areas in which we could use additional help including sales/client relations and content creation. Participating in this program will help us determine which team members we need to add first in order to benefit both our organization and our community to the fullest.

Mission: Excelsior Citizen is a hyper-local community resource for Excelsior Springs, MO focused on solutions-based journalism. Our mission is to consistently and accurately report the daily news and to give details of events in the community, allowing our audience to become informed, engaged citizens. 

Hothouse Solutions  

Interest in the Lab: This program will help Hothouse streamline operations and identify highest priority actions, allowing us to focus our time on what we do best: produce high-impact and engaging journalism. Hothouse has already established audience traction, as well as identified cost-effective ways for acquiring new readers. Next, Hothouse is eager to learn and implement strategies to prevent burnout and build out a team of reporters to produce high-quality investigative journalism.

Mission: Hothouse publishes investigative reporting about climate solutions.

La Converse

Interest in the Lab: We believe this is the last piece of the puzzle to reach our goal of La Converse being a well-structured, established and recognized organization. We would like to better assess the performance of our new hires and hire people who are specifically qualified in Human Resources and Management as well as in Project Management, so it is essential that we grow our team with experts in these fields.

Mission: La Converse is a young, independent, francophone media organization based in Quebec, Canada and led by racialized women. The team is made up of journalists carrying marginalized identities. These backgrounds shape the way we approach journalism and the culture we create. We are committed to telling stories pertaining to marginalized communities and people who are not heard in a way that creates dialogue. 

LebTown

Interest in the Lab: LebTown’s goal is providing living-wage (or better) jobs to Lebanon County journalists. What does a realistic staffing plan look like and what would it take to hire full-time employees for reporting, editing, and sales?

Mission: We’re here to help make Lebanon a better place.

Madison Minutes

Interest in the Lab: We’re now entering the second year of operations, and it’s time for us to scale up to meet our community’s needs.

Mission: We create useful news products that make life better for Madison area residents. 

Monquartier

Interest in the Lab: Funding programs for small news (as well as cultural or community) organizations are usually designed to support special projects or the development and implementation of digital tools. This is the first time that we’ve heard of a program offering support, training and funding for core organizational needs. At a time when investing in people is more important than ever, we needed this Lab.

Mission: Monquartier: your hyperlocal media, the news and life of Québec city’s inner city neighborhoods.

Prison Journalism Project

Interest in the Lab: We are a two-year-old startup that is just starting to receive major funding that allows us to build out our team. We’re looking to do this with intentional, best practices and processes. Much of the agenda of this lab has come up in internal discussions.

Mission: Prison Journalism Project (PJP) is an independent, national non-profit initiative that trains incarcerated writers to be journalists and publishes their stories. 

Southwest Contemporary

Interest in the Lab: As we grow our operations, and hopefully our team, I see an immediate need to improve our systems of project management for a dispersed team, and for me as a leader to better track my team members’ goals and performance. We are also tackling more complicated projects, both longer form journalism and larger events and membership campaigns, which will require running a tight, smooth operation. I see growth ahead, and I want to be ready for it!

Mission: Southwest Contemporary is the leading resource for contemporary arts and culture in the Southwest.

Taproot Publishing Inc. / Taproot Edmonton

Interest in the Lab: We made our first full-time hire in September 2020, and have worked with many part-time and freelancers since then. We recognize that a strong team is required for us to get to the next stage of our business. We’re eager to learn how to do this well!

Mission: We help communities understand themselves better.

The Appeal

Interest in the Lab: As one of the first worker-led nonprofit newsrooms in the U.S, The Appeal is excited to take part in this program because we’re committed to creating a diverse and equitable newsroom that reflects our community. As we enter the next stage of growth, we are excited to build on the innovative practices we have modeled, reimagine best practices in newsrooms, and thread our values of “self and community care” into our policies and procedures. By intentionally creating an inclusive and supportive newsroom culture, we will be in an even stronger position to grow our team, support critical new hires, and provide equitable opportunities for success.

Mission: The Appeal is a nonprofit news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety. The Appeal’s journalism exposes the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism. We equip people with the information necessary to make change, and we elevate solutions that emerge from the communities most affected by policing, jails, and prisons in the U.S.

The Current Media Inc.

Interest in the Lab: We’ve spent several years building runway. And now we’re ready to take off. We need a team to get there.

Mission: We explore, explain and engage Lafayette.

The NRI Nation

Interest in the Lab: The NRI Nation has been on an exciting journey since we incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs a year ago. Currently, we are expanding our reporting to focus on more in-depth coverage of nuanced topics that relate to the Indian diaspora. We believe this program will equip us with the knowledge and funds to help accelerate our team’s growth.

Mission: The NRI Nation is on a mission to provide the global Indian diaspora with quality journalism that informs, engages, and equips them with the information they need.

