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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
LION awards investigative reporting grants to 18 publishers

The Local Independent Online News Publishers organization this week awarded $25,000 to 18 of its member newsrooms to report investigative and enterprise stories important to their communities, and to sharpen their skills for more such stories.

Called the Impact-Designed Investigative Grants, the amounts range from $500 to $1,500. The winning online publications serve an array of audiences, including those in California, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and North Carolina. 

Further, LION will provide each newsroom with a membership into the national Investigative Reporters and Editors group.

The awards were made possible with a grant to LION Publishers from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.


In Denver, a revolt against hedge fund newspaper owners

Ken Doctor has obtained eye-popping profit numbers from Digital First Media's newspapers, and concludes that hedge fund owner Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon.

Former Denver Post owner Dean Singleton is upset that the paper he built “has been totally gutted of news coverage…It is breaking my heart.” Denver Post editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett has resigned after calling on owners to sell. And a rejected Denver Post editorial decries ‘outright censorship’ at Digital First papers. And this week, Denver Post workers went to New York to protest their hedge fund owner.

Elsewhere in the company, the Boulder City Council has called for 'full editorial independence' at the Daily Camera. Could a newspaper rebellion against hedge-fund ownership spread to Massachusetts?

Related: Why the “golden age” of newspapers was the exception, not the rule. Audiences see local news as more ‘noteworthy’ than national news in survey. And this Pulitzer-winning paper has local owners. They bought it from a chain.


Community backs a popup local indie online news site

Last September, LION member Jeremy Klaszus launched a local independent online news site in Calgary with the intention of shutting it down after covering just one topic - that year's municipal elections.

"Klaszus created the site, The Sprawl, as a pop-up journalism experiment. ... But given the positive response, he decided to continue publishing. The Sprawl now pops up to cover a topic for a few weeks and then pops down once its reporting is done. He’s about to launch the fourth edition of The Sprawl this month."

The Sprawl has 376 supporters on Patreon. They collectively contribute $2,583 per month to support the site. His goal is $5,000 per month.


LION joins in call for release of detained journalist

LION has joined 26 press-freedom, civil-rights, labor and civil-liberties groups in signing a letter urging a regional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to release unjustly detained journalist Manuel Duran Ortega.

"The Memphis police arrested Duran on April 3 while he was covering a local protest over the targeting of undocumented immigrants by local and federal law-enforcement agencies. The local police arrested Duran and charged him with disorderly conduct and obstruction of a highway or passageway, even though he was wearing a press badge around his neck and was identified by others as a member of the media.

"Memphis authorities dropped the charges against Duran on April 5, but then turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has detained Duran in Jena, Louisiana, with plans to deport him to El Salvador, where he has faced death threats for past reporting as the manager of a local TV station.
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LION summit planned for IRE conference in Orlando June 15

LION Publishers will hold a day-long summit at the Investigative Reporters & Editors conference in Orlando Friday, June 15, covering issues, opportunities, ideas and advice for local independent online news organizations and entrepreneurs who are considering starting their own local news site.

A theme of this year's LION gathering at IRE will be how investigative, enterprise and accountability journalism can help local publishers build financial support from readers.

A limited number of travel stipends are available for LION members who want to attend.


News About Local Independent Online News Sites

BREITBART LOCAL?: Baby Breitbarts to pop up across the country? New Illinois news site designed to counter Breitbart and a local version of it.

CHICAGO: The Triibe roams a Chicago overlooked by legacy media.

COACHING: Alumnae of Poynter's Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media and ONA's Women's Leadership Accelerator are offering free one-on-one coaching sessions to women journalists.

MARKETING: Early Learning on the Pros and Cons of Advertising on a Bootstrapper’s Budget.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Why this New Hampshire foundation decided to fund journalism.

NONPROFITS: As a Nieman fellow this year, Steve Myers, editor of The Lens in New Orleans, will study how nonprofit, investigative news sites can reach civic-minded audiences, demonstrate their value and increase reader support.

TV: “I think public television and stations like us could be really powerful answers to struggling newspapers." A Pennsylvania TV station is hiring 12 journalists to pursue in-depth community news.

VERMONT: Getting the story right takes ‘more than luck.’ A great explanation from VT Digger on the work that goes into local accountability journalism.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

ADS: You don’t need a paywall if you have cool ads, The Outline CEO Josh Topolsky says.
The Washington Post wants to create ads that emphasize utility for users.

AD TECH: Mobile Ad Fraud Rates Double. Publishers say they’ll use GDPR to shed ad tech vendors. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation is coming May 25. How have news publishers prepared? GDPR scrambling has spawned a swell of data protection ‘charlatans.’ How Ad Tech Companies Are Becoming Publishers.

E-COMMERCE: Wirecutter is distributing commerce content through other publishers.

MEMBERSHIP: Don’t hard sell potential members. Just make it easy. Can a news organization provide the service of feeling connected through its membership program? Wall Street Journal’s 3-year transformation from subscription to membership.

