🤗 Why our Sustainability Audits are so popular
What do you get from our Sustainability Audits & Funding program?
Just a personalized set of recommendations to make your independent news business more sustainable, tailored to your capacity, needs and goals by an expert in the field.
Oh, and up to $6,000 to act on what you learn.
There’s a reason why our audit is so popular with LION members. For a total time commitment of about 5 hours, publishers can get help identifying their most promising opportunities and taking the crucial next steps to capitalize on them.
The deadline to apply for the first cycle of our 2023 Sustainability Audits & Funding program is next Tuesday, May 30.
LION members who did not receive an audit in 2022 are eligible to apply. If you did receive an audit in 2022, we’ll be announcing opportunities for you later this year.
Not a LION member yet? This is a great time to join our community of 450+ independent publishers, as you’ll be immediately eligible to apply for a Sustainability Audit and to submit entries in the 2023 LION Local Journalism Awards.
Now here are 10 other resources and opportunities for independent publishers:
1. Submit entries for the Online Journalism Awards. LION members have an especially strong record winning the Gather Award for Community-Centered Journalism. (Deadline: TODAY)
2. Share these opportunities with young reporters. The Allbritton Journalism Institute Reporting Fellowships and the New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship both provide funding and support to young reporters pursuing careers in journalism. (Deadlines: May 31 & June 1)
3. Prepare yourself for a news leadership role. Applications are now open for CUNY’s yearlong Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. (Deadline: June 2)
4. Launch an independent local news business with help from this summer workshop led by our very own News Guest producer Jenna Spinelle.
5. Apply for the LION Local Journalism Awards. LION members are eligible to submit entries in up to ten categories, and each winner will receive at least $1,000. (Deadline: June 22)
6. Save the date for Durham. Our Southeast News Sustainability Meetup in Durham, North Carolina, will also host the 2023 LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony. (October 3-4)
7. Get help collecting your accounts receivable. This SCORE webinar will explain how to navigate small claims court if your advertisers or other clients fail to pay. (June 6)
8. Take a course for ‘Management May.’ LION members can take self-guided courses on HR Best Practices and Management Best Practices in the News Entrepreneur Academy.
9. Find a grant for your newsroom. The Newsfuel directory includes upcoming grant opportunities for photojournalism, science reporting, AI accountability reporting, and more.
10. Grow your email audience by making your newsletter archive more SEO-friendly.
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What we’re reading
Local matters. What researchers learned when they asked 5,000 Americans what they want from local news. (American Journalism Project)
Paywall timing. How launching a subscription product too soon can slow your revenue growth in the long run. (Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter)
Fundraising trends. How the nonprofit news sector is making room for more publishers by finding new sources of support. (Institute for Nonprofit News)
Growing pains. Why landing a large grant can pose challenges for small organizations, even if it’s the best problem to have. (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Lead with kindness. Why stories about kindness might be part of the solution to news fatigue. (Nieman Lab)
LIONs in the news
Our friends at INN announced another 12 publishers that will receive support raising money from major gifts, and the cohort includes LION members Investigate Midwest, MinnPost, MLK50, Open Vallejo, The JOLT and Voice of OC!
Congratulations to these publishers — and also to INN’s executive director Sue Cross, who announced that she’ll be stepping down this year to focus on a new project.
Sue has been an incredible leader in the journalism support industry, and she and her team deserve a world of credit for their work building programs like this and so many others that support independent local journalism.
In other LION member news…
- Report for America honored journalists from Bay City News Foundation, El Paso Matters, MLK50, Sahan Journal, The Maine Monitor, The Haitian Times, and Underscore at its third annual Local News Awards.
- The Data-Driven Reporting Project awarded more than $500,000 in grants to thirteen news organizations and freelancers, including AfroLA, Honolulu Civil Beat, Investigate Midwest, Investigative Journalism Foundation, New York Focus, The Hoser and VNN Oklahoma.
- Outlier Media has launched a newsletter focused on safety, criminal justice and policing in collaboration with nearly a dozen local news partners, including fellow LION members Chalkbeat Detroit and Planet Detroit.
- CT Mirror is hiring a director of membership.
- The Maine Monitor reporter Samantha Hogan has received the Silver Gavel Award for multimedia journalism from the American Bar Association.
How to reach us
When you reply to this email, we all receive it and you’ll hear back from one of us. You can also email us directly at [email protected].