The Optimist

Interest in the Lab: As I ramp up the original journalism and community engagement programs at The Optimist, it’s increasingly hard to manage everything as a solopreneur. I plan to bring on a business staffer and a reporter in my second year, and I want to make sure I am well situated to find and support the right people for the jobs. I want to model good employment practices and support new and veteran workers in the field.

Mission: The Optimist taps Minnesota’s creative and independent talent to produce solution-focused stories and local art to inform and inspire. We provide training and spur conversations in support of community problem solving, media literacy, community journalism and democracy.

Building and Managing a Team Lab Coaches

An Xiao (Ana) Mina

I’m a consultant, coach and author, and I’d love to help you grow your business, nonprofit or personal project into a sustainable and fulfilling livelihood for yourself and your teams. I recently stepped down as COO at Meedan, a global mid-sized nonprofit in journalism and technology. I became the organization’s first COO just a few months before the pandemic, taking ownership of people operations, finance operations, team culture, EDI and general strategy, often serving as the organization’s “0 to 1” person as we grew our team from 14 to nearly 40. Amidst the pandemic, our team developed a multifaceted company wellness program designed to help ensure everyone had the tools they needed to work safely—both physically and mentally. It was a role that would become one of the most rewarding and challenging in my professional life so far, a role where I bore witness to the great sorrows and joys of life in the face of COVID. I’ve published two books to critical acclaim — Memes to Movements (Beacon, 2019) and The Hanmoji Handbook (MITeen Press, 2022) —, and I helped edit a third — Ai Weiwei Spatial Matters. My work has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, The Economist, MIT Technology Review, Hyperallergic and the Atlantic, and I’ve given expert commentary on the BBC, Disney+, NPR and other news outlets. I helped produce Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary last year. So I love making media and understand the challenges therein.

Bene Cipolla

Bene offers 15 years of experience in digital and organizational strategy, audience development, and team management, and a 25-year background in multiple facets of journalism and media, from enterprise, breaking news, service journalism, and instructional content to nonprofits and community engagement. Her experiences beyond news in digital startups taught her about launching products, scaling organizations, managing operations, and driving revenue — experiences that enriched her work back in journalism. Most recently she served as editor-in-chief and then publisher of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Bene geeks out over organizational design, project management, and design thinking as much as creative storytelling, and believes we all produce better journalism when we focus as much on our own people as on the stories we produce.

Dick Tofel

Dick Tofel was the founding general manager (and first employee) of ProPublica from 2007-2012, and its president from 2013 until September 2021. As president, he had responsibility for all of ProPublica’s non-journalism operations, including communications, legal, development, finance and budgeting, and human resources. During this time, ProPublica grew from an initial staff of just over 20 to more than 160, and raised more than $225 million from other than its founding funders. He serves on the board/advisory board of the American Journalism Project, CalMatters, The City, the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas, Austin, Harvard Public Health magazine, Outlier Media, Retro Report, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Center for Media and Democracy in Israel.

Jennifer Mizgata

Jennifer Mizgata is a senior media consultant who leads with empathy. Specializing in digital innovation, leadership development, and organizational change, Jennifer coaches managers, senior leaders, and entrepreneurs on their careers and business strategies. She helps teams and individuals shift mindset, work more collaboratively, and bring new products to market. With extensive experience working at the intersection of journalism and technology, she has worked as a program director, editor, and business strategist, using human-centered design to build new products that respond to community needs and help create a more equitable world. She also teaches media, innovation and business strategy at American University and writes about improving work culture. In 2020, she launched Fortune’s advice column, Work Space. Previously, she was the Director of Programs for the Online News Association (ONA), where she founded and directed the Women’s Leadership Accelerator, invested in award-winning projects, and managed key relationships with journalism partners and tech stakeholders. At the World Food Programme (WFP), she designed outreach strategies and served as the first U.S. social media lead. Jennifer lives in Baltimore. She has a degree in International Studies from Goucher College, a MA in Design Leadership from Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

The post These 16 news businesses will join our 2022 GNI Startups Labs on Building and Managing a Team appeared first on LION Publishers.

These 16 publishers were selected from nearly 100 applicants in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada by demonstrating a commitment to growth and an ability to implement program training  based on existing resources, capacity and need. Selected participants are in a good position to build their financial systems and business/legal infrastructure and are looking to shore up their systems and more confidently plan for the future. 

The program will provide training, funding and coaching on:

• Navigating risk and uncertainty
• Financial management 
• Setting goals
• Developing key business and financial documents
• Growth opportunities

The publishers will be supported by an incredible group of coaches: John Davidow, Eric Johnston, Ingrid Marielos Marthy and Graham Watson-Ringo (more information below).

“In line with the Google News Initiative’s efforts to enable a thriving local news ecosystem, we are proud to once again partner with LION to support an exciting cohort of emerging digital publishers,” said Conor Crowley, Head of GNI Startups Program. “I can’t wait to see what these news entrepreneurs accomplish through participating in this GNI Startups Lab, as they build their financial sustainability to better grow and serve significant unmet news needs in innovative new ways.”

