Podcast: Liena Zagare and Ben Smith of BKLYNER

Liena Zagare is the publisher of BKLYNER, which covers Brooklyn, NY. She and husband Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed, penned an article for the Columbia Journalism Review which argues for changing laws requiring that legal notices be published only in print. We asked Zagare and Smith about that and the impact it might have on LION sites, and also discussed BKLYNER and the future of local news.

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Podcast: Field Walsh of TXK Today

Host Scott Brodbeck (ARLnow.com, RestonNow.com) interviews Field Walsh of TXK Today in Texas, whose route to local news was non-traditional and who has found success in an advertising model and video.

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Death by 1,000 paper cuts

Layoff season is year-round now at the country’s big corporate newspaper chains. Let’s supports journalists who are starting their own businesses to replace what’s been cut.

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LION Webinar 13: Preserving Digital Archives

Are your story archives protected from a major server crash or other technology problem? And what happens to news archives crucial to the history of a community if a local online news site closes down?

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LION welcomes new members from 18 states

LION Publishers is pleased to have welcomed more than two dozen new members running local independent online news sites from 18 different states over the past year, plus other new members who are preparing to launch sites.

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In many communities, best local journalism is not coming from print

Margaret Sullivan is right to sound the alarm about what steep newspaper cuts are doing to local journalism across the country, but her April 16 column, “Great local reporting stands between you and wrongdoing. And it needs saving,” misses the story of what is replacing and can replace what’s being lost.

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Podcast: Jesus Sanchez of The Eastsider in Los Angeles

LION member Jesus Sanchez is the proprietor of The Eastsider LA in Los Angeles. We talked with Jesus about being a one man band, making ends meet when you’re covering communities in a big city (including communities that are gentrifying), and about the differences between LION sites in large metro areas and smaller towns.

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Podcast: Matt DeRienzo of LION Publishers

LION members know Matt DeRienzo from his work as our executive director. But March 6 marks a milestone for Matt: his first day as LION’s *full time* ED. Thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation, Matt is focused full time on serving members and growing LION as an organization. We talked with Matt about his work with LION, his print media background, the future of LION, and what LION members are doing to sustain and distinguish themselves and grow in an increasingly Facebook-and-Google dominated online advertising landscape.

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Podcast: Joe Hyde of San Angelo Live!

LION member Joe Hyde, publisher of San Angelo LIVE! in Texas, talked with us about a variety of topics, from earning extra revenue from programmatic advertising to keeping your readers on your site longer. He also explained how he went from flying bombers for the Air Force to starting a small ISP to launching a LION site.

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Podcast: Kenny Katzgrau of Broadstreet Ads

Kenny Katzgrau needs no introduction for many LION members, as his company, Broadstreet Ads, is the advertising technology provider many of us rely on to keep the business side of our shops humming. We talked with Kenny about the current state of online advertising, competition with Facebook for ad dollars, and where he sees the online ad business going over the next couple of years.

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Podcast: Howard Owens of The Batavian

Host Scott Brodbeck (ARLnow.com, RestonNow.com) interviews “OG” LION publisher Howard Owens of The Batavian and the Wyoming County Free Press. We talk about Howard’s path to launching the Batavian, growing readership and advertising, and what the future might hold for LION publishers in the age of Facebook.

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