LION Publishers

18/06/2024

🎤 🌟 Seeking insights on how to effectively reach Spanish-speaking audiences?

We've got you covered. In this 2024 Summit session, "Growing audiences en español: Why translation isn't enough," Enlace Latino NC's Paola Jaramillo, SembraMedia's Janine Warner, and Planeta Venus' Claudia Amaro will share their real-world experiences serving diverse Hispanic, Latino, and LatinX communities in the U.S.

They’ll explore migration patterns, political and economic disparities, passions around sports, food, and family, and how publishers can connect with these communities.

Early bird ticket prices end on June 28! https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

14/06/2024

🎤 🌟 Organizational leadership transitions are inevitable, but they don't have to be painful. As the independent news industry matures, we're seeing a greater emphasis on and examples of thoughtful succession planning at all levels of leadership.

This 2024 Summit session, "Successful succession: How to navigate the personal, strategic, and logistical aspects of a significant leadership transition," will explore how Sahan Journal's Mukhtar M. Ibrahim, MLK50's Wendi Thomas, and The 19th News' Amanda Zamora have managed this change by approaching it from a position of intention, trust, and strength.

There are just two weeks left to score early bird savings. Get your Summit tickets by June 28. https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

13/06/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🫶 Find your people: Flavian DeLima, Nicci Kadilak, Claudia Amaro, Eden Fineday, Leo Cusimano, Camille Padilla Dalmau, and Ja Keen Fox will lead affinity groups at our 2024 Summit

🇨🇦 The Canadian Journalism Collective, with board representation that includes a handful of LION members, is Google's pick for ensuring eligible Canadian online news businesses receive their share of $100M in annual funding

💡Check out The Bedford Citizen's custom tool that helped them identify projects that save time and money

💬 Bonus: We've published another batch of five Summit sessions!

We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing back our member-favorite affinity groups for the Independent News Sustainability Summit!

10/06/2024

🎤 🌟 Advertising sales can be a major source of revenue, but they can also feel daunting. They don't have to be!

This 2024 Summit session featuring redbankgreen.com's Kenny Katzgrau will cover a simple system for handling inbound sales requests, "hunting" down sales, and a perspective that will make you want to sell more.

You'll walk away with a sample media kit, a sales conversation agenda, a simple agreement template, and recordings of Kenny's real-life sales calls with local businesses — everything you need to start your own successful sales journey.

Register for the Summit by June 28 to get the early bird discount. https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

06/06/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

💙 A tribute to independent news legend John Heaston

💥 The latest additions to our Summit lineup (we’ve posted five new sessions!)

📈 How The Lansing Journal grew recurring reader revenue by 20% in four weeks

John Heaston, a longtime publisher in Omaha and an active LION Publishers member, passed away on Friday, May 31.

03/06/2024

🎤 🌟 Philanthropic funding has been a fairly recent and high-impact revenue stream for journalism, but a durable revenue strategy doesn't start and end with grant funding.

Join Press Forward’s Christina Shih and the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund’s Lizzy Hazeltine for this 2024 Summit session, “How to use philanthropic funding as a jumping-off point for diversifying your revenue,” which will explore leveraging philanthropic dollars to diversify your revenue streams and build a strong foundation for the future.

There’s just one month left to get discounted tickets! Register by June 28: https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

30/05/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

💚 Borderless Magazine, Injustice Watch, and The Lansing Journal are inaugural Press Forward Chicago grantees

⭐ The Medill Local News Initiative seeks another batch of "Bright Spots"

🤝 The Texas Tribune is stepping out from behind the screen with in-person engagement strategies

Borderless Magazine, Injustice Watch, and The Lansing Journal are among 13 local news outlets that will benefit from $1.6M+ in Press Forward Chicago grants.

29/05/2024

🎤 🌟 You’re underwater running payroll, sourcing business insurance, researching CRMs, and, oh yes, also publishing news. You know you need operational support, but where, how much, and when? This 2024 Summit workshop, “Spending wisely and sitting pretty: Building an operations team you can afford,” will dive into your business model and financial position to help you identify your specific operational needs and outline a process for either choosing a vendor/contractor or hiring an in-house team member to do the critical work that moves your news business forward.

Join Kristin Tessman, Anne Galloway, Andrew Rockway, and Stacey L. Peters for this practical and powerful session. Get your discounted Summit tickets today! https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

24/05/2024

🎤 🌟 Strategic planning takes time, energy, and vision — attributes that are often in short supply in a lean organization. And yet, it's critical to identify where you are now, where you want to be down the road, and how to get there.