Congratulations to all the participants!

AfroLA

Interest in the Lab: Financial health is the weakest part of our strategic planning. We’re doing the best we can to work with trainings, resources and advice from experts, but it’s a steep learning curve. I think this lab will be an opportunity to have a lot of great information and advice in one place where we can ask questions as we implement it.

Mission: AfroLA’s mission is to find, celebrate and share intersectionality and universality in the Black experience. “Afro Angeleno,” or AfroLA, celebrates diversity in backgrounds and unity in culture and experiences within L.A. and beyond. “Afro” is also a nod to the change in identity language during the Civil Rights era and rise of the Black Power movement. We’re Black, proud and make no apologies for either. AfroLA leans into the fact that no form of Blackness is a monolith. We are who we are – no matter what shade our skin is or where we call home. AfroLA celebrates it all without pause. We are: Unapologetic. Black. Los Angeles.

BoldLatina.com

Interest in the Lab: Our revenue is not planned, robust and consistent.

Mission: Empowering Hyper-Cultural Latinas With Essential News + Stories Covering Ground Beyond The Usual You See.

Burlington Buzz

Interest in the Lab: I am new to this business and didn’t get into it with the idea that one day the news publication would be bringing in income. I want to learn about how to establish this publication as a business and save myself from headaches and financial/personal issues down the road by starting off on the right foot.

Mission: By providing timely, accessible news, Burlington Buzz increases awareness, involvement and connection among Burlington residents.

Clearing a New Path / Radar Media

Interest in the Lab: It’s the area I spent the least amount of time on and have the least amount of knowledge and training on. I want to know how much money I have to work with at all times. I want to be smart about spending and saving.

Mission: We’re an amplification company. Amplify underrepresented voices. Facilitate conversations to spark meaningful change. Ensure humans are treated fairly and get a fair wage. Form communities of like-minded individuals that allow humans to live authentically as they move through the world.

Four Points Media

Interest in the Lab: I have no formal money management training and need all the help I can get.

Mission: The mission of the non-profit Four Points Media, Inc. is to work independently and in collaboration to enrich the minds, spirits and lives of those in Indian Country by producing meaningful stories through the production of timely published and audio works, through the news website Four Points Press, Four Points Productions Podcast Network, and Four Points Publishing House. 

MIWISCONSIN

Interest in the Lab: We are a new organization and learning from experts will help us reduce future mistakes.

Mission: To encourage and support increased civic engagement by members of underserved populations by producing and distributing news, training, and current events information in the Spanish language. To provide underserved populations with the knowledge necessary to engage in in-depth analysis and become advocates for good government, human rights, community, education, and social progress in Wisconsin. To support the development of new Hispanic & Latino journalists to support this purpose and to promote critical thinking and robust debate in the areas of government accountability, civil rights, racism, and equality among all peoples.

Mundos Paralelos

Interest in the Lab: As a new business owner, this is the perfect time to receive all the knowledge that I can find. I am constantly looking for new information related to entrepreneurship, sustainability, and projections. This will be an excellent opportunity to evolve my business, explore new ideas, and learn how to keep my financial side up to date.

Mission: Mundos Paralelos helps members of the Puerto Rican community, no matter their location, who seek coverage that reflects the nuances and diversity of the Puerto Rican experience by expanding the imagination of the identity with inclusive reporting about the cultural stories about the millions of Boricuas that live outside the Island and have left their mark in the Diaspora.

The Border Chronicle

Interest in the Lab: We are working on becoming economically sustainable and need to start running our newsletter like a business. But we need to develop a financial planning system and need to know how to keep a budget and pay our part-time editors. We are also looking for alternative funding sources in addition to our subscriber base.

The E’ville Good

Interest in the Lab: This program will allow The E’ville Good to prosper as we grow our subscriber base, add new team members, and create a plan to be excellent stewards of what we have.

Mission: The E’ville Good is a team of English speakers and Spanish Speakers presenting the news in northwest Iowa and Southwest Minnesota together. Imagine if NPR and YES! Magazine had a baby who loves data and is bilingual. 

The Flatlander

Interest in the Lab: I am two months shy of completing my first full year in business, so this fall would be a good time to make sure all the necessary financial documents are in place; therefore going through an essential documents checklist as part of this lab would be helpful. I also don’t have a risk mitigation plan on paper so I would use the time to develop that as well.

Mission: The Flatlander helps people understand the complex issues impacting Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It tells the stories of Prairie people and explores the communities and land we call home.

The Hoser

Interest in the Lab: We’re hoping to learn how to make the best of our revenue and become sustainable as a new digital publication. We have recently received a grant that has allowed us to expand our coverage, advertising, budget and fundraising opportunities; we hope this program will teach us how to use this money wisely.

