Whether you’re interested in pitching a session idea, being a speaker or facilitating a small group discussion around shared interests, we want to hear from you. Here are seven ways to get involved with the Summit, and how to find the right avenue for your idea.

• I have a fully baked idea for a conference session related to news entrepreneurship and a clear sense of who might deliver it
  • Propose a session
• I have an area of expertise related to news entrepreneurship that I would like to share with attendees that could be part of a broader session
  • Propose a speaker
• I am a news entrepreneur who has an experience/insight/win/best practice to share that is relevant to other news leaders that could be part of a broader session 
  • Propose a speaker
• I have an idea for a speaker I would love to hear from at the Summit, either because they have an area of expertise related to news entrepreneurship or they are a news entrepreneur who has an experience/insight/win/best practice to share that is relevant to other news leaders
  • Propose a speaker
• I have an idea for a topic related to news entrepreneurship I’d like to discuss in small groups with my fellow conference attendees as a way to share ideas and make connections
  • Propose a table talk topic
• I have an idea for a group of people involved with news entrepreneurship I’d like to connect with who have a shared identity or experience 
  • Propose an affinity group
• I would like to lead a small group discussion to connect with my fellow conference attendees around a shared identity or experience
  • Propose an affinity group leader

Got more than one idea or want to be involved in multiple ways? Feel free to submit multiple proposals! 

We’ll ask for some guiding information in your proposal to help us evaluate whether your idea is a fit and where it might fit best. And we’ll select proposals that are most aligned with our conference goals, attendee interests and those that represent a diversity of viewpoints and voices. Please indicate the following in your proposal:

Which conference track does your proposal best align with?

We’ll organize sessions into four areas of interest to news entrepreneurs so they can easily identify which sessions meet their needs. They are:

• Planning for strategic organizational growth
• Telling your news business’ story to communicate impact
• Identifying and executing revenue growth opportunities
• Building resilient leaders, teams and cultures

Which type of session is the best fit for your proposal?

There are five categories of session meant to convey to attendees the primary intent and level of engagement. They are:

• Keynote session: An all-conference presentation or discussion featuring 1-2 speakers designed to set a tone, share information or inspire conversation related to news entrepreneurship
• “Thinking” session: A medium-group presentation or discussion featuring 1-4 speakers designed to explore big ideas, approaches or concepts related to news entrepreneurship
• “Learning” session: A medium-group presentation, discussion, panel or lightning chat featuring 1-6 speakers designed to share best practices, tips, insights or case studies related to news entrepreneurship
• “Doing” session: A small-group workshop featuring 1-2 speakers designed to directly apply a skill, concept or practice
• “Connecting” session: A small-group discussion led by 1 facilitator designed to foster community and build relationships around a shared identity or interest

Which stage of sustainability is the content of your proposal the best fit for?

LION has developed a maturity model that articulates where a news business falls on the path to sustainability, and conference sessions will be targeted to the varying needs of organizations in different stages. For example, a session on launching a major donors program might be a best-fit for a news business in the “Building” stage, whereas a session on re-engaging long term donors might be a best-fit for a news business in the “Growing” stage. The stages are:

• Preparation: Creating a lean business model and minimum viable product (MVP). This is the ideation and planning stage when a news entrepreneur is identifying a need, a target audience, a revenue model and a value proposition.
• Building: Iterating based on audience and market research while building a foundation for revenue and operations. This is the testing and tweaking stage when a news entrepreneur is revising their product and revenue model to match what the audience wants and what the market can bear.
• Maintaining: Increasing journalistic impact and audience growth while still seeking operational and financial stability. This is the alignment stage when a news business is rightsizing what it produces with how it produces it and how it makes money.
• Growing: Steadily and simultaneously growing revenue, audience and operations, which could include scaling. This is the expansion stage when a news business is increasing its depth through more robust products, revenue and operations and/or increasing its breadth by reaching new markets or audiences.

Got an idea that isn’t a clear fit for a conference track, session type or sustainability stage? Propose it anyway! Still on the fence about submitting your idea? We encourage anyone with an idea or experience to share to complete a submission. We’ll work with you to refine your idea, match you with a comfortable session type and provide you resources to help you prepare. If you’re a first-time conference speaker who needs more support, we can provide extra guidance.

Proposals will be accepted until 11 p.m. PT on Friday, March 29. You’ll hear from us in late spring-early summer to learn if your proposal was accepted or if we need more information.

Questions? Email Lisa Heyamoto, LION’s Associate Director of Member Education, at lisaheyamoto@lionpublishers.com.

The post Now accepting session proposals for the 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit appeared first on LION Publishers.

This seemed like a compelling theory to test, so we launched the Revenue Growth Fellowship in 2021 to provide 12 LION members with a two-year direct funding runway to hire someone in a revenue-generating role. The plan was for this person to generate recurring revenue for the news business, which would kickstart continued growth and development.

But like so many other aspects of news entrepreneurship, we learned it wasn’t quite that simple.

Direct funding, it turns out, is not the silver bullet we imagined it to be. It can give news leaders the confidence to make bold decisions, launch a big effort, or keep them afloat during a rough patch, but new dollars alone do not accelerate a news business on the path to sustainability. 

We gave news organizations between $65,000 and $89,000 in funding in successively smaller increments over two years, and our measure of success was that the revenue hire would eventually bring in enough money to cover their salary by the end of year two. Yet just six of the 12 organizations said that ended up being the case — a 50 percent success rate. 

That led us to one of our biggest takeaways from this program: Without taking the time to create a strong operational infrastructure, thoughtful employee recruitment and management and a focused revenue strategy, no amount of direct dollars will make a news business financially healthy. 

Tellingly, news businesses that experienced higher levels of strategic and operational volatility were much more likely to say their hire did not bring in the expected revenue. Characteristics of these publications include:

• News businesses that changed their revenue strategy mid-program
• Outlets that experienced turnover in the position due to a hasty hire or a poor fit
• Leaders who struggled to shift their focus from editorial to the business side
• Publications that hired for a part-time rather than full-time revenue role
• Organizations that underwent a merger during the program

It all adds up to our top-level insight, and one that will continue to guide our work at LION: News businesses need to be ready for direct funding in order for it to be truly catalytic. Here’s more of what we learned about what accelerates and hinders revenue growth that every news business can benefit from.

1. Revenue growth won’t happen without operational readiness 

One lesson we’ve learned repeatedly (and seen play out across our membership at large) is that a strong operational infrastructure is absolutely critical for gaining any traction with revenue growth. 

We started the Revenue Growth Fellowship program with the assumption that news businesses would be ready to jump right into the hiring process. But participants had some urgent operational needs to address to be in the best position to hire. 

So we worked with publishers to set and track goals, assess organizational risk, level up financial management practices and build an infrastructure for revenue growth. Of particular focus was developing systems for hiring, onboarding, retaining and managing employees. 

“When I think about how [we have] grown thanks to this program, revenue is not the first thing that comes to mind,” a founder said. “[It was] operational growth. That is, establishing policies, documentation and procedures to support a growing team. The support we received in this area at the start of the program was incredibly valuable and set us up for success once our organization began to grow in staff.”

Leaders initially struggled to make time for this operational work, but came to value its importance and ended up applying these operational best practices increasingly more often over the course of the program. They put in place hiring and revenue processes that they continue to use and build on, and many reported that these efforts have become less scattershot and more methodical and consistent. 

“If I did it again with the knowledge I have now but the same financial reality, I would have built more process and reporting into the member revenue program,” one leader said. “But I’d be realistic about the time and capacity it might take to make that a well-oiled machine.”