Join Bene Cipolla and Ashley Woods Branch for “Strategy is for everybody: A strategic planning workshop for solopreneurs and leaders of small news outlets” at the 2024 Summit. They’ll introduce strategic planning tools and exercises tailored to the needs of very small newsrooms and provide frameworks for setting goals and creating strategies to grow revenue, increase impact, and achieve better work-life balance. Get your discounted tickets today! https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

23/05/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🤗 The big list of journalism support orgs and what they offer (comment below with your suggestions for additions!)

🥳 See who will be joining us for a 2024 Summit keynote (hint: he's from the MacArthur Foundation)

💖 A well-deserved kudos to MLK50

We’ve compiled a list of the most current, relevant resources fellow journalism support organizations can provide independent news businesses.

22/05/2024

🎤 🌟 News founders: This one’s for you. 💙

Join The New York Times' Charo Henríquez for this hands-on 2024 Summit session, “From founder to leader: Becoming the leader your news business needs you to be,” which will explore your leadership style, outline strategies for shifting your mindset, and help you get from executor to visionary.

Save on your Summit ticket by registering by June 28. https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

20/05/2024

🎤 🌟 Ever wonder how other news organizations have invested in building more transparent, accountable, and caring work cultures? This 2024 Summit session, “Building work culture: How investing in people and systems creates more sustainable newsrooms,” is one you won’t want to miss. Hear from AZ Luminaria's Irene McKisson, Prison Journalism Project's Yukari Kane, Little Key's Jennifer Mizgata, and The 19th News' co-founder and Agencia Media's Amanda Zamora on how newsrooms at different stages of growth have addressed this, and you’ll walk away with clear takeaways to improve your own workplace. Register for the Summit by June 28 to get discounted, early bird tickets!

https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

16/05/2024

🎤 🌟 A wave of consolidation is washing over the independent news industry, leading many news leaders to question whether it's best to stay independent, form alliances, sell, buy, or merge. This 2024 Summit session, "Consolidating for impact: How mergers and acquisitions are changing the independent news landscape," featuring CalMatters.org's Neil Chase and The Markup's Sisi Wei, will explore how this trend is playing out across the industry, what it means, and take a look under the hood of CalMatters' acquisition of The Markup.

Early bird Summit tickets are on sale now; secure yours before we sell out! https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/

13/05/2024

*Update: As of May 17, 2024, we have temporarily paused applications for our Sustainability 360 program.

🌱 We’re delighted to introduce LION’s new Sustainability 360 program, an initiative designed to make the independent news industry more accessible for our Focus Members by connecting them with the most impactful support and resources that will help their businesses move toward sustainability.

In a one-year pilot, we’ll provide six program participants with access to experts who can provide strategic and tactical advice, consultants who can increase a team’s capacity, and conversations with other publishers working on similar challenges.

Interested? Sign up for our info session on May 22, and apply by June 3!

We'll select up to six news businesses led by Focus Members to participate in the inaugural program, which will run from June 28, 2024, to June 2025.

09/05/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🎊 LIONs make the list of 2024 Pulitzer Prize honorees (and congrats, Lookout Santa Cruz, on your big win!)

🎁 How 2PuntosPlatform built a giving campaign from scratch

💸 Find a fiscal sponsor for your news business

It’s a great sign that one of our own can hoist journalism’s highest honor on stage alongside foundational pillars of our industry.

02/05/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

✍️ Apply for Press Forward funding

💡 Get inspired by good questions (Big thanks to Anika Anand for this thoughtful reflection on her time at LION!)

🧳 Our first call for Summit travel stipends will close this Sunday

It's here: Press Forward’s first open call for funding is LIVE! And many LION members should qualify.

30/04/2024

💥 Press Forward's first open call for funding is LIVE! Small, local newsrooms that provide original reporting in underserved communities are encouraged to apply by June 12. Grants will provide selected newsrooms with $100K in unrestricted general operating support over two years. Learn more 👇

Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps General operating support for local news organizations. Review the Program Guidelines. Apply Now Closing Local Coverage Gaps Press Forward’s first open call will address the longstanding inequalities in journalism coverage and practice in the U.S., by inves...

25/04/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

📅 The deadline to indicate interest in a LION peer group is tomorrow, April 26!

💫 100 for $100K: An update on Press Forward funding

🎉 Kudos to CalMatters.org for acquiring The Markup

Led by our 2024 community ambassadors, our six peer groups center shared experiences and will meet monthly via Zoom.