Mission: The Hoser is an independent digital news media publication that focuses on local news in the Greater Toronto Area. The Hoser aims to bring community journalism back to the GTA. Stories look at the root of the problem, analyze systemic issues, and give voice to people who are directly affected and aren’t normally interviewed in mainstream news media. 

The Objective

Interest in the Lab: The Objective was founded as a volunteer-run organization in 2020. While we’ve made great strides in growth, we’re still at a pivotal moment: How we sustain and grow our organization is front-of-mind right now. While we now can pay our contributors, our leadership team is still volunteer. We hope that the resources and training offered by this program will give us an extra push toward getting to sustainability.

Mission: The Objective is a nonprofit newsroom building collective and narrative power for communities that have been misrepresented or dismissed in order to change the way journalism is practiced in the U.S.

The Record Community News

Interest in the Lab: We are driven to build a community-news outlet that is sustainable. Our community (the suburbs of Chicago) deserves and needs local news that is responsible and reliable. As trained journalists, we must be better equipped with more budgeting, projecting and forecasting skills.

Mission: The Record Community News is dedicated to producing credible, courageous, community-first journalism on a variety of platforms, including a daily website and weekly newsletters and podcasts. Our goal is to build a reliable and sustainable community-news outlet that enables a better informed and engaged local populace and a more educated and understanding future generation of news consumers.

The Swellesley Report

Interest in the Lab: Although our business is profitable, we know very little about managing money in an organized way. We want to be more professional in that area, to be able to forecast and look back and learn lessons.

Mission: To bring local, Wellesley news to the people who live and work in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

The Yappie

Interest in the Lab: As we seek to expand the team, having a solid financial plan and strong accounting framework will allow us, among other things, to better support our staff, bolster our credibility with potential funders, and improve our output. With the sporadic nature of grants and donations, questions around risk and money management are a top priority in ensuring The Yappie’s long-term sustainability.

Mission: A first-of-its-kind newsroom, dedicated to informing and empowering the next generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) leaders and voters.

Vallejo Sun

Interest in the Lab: I am looking to professionalize our bookkeeping and ensure that our business records are up to date.

Mission: The Vallejo Sun is an independent news publication illuminating Solano County, California, with in-depth reporting about local government, policing, and extremist movements in the region.

Managing Money and Risk Lab Coaches

Eric Johnston

Eric began in journalism as a part-time photojournalist for the local community newspaper. In the mid-90’s, and after three years as a community newspaper photojournalist, Eric saw the coming digital transformation and pivoted his career to the burgeoning online space. As a self-taught web designer and engineer, he worked for the next 15 years to build audience, revenue and adoption of the still-growing digital news environment. In 2009 Eric was named Publisher and President of McClatchy Company publications The Modesto Bee and The Merced Sun-Star in California’s Central Valley. Eric was the first Publisher in the 150-year history of the company to come from digital operations; during his tenure the publications leaned into digital audience and revenue growth – an emphasis that continues today. In 2014 Eric joined the Seattle-based Pioneer News Group as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for more than 24 publications and 500 employees across five northwest states. Dedicated to the preservation of community publishers and journalism, Eric currently works with a variety of ownership groups to strengthen efforts across their operations including digital, audience and organizational structure. Eric, a member of the Board of Directors for the California Press Foundation, lives in California with his wife Susan.

Graham Watson-Ringo

Graham Wastson-Ringo, a 20-year journalism veteran, is a senior director at the News Revenue Hub in charge of client success and the point of contact for the organization’s newest tech venture, the News Revenue Engine, which will allow any organization to stand up a sustainable reader revenue program. A proud Mizzou graduate and Online News Association board member, Graham has worked for major metros, digital behemoths, and scrappy digital nonprofit startups, and is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, making a budget and sticking to it, risky business, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Ingrid Marielos Marthy

Ingrid Marielos Marthy is a graduate of Hawaii Pacific University, holding a BSBA with a concentration in International Business and an MBA. During the first 10 years of her career, Ingrid worked in the corporate sector interning at a financial firm and has worked in operations throughout the years. In 2017, Ingrid came across an opportunity to coach small businesses in the non-profit sector to create more sustainable business models. Ingrid has served as the Women’s Business Center Director, an SBA-sponsored program, in Fayetteville, NC, and San Francisco, CA, where she designed and implemented programs specifically for women entrepreneurs that have impacted over 1,000 women annually. She has directly helped over 75 entrepreneurs start, formalize, and expand their businesses. Ingrid is bilingual in English and Spanish. In her spare time, she loves to travel, discover new food, and meet new people.

John Davidow

John Davidow is a journalist with over 30 years of experience leading major local digital, radio, and television newsrooms. He is a respected public radio innovator and digital strategist. John is a founder of Media Bridge Partners. Media Bridge Partners works to improve and transform the internal culture of news organizations and arm teams with the awareness and skills to support people from historically marginalized backgrounds within their ranks. John is a moderator of the Open News DEI Coalition for Anti-Racist, Equitable, and Just Newsrooms. He is currently the acting chief of staff at the National Trust for Local News.