2. Revenue growth efforts stall without a clear strategy, a consistent approach and significant leader involvement

Growing revenue is a marathon, not a sprint. And organizations that planned for the long haul and stayed the course saw significantly better outcomes than those that experienced disruptions. 

News businesses that focused on growing the same revenue stream with the same revenue hire throughout the two-year program were the only publications that saw consistent revenue growth quarter over quarter. These participants had a clear-enough revenue strategy to enable them to make and support the right hire, who could consistently build on their efforts over time. And these organizations were able to leverage that stability to improve other aspects of their business; despite differences in size, age, tax structure and focus, they saw concurrent increases in full-time employees, cash on hand, runway and net revenue.

Key to that stability was significant involvement in the revenue growth efforts by the founder or key leader of the organization. Many news entrepreneurs come from a journalism rather than business background, and lack the experience or desire to focus on growing revenue. We’ve heard many of our members say if they could just hand off that work, they would be free to do what they do best: produce journalism. 

But it’s precisely that deep understanding of an organization’s mission and values that makes a founder the best person to make the case to financial supporters, whether a potential foundation,  advertiser or reader. Of the 12 program participants, half ended up shifting the revenue generation work back to the founder, even after hiring someone to be in the revenue role. We learned alongside participants that the founder, or primary leader, of early-stage news businesses, in particular, simply needs to be the face of revenue generation efforts.

“[If I had this to do over again,]” one founder said, “I would switch roles early on and focus on revenue myself while assigning the editorial work to others.”

Another key learning, and one we failed to mitigate against, was that a part-time revenue hire is particularly unlikely to achieve the desired results without a strong revenue strategy already in place. We originally gave organizations enough funding for a part-time hire if they did not have any other full-time employees (including the founder). We reasoned that these organizations, which tended to be younger, needed more time to build the operational structures to support a staff member. But that ended up being true for all cohort members. And while the intention was always for organizations who initially hired part-timers to bring them to full-time, those that hired part-time revenue help were especially likely to say that they ended up doing most of the revenue work themselves, regardless of whether that was the plan. None of these organizations said their part-time hire brought in enough revenue to cover their salary.

“I found that, for this role, it was hard for someone as an employee to achieve ambitious goals on a part-time salary,” a founder said. “I think I went into this thinking, ‘Okay, it’s doable. Something is better than nothing, and the employee will have enough passion to grow with us.’ For both folks we hired, I found that, to them, it was a job with a mission they liked, but they still had limited time to do their job correctly. It was hard to ask them for much flexibility because they had to do other things to supplement the pay.”

3. Revenue growth hinges on hiring the right person to do the work (and being ready to support them) 

Making the right hire rather than the right-now hire makes all the difference. Many news leaders initially underestimated the time, planning and strategic alignment required to be fully ready to make their hire, and the person they brought on turned out to be a poor fit.

“It was a lot of lessons learned,” one leader said. “I should have taken more time to recruit. It was a challenge to figure out what to prioritize first, having minimal experience with a business at the time.”

A big decision point for cohort members was determining what role to hire for, and how much experience the candidates should have. News leaders who saw the most success with their new hires had a focused vision for the person’s responsibilities, and designed the role and the hiring process accordingly. One organization knew it wanted to attract highly experienced and networked applicants, so it supplemented the program’s funding to hire at a salary range that would yield those candidates. Another founder knew they couldn’t afford someone with that kind of resume in their market, so they created a role focused on supporting revenue operations rather than directly generating revenue. 

News leaders found the most success building in areas where they already had traction and an operational foundation — in other words, where they already had a clear strategy. For example, one organization had ambitions to build its nascent advertising/sponsorships stream, but saw better results once it decided to level up its membership program instead.

“We have realized we aren’t quite set up to manage sponsorships/sponsored content/advertising yet,” they said. “We’d need to do a lot more work to create a foundation for that area of revenue. We’re further along with our membership capability and have the metrics to track against those growth goals.”

But it’s not enough to simply make the right hire — you must be ready to support them. Hiring new personnel without ensuring that the leadership can effectively onboard, train, and retain them can lead to overburdened leaders and counterproductive outcomes. News leaders were most successful when they devoted time and energy to ensuring their team members had what they needed to meet their goals and empowered them to make decisions and take calculated risks. 

“I feel like I’ve learned a ton about managing and onboarding and am proud of the documents and processes I’ve created for our team,” one news leader said. “But managing this position was much more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated.”

How this program has informed our work at LION

The Revenue Growth Fellowship program was the most ambitious program LION had attempted when we launched it in 2021. And it was our first foray into being a funder. We learned a lot from the experience, including that our support is most impactful when we’re helping news businesses strengthen their foundation for growing revenue rather than providing direct funding to help grow their bottom line — an insight that underpins our five-year strategic growth plan. 

Here are some other insights from the program that have influenced our work: 

• Led us to develop asynchronous trainings for our News Entrepreneur Academy focused on building operational practices like setting goals and managing finances
• Shaped the curriculum of programs like this year’s Sustainability Lab, which centered on readiness for revenue growth
• Informed our Sustainability Audit metrics and maturity model to map the path to sustainability
• Influenced our strategic decision to offer holistic, bespoke support to our Focus Members — BIPOC and LGBTQ-led organizations — through a case management approach

We’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the publishers who participated in this program and candidly shared their wins and challenges so we could learn how to better support our members. We hope this level of transparency will encourage other publishers and support organizations to learn from and adapt to the lessons we highlighted here.

The post Direct funding alone does not make a news business more sustainable appeared first on LION Publishers.

We also know that individuals with specific and intersectional identities face significant institutional barriers to access the capital, networks and other resources to run a successful startup. 

Nearly one-third of our membership has a leader(s) who identifies as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latine or a Person of Color, and/or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, or as a member of broader gender and sexually diverse communities. 

In an effort to better understand the successes and struggles of BIPOC leaders and to, ultimately, better support them, LION’s former Community Manager Christian Monterrosa conducted 13 one-on-one interviews in late 2022 and early 2023. What we learned from these interviews, combined with our growing breadth of experience supporting members in our programs, has helped inform who we plan to serve, and how. More details on that are below; but first, an overview of what we learned from this listening project.

Who we spoke with 

All participants in the community listening project identified as either Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latine or as a Person of Color, and, in some cases, also as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. The news leaders’ organizations were based throughout the South, West, and Northeast regions of the United States, as well as in Canada and Puerto Rico. 

The size of the participants’ organizations ranged from being one-person operations to having up to five full-time employees. Their annual revenues ranged from less than $50,000 to more than $1.1 million.

Regardless of their area of focus, personal identities, or size of organization, we found their motivations for launching and leading news startups to be the same: to have a positive impact on their communities, which have been historically ignored and harmed by media institutions. 

As a result, their organizations have become extremely well-received and influential, evolving into the go-to news sources for their communities. 

“The way that we frame stories and the truth-telling that we do — our unapologetic voice was very refreshing for people,” one news publisher shared.  

What we’ve learned about the challenges faced by BIPOC leaders

The insights we gained during the 13 community listening sessions have been anonymized and shared with project participants’ consent. When relevant, we have also incorporated tangible examples that were publicly shared by other BIPOC news leaders throughout LION’s training programs. The data reflected here is based on our member organizations that have a leader who identifies as BIPOC, Hispanic, Latine, LGBTQIA+ or as an immigrant. 

