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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
Disclosure, revenue diversity key to nonprofit news ethics

Michele McLellan writes at Knight Digital Media Center in response to a New Yorker article about the growing role of nonprofit news organizations, and the ethical conflicts that can arise depending on who is funding them.

She stresses the need for nonprofit news sites to diversify revenue and not be overly reliant on a single or handful of major foundation funders. She also notes the importance of full disclosure of where nonprofit news sites' funding.

She holds up Wisconsin Watch as an example of best practices.


Local online news experiments with new business models

"While these emerging online hyperlocal news organizations were born on the web, they struggle with finding the time to invest in creative experiments with business models, community engagement and digital tools that could help them become more sustainable over the long haul."

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation reports on progress made in incubating new revenue streams for local independent online news sites.


Niche local independent online news in Connecticut

Columbia Journalism Review examines how the Connecticut Health Investigation Team became "a leader of niche news."

“We saw first-hand that newspapers were pulling back. There used to be health care desks, but now it’s a part-time beat or overstretched full-time reporters.”

RELATED: With added reporting power and partnerships, Kaiser Health News expands its reach.


Email newsletters as a vehicle for news organizations

A new report offers a comprehensive look at email newsletters as a vehicle for news organizations.

LION Publishers' free monthly webinar series for members will feature email newsletters as a revenue source in March. From 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, LION member Joe Hyde, publisher of local independent online news site San Angelo Live in Texas, will talk about how to grow readership and a steady new revenue source with email newsletters.


News About Local Independent Online News Sites

LION MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: A Q&A with LION member Michael Kanin, publisher of Austin Monitor in Texas. "As a mission-based organization, we exist to get more folks involved."

CHICAGO: Inside The Invisible Institute’s fight for police accountability.

CROWDFUNDING: Cronkite School, Arizona PBS launch crowdfunding campaign to expand coverage of immigration, border.

FACEBOOK: Could Facebook Instant Articles help hyperlocal news?

KNIGHT CHALLENGE: Knight News Challenge winners focus on data and transparency.

NEW NOTEBOOK PUBLISHER: Maria Archangelo named publisher of local independent online news site, Philadelphia Public School Notebook.

PATCH: The new, "rebounding" Patch has 70 journalists for 900 "local" news sites.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

AD BLOCKING: A survey claims 37% of global mobile users have blocked ads, despite low numbers from U.S. publishers. Ad blocking is more about personal data than on-target ads. Following Apple’s move, Samsung rolls out ad blocking to Android devices. Facebook admits that it's worried about ad blockers.

AGENCIES: Report: More than 70% of franchisees use a digital agency.

ANALYTICS: When it comes to analytics, publishers want actionable advice. Avoiding vanity metrics for content analytics. Five Google Analytics reports you should start using more.

CROWDFUNDING: Why Kickstarter is not the entire story of crowdfunded journalism. Crowdfunding enables diverse new frontier for journalism projects.

DISTRIBUTED CONTENT: Publishers' distributed strategies face murky measurement. Distributed news: The Vox way of getting stories out to six social platforms. Gawker's Nick Denton: Facebook is the boss, and Gawker will fall in line. He says its dominance is better than 'convoluted' ad tech. Apple plans to offer subscription content through News app. TV stations guarded about moving to distributed content.

E-COMMERCE: E-commerce links become the latest unlikely casualty of ad blocking.

ELECTION ADS: The Programming Corporation of America has a plan to keep those digital political ad dollars local.

HOME PAGE: The publisher homepage is making a comeback.

INNOVATION: It’s been a long slog, but digital news publishers are beginning to innovate.

LINKEDIN: Why small businesses are getting LinkedIn wrong.

MOBILE: The next wave of mobile-first. Publishers' on-again, off-again relationship with apps is back on. What media companies can learn from Facebook's incredible mobile turnaround.

NATIVE ADVERTISING: Native advertising: Fad or new go-to standard? Now that the FTC has spoken on native advertising, what’s next? Are deceptive native ads the new porn? The secret to Time Out’s native ad success. The BBC is using facial recognition to measure if native ads work. The Guardian is now calling native ads 'paid content.'

PAYWALLS: An interview with the founder of micropayments service Blendle ahead of its U.S. launch. Debating whether to lower the paywall for big news? Think about the public (and reader goodwill). The Wall Street Journal tests closing the Google paywall loophole.

PODCASTING: Tow Center’s Vanessa Quirk: Podcasts not all about profit. Spotify is finally ready to bring podcasting to a new audience. All the news that’s fit to podcast: Newspapers try out audio. Public radio outlets publish guidelines for measuring podcast audience. Meet the 26-year-old who’s got all the news on podcasting.

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: Best practices for product management in news organizations.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Print Is dying, digital is no savior: The long, ugly decline of the newspaper business continues apace. "Print and digital subscriptions will absolutely, in no way, ever again, at all, be able to sustain the industry." Print: Is it death or abandonment of the print reader? How The Times of London is driving digital subscriptions. Poynter: Newspapers aren’t dying as fast as you think.

USER EXPERIENCE: The consumer isn't a moron.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

ARCHIVES: Amber, a plugin to prevent link rot, is now available for download.

How The New York Times is using unpublished images from the archives to tell stories it missed the first time.