NEWSLETTERS: So, You Want to Start an Email Newsletter? Five Reasons You Should. Substack raises $2 million to prove newsletters can help media. How The Times of London uses email newsletters to drive subscriptions. How to promote podcasts and newsletters on social media.

ROI: How Media Startups Stack Up on Revenue Per Employee.

SEO: Optimizing for Audiences — SEO 101 for Nonprofit News.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Understanding the subscription funnel and how the entire newsroom can play a part in it. Nine audience paths to subscription. Driving value from subscriptions, publishers involve readers in the process. The New York Times is ramping up conference calls for subscribers that are run a little like radio shows. Prioritizing the reading experience at The Times: Why the paywall prompts radical thinking inside the newsroom. How The Economist uses its 12-person data journalism team to drive subscriptions. French daily Liberation has 1,000 subscribers to its kid-focused edition. With “straightforward and unsexy” email, The Christian Science Monitor has hit 10,000 paid digital subscribers in a year. Automated, personalized, mobile, paid for, and (eventually) less fake. Quality journalism is coming back. Bloomberg’s New Paywall Will Charge Users $35 a Month. How The Economist’s new app tries to keep people from unsubscribing. Seven key global trends in news media subscriptions.

The Bloomberg Paywall Does Not Make Sense. Subscription hell: How not to do paywalls. The Paywall Quandary: How many subscriptions does one really need? Medium abruptly cancels the membership programs of its 21 remaining subscription publisher partners.

VIDEO: Refinery29 redesigns its site to boost video viewing, shopping.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

AP STYLE: New AP Stylebook guidelines, influenced by #MeToo, hurricanes, and online polls.

COLLABORATION: How can mainstream and ethnic media team up to produce better journalism? Learn these lessons from facilitators.

DATA: Trinity Mirror data unit boss says it should be 'more the merrier' as huge amount of local data 'still not interrogated properly by journalists.'

ENGAGEMENT: Looking for evidence that audience engagement helps newsrooms? Here you go. Unlocking the power of behavioral science to build enduring trust and mutual respect between newsrooms and the public. Publishers are finding (modest) success with Facebook groups. Why journalism’s listening cure is very much a work in progress. 'We don’t just want to send information, we also want to receive it' – Q&A with Gwen Martèl, conversation editor, De Correspondent. Why Americans Are Afraid to Talk to Reporters: They Fear Backlash From Their Neighbors, and Are Wary the Media Will Exploit Them. Mad about your commute? There’s a Facebook group for that. Interest in Facebook groups is high, but growth is slow for brands.

INTERACTIVES: Tool for journalists: InterviewJS, for turning interviews into interactive chats.

LONGFORM: Going long: An expression of writing craft we must not lose.

METRICS: Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires.

MOBILE: Integrating push notifications into newsroom duties. A guide to nearly all of the code written during two years of experimentation with mobile-first storytelling formats.

NEWS LITERACY: Journalists can change the way they build stories to create organic news fluency.

PLATFORMS: A group of media, journalism and tech companies has joined veteran media executive Merrill Brown to create a full-service publishing platform specifically built for digital news publishers.

PODCASTING: The 4 P's of podcasting: How to turn your idea into an audio hit. Google wants to do for podcasts on Android what Apple did for podcasts on iOS. One of the best podcast apps just got bought by some of the biggest podcast producers. So why is a coalition of public radio giants buying a podcast app, exactly? Zetland’s members asked for an audio version — and now it’s more popular than their written stories.

RELIGION: It’s Hard to Find God on the Front Page: A lack of reporters means religious news gets short shrift—and lots of corrections.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Publishers leave 'speed-dating' on social behind, seek to go steady.

STORYTELLING: How one person’s story can give voice to millions.

TRANSPARENCY: CNN fights to keep internal editorial guidelines under wraps. Why?

VERIFICATION: 10 tips for verifying viral social media videos.

WRITING: Authentic voice: the indispensable quality of good writing.


Industry News

APPLE: Conde Nast denies rumors it is being purchased by Apple. Apple’s quiet boost from Google may slow. Apple hiring activity shows a clear mission to get deeper into editorial publishing. Apple News officially lets publishers use Google’s DoubleClick to serve ads.

BLOCKCHAIN: Blockchain Media Firm Civil Launches an Ambitious Studio to Build an 'Open Marketplace for Journalists.'

CANADA: In Canada: How to save local news without massive government bailouts. There are fewer journalists in Canada than 15 years ago — but not as few as you might think. Montreal's La Presse to become non-profit entity. No print, no private owners, fewer problems?

CHICAGO: Chicago's oldest independent Jewish newspaper closes after 27 years. Under Pressure, Tronc Recognizes 'Chicago Tribune' Union.

ESPN: ESPN discontinues Public Editor position.

FACEBOOK: Facebook Weighs Ad-Free Subscription Option. Facebook will allow users to opt out of letting Facebook collect their browsing history. Facebook’s Privacy Changes Leave Developers Steaming. Facebook’s Double Standard on Privacy: Employees vs. Everyone Else. Even Amid Scandal, Facebook Is Unstoppable. Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Facebook rolls out issue ad rules in new move to combat Russian meddling.