1. Lack of access to capital 

It is extremely difficult to find first-time investors or grantors, especially if the publication is in the early stages of becoming an established news organization. 

LION’s data shows that the median amount of original funding for early-stage publications with leaders who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA or immigrants is $7,000 and the maximum amount of original funding is $100,000 compared to a median of $17,500 and a maximum of $1 million for publications with leaders who don’t identify as coming from historically marginalized backgrounds. 

According to our data, though early-stage, BIPOC/LGBTQIA/immigrant-led publications have an average annual revenue that is higher than their counterparts, the former group tends to have much less cash on hand and a lower maximum revenue. The financial lows, then, are lower and the highs aren’t quite as high.

“The first two years were really tough,” one publisher shared. “You have a little bit of a honeymoon period for the first few months… Everyone really liked us and liked what we were doing, but no one wanted to give us any money.”

2. Lack of business experience

Nearly every news leader interviewed started their career as either a journalist or a community organizer. As news entrepreneurs, they have been navigating the challenging process of launching small businesses, often learning as they go. 

According to LION’s data, more leaders who come from a historically marginalized background say they’re struggling to grow into their leadership roles compared to leaders who do not come from historically marginalized backgrounds. 

“None of us had any experience running anything close to an organization the size that we are now and [we didn’t have the] understanding [of] how to budget forecast or diversify revenue streams,” one participant said. 

3. Low capacity

Seventy-two percent of publications with leaders from historically marginalized backgrounds do not have a dedicated person on staff focused on revenue generation compared to 66 percent for organizations with leaders from non-marginalized backgrounds. 

“My biggest challenge is figuring out how to step away from the journalism and maintain the quality at the same time,” one participant shared. “I know that has to happen for us to get the revenue we need, to build the capacity that we need to match our ambition.”

Our data shows that all leaders from historically marginalized backgrounds report that their workloads are always, often or sometimes unreasonable.

We also know that many of these publishers are emphasizing taking care of mental health in the newsroom, something not offered to them in their careers as journalists. 

“One of the things that inspired me to be a news entrepreneur was to have healthier newsrooms and to take mental health into account, especially for journalists of color,” another participant said.

News businesses with leaders from historically marginalized backgrounds tend to be slightly younger and slightly smaller in team size than other news organizations , and are much more likely to say that their salaries are below market rate.  

Compared to organizations with leaders not from historically marginalized backgrounds, these organizations also have a higher percentage of non-white staffers (58 percent vs 41 percent) and staffers who identify as women (61 percent vs 55 percent).

How we’re adjusting our support

As part of our five-year strategic growth plan, LION plans to prioritize more in-depth, hands-on help for our Focus Members who face the greatest institutional barriers to sustainability. 

These members will be eligible to receive this more intensive support, and we believe what we learn will help inform best practices and offerings that will benefit all of our members. Learn more about our Focus Members here.

A special thank you to the 13 publishers who gave us their valuable time to help inform our future organizational strategy and programming.

The post What we’ve learned about the unique struggles and success of BIPOC news leaders, and how to better support them appeared first on LION Publishers.

We started by defining sustainability as the union of three pillars: operational resilience, financial health and journalistic impact. The next step was to create a way to measure and track the key performance indicators that characterize those pillars, so we developed our Sustainability Audit to help news businesses identify where they are on the path to sustainability and what steps they might take to keep moving forward. 

We’ve conducted audits on nearly 200 publications since 2021 (and will do roughly another 200 by the end of 2024) and have learned a lot about where independent news businesses are and where they aim to go. That’s helped us, with the support of our audit analysts, give tailored recommendations to individual publishers going through an audit, and given us an invaluable, data-driven understanding of the field as a whole. It also helped us see the logical next step: to develop a maturity model for independent news businesses that maps the path from idea to growth to sustainability. 

Here’s why a maturity model is an important step for the independent journalism industry:

• It allows us to pinpoint exactly what we can do to support our members as they become sustainable news organizations. 
• It would be useful for other journalism support organizations to know where we’re focusing our efforts as they prioritize what they offer to which organizations to ensure that we’re all efficiently implementing our resources and not duplicating efforts.
• Having a clearly defined maturity model gives publishers, funders and other stakeholders a shared language to identify areas of growth and, ultimately, where growth has been achieved.
• Having an articulated path for independent news organizations to reach sustainability could encourage more people to start publications that serve their communities because they have a clearer sense of what to expect and what to work toward.

Based on the data we’ve collected so far, we’ve proposed a maturity model that captures the growth path of a news business as it moves through a set of stages and achieves a series of milestones to reach the next stage. The stages and milestones are:

• Preparation Stage: Creating a lean business model and minimum viable product (MVP). This is the ideation and planning stage when a news entrepreneur is identifying a need, a target audience, a revenue model and a value proposition.
  • Milestone: MVP is launched. The MVP is an experiment to learn whether the audience finds value in a light version of a product. 
• Building Stage: Iterating based on audience and market research while building a foundation for revenue and operations. This is the testing and tweaking stage when a news entrepreneur is revising their product and revenue model to match what the audience wants and what the market can bear.
  • Milestone: Product/market fit is confirmed. Product/market fit occurs when the journalistic content and the way it’s delivered demonstrably meets audience demand.
• Maintaining Stage: Increasing journalistic impact and audience growth while still seeking operational and financial stability. This is the alignment stage when a news business is rightsizing what it produces with how it produces it and how it makes money.
  • Milestone: Products, operations and revenue are all stable enough to provide a foundation for essential growth. The news business is not yet sustainable, but it is poised to grow in a sustainable way.
• Growing Stage: Steadily and simultaneously growing revenue, audience and operations, which could include scaling. This is the expansion stage when a news business is increasing its depth through more robust products, revenue and operations and/or increasing its breadth by reaching new markets or audiences.
  • Milestone: Impactful products, resilient operations and healthy revenue are in ongoing alignment. At this point, a news business has reached sustainability by achieving significant journalistic impact with mature products supported by a strong operational foundation and multiple stable revenue streams.

While we’ve learned that news businesses tend to progress through these stages in order as they age, that progress is not always linear and does not always occur at a predictable pace. After all, news businesses develop in ways that are unique to how they launched, the circumstances under which they’re growing and the challenges they face.

This model accommodates the fact that a publication could be in the “Maintaining” stage for decades — or less than a year. It could be “Building” with a 10-person staff, or “Growing” with a team of two. A news business might reach sustainability without scaling, or it might fall back to “Maintaining” as it rightsizes after a period of growth. 

It’s important to note that this is a map, not a blueprint. The definition of sustainability may apply to every news business, but exactly what that looks like will be different for every publication. Having a healthy 50-person staff and $10 million in recurring annual revenue is certainly one snapshot of sustainability, but it’s not the only one. Each news business progresses at its own pace, within its own context and with its own goals in mind, and this model is flexible enough to reflect that.

We’ll continue to test and iterate on this model as we learn even more about the growth path of independent news businesses, and will incorporate these findings even more deeply into our member offerings. Our goal is to use this maturity model to help publications through the often-difficult Building and Maintaining stages to get to the Growing stage. It’s our hope (and our mission) that this work will result in more sustainable independent news businesses that are serving their communities for the long haul.

The post Introducing LION’s Stages of Sustainability appeared first on LION Publishers.

• Staffing Considerations for Canadian News Businesses
• HR Considerations for Canadian News Businesses
• Hiring and HR Compliance for Canadian News Businesses
• Business structures and taxes for Canadian publishers
• Essential Documents Checklist for Canadian Publishers 

All are available to members through our News Entrepreneur Academy, which includes dozens of trainings on how to make your news business more sustainable. Next month we’ll release more resources, which will focus on financial management and operational best practices. 

Want to learn more about our Canadian members? Check out this member spotlight on Taproot Publishing, a local journalism outlet based in Edmonton that helps communities understand themselves better.

The post Trainings in HR, Staffing, Risk Management Now Available for Canadian News Businesses appeared first on LION Publishers.

Hayley’s role — a new one for LION — will be to grow our membership, attract new publishers to our programs and communicate our impact on the independent news industry. You’ll hear from Hayley via our newsletter, which she’ll take over in July, and on our social media channels.  Her work will also include:

• Designing an editorial and product strategy that demonstrates to prospective members what we offer
• Collecting, evaluating and sharing data-based insights about prospective members’ needs to help inform our current membership offerings
• Promoting our members and their work to funders and the broader industry

Hayley comes to us from Case Western Reserve University, where she worked in higher education marketing. She got her start at ​​the international Women in Manufacturing Association, where she led membership growth and marketing efforts.

She is based in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where she likes to build LEGOs, explore Cleveland Metroparks, try her very best to bake (and not burn anything), and thrift for forgotten treasures. 

We’re delighted that Hayley is joining our team! You can reach her at hayleymilloy@lionpublishers.com

The post Hayley Milloy joins LION as our Marketing Manager appeared first on LION Publishers.

But journalists like to show, not tell. So we’ll let the numbers do the talking.

We’ve analyzed the latest aggregate data from our members to get a sense of how the independent news ecosystem is doing overall, and we see promising indicators that this method of steady progress is producing results.

The median revenue for LION members is ticking up. Member publications that have been operating for more than a year saw a median annual revenue of $130,000 — up from $125,000 at this time last year. It’s a modest increase, but it’s an increase nonetheless. And considering that last year’s figure was up 38% from the year before, we can confidently say that the trend is heading in the right direction.

The revenue picture looks even more promising when we dig into the numbers for returning members. Of those who renewed their membership in 2023, 82% experienced an increase in revenue year-over-year. These renewing members increased their annual revenue by about $50,000, or a median increase of 28%. 

Take The Haitian Times as an example. The publication, which covers Haiti and the Haitian diaspora in the United States, saw a revenue ​​increase of 27.3% in 2023, adding about $70,000 to its bottom line. Founder and publisher Garry Pierre-Pierre said he achieved this progress by investing in audience development to amplify advertising efforts while building out the operational capacity on his team.

That freed him up to leverage his considerable network and relationship-building skills to focus more on revenue generation and undertake long-dreamed-of ideas for the business-side of his organization. But even then, he forces himself to slow down and take it step-by-strategic-step.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Pierre-Pierre said. “If I try to go too fast, I’m gonna crash.”

Not only is median revenue for LION members increasing, it’s doing so through a more sustainable mix of revenue streams.  The number of members who rely on direct sold advertising as a primary revenue stream is 42% — down 20% from 2021. But that’s because publications are adding more primary revenue streams to the roster. Around 34% of members now claim some form of reader revenue — either membership or subscriptions — as a top revenue source. And events have emerged as a popular earner, with 40% of publications saying they host some sort of public gatherings.

What does that look like on the ground? The Hingham Anchor, a hyper-local news site in coastal Massachusetts, has primarily focused on direct sold advertising since its launch in 2018. Co-founders Hilary Jenison and Laura Winters made a strategic decision to revamp their website rather than the costlier, longer process of migrating to a new CMS. From there, the wins began to domino. That decision allowed them to increase their go-to-market strategy for reaching new advertisers, which in turn resulted in enough revenue to fund their website for the entire year, which then allowed them to focus their efforts on piloting a reader revenue program. 

The Springfield Daily Citizen is another example of a publication building a more diverse revenue foundation. Chief Development Officer Judi Kamien knew she wanted to launch an events vertical, but also knew she didn’t want to transfer the costs to the attendees. By developing a strategy to fund them through corporate sponsorships, she achieved the twin goals of gaining readers, donors and community goodwill while attracting even more corporate sponsors through the events themselves.  

“[This was] ​​exactly what I needed — a jump-start in creative thinking toward our second year of generating revenue,” she said.

Kamien’s success building out the Daily Citizen’s events strategy enabled them to hire a partnership  manager to focus on creating even more events. Which leads us to our next member insight. We always take a look at the number of full-time employees across our membership to see if revenue growth is leading to team growth. And while we don’t see a noticeable increase in FTEs from last year, we do see a bump in paid part-time and freelance contributors. Organizations that submitted data in 2022 and 2023 saw a median increase of two contributors, which we think could lead to more full-time growth in the future. More money, it seems, is leading to more paid team members.

LION Membership Overview

Organization information

• LION membership is up 11% since this time last year.
• Nearly 26% of member organizations are led by at least one person who identifies as Black, indigenous, a person of color, LGBTQ+ or as an immigrant — a 3% increase from 2021.
• Roughly a third of our members are non-profits (or under the umbrella of a non-profit); the other two-thirds are for-profits.

Age

• Roughly half of member organizations are less than five years old; roughly one-third are more than 10 years old.

Products

• Originally reported articles (91% of organizations) and newsletters (81% of organizations) continue to be the two most common products by a wide margin.
• Over one-third of organizations also create videos, events and podcasts.
• Nearly 33% of members produce podcasts, an increase from 29% in 2021.

Revenue

• The median annual revenue of organizations founded before 2022 is $130,000, a 4.8% increase over last year.

• The most common revenue streams for all members are:
  • Direct sold advertising: 42.2%
  • Small individual gifts (Less than $1,000): 35.2%
  • Philanthropies/Foundations: 31.6%
• The most common revenue streams for for-profit members are:
  • Direct sold advertising: 55.8%
  • Small individual gifts (Less than $1,000): 20.2%
  • Subscriptions: 19.2%
• The most common revenue streams for non-profit members are:
  • Philanthropies/Foundations: 66.9%
  • Small individual gifts (Less than $1,000): 64.2%
  • Major individual gifts (More than $1,000): 43%

Coverage

• A city or town continues to be the most common coverage area, with 39% of members focusing on that geographic scope.

Staff

Interested in becoming a LION Member? Learn more here, or subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest information and resources for independent news businesses.

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That’s why we designed the 2022 GNI Startups Labs as a quick-hit way for leaders to build capacity in targeted areas. By focusing on Managing Risk & Money, Building & Managing a Team and Planning for Revenue Growth, our aim was for publishers to use training, coaching and funding to shore up areas that we know have an outsized impact on increasing sustainability.

You can read all about the program in our 2022 GNI Startups Labs Report, which includes:

• Why and how we designed the program
• Participant information 
• Curriculum details
• 15 case studies outlining progress and best practices

At LION, we’re working to expand our support to even more of our 450 members. But we also understand that not everyone is able to participate in a program. So in the spirit of offering an abridged version of what participants learned, here are four high-level takeaways that every publisher can use:

Digging deeply into a tactical area leads to strategic breakthroughs

In a perfect world, news leaders would have the time, resources and expertise to create a beautiful strategic plan that lays out the goals, strategies and tactics that will make them the most effective, efficient organizations they can be. But in the actual world, most independent news leaders struggle to prioritize that kind of big-picture thinking, however critical it may be. In fact, 69% of publishers we surveyed in our 2022 Sustainability Audits say they don’t have a 1-3 year plan, but 76% said developing a strategic vision for their organization is a very high priority.