DATA: A guide to bad data: Exhaustive reference to problems seen in real-world data, and how to solve them. Mining the data on your beat. Conquer Chicago’s mountain of data with this powerful tool. Data-driven journalism's problem for PR.

ENGAGEMENT: Building a digital platform to support engaged journalism. How does engaged journalism impact ethics? The news is served: How newsrooms can connect with communities. Don't "radiosplain" and other ways to report on communities that aren't your own.

FACEBOOK: Facebook news feed: Using qualitative feedback to show relevant stories. Live on TV and Facebook, your favorite local newscaster. The Boston Globe is using Notes to publish directly to Facebook.

FACT CHECKING: Google can now help you fact-check candidates during debates with their own past quotes. Should journalists outsource fact-checking to academics?

FOIA: Amid the Flint water crisis, journalists are calling for changes to Michigan’s FOIA law. The one word that could weaken Florida’s public records laws. Are Slack messages subject to FOIA requests?

INTERACTIVES: Three lessons learned from studying interactive elements in long-form multimedia news stories. What Matthew Liddy learned in his first year running an interactive storytelling unit.

JOURNALISM SCHOOL: The next generation of journalism students has no idea what they’re getting into.

NEWSROOMS: No news happens in newsrooms, but lots of people still love working in them.

Journalists at The Middletown Press in Connecticut will soon no longer have an actual newsroom.

PLAGIARISM: Don’t confuse plagiarism with coincidence or inspiration.

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS: Let's say goodbye to pointless, ill-timed, endless push notifications.

SEARCH: Google updates its webmaster guidelines.

SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM: Hacks and Hackers take on solutions journalism.

SPANISH: Alleviating news deserts through Spanish-language news.

STORY COMMENTS: Insights from the launch of ‘civil comments’ at Willamette Week.

TRAUMA: Report on eyewitness media shows the pervasiveness of vicarious trauma. Remain calm, keep recording and other tips for high-conflict reporting.

VIDEO: Periscope integrates with GoPro to bring live streaming to action cameras. An in-depth analysis of news video consumption. Stop complaining about vertical video.

WRITING: Go early, stay late and nine other tips to expand your writing vocabulary.


Industry News

ACTIVIST JOURNALISM: Is an anti-abortion activist with a camera a journalist?

BUZZFEED: With a bet on a platform strategy, BuzzFeed faces business challenges.

CANADA: Big Canadian newspaper chains swap words over who is the worst steward of journalism. The problem with one of Canada's largest newspaper chains. Many Nordic countries have subsidized newspapers—could that work in Canada?

COLLEGE JOURNALISM: Missouri bill aims to block censorship of student journalists.

DC BUREAUS: Are DC bureaus worth saving?

DIVERSITY: Jose Antonio Vargas on the power of #JournalismSoWhite: ‘Timing, of course, is everything.’

FABRICATION: The Intercept exposes fake reporting by staff writer.

FACEBOOK: How Facebook squashed Twitter. Inside Facebook’s decision to blow up the like button. Facebook says video is huge — 100-million-hours-per-day huge. Facebook is expanding its burgeoning ad network to the mobile web. Facebook doesn't think about making money the way most companies do.

FLINT: Local media didn’t whiff on Flint coverage.

GOOGLE: Google takes on Twitter by integrating real-time responses from presidential candidates into search results.

GUARDIAN: The Guardian misfires with gun show exposé.

LAS VEGAS: Sheldon Adelson tightens his grasp on Las Vegas Review-Journal. Las Vegas Review-Journal backtracks on ownership disclosure. Journalists as ‘hit squad:’ Connecting dots on Sheldon Adelson, Review-Journal of Vegas and Edward Clarkin in Connecticut.

LOCAL TV: Nexstar and Media General reach $4.6 billion deal. FCC ready to move public files online.

MAGAZINES: The life and death and life of magazines.

MICROSOFT: Microsoft launches a Bing-powered news app for iOS devices, News Pro.

MILLENNIALS: Rethinking the world, news and millennials with Mic.

NIELSEN: Nielsen plays catch-up as streaming era wreaks havoc on TV raters.

SHARING ECONOMY: Is the future of the sharing economy small-scale?

SNAPCHAT: Many senior ad buyers plan to advertise on Snapchat in 2016.

SPOTIFY: Spotify ready to introduce video product.

TWITTER: Twitter has stopped showing ads to some of its most valuable users.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Wall Street Journal reorganizes its newsroom.

YAHOO: Yahoo lays off 15% of staff after posting a massive loss.


Is Your LION Publishers Membership Up for Renewal?
 
For many of our LION Publishers members, it's time to renew! Your membership includes participation in the LION Publishers Den on Facebook, networking and support from fellow LION publishers, our new newsletter, discounted rates on media liability and directors and officers insurance and more. 

Plus, being a member gives you access to a members-only rate to the LION Summit – a savings of up to $175 compared to the non-member rate. If your membership is due for renewal, please go to http://www.lionpublishers.com/members/dues/renew to submit your payment. Those who opt for multi-year membership save, and easy, secure payment options are available via credit card or through Paypal. (Not sure when your membership expires? You can look it up easily on LIONPublishers.com.)
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