The post Announcing the 16 news businesses selected for the 2022 GNI Startups Lab on Managing Money and Risk appeared first on LION Publishers.

That’s why we’re excited to offer personalized support and funding to another 25 news businesses through our LION-GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program, which offers a comprehensive process for LION members to identify and respond constructively to roadblocks to sustainability within their organizations. The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, followed by recommendations, resources and up to $6,000 of funding to help them take the next steps and enhance organizational sustainability. LION intends to complete 100 audits by the end of 2022; this new cohort brings our total to 75 for the year.

Ryan Sorrell of the Kansas City Defender said he found the process tremendously insightful and would recommend it to any media outlet, especially those in their early stages. “In fact, I have already begun acting on some of the recommendations and in quite literally one day attracted more monthly supporters than I have any other day in the existence of our publication.” Sorrell, who was invited to speak about his experience with the audits at the 2022 Google News Initiative Community News Summit in Chicago, added: “I found this process incredibly helpful as I often don’t have the time or mental space to step back and view my organization strategically and long-term.” 

Other audit participants agreed. Tom Lappas of the Henrico Citizen said that “having an outside set of eyes on my company was incredibly valuable and provided some new ideas for me to weigh and implement.” 

Emily Sachar of The Red Hook Daily Catch said the Audit program is the most important tool they’ve used, by far, to reach sustainability. “Our auditor was extremely engaged, and her report, filled with actionable and specific ideas, will drive our work for at least the next 3 years.”

Applications are still open through October 10 for publishers interested in participating in the final cycle of the Sustainability Audit program in 2022. Congratulations to this latest cohort of news businesses as they continue along their journey to organizational sustainability.

9 Millones

Based in: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Mission: 9 Millones’ dream is that the nine million Puerto Ricans around the world have the necessary information to advocate for a healthy, prosperous, and joyous society.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “I’m excited to have someone help us analyze the numbers and get insights on how we can manage our resources to create more impactful stories. I’m interested in the audit because I believe that it will give me clarity on what I should make a priority.” – Camille Padilla Dalmau, Founder 

Advocate Media

Based in: Dallas, TX

Mission: Dedicated to providing free, hyperlocal news. Our hope: When a neighbor reads our publications, they learn something about their neighborhood, their neighbors and themselves.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We need an effective strategy to 1) build on our existing digital sales and 2) create and implement a subscriber/donor program to supplement our revenue and build reader engagement.” – ​​Jehadu Abshiro, President & Publisher

Austin Vida

Based in: Austin, TX

Mission: Austin Vida amplifies, informs and celebrates the Latinidad of our local community with culturally competent news that centers the voices of nuestra gente. Our journalism focuses on solutions and allows our comunidad, which is underserved and underrepresented in U.S. media, to see themselves represented in the larger story of Austin. By centering nuestras voces, we aim to not only raise awareness of our diverse experiences but offer a more accurate and holistic representation of our community. We believe our cultura should not be an afterthought. And through our stories, we strive to create a sense of belonging.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Austin Vida has been growing from its initial minimum viable product to the building stage, and we’re working hard on creating more editorial offerings in this next phase of growth. As Austin Vida moves into this next chapter, having the guidance and concrete next steps for this transition will be key to secure Austin Vida’s future.“ – Nancy Flores, Publisher & Editor

BigIfTrue.org

Based in: Oklahoma City, OK

Mission: Our mission is to report stories that envision a more equitable world and energize our readers to improve their communities. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Our nonprofit is at a moment of change and growth. This year, we hired our first full-time employee and are planning a rebrand and website redesign. We became interested in the audit program to help us set the groundwork for 2023 and make the most of our rebrand after it is complete. We’re particularly excited about using feedback from the audit to finetune our fundraising strategy and audience development tactics.” – Mollie Bryant, Executive Director & Editor

Bolts

Based in: Washington, DC

Mission: Bolts is a digital magazine that covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change, from the local up. We report on the local elections and obscure institutions that shape public policy but are dangerously overlooked, and the grassroots movements that are targeting them.  We focus on two areas where local governments play a key role: criminal justice and voting rights.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We look forward to participating in LION’s audit to identify new ways to strengthen our operations and to work on adopting the best practices that will sustain our publication over the long run.” – Daniel Nichanian, Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Broken Arrow Sentinel

Based in: Broken Arrow, OK

Mission: To bring trustworthy local news to Broken Arrow by providing a responsible space for the community to share important information and stay informed through unbiased reporting of stories and events. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “The goal of entering this program is to devise ways to ensure the Broken Arrow Sentinel is a profitable, viable media operation well into the future. Early decisions that are made can sometimes make or break a small business, so it’s best to have all the good information and advice that you can muster.” – John Dobberstein, Founder & Editor 

