LION Members: Tell us about one big idea that helped your business succeed this year

It’s been another weird year. But, despite it all, LION members continue to push to make their newsrooms more sustainable while simultaneously producing outstanding journalism. That’s why we’re celebrating LION members during our Local Journalism Awards ceremony. The good news? You gave us way more LION Awards entries than last year — a whopping 40 percent more, to be exact! This is a testament to the strong work you’re producing every day.

The not so great news? We don’t have enough judges to handle that load, and things are down to the wire. With that in mind, and Election Day close behind, we’ve decided to take the hard but necessary step to postpone this year’s LION Awards to Tuesday, Nov. 16. Receiving an industry award can be an important moment for a news organization to celebrate and be recognized for the valuable work it does for its community, which is why we take seriously our commitment to evaluate the entries thoughtfully and intentionally. Hosting our show on Nov. 16 will allow us the time to do that.

If you’ve already RSVP’d, not to worry, you’re on the list. We’ll send out a new calendar invitation to all registered attendees shortly.

We love giving out awards and giving our members the opportunity to hear from one another. So we’re hosting a pre-awards event that will showcase LION members’ work. During our “One BIG Idea”, a selected group of LION members will have exactly five minutes each to tell us about one BIG idea that positively impacted their news business this year.

Join us on Tuesday, Nov. 16 to honor LION members’ incredible achievements this past year. We’ll start with our “One Big Idea” Lightning Talks at 10:30 a.m. PT/1:30 p.m. ET, followed by our LION Awards Ceremony where we’ll announce the winners of the 2021 LION Awards.

Below are some examples of talks we’re looking forward to hearing during our “One Big Idea” Lightening Talks:

• An editorial approach that helped you better serve your community
• A creative revenue stream that helped your bottom line
• A hiring process that helped you identify a great new team member
• Any other specific idea that another LION member could adapt to their business

An idea may seem small to you, but it could be transformational for another member. Thank you to those who submitted a big idea earlier this month. We’ll be reaching out to selected presenters soon. Presenters will also receive a $100 gift card as a thank you from us for taking time to share your learnings with other LION members. 

Questions? Reach out to [email protected].