Facebook’s January news feed algorithm change has had little to no effect on mainstream national news publishers, with most actually experiencing increased interaction rates. After Facebook tweaks, some publishers’ traffic has, in fact, increased. New data casts doubt on Facebook’s commitment to quality news. Campbell Brown on Facebook’s plans to decide what news is trustworthy. Facebook commits to civil rights audit, political bias review. Facebook Does Not Understand the Conservative Grift. Facebook Ranking News Sources By Trust Is A Bad Idea... But No One At Facebook Will Read Our Untrustworthy Analysis. Zuckerberg cares about journalism, but says he doesn’t want to pay for it.

FAKE NEWS: How We Solved Fake News the First Time. Bots Aren’t the Enemy in the Information War—We Are. How artificial intelligence can detect – and create – fake news. Knight Prototype Fund winners outline tools to fight disinformation. This Facebook chatbot wants to help you stay ahead of fake news. People who are delusional, dogmatic, or religious fundamentalists are more likely to believe fake news. This Former Tea Party Activist Is Teaching People To Spot Fake News. Fake war videos are using footage from gamers on YouTube. Russia's 2016 Facebook Strategy Exposed in Trove of 3,500 Ads.

GANNETT: Despite digital gains, Gannett sees a first quarter revenue decline of 7.2 percent.

GATEHOUSE: Gatehouse has spent more than $1 billion on acquisitions since 2013, and "still has cash" to buy more "this year." It now owns 144 daily newspapers in 38 states. GateHouse Media to Acquire the Pueblo Chieftain.

GOOGLE: Publishers rebuke Google's interpretation of EU privacy law. ‘No one is safe’: The media industry scrambles to understand Google’s latest GDPR update. Google is revamping Google News with more video and higher speed. Google rolls out new policies for U.S. election ads. The new Google News: 'AI meets human intelligence.' Google News gets an update, with more AI-driven curation, more labeling, more reader controls (fingers crossed for no AI flops). Google’s news chief Richard Gingras: “We need to rethink journalism at every dimension.”

GUNS: Sun Sentinel apologizes for gun ad on front page.

HARASSMENT: Study highlights harassment, coping strategies of women journalists. #MeToo Claims a High-Level New York Times Editor, but Dean Baquet Can’t Say Why.

INSTAGRAM: Instagram quietly launches payments for commerce.

NEW YORK TIMES: The New York Times brings unified ad, editorial approach to its new article page. New York Times Co. Reports Revenue Growth as Digital Subscriptions Rise.

PRESS FREEDOM: The absurdity of World Press Freedom Day: A brief history. The global threat to free media: Four ways journalism gets BLOC'd. Trump suggests taking away press credentials. In Germany, a similar idea caused a media boycott. When Fighting Fake News Aids Censorship.

PRINT: Warren Buffett, who owns a bunch of print newspapers, says it's hard to see print newspapers surviving. Canadian newsprint tariffs start to take a toll on U.S. newspaper industry. The Local Media Consortium Aims to ‘Think Completely Differently’ About Future of Local News. One Alabama newspaper’s business model features a chair and cigar box. Why does the Star Tribune outperform the pack of metros? An update.

RADIO: Cumulus Media ready to exit bankruptcy. Salem executives pressured radio hosts to cover Trump more positively, emails show.

SALT LAKE: The Salt Lake Tribune faces layoffs, cuts to print offerings.

SINCLAIR: Fox to Buy Seven TV Stations From Sinclair for $910 Million.

SNAPCHAT: Is Snapchat’s redesign working? Snap cuts off licensing fees for Snapchat Discover publishers.

TRONC: Tronc loses on $15 million payout to Michael Ferro. Across all of its properties, Tronc added about as many digital-only subscribers last year as the New York Times added in the fourth quarter alone.

TWITTER: Twitter thinks you should really change your password, like, now.

UNIVISION: Univision gets broadsided by staff-written critique of its failed strategy.

WEST VIRGINIA: Despite a sale and layoffs, West Virginia newspaper continues its tradition of ‘sustained outrage.’

YOUTUBE: Facebook and YouTube just got more transparent. What do we see? YouTube shrugs off brand-safety worries, touts quality ‘advertising-friendly’ content. Cisco pulls 'all online ads from YouTube' because the site hasn't 'met our standards.'


Upcoming Events

INN DAYS: The Institute for Nonprofit News will hold its annual INN Days summit June 13-14 at the Investigative Reporters & Editors' annual conference in Orlando.

LION AT IRE: LION will hold a day-long session on revenue, journalism, engagement and audience development issues relating to local independent online news sites June 15 during Investigative Reporters & Editors' annual conference in Orlando.

LION ANNUAL CONFERENCE: LION's annual conference, the country's largest gathering of local independent online news organizations, will be held Oct. 11-13 at Columbia College, Chicago.
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