Calgary Citizen

Based in: Calgary, AB

Mission: Calgary Citizen seeks to break down the barriers between news stories and the people. By telling the story of the everyday Calgarian who could be your neighbour, we hope to give a human face and emotion to the issues and events. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We believe LION can help us achieve some of our revenue and growth goals through the audit and it will help us level up.” – Krista Sylvester, Editor

Canopy Atlanta

Based in: Atlanta, GA

Mission: Our mission is to equip metro Atlanta residents to tell stories about the issues their communities care about most. We help residents access information about their communities, and tell and share stories that truly reflect those communities.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Our organization is growing rapidly, and we want to ensure we are doing everything to grow sustainably. As we increase our budget and our staff, we want to adopt best practices and make sure we are doing all we can to build a stable organization.” – Mariann Martin, Operations and Development Director

City Limits News

Based in: New York, NY

Mission: City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions and equip communities to take action.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Two goals: Increase audience and increase conversion to membership/donor by leveraging the top three most read/engaged articles, particularly in housing/homelessness, a focus of editorial.” – Marjorie Martay, Executive Director

East Greenwich News

Based in: East Greenwich, RI 

Mission: East Greenwich News is committed to building an informed community through thoughtful, relevant and objective reporting about the people, places and events in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We launched five years ago as a nonprofit and have been building steadily since then. Today, we have a strong board and a solid team of one full-time employee and three part-time employees, but our coverage area is limited to one town and it remains unclear if it can really sustain a community news site. Our founding editor is paid a salary that has grown each year but is still below-scale. Our operating funds are a combination of donations, sponsor advertising and grants. We are beginning to leverage larger community support with events and fundraising, and we could use some help thinking through that. We could use advice on how/if potential monetization of our existing social media platforms would benefit our long-term growth strategy.” – Elizabeth McNamara, Editor

Four Points Media / Four Points Press

Based in: Garryowen, MT

Mission: Four Points Media exists to share the Indigenous experience in a way that lifts Native voices. 

Harpswell News

Based in: Harpswell, ME

Mission: Harpswell News is a non-partisan, non-profit news and information source committed to building community and enhancing the lives of local residents, businesses and organizations by providing trusted local information and covering topics of interest to Harpswell.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Improve our organizational effectiveness and learn from others who have successfully set up not-for-profit local journalism operations.” – Gregory Bestick, President

Island Matters

Based in: South Padre Island, TX

Mission: Island Matters’ purpose is to present South Padre Island news in a 100% fact-based and unbiased format. Our overarching vision for the City of South Padre Island is to have (1) 100% transparency in government and (2) a family-friendly environment for the Island. When one looks around the world, except for the Disney cities, every great tourist destination was first a great place to live for its residents. Island Matters supports the City of South Padre Island attracting young families and building a strong economy for the Island that is robust all 12 months of the year. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “The financial sustainability of our organization is our primary focus right now.  We are interested in developing business sponsors and grant funders, as well as converting subscribers to members (donors).” – George Block, President 

La Converse

Based in: Montreal, QC

Mission: La Converse is a young independent francophone media based in Quebec, Canada, and led by racialized women. The team is made up of journalists carrying marginalized identities. These backgrounds shape the way we approach journalism and the culture we create. Indeed, we are committed to telling stories pertaining to marginalized communities and people who are not heard in a way that creates dialogue. We want to publish stories that inform, give ideas, offer solutions and bridge gaps. Through our empathetic human-centric approach, we work to provide our readers with transparent and fair journalism. Journalism at La Converse is at people’s service – we meet our readers where they’re at and where they’re going, offering content at their fingertips on the web and through social media. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We want to ensure our financial sustainability, we have very limited resources and little training in business operations.” – Lela Savić, Editor-in-Chief

Madison Minutes

Based in: Madison, WI

Mission: Madison Minutes creates news products that make life easier for Madison, Wisconsin residents.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We’re 1.5 years old, and we have a decent amount of capital to invest. At the same time, my co-founder and I are really exhausted! We need to figure out where and how to deploy this in a smart way to keep us going and growing.” – Sam Hoisington, Co-Founder

McKenzie River Reflections

Based in: McKenzie Bridge, OR 

Mission: Since 1978, McKenzie River Reflections has been focused on serving the McKenzie River Valley’s nine unincorporated communities — for local news and information on area activities, recreation resources and history.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “McKenzie River Reflections is a 45-year-old community newspaper that celebrated that anniversary by switching from print to digital delivery. 88% of subscribers have made the transition within two months. I would like to share that process and learn what other publishers have experienced.” – Ken Engelman, Publisher

Moab Sun News

Based in: Moab, UT

Mission: Moab Sun News is committed to enriching public life for residents and visitors of Moab and the entire Colorado Plateau.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “The project of appropriately financing a small community newspaper is a pretty complex one. We’re super excited to be participating in LION’s Sustainability Audit, not only so that we can learn some new best practices but also figure out what our unique strategy is.” – Margaret McGuire, Publisher 

Oviedo Community News

Based in: Orlando, FL

Mission: Oviedo Community News’ mission is to inform our readers through independent, public-service journalism in order to create a better connected community and help people feel empowered to help shape where they live. Our reporting focuses on topics our readers identified as important to them in our community survey and include local government, growth and development, traffic, education, environmental issues and local events. 

