This form is for new members only. If you are looking to renew an existing membership, or restart an expired membership, please reach out to us at [email protected]. 

Membership Eligibility

The answers to the below questions will determine your organization’s eligibility for LION membership. You can review our full membership criteria here.

 

LION’s mission is to support independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses to strengthen the local independent news ecosystem. LION membership is specifically intended for organizations that are aiming to strengthen access to independent news. 



Either you have a digitally native publication, or you publish the majority of your content digitally. Examples can include newsletter-only, podcast-only publications or any other creative forms of digital distribution that reaches your intended communities.


This means you are privately owned and not primarily or majority owned by a publicly traded company, newspaper chain, hedge fund or private equity firm and/or political or religious institution.
Thank you for your interest in becoming a member of LION Publishers. One or more of your selections have indicated that your organization is not eligible for LION membership. Please review our membership criteria and review your selections to ensure that they are an accurate reflection of your organization. If you have any questions, you are welcome to reach us here.


For example, Chalkbeat has multiple bureaus across the U.S.

We will be evaluating your application based on your commitment to the journalistic practices of accuracy, transparency and fairness. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]. Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply.


Examples: Events, publish reader letters, website comments, etc.

Organization Information




If you use another platform to reach your audience, please provide a link to that platform

At this time, we only accept organizations based in the U.S. — including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories — and Canada. Being based in the U.S. or Canada means that: - Your publication is (or will be) registered as an organization or business in the U.S. or Canada (as opposed to another country); - Your founder and/or leadership team is based in the U.S. or Canada; - The majority of your staff members are based in the U.S. or Canada; and - Your primary audience or the audience you are most focused on developing lives in the U.S. or Canada.






Provide a high-resolution logo. We plan to display this as part of our public membership database.


Please include any specific areas where you want to build skills or expertise.

Organizational Leadership Information


Reminder: This membership application must be completed by an individual in a leadership position at your organization. We define leadership as individuals with any of the following titles: CEO/Executive Director, Founder, Publisher, Editor, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, or an equivalent title.




By sharing your pronouns, you help us understand how you wish to be addressed and affirmed. This practice promotes a culture of respect and inclusivity, acknowledging and validating diverse gender identities.


While LION member benefits are accessible to any employees of an approved organization, we ask that a person in your organization's executive leadership please fill out the application form. Please select all that apply.


We only use this for internal purposes.

We only use this for internal purposes for membership updates and to ensure that your organization can access LION’s membership benefits and programs.
LION is committed to helping at least 100 of its Focus Members reach the “Growing” stage of our sustainability model over the next five years. Focus Members are news businesses that are in a specific stage of growth, and have leadership from a historically marginalized community. Learn more about why we set this goal and help us identify whether you are a Focus Member based on our criteria below.

Does the leadership of your organization publicly identify as any of the following? Please select all that apply.

Reminder: We define leadership as individuals with any of the following titles: CEO/Executive Director, Founder, Publisher, Editor, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, or an equivalent title.


Leadership Identity Demographics
A person in leadership publicly identifies as a Person of Color or another racially or ethnically historically marginalized identity not listed above.

(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, or as a member of broader gender and sexually diverse communities)

LION has developed a maturity model to map the stages a news business moves through as it progresses from idea to growth to sustainability. Self-identifying your stage helps us understand what member offerings might be most useful for your news business. It's okay if you aren't totally sure - your best guess is fine!

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.


If you haven't launched or registered your business yet, you may be a sole proprietor/no specific tax status

If you know the exact date your publication began publishing, please enter that below. If you only know the month and year, please input the 1st of that month in the correct year. If you only know the year that your organization began operations, please put Jan 1 of that year.

LION only serves a limited number of sites that serve national or international audiences, please refer to our membership criteria for more details

Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply

Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply

Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply

Please select only 5. Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply

Below, we will be asking for some financial information about your organization. We ask for this information to help inform industry analyses like this, which help us advocate for the continued support of independent news organizations like yours. All of this information will be kept confidential and secure. If you have any questions, please feel free to email [email protected]


1 is low priority for your organization; 5 is high priority, you or your leadership team is focused on building a sustainable news organization (the majority of LION members aim to run businesses that can financially support at least two employees)

Please pick up to three revenue streams. Hold down alt (on PC) or command (on Mac) to select all options that apply

Please enter a numerical value. Do not include $ or , in your response

Please enter a numerical value. Do not include $ or , in your response





Are any of these people members of a board? If so, please notate.



For example: Has your reporting led to an investigation? Has it changed a law? Or helped someone?

You can see an example of a Project Oasis profile and the data included here. Financial data provided in this application will not be shared. You can read more about Project Oasis here.

These emails include program application openings, new member benefit announcements, information about upcoming events and exclusive industry opportunities, and other pertinent information for making the most of your LION membership.

Your weekly guide to all that’s happening in independent media, news entrepreneurship, and the wide world of LION Publishers.


If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected]