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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
Highlights, advice and tips from LION's 2016 Summit

Miss the LION Publishers 2016 Summit in Chicago? Write-ups and video of many sessions can be found on the LION website. Also check out the #LION16 hashtag on Twitter.

* Advice to local news startups: Launch membership program, sell ads from day one.

* Eleanor Cippel: Journalists turned entrepreneurs can be successful at ad sales.

* Beyond pageviews: Measuring the impact of local independent online news.

* What local independent online news publishers should keep in mind when choosing a CMS.

* Local online publishers find success in monetizing video, podcasts.

* The future is mobile: Howard Owens on the sustainability of local online news.

* Fundraising for nonprofit journalism: Finding 'true champions.'

* Knight Foundation's John Bracken says 'adaptability' is key for news orgs.

* FOI and public records 'orders,' or how to be a mean cat.

* Trust in local media strong, demand growing, says Pew's Jesse Holcomb.

Also check out LION's YouTube page for videos from the conference, and group notes that participants took on the conference's Friday and Saturday sessions.

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FROM A SPONSOR:
This year's LION Summit in Chicago was made possible by sponsors that included Broadstreet. Do you have confidence in the banner ads that you're selling? Do you leave your prospects are impressed after a sales appointment? Are you confident at renewal time? Most independent publishers rely on advertising sales, and the most consistent way to sell advertising consistently is by differentiating and delivering value. Broadstreet XPRESS helps you deliver over-the-top value for your clients. It's used by more LION publishers than any other advertising platform, for good reason.

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How indie publishers could step in after Gannett buys Tronc

If Gannett, the country's largest newspaper chain, gets even bigger with the purchase of L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune parent company Tronc, more journalists will soon lose their jobs.

LION Publishers Board of Directors Chairman Dylan Smith and Interim Executive Director Matt DeRienzo argue in an op-ed for Poynter that indie publishers will hold the key to fixing further cuts to local journalism.

"What comes next is up to the reporters and editors likely to be laid off, the communities who rely upon their work and the broader journalism community. A grassroots resurgence of local journalism is already filling the gaps left by many newspaper cuts. This growth will only accelerate as newspapers are consolidated into a few giant national companies focused on quarterly profits. The news vacuum will be filled by dedicated journalists committed to local, independent, and primarily online coverage."

Related: Gannett deal to buy Tronc is likely imminent. Gannett, Tronc said to be still in talks after bridging value gap.


News About Local Independent Online News Sites

DIVERSITY: Nonprofit news outlets match overall media in diversity hiring. Want more journalists of color? Help pay for their internships.

LION BOARD: Kelly Gilfillan of BIGR Media in Tennessee and Suzanne McBride of Austin Talks and Columbia College in Chicago were re-elected to the LION Publishers board of directors during the organization's 2016 Summit Sept. 30.

ONA TIPS: Tips, tools and themes from ONA16 to aid local journalism.

STARTUPS: Jim Friedlich champions ‘new class’ of news startups — and digitally ‘aggressive’ heritage sites.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

AD BLOCKING: To combat ad blocking, publishers ask staff and users to fight bad ads.

ADVERTISING: How many ads does it take to pay a reporter?

CROWDFUNDING: What Beacon’s failure means for crowdfunded journalism. Crowdfunding's contribution to journalism is still meager, but can bring what Google and Facebook take: the crowd and the funding.

DATA: Five ways local media changes with Big Data opportunities.

E-COMMERCE: Publishers become retailers in the market for survival. With its gift guide newsletter, BuzzFeed gets serious about e-commerce. How distributed content cascades beyond journalism to e-commerce, advertisers.

EMAIL: How the most innovative media companies make bank from your mailbox. Email continues to get more mobile.

FACEBOOK: Survey of large publishers: 30 percent of our website visits come from Facebook. This is the news Facebook chooses for you to read. What publishers prioritize in their Facebook strategy. Five charts: The state of publishers and Facebook.

Advertisers seek leverage versus Facebook in metrics screw-up. Not just Facebook: Advertisers have measurement gripes with all platforms. ANA asks Facebook to open up its platform for more third-party measurement. In the shadow of Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter take potshots.

Facebook launches Marketplace, a friendlier Craigslist. But it seems incomplete. A tough sell: why Facebook's e-commerce dream failed to take flight.

Why publishers' revenue from branded content posts on Facebook may drop.

Why Bloomberg, ESPN and others aren't doing Facebook Instant Articles.

Publishers tweak their approach to Facebook Live.

How Facebook is dominating 2016 election digital advertising.

Facebook launches events app.

FUNDRAISING: Good news! People, even young, will pay for deep journalism. Who funds infrastructure for journalism and civic tech?

MOBILE: How the shift to mobile has impacted local search and display marketing. How Google’s AMP increases importance of mobile, search for advertisers. Bloomberg claims new article page cuts load time in half.

PROGRAMMATIC: MailOnline credits header bidding with increasing programmatic revenue 50 percent. Programmatic native is here, and premium publishers are wary.

SOCIAL: Social, not search, gaining more of marketers' budgets.

SPONSORED CONTENT: To (dis)close for comfort – FTC workshop seeks effective consumer disclosures. How branded podcasts fit into a content marketing strategy. Native video ads lead in automotive.

VIDEO: The inevitable burst of the video bubble. The online video view: We can count it, but can we count on it? Younger adults prefer to get their news in text, not video, according to new data from Pew Research. What video audiences watch isn’t necessarily what’s important to them. With “vimages,” The Economist is using Facebook to make low-budget video versions of its stories.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

ARCHIVES: Newspapers hit with a wave of requests to take down embarrassing archived stories.

BREVITY: Washington Post initiative aims to keep reporters from writing ‘unnecessarily long.'

CODING: The benefits of coding skills in the newsroom.

DESIGN: Design kit: The field guide to human-centered design. The Vox Media designer’s toolkit.

DOXXING: How journalists can better protect themