👀 Check out the speaker lineup for our Southeast Meetup
We are thrilled to share our programming lineup for the Southeast News Sustainability Meetup! Here’s a preview of our impressive speakers and their session topics, which we developed with a group of members in the Southeast to ensure they were relevant, actionable, and inspiring:
- “Stepping away from the journalism: Navigating the tactical, practical, and emotional process of shifting from doing the journalism to running the business” with MLK50’s Wendi Thomas and WFAE Charlotte’s Ju-Don Marshall.
- “Demystifying the revenue funnel: Outlining real-world tactics and timelines for getting your revenue to consistently flow” with Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Michaux Hood, Enlace Latino NC’s Angelica Santibanez-Mendez, and Cardinal News’ Luanne Rife.
- “From scrappy to structured: Managing the operational and cultural aspects of organizational change” with The Charlotte Ledger’s Tony Mecia, Prison Journalism Project’s Yukari Kane, Santa Cruz Local’s Natalya Dreszer, and LION’s own Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, who will be moderating.
- “Making the case: Strategies for communicating your mission and values when your news business intentionally doesn’t fit the mold” with Conecta Arizona’s Maritza Félix, The Food Section’s Hanna Raskin, CivicLex’s Richard Young, and Scalawag/Press On’s Alyzza May.
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain new knowledge and industry insights from some of the best in the business. Early-bird pricing for the Southeast Meetup has been extended until Aug. 23. You can still grab tickets to the event and the LION Awards Ceremony and Dinner.
Speaking of the LION Awards, it has been a joy to notify our finalists and watch the excitement unfold across our social media channels. Check out the list of incredible finalists here (the link works this time, I promise 😅) and follow along with the fun at #LIONAwards23. We are so proud of our members for doing this essential work! 🎉
See you soon!
–– Hayley Milloy, LION’s marketing manager
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LION welcomes (another!) new team member
We’re on a bit of a hiring streak to better support our growing membership base! Please help us warmly welcome Reshma Kothari, our first Finance & Operations Manager. Reshma is passionate about social justice and has extensive experience in nonprofit program management, project management, and technical consulting. She will help make LION more efficient and sustainable by supporting financial management, people operations, and administration. You can learn more about Reshma and her role here, and you can meet all of the new LION staff members in person at the Southeast Meetup and LION Awards this October.
12 resources and opportunities for independent publishers
1. Get familiar with Generative AI. The Journalism Courses program from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering a free webinar: “Generative AI: What journalists need to know about ChatGPT and other tools.” (TODAY at 10 a.m. ET)
2. Develop your data mapping skills. Enroll in “Advanced data journalism: Powerful data reporting and mapping tools,” a four-week online course organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin. (Starts on Aug. 21)
3. Apply for USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism’s Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems, which supports investigative or explanatory projects on systemic racism in public health, health care policy, and the practice of medicine. (Apply by Aug. 21)
4. Become a LION Community Ambassador and help build regional relationships with independent publishers. Ambassadors will receive a $1,000 honorarium upon completion of project deliverables. (Apply by Aug. 27)
5. Apply for a LION Sustainability Audit. Receive a tailored action plan and $20,000 in direct funding to address your organizational goals. (Apply by Aug. 28)
6. Apply for The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship. Fellows will be paid to spend a year producing signature investigative work focused on their state or region that will be published by The Times. (Apply by Sept. 1)
7. Pitch your proposal. The Fund for Investigative Journalism is accepting proposals for grants of up to $10,000 for investigative journalism stories that break new ground and uncover wrongdoing in the public or private sectors. (Apply by Sept. 5)
8. Apply for CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program, a new online program for independent journalists developing niche news products. (Apply by Sept. 8)
9. Become a Democracy Day partner. Produce at least one story or piece of content about the U.S. democracy crisis, or if you’re not with a newsroom, promote the initiative to your networks. (Sept. 15)
10. Apply for The Lenfest Institute’s Philadelphia Local News Sustainability Initiative. This grant program provides core operating support and capacity-building funding to news organizations in the Philadelphia region. (Apply by Sept. 15)
11. Snag a “seed” grant for early reporting. The Fund for Investigative Journalism is offering grants from $1,000 to $2,500 for preliminary reporting on specific projects. (Apply by Sept. 15)
12. Attend Radically Rural’s 6th Annual Summit in Keene, New Hampshire to learn about strategic opportunities for transformation in rural communities. (Sept. 27-28)
What we’re reading
Out with the old. Why we need to rethink (and reconstruct from the ground up) journalism education to ultimately save the industry. (Medium)
Come on in, the solution’s…cheap! How a relatively small bump in federal funding could reverse the local-news crisis. (The Atlantic)
Smooth operations. How three journalists at three different publications dedicated their Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship projects to improving their newsrooms’ internal workings. (Poynter)
LIONs in the news
On December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire tore through Boulder County in Colorado, becoming the most destructive wildfire the state had ever seen. That spring, Boulder Reporting Lab’s Stacy Feldman discovered that “standing home” survivors, whose houses had not been burned by the blaze, were battling a perilous yet invisible threat –– toxic particles lurking undetected indoors and out. Recognizing that BLR didn’t have the bandwidth to investigate this alone, Stacy contacted colleagues at the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder. The community’s first pop-up newsroom was born within a week. There’s nothing quite like the power of partnership, and BLR is taking it a step further by creating a guide to help other local newsrooms tap into outside resources when capacity is tight. It comes as no surprise that BLR’s commitment to collaboration in support of their community has landed them on the 2023 LION Awards finalist list –– they’re up for the Collaboration of the Year Award.
In other LION member news:
- Shasta Scout welcomed a new team member, associate editor Michelle Weidman.
- City Limits will celebrate its 47th anniversary this October with a special Gala, “Celebrating a Legacy of Local NYC Housing News.”
- CalMatters is unionizing with 92% of staff in support.
- The Harvey World Herald’s founder, Amethyst Davis, is featured in Forbes’ inaugural 30 Under 30 Local Chicago list.
- Buckrail in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is hiring a staff writer to join its editorial team.
How to reach us
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