Good news, then, for the strategically-strapped: you can get closer to a plan simply by taking some thoughtful, intentional actions. Participants in the Labs found that digging deeply into one area of their business not only strengthened that area, it also unlocked insights and skills that enabled them to make broader strategic decisions. 

For example, publisher after publisher discovered that finally taking the time to properly manage their finances and forecast revenue led to breakthroughs in editorial decision-making (one leader found that the podcast juice may not be not worth the squeeze), hiring timelines (another realized it’s possible to bring on a new person sooner rather than later) and organizational structure (yet another decided that applying for nonprofit status was the right move for them).

Part of it was about building confidence — after all, strategic planning can feel daunting, and seeing progress in one area can build momentum to tackle others. All surveyed participants reported increased confidence in the areas addressed by the three Labs, and also reported increased overall confidence in their organization’s ability to reach sustainability. Gaining those initial insights was an important first step.

“[This] was just what our small online news organization needed to help us look farther than past our noses on a daily basis,” said Deborah Brown, co-editor of The Swellesley Report. “The mentorship we received about planning for the future, and protecting ourselves from potential negative outcomes was invaluable.” 

How we’re incorporating this into our programming

In addition to providing more strategy support through our Sustainability Audit, we plan to offer even more tactical resources by launching a marketplace for vetted news business consultants, and focusing our coaching efforts even more on bridging the strategic and the tactical. We’ll share more information about all this in the coming months!

Bad news is better than no news 

We’ve all experienced it: you don’t open that email or check that account or ask that hard question because you’re afraid you might not like what you find. But participants in the Labs found time and again that addressing their concerns head-on allowed them to accept the reality and adapt accordingly — even (and especially) when the news wasn’t great.

For example, one publisher had been agonizing over whether to transition from Substack, but a deep dive into the budget revealed that there wasn’t enough money to build and maintain a new website. Even though they’d been hoping for a different outcome, knowing that option was off the table quelled their anxiety and allowed them to focus on other things. Another leader realized that they needed to tighten their belt or risk financial instability, while still another gamed out an audience strategy that would have brought in more money, but they determined it wasn’t a fit for their mission.

Ultimately, it’s about risk management, and you can’t manage what you can’t see. And sometimes, you might find that peeking between your fingers doesn’t reveal something scary.

“I came into [this program] a mathphobe, accounting phobe, and wondering why I can’t just write, report and photograph,” said Amy Peterson, founder of The E’ville Good. “I learned that my newsletter has so much more revenue potential and the potential to reach and make an impact than I ever thought possible.” 

How we’re incorporating this into our programming

We will continue to provide trainings and templates that help news leaders take a good look at their current situation as they seek to plan for the future. Members can check out our courses on Navigating Risk and Uncertainty as a News Leader, Assessing Organizational Capacity and How to Create a Revenue Growth Plan as examples. In addition, we’re launching a peer-led program this summer so publishers can help each other through the emotional side of decision-making. 

Create the right amount of daylight between insight and action

Bear with us through this tortured analogy (and, ahem, pun). If decision-making took the place of porridge in The Three Little Bears story, you’d have three kinds. The kind of hasty, desperation-based decision-making that anyone writing on deadline is familiar with too often results in actions that produce short-term benefits — if they produce any benefits at all. The timeline between insight and action is just too short. Then there’s the kind of decision-making born of anxiety and overthinking, where planning-to-plan takes up all the time and acting on the plan may never happen at all. That timeline is just too long. 

Then there’s the approach that is just right. This, as Lab participants found, happens when you’ve taken the time to examine the facts, think through the possibilities and arrive at a clear next step. And then you take it. 

Participants who were ready to thoroughly tackle an issue and immediately implement their learnings saw high levels of impact and progress. That showed up for the publisher who created robust employee documentation right before making a new hire, for the leader who created a beautiful budget they then presented with success at their annual board meeting, and the founder who built out their fundraising strategy just in time to launch their first Newsmatch campaign.

While we always advocate for planning ahead (and offer a number of templates to help you do so), it turns out there’s a sweet spot between ready, set and go. 

“My coach helped me move from big ideas to significant action in the areas of strategizing, budgeting, revenue planning, recruiting, and hiring,” said Annelise Pierce, founder, editor and community reporter at Shasta Scout. “After completing the [program], I feel much more prepared, equipped and confident to lead my news organization forward in the years ahead.”

How we’re incorporating this into our programming

LION is making several changes to incorporate this learning, including:

• Reframing our program applications to focus on whether a program offers the right support at the right time for a news organization
• Developing a more personalized experience for participants with the help of their coaches, so publishers can choose from a bank of trainings to create a custom curriculum
• Providing a menu of program deliverables so participants can create those that are most relevant to what they need, when they need it

All roads lead to — and from — the bottom line

You both love and hate to hear it: it all comes down to the money — whether you have it, whether you don’t, how to get more and where to spend it. Though just one of our programs focused explicitly on managing money, participants in every program found that they couldn’t move forward in any area until they had a firm grasp on their financial picture.

Working on a budget —  even for more developed organizations — served as a wake-up call for news entrepreneurs. Participants found that they were operating at a loss, or paying for too many subscriptions, or heading to a potential deficit during the program. This knowledge enabled them to make strategic decisions about where to cut expenses, where to focus their revenue efforts and how much they needed to bring in.

Sound financial management and understanding, no surprise, leads to more informed decision-making. But here’s the thing: those decisions had the biggest impact when they led back to revenue generation. There was the news leader who realized they had the budget to make a new hire, but also that that hire needed to be on the revenue generation side. Another founder’s updated pricing strategy led to setting more ambitious (but still realistic) revenue goals than they otherwise might have. And yet another took the time to deeply scope what it would take to launch a new product, how much revenue it was likely to bring in and how much they needed to raise to hire a product manager.

“I learned how to think about approaching new revenue streams,” said Kara Meyberg Guzman, founder of Santa Cruz Local. “I learned how to size the opportunity, reduce risk and form a strategic budget. I’m a much savvier CEO than I was six months ago.”

How we’re incorporating this into our programming

We plan to incorporate an element of financial planning and opportunity sizing more deeply into our programs. In addition, we’ll create more resources like our LION Financial Planning Workbook, which not only provides an easy template for financial planning, it also walks leaders through how to use it, step-by-step.

Want to participate in a LION program? We’ll be announcing our 2023 offerings in the coming months. Sign up for our newsletter to get the scoop and learn about how to become a member if you’re not already.

The post Four lessons for every independent news leader from the 2022 GNI Startups Labs appeared first on LION Publishers.

Status: Independent contractor
Reporting to: Director of Programming, Member Education

Project Type: Short-term contract, with variable working hours, from roughly April–May 2023

Compensation: $7,000 USD (An estimated 35 hours across two months at an effective rate of $200/hour)

About LION Publishers

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional journalism association for independent news publishers. While most of our 450+ members across the U.S. and Canada run local news businesses, we also have members who serve larger regions and specific identity-based communities across geographies. LION provides teaching, resources and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses. One of our core values is being people-centered, and here are some ways we build that culture for our staff. 

Project Summary

We’re looking for a Canadian-based contractor with specific expertise in the operations and financial sides of running independent news businesses in Canada. This person will update and adapt several of our existing courses and resources for our Canadian-based LION members to ensure they are relevant in a Canadian context.

Project Scope of Work

Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: Update “How to Create a Staffing Plan” NEA course for a Canadian audience
• Deliverable 2: Update “HR Best Practices” NEA course for a Canadian audience
• Deliverable 3: Update “Knowing When You’re Ready to Hire” NEA course for a Canadian audience 
• Deliverable 4: Update “The LION Financial Planning Workbook” NEA course for a Canadian audience
• Deliverable 5: Update “The LION Operational Readiness Handbook” NEA course for a Canadian audience
• Deliverable 6: Update “Financial Planning Workbook Template” NEA resource for a Canadian audience
• Deliverable 7: Update “Essential Documents Checklist” NEA course for a Canadian audience

Milestones

• Within first 30 days
  • Complete half of deliverables so they are ready for final edits
• By the end of 60 days
  • Complete rest of deliverables so they are ready for final edits

LION is an Equal Opportunity Partner

LION believes that a team with diversity of backgrounds and experiences will generate the most innovative ideas and ultimately do the best work in support of our mission. This is why we welcome contractors, vendors, staff and board members who contribute to a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment. We understand diversity as multi-dimensional and intersectional, encompassing race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, class, geography, and more.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all the boxes listed below or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. 

Skills and Qualifications for The Project

• Required:
  • You have direct experience working with or for an independent news publication based in Canada
  • You are committed to providing accurate, relevant and updated information as it relates to running an independent news business
  • You understand how to break down complex concepts and ideas into step-by-step, actionable guidance
  • You are comfortable speaking/recording yourself on camera to teach specific concepts and curriculum
  • You are able to research specific questions you may not know the answers to
  • You can stay highly organized and clearly communicate with the LION team about the status of your deliverables, including any clarifying questions you have about the end product
• Nice to have:
  • You have taught a class or have experience with curriculum or resource development
    

Skills and Expectations for Collaboration with the LION Team

• Work in a way that upholds and reflects our organizational values: Being data-informed, equitable and inclusive, people-centered, systems thinkers, transparent and iterative
• Use digital tools and platforms to stay organized, communicate transparently, and collaborate with team members remotely 
• Collaborate strategically with others, clearly defining processes for decision making
• Give and receive constructive feedback to help the team produce its best work
• Celebrate our wins and learning moments
• Take on an experimental mindset and demonstrate flexibility to iterate on our work, systems, and processes 
• Be willing and able to ask for help when needed, and demonstrate an ability to learn and grow

Application Requirements

Submit your materials using this form by April 30, 2023. 

• Your resume/portfolio
• What experience do you have working with or for an independent news business in Canada?
• Provide a simple explanation of why it’s important to have media liability insurance in Canada.
• How would you measure your success in completing the adaptation of existing courses and materials to a Canadian context?
• What is your preferred way of working with the LION team in terms of frequency of communication, type of communication and your general availability?
• What questions would you ask the LION programming team about these deliverables before committing to this contract? 

If you have questions about this project, reach out to Deborah Brown at dnl@dvcg.co.

The post LION is Hiring a Membership Education Consultant (Canada) appeared first on LION Publishers.

Reports to: Director of Programming, Member Education

Location: Remote within USA

Compensation: $65,000-$70,000, eligible for benefits (see details below)

Job Summary:

If you are a word nerd who delights in finding creative ways to reach the right people at the right time with the right (expertly crafted) message and connecting them to resources that strengthen the independent news ecosystem, we want to talk with you about our Marketing Manager role!

LION Publishers is a professional journalism association that serves more than 450 (and growing!) independent news publishers across the U.S. and Canada. Many of these organizations don’t have access to small business services, which is where we come in: We provide members with resources, training and support as they build and develop sustainable news businesses that serve their communities. 

The Marketing Manager will play a critical role in our mission by owning LION’s editorial and marketing strategy, which aims to attract new publishers to participate in LION’s educational programs, communicate our impact on the independent news industry, and, ultimately, grow our membership. We’re particularly focused on reaching publishers who identify as BIPOC, low-wealth, LGBTQ+ or from immigrant communities.

Our ideal candidate has experience with a full range of marketing activities, from writing and editing, to campaign development and execution, to newsletter strategy. You understand that marketing is about conveying LION’s values and building trust with our current stakeholders and future supporters. You know how to meet people where they are and invite them into the conversation. And you are adept at marrying data insights with innovative outreach strategies to engage audiences from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. 

The role will report to our Director of Programming, Member Education, and work closely with our entire team (because we know that marketing plays an important role in everything we do!). Our team believes that relevant, accurate and culturally competent local news and information helps people fully engage in civic life, make more informed decisions and better understand the world around them. If you’re interested in helping us make this vision a reality and working in a space of optimism and growth, learn more about the job and how to apply below.

Key Responsibilities

• (70%) Build LION’s prospective member top-of-funnel by:  
  • Acting as a brand ambassador for LION
  • Designing direct outreach campaigns 
  • Designing an editorial and product strategy that demonstrates to prospective members what we offer
  • Collecting, evaluating and sharing data-based insights about prospective members’ needs to help inform our current membership offerings
  • Collaborating with the Programming team on other strategies to convert prospective members and help them engage with LION and our offerings 
• (20%) Increase LION’s visibility as a thought leader to stakeholders and supporters of the independent news industry by:
  • Iterating and executing on our editorial and product strategy to communicate LION’s impact on the independent news ecosystem and increase active newsletter subscribers
  • Promoting our members and their work to funders and the broader industry
  • Working closely with our existing staff to help brainstorm, produce, edit and promote posts about what they’re learning from their work with an eye toward marketing LION’s expertise

• (10%) Deliver value to LION’s sponsors by:
  • Executing branded content packages as part of LION’s sponsorship offerings
• Other duties as assigned

LION is an Equal Opportunity Employer

LION believes that a team with diversity of backgrounds and experiences will generate the most innovative ideas and ultimately do the best work in support of our mission. This is why we welcome contractors, vendors, staff and board members who contribute to a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment. We understand diversity as multi-dimensional and intersectional, encompassing aspects of our identities including race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, class, geography, lived experiences and more. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply to opportunities at LION so that we build a team that reflects the diversity of independent news entrepreneurs we wish to serve.

Skills and Qualifications for The Role

• Creative marketing experience. Can execute creative, efficient and effective digital campaigns and non-digital marketing opportunities to recruit educational programming participants beyond LION’s existing member base. Has experience using WordPress to manage websites, and Mailchimp for email marketing.
• Clear, concise, engaging writing. Able to clearly distill and promote the work LION does and the opportunities it provides for its members. 
• Delivers empathy-centered communication. Able to develop a comprehensive understanding of LION’s offerings and member needs, and translate that into communications that build empathy and trust, particularly with those from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
• Data-based approach. Knows how to collect, analyze, evaluate and act on qualitative and quantitative data and market research to identify and reach prospective members.
• Experience in the journalism space is not required, but is a plus.

• Work in a way that upholds and reflects our organizational values: Being data-informed, equitable and inclusive, people-centered, systems thinkers, transparent and iterative
• Use digital tools and platforms to stay organized, communicate transparently, and collaborate with team members remotely 
• Collaborate strategically with others, clearly defining processes for decision making
• Give and receive constructive feedback to help the team produce its best work
• Celebrate our wins and learning moments
• Take on an experimental mindset and demonstrate flexibility to iterate on our work, systems, and processes 
• Be willing and able to ask for help when needed, and demonstrate an ability to learn and grow in the role

Physical Requirements and Environmental Conditions

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position, at a desk or similar, 90% of the time. Time spent in a stationary location includes operating a computer and relevant peripherals and communicating via phone.

Travel Requirements

• Available to travel for staff retreats two times per year (approx. 2–3 days per retreat)

About LION

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional journalism association for independent news publishers. While most of our 450+ members across the U.S. and Canada run local news businesses, we also have members who serve larger regions and specific identity-based communities across geographies. LION provides teaching, resources and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses. One of our core values is being people-centered, and here are some ways we build that culture for our staff. 

• Medical PPO, Vision & Dental fully paid by employer; 50% paid for dependents
• Short-term disability, long-term disability, life, and worker’s compensation insurance paid by employer
• Flexible Spending Account and Dependent Care HSA
• Paid Time Off (including sick days) is 20 days per year
• Paid holidays (including week of July 4 and Christmas Eve through New Years Day) is 17 days in 2023
• Up to 12 weeks fully paid family/caregiver leave
• 401K with employer match up to 3.5%
• Flexible working hours
• No-meeting Fridays
• Annual professional development budget
• Monthly work-from-home stipend
• For new hires: Health insurance stipend until eligible for employer medical coverage to begin
• Eligible for year-end, surplus-dependent bonus

How to Apply

Applications are now closed.

The post LION is hiring a Marketing Manager! appeared first on LION Publishers.

Those are some of the bright spots our 27 Sustainability Audit analysts identified after helping us compile customized reports for 75 LION members so far this year. (We just announced our final 25 audit recipients for the LION-GNI Sustainability Audits & Funding program and look forward to sharing insights we gleaned across all 100 audits early next year). 

“One of the most exciting things about being a sustainability analyst is when you see how much thinking in the local news space has evolved,” said analyst Maria Archangelo, chief revenue officer of Open Campus, and a long-time leader of high-performing revenue, fundraising, sales, and membership teams for news organizations.

That evolution, Archangelo said, has led to news businesses creating better products, finding sustainable and scalable ways to understand what audiences want and developing creative strategies to generate revenue.

She cited Sioux Falls Simplified as an example. Founder Megan Raposa market tested her ideas through one-on-one interviews before launch and found that readers wanted a wider variety of coverage than her original plan to focus on education. More LION members are using this approach to help fill a community need by better matching their products to the markets.

Also more news leaders are embracing their role as publishers and journalists, said Todd Stauffer, association manager and digital specialist for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. He’s seeing news leaders focus more deeply on finding creative ways to generate the revenue that enables the journalism, even if the business side isn’t their first love.

“It was very encouraging to see people in the journalism ecosystem taking on these difficult changes and finding ways to rise up to them,” Stauffer said.

Bene Cipolla, consultant and former publisher of Chalkbeat, said she was impressed to see how organizations built “significant, engaged audiences with very little staff, which shows the hunger for quality local news in their areas.”

These insights are encouraging, and as every publisher knows, there is still more work to do. 

Here are seven challenges our analysts surfaced, alongside some solutions they’ve recommended, that are helping inform our next steps for the Sustainability Audit.

The challenge: Too many organizations make decisions based on instinct rather than data. “I heard a lot of ‘I think’ or ‘I believe,’ and some of the founders had invested an incredible amount of money and time without checking any of their assumptions or evaluating them at critical junctures in their business,” said analyst Ariel Zirulnick, senior editor of community engagement for Southern California Public Radio. 

The solution: Conduct audience research to understand who your audiences are, what they want and how they behave. 

“[Focus on] what the audiences need and want, not what the news organization wants to provide,” said Erica Perel, director of the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

The challenge: Not enough attention paid to or investment in revenue, people and operations. As Stauffer pointed out, there is progress being made here, but it’s not consistent across all publishers.

The solution: More publishers need to focus on planning, documenting, recruiting, hiring and retention. That includes “creating humane job descriptions and setting employees up for success, having policies to prevent harassment and other workplace violations, [budgeting for] realistic and healthy benefits packages, etc.,” Perel said.

The challenge: Solopreneurs not being realistic when it comes to compensation and burnout.“A theme across the organizations is that [many] founders and owners don’t pay themselves a living wage, for well past the startup phase,” Perel said. “As long as this is the prevailing expectation, news entrepreneurship will be closed to people who can’t afford it.” 

The solution: Founders need to prioritize paying themselves a sustainable wage, and consider creating a community advisory board or looking for a business partner to reduce the ‘echo-chamber of one’ effect and increase the confidence and productivity of the news leaders.

The challenge: Focusing on increasing the reporting at all costs. Analyst Angilee Shah, editor-in-chief of Charlottesville Tomorrow, highlighted one of the most common problems our participants face: adding more editorial content without the operational infrastructure to support it, which leads to feeling even more under-resourced. 

The solution: “They need systems, processes, and long-term planning to enable them to grow intentionally and sustainably,” Shah said.

The challenge: Not enough examples of exemplary operational processes and systems. “There needs to be a transition from thinking of local news as scrappy and small and simply a passion project to [it being] a viable business and career option with decent salaries,” said Jan Boyd, chief content officer at WSBE Rhode Island PBS. 

The solution: Collecting and sharing more examples of successful processes and systems that make the work more sustainable. “So much of success comes down to establishing routines,” said Zirulnick. 

The challenge: A lack of industry benchmarks that inform and motivate a news business’ growth. Analyst Dan Oshinsky, who runs Inbox Collective, said benchmarks allow teams to answer common questions about their business health and stage of growth, which helps orient news businesses on the path to sustainability. 

The solution: An industry-wide focus on benchmarks. “Seeing their growth measured against other local newsrooms will help many of these organizations understand where they need to invest and improve moving forward,” he said, adding that the industry also needs “more real talk and detailed data analysis about what success at each growth stage actually looks like.” (This will be a big focus for LION next year, and we’ll share more soon.)

The challenge: Too many news leaders feel like they’re going it alone. You generally succeed [in a leadership position] because you don’t quit,” Stauffer said. “But not quitting is easier when you can share your experiences with people who understand, sympathize, and have potential solutions.” 

The solution: More opportunities to share experiences and build community. “As I wrote up the audits, I had the sense that they’d benefit from ongoing conversations,” Cipolla said. Those conversations can take many shapes: follow-up calls, mentorship, peer-to-peer learning, and coaching support. 

What’s next for LION’s Sustainability Audits

The audits are a reminder that “despite significant challenges, local news is staffed by people of goodwill who truly want to serve their communities and can blossom with the right help,” Perel said. 

LION is continuing its work to implement many of the solutions suggested by our analysts, and we will conduct 300 additional audits over the next three years thanks to support from the Knight Foundation. The lessons we learn will inform our future support and programming.

Meet our audit analysts

Thank you to all the experts who have contributed to our Sustainability Audits this year as analysts: 

1. Adriana Peña, media business strategy consultant and founder at Adventiva
2. Alec Saelens, revenue project manager at the Solutions Journalism Network
3. Alexandra Smith, audience director at the nonprofit newsroom The 19th
4. Angilee Shah, editor-in-chief at Charlottesville Tomorrow
5. Ariel Zirulnick, senior editor for community engagement at Southern California Public Radio
6. Becca Aaronson, co-founder and news product strategist and executive consultant at News Product Alliance 
7. Dan Oshinsky, founder and consultant at Inbox Collective 
8. David Arkin, consultant on content, product and digital audience at David Arkin Consulting
9. David Yoder, senior ad & marketing manager at Richland Source
10. Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, senior manager of coaching at LION Publishers
11. Emily Roseman, research director & editor at the Institute for Nonprofit News
12. Erica Beshears Perel, director of the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
13. Frances Dinkelspiel, co-founder and former executive editor of Cityside Journalism Initiative
14. Graham Ringo, senior director of client success at the News Revenue Hub
15. Jan Boyd, chief content officer at WSBE Rhode Island PBS
16. Jennifer Preston, former VP for Journalism at the Knight Foundation and senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School
17. Joanne Griffith, chief content officer for APM Studios
18. Joe Lanane, publisher success senior manager at Indiegraf
19. Kim Fox, director of product, reader experience at Hearst Newspapers
20. Lisa Heyamoto, director of teaching & learning at LION Publishers
21. Maple Walker Lloyd, director of development and community engagement at Block Club Chicago 
22. Maria Archangelo, chief revenue officer at Open Campus
23. Mary Benedicta Cipolla, former editor-in-chief and publisher at Chalkbeat
24. Maria Catalina Colmenares-Wiss, consultant, strategic advisor and former program director for Latin America at Media Development Investment Fund.
25. Priyanka Sharma-Sindhar, director of development and donor engagement at The Conversation US.
26. Shannan Bowen, executive director of the NC Local News Workshop
27. Todd Stauffer, association manager and digital specialist at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia

The post What our independent news experts learned from auditing 75 news businesses appeared first on LION Publishers.

We learned a lot from that program, and the outcomes were encouraging. After working through our custom curriculum and receiving coaching support and a total of $350,000 in direct funding, the inaugural cohort of publishers reported an average annual budget increase of 71 percent and significantly moved the needle on their financial and operational health.

We were eager to apply those learnings to inform our next iteration of the program, which is why we’re thrilled to announce an expanded partnership with the Google News Initiative to launch not just one, but three Startups Labs in 2022 to serve a total of 48 publishers. Learn more about how to apply below.

Each Lab will focus on a key topic related to building a sustainable news business: managing money and risk, building and managing a team and planning for revenue growth. Publishers have told us time and again that these areas capture both their most urgent strategic priorities and their biggest challenges, so we’ve designed these programs to be laser-focused on these specific needs.

Here’s more about how we’re incorporating what we’ve learned into our 2022 GNI Startups Labs.

Publishers are busy, and we need to meet them where they are

Time-bound, synchronous curriculum (think: webinars) can be powerful learning opportunities, but they can also be too inflexible for news leaders running the day-to-day operations of a lean organization. That’s why each of our three Labs will be tight, eight-week programs focused on a single topic. We’ve designed targeted trainings through our News Entrepreneur Academy that cohort members can access on-demand, with occasional live sessions organized in response to their right-now needs. Our hope is this will give publishers more flexibility to absorb content and apply those learnings on their own time.

Coaching can effectively bridge the gap between learning and doing

We know that on-demand curriculum can help make these best practices for building a sustainable news business more accessible. But we also know that the pain point for many news leaders isn’t necessarily learning a new skill or approach — it’s figuring out how to apply it to their unique organization. No two news businesses are exactly alike, and context matters when it comes to translating a best practice into an actual practice. Coaching is the critical link that helps publishers incorporate their newfound knowledge into their big-picture and day-to-day efforts, and our program design will make that relationship even more explicit. 

Clear deliverables — and the funding to implement them — are crucial

Boosting and individualizing a critical entrepreneurial skill is all very well and good, but all too often, the fruits of those efforts still end up feeling theoretical. That’s why each Lab is designed around a specific deliverable that will not only represent a direct and practical application of the curriculum and coaching, but will also be relevant long after the program ends. For example, the Managing Money & Risk Lab will point toward developing a financial plan, and the Planning for Revenue Growth Lab will focus on assessing a specific opportunity and creating a revenue plan to address it. What’s more, we know it’s important to continue to ensure that program participants have the financial means to act on what they’re learning, which is why each Lab offers funding to help cover the cost of producing those deliverables.

How to apply for the 2022 GNI Startups Labs

Applications for all three Labs are open until Monday, August 8 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Read our FAQ below for more details on the programs, eligibility, funding and more.

We hosted an information session on the three Labs on Friday,  July 29. You can view the recording of that session on YouTube and review the presentation slides here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will each 2022 GNI Startups Lab cover and what are the associated deliverables?

Startups Lab 1: Managing Money and Risk

Timeline: Sept. 5-Oct. 28

Topics covered:

• Navigating risk and uncertainty
• Financial management 
• Setting goals
• Developing key business and financial documents
• Planning for the future

Key deliverables:

• Financial plan 
• Essential documents checklist or risk mitigation plan 

Startups Lab 2: Building and Managing a Team

Timeline: Sept. 26-Nov. 18

Topics covered:

• Developing a staffing plan
• 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
• Management best practices

Key deliverables:

• Staffing plan
• Employee handbook

Startups Lab 3: Planning for revenue growth

Timeline: Oct. 17-Dec. 9

Topics covered:

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

Key deliverables:

• Revenue operations checklist
• Revenue plan

What exactly does each Lab entail?

Over the course of eight weeks, you’ll receive:

• On-demand training via LION’s News Entrepreneur Academy 
• Synchronous coaching sessions
• Synchronous cohort touch points and responsive training
• Direct funding to cover the cost of creating each Lab’s key deliverables

How much funding is available for each Lab?

• Managing Money and Risk: USD $5,000 per publication
• Building and Managing a Team: USD $10,000 per publication
• Planning for Revenue Growth: USD $15,000 per publication

Am I eligible to apply?

We require that your publication:

• Is based in the U.S. or Canada
• Is independently owned and operated. (This can include public media if the public media is merged with an independent publication and the two are independently run and funded; This can include college-based publications if they are independently run and/or funded.)
• Produces original content that is primarily on a digital platform(s)
• Has been operating for at least six months, and no more than 5 years
• Earns less than USD $500,000 per year in gross revenue
• Can demonstrate some successes on the path to sustainability, i.e. increased site visits, a growing membership program or increased earned revenue
• Focuses on one or more of the following: public interest journalism, filling an information gap, serving a geographic-bound or single subject community, serving an underserved community, exploring new ways to deliver and/or monetize information

Do I have to be a LION member to apply?

No. The 2022 GNI Startups Labs are open to any news business that meets the eligibility requirements. However, once accepted, you must apply to become a LION member before the program starts. All accepted participants of the Labs will be given a free one-year membership to LION Publishers. If you are already a LION member, we will comp your next year’s membership. Apply here.

Can I participate in more than one program?

No. You can only participate in one program so we can support as many news businesses as possible.

Can I apply to more than one program?

Yes. We are accepting applications to all three programs at the same time. You can let us know in the application if you’d like to be considered for multiple programs, and the order in which you’d prefer them.

How many applicants will be accepted?

We will accept 16 news businesses into each of the three Labs, for a total of 48 news businesses served.

How will you evaluate applications?

We’ll evaluate applications based on whether there is a clear and strong case for why your organization is in a good position to benefit from the program and how it will contribute to your strategic goals. We’ll be prioritizing organizations with the highest needs related to each topic to ensure as many LION members as possible are able to take advantage of at least one Lab this year. Finally, we always strive to serve a variety of organizations across size, geography, tax structure and audiences served. 

What if I’m not accepted? Can LION still help me strengthen my news business in these areas?

All trainings we develop for these three Labs will be available to all LION members on-demand through our News Entrepreneur Academy. 

Still have questions? Reach out to Andrew Rockway, LION’s program manager, at andrew@lionpublishers.com.

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