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Our organization is working to take the next step toward sustainability, which for us means hiring a freelance reporter so that I can focus on the business side of the organization and replacing our staff members on the board of directors so that we can get more community support and start paying ourselves. I could use another set of eyes to ensure that I am executing these steps correctly.” – Megan Stokes, Editor-in-Chief

Prison Journalism Project

Based in: Chicago, IL

Mission: The Prison Journalism Project is an independent, national non-profit initiative that trains incarcerated writers to be journalists and publishes their stories so they can shift the narrative and help shape criminal justice policy by shedding light on news, stories and lived experiences from inside the incarcerated community.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Over the next two years, PJP aims to develop a strong foundation in journalism training, a robust newsroom and solid community support for our writers while also building a sustainable organization. We want to make sure we build our organization strategically and soundly. We are grateful for the knowledge and support that will be provided as a participant in the LION-GNI Sustainability Audit.” – Teresa Tauchi, Director of Product and Marketing

San Francisco Public Press

Based in: San Francisco, CA

Mission: The San Francisco Public Press is a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization that publishes independent public-interest journalism about under-covered topics, with a focus on under-served audiences. We offer local investigative and solutions reporting online, in a quarterly print newspaper, through podcasts and on community radio station KSFP-FM. Coverage areas include environmental protection, housing affordability, public health, transportation safety, homeless services, digital privacy, immigration and elections. The mission of the San Francisco Public Press is to enrich civic life in San Francisco by delivering public-interest journalism to broad and diverse audiences through print and interactive media not supported by advertising.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: We are poised to bring our local investigative reporting to a much larger audience. This will help us connect with more people who want to support our public-interest journalism. Our nonprofit newsroom is participating in this Sustainability Audit to help us focus on the communities we serve in all aspects of our business, identify ways to operate more efficiently and receive advice about making budgeting and cashflow management decisions as the organization grows.

Southwest Contemporary

Based in: Santa Fe, NM

Mission: Southwest Contemporary connects people to the contemporary arts and culture of the Southwest through art news reporting, cultural criticism and our print and digital platforms.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “Arts and cultural criticism is a core pillar of our editorial work, so we understand the impact constructive, critical feedback can have. As a mission-driven, independent art and culture news publication in the Southwest, we have few peer organizations and colleagues to look to for feedback and support. It will be enormously helpful to receive professional insights on what we’ve been doing and how we can get to a sustainable place without burning out. We are at a tipping point right now—having expanded geographically and digitally over the last three years, we could be on the cusp of significant growth, but it’s hard to know how to prioritize our list of strategic growth to-dos.” – Lauren Tresp, Publisher & Editor

Spinning Forward

Based in: Toronto, ON 

Mission: To provide news that levels the playing field for Black, Indigenous and people of color  content creators. We cover stories that help overlooked BIPOC communities in Toronto and beyond get stronger in the online creator economy and in their everyday lives.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “LION Publishers has the expertise and knows what it takes for a “sustainable” news business to thrive.  Their guidance can help steer new and mature news businesses on a path toward balancing the goals of operational resilience, financial health and journalistic impact. I want the Sustainability Audit to help Spinning Forward develop strong roots so we can invest in long-term relationships and community building with our people, our readers and our stakeholders.” Flavian DeLima, Founder & Publisher 

The Resolve

Based in: Toronto, ON

Mission: The Resolve creates community-powered independent journalism centering and celebrating Black, Indigenous and communities of colour in Canada. We reflect the real-life experiences of Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities — the highs and the lows, the challenges and the successes, the sorrows and the joys. We dive deeper, explain complex issues and look to solutions.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We started The Resolve because we wanted to build something more sustainable — financially, but also for the journalists we work with. We have faith in our ability to do journalism, but are still working to find a model that can sustainably support it.” – Matthew DiMera, Founder & Publisher

Unpretentious Palate

Based in: Charlotte, NC

Mission: Celebrate the good. Be honest about everything else.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “When I started a subscription-based publication four years ago, there was little to look at as examples of sustainable business models. I think I’ve found one, but could use expert advice on the details of running a news business and how to be profitable while staying true to our mission.” – Kristen Wile, Founder & Editor

Vermont Independent Media / The Commons

Based in: Brattleboro, VT

Mission: Vermont Independent Media is founded on the belief that independent journalism is critical for the functioning of democracy and is the lifeblood of community. Through the publication of The Commons, a weekly newspaper serving towns in southeastern Vermont, we strive to set a standard for fair, balanced and accurate journalism and provide an open forum for diverse voices within our community.