22/04/2024

⏰ 🏆 ⏰ LION members: Today’s the last day to submit your application(s) to the 2024 LION Sustainability Awards! Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to reflect on your accomplishments and have your work evaluated against peer news organizations with similar annual revenue. Click “Submit” on all your apps by 11:59 p.m. PT! https://www.lionpublishers.com/awards/

19/04/2024

Working on your application(s) to the 2024 LION Sustainability Awards? Here are three tips from last year’s winners:

💥 Emphasize the significance of your organization’s work in the community
💪 Don’t underestimate the value of your achievements, even if they seem small or mundane
🧱 Build on your celebratory narrative

Read our post on how to highlight your news organization’s impact, and remember to submit your entries by Monday, April 22, at 11:59 p.m. PT!

We’ve compiled a list of tips and resources to help your work stand out to funders and award judges.

18/04/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🦁 Share your best LION slogan with us (we may just feature it on Summit swag!)

🆒 An actionable, call-to-action case study

🌟 LION members 9 Millones, BenitoLink, Borderless Magazine, CivicLex, Lookout Publications, RANGE Media, and Southwest Contemporary are up for the Next Challenge for Media & Journalism's Future of Local Journalism Award

We’re still accepting applications for the third and fourth cycles of our 2024 Audit program.

15/04/2024

📣 Have you heard? We’ve extended the 2024 LION Sustainability Awards application deadline to Monday, April 22, at 11:59 p.m. PT! There are eight categories to choose from, and all LION members are eligible and encouraged to apply. 🏆 https://www.lionpublishers.com/awards/

11/04/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

💥 Knight Foundation has signed on as a Platinum Sponsor of the 2024 Summit (and huge thanks to our other sponsors, The Carol Oppenheim and Jerome S Lamet Charitable Fund, Reynolds Journalism Institute, Google News Initiative, Indiegraf, BlueLena!)

🚘 Apply for a $600 Summit travel stipend (which will go farther with an early bird ticket!)

📅 We've extended the LION Awards deadline

[Bonus] 🛸 The future of our Sustainability Audit

We’re offering $600 travel stipends to LION members to help subsidize the cost of attending the 2024 Summit.

10/04/2024

Members of LION Publishers, it's time to apply for a travel stipend to our conference in Chicago in September: The Independent News Sustainability Summit! Our programming partners are the Institute for Nonprofit News, the American Journalism Project and the Online News Association. Our host partner is Block Club Chicago. Early bird tickets are ON SALE NOW, so your travel stipend goes farther...

We’re offering travel stipends to our LION members to help subsidize the cost of attending the 2024 Summit.

04/04/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

👥 Sign up for one of our six peer-led groups

🌟 Tips for how to talk about your organization’s impact

👀 Updates on industry trends, plus a promising outlook

We're launching six peer groups to connect members with shared experiences so they can learn from each other as they build more sustainable news businesses.

28/03/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🗣 Consider speaking at our 2024 Summit (and other industry events!)

👉 We're hiring a development director

🔤 How unclear language prevents the passage of pro-journalism legislation

Speaker proposals for our 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit will close tomorrow, March 29, at 11 p.m. PT.

21/03/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

🗳 How can LION help you this election season? Let us know!

📘 Sahan Journal is embarking on an exciting new chapter in its success story

🔵 Nieman Journalism Lab's Venn diagram displays the differences and similarities between journalism-support groups

Please complete our short survey to help us understand what elections-related resources we might provide that would be most useful to you.

15/03/2024

"The affinity group [at LION's Southeast Meetup] was special. There were deep connections all around – people made eye contact and felt heard. It's the kind of networking you hope for at a conference." - Flavian DeLima, Spinning Forward

We agree! And we're excited to bring back affinity groups and table talks for the 2024 Summit. If you have an idea for a group or table talk (and/or an interest in leading one!), we'd love to hear from you. Share your proposal by March 29! 💬

https://summit24.lionpublishers.com/speakers

14/03/2024

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨

💫 We've rounded up 25 resources for independent news publishers

🔗 Why more news publishers are turning to LinkedIn

💙 How Candice Fortman of Outlier Media tapped into staff skill sets to help her build a thriving news business

This week, we’ve rounded up more than two dozen resources for independent news publishers.

12/03/2024

At LION Publishers, we’re big believers in feedback. And we want to hear from our members about how we can continue to support their operations as they build more sustainable news businesses.

Check out the three ways member feedback has shaped and shifted our strategy since 2019, and grab some time with LION’s leadership team to share your thoughts on how we can best approach this work moving forward.

Member feedback has shaped our strategy, and we've learned three things about how best to provide what members need, when they need it most.