Interest in the Sustainability Audit: “We are interested in participating in LION’s Sustainability Audit because after years of instability we are in a position to grow.  We are eager to capitalize on our momentum and put practices and policies in place that will help us produce more of the content our readers and community value.  Having the benefit of an outside, experienced third party examining our organization will give us the fresh perspective and honest assessment we need to put together a plan for continued growth.” – Kate O’Connor, Director of Operations   

Meet the publishers who participated in the first cohort and second cohort of our LION-GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program.   

Sustainability Audit Analysts

These news organizations will be working with our expert analysts who will offer guidance and recommendations based on each organization’s needs and ambitions. The eight analysts for this cycle of the Sustainability Audits are:

Alec Saelens is revenue project manager at the Solutions Journalism Network. He is passionate about helping newsrooms align editorial and business objectives to serve their communities in a sustainable way. He advises newsrooms, many of which are small independent businesses, on a range of strategies for leveraging solutions journalism to generate revenue. Before coming to SJN, he worked as a researcher for the Membership Puzzle Project and coached organizations participating in the Membership in News Fund. He is a co-founder of The Bristol Cable, the UK’s pioneering local media cooperative launched in 2014, where he worked as a journalist and operations coordinator until 2018. He also worked as an analyst for NewsGuard, a company reviewing information websites on the basis of their reliability and transparency.

Alexandra Smith is the audience director at the nonprofit newsroom The 19th. Previously, she was the director of growth for the media and tech startup WhereBy.Us, where she led audience development strategy for five local newsletter brands. Before joining startup newsrooms, she led engagement strategies at local USA Today Network newspapers in Colorado and New Jersey. Alexandra has been a mentor to women and local newsroom leaders since she completed the Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media in 2019. She has also studied how to use design thinking to grow community engagement with local newsrooms during Sulzberger and Visiting Nieman fellowships.

Elaine Díaz Rodríguez is the senior manager of coaching at LION Publishers. She was most recently founder and editor-in-chief of Periodismo de Barrio, an independent investigative publication in Cuba, where she led coverage on social and environmental issues and climate change alongside doing fundraising and institutional development work. She has worked with SembraMedia, a non-profit that helps independent media in Ibero-America find and develop sustainable business models. Her work there included serving as an ambassador manager for a team of ambassadors representing the digital media ecosystem across Latin America and as a mentor for Metis, a business mentorship program for women founders of independent digital media projects in the region. Additional career highlights include seven years as a professor of digital journalism at the University of Havana and a 2014-2015 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Emily Roseman is the research director for the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of more than 400 nonprofit news organizations. Previously, she served as research project manager for a study at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center that analyzed how newsrooms can engage, grow and monetize audiences. She has researched and written for several media related studies and projects including NYU’s Membership Puzzle Project, the GNI-INN Sponsorship Lab, the Public Media Mergers Project, Solution Journalism Network and Harvard’s Belfer Center. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Bates College.

Erica Beshears Perel has been a local reporter, journalism educator and nonprofit director. She is currently director of the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local News, which supports local news organizations through research, education and the UNC-Knight Table Stakes newsroom initiative. Before that, she ran the nonprofit that publishes The Daily Tar Heel, an independent student newsroom at UNC.

Frances Dinkelspiel is the co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside Journalism Initiative, the nonprofit parent to Berkeleyside, the independent digital news site in Berkeley, California, and Oaklandside, a civic-minded news platform for Oakland. As part of her leadership role, she did extensive fundraising for the organization, helped set strategic direction, and was closely involved in audience engagement and editorial policy.

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for APM Studios, the podcast-production division of American Public Media. She has creative and strategic oversight of original and acquired podcasts. She is also the founder of En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in media. As part of her consulting work, Joanne supports small and independent newsrooms in leadership planning, staff development, editorial and content strategy, collaborations and partnerships for growth, and audience engagement. She was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, and was lead producer for the ESPN “30 for 30” podcast “The King of Crenshaw.” She has also worked at “Marketplace,” Southern California Public Radio and the BBC. Twitter: @globaljourno Shannan Bowen is the executive director of the NC Local News Workshop, which supports and strengthens North Carolina’s news and information ecosystem. Previously, she was a product director for McClatchy and served in several other audience, product and reporting roles at both national and local organizations. Shannan uses her background and experience in local news, product strategy and audience development to coach independent news organizations through tactics to develop their funnels, including top-of-funnel awareness, engagement and loyalty, reader revenue, and retention. Shannan is a founding member of the News Product Alliance and has a Master’s degree in Media Entrepreneurship. She lives in Wilmington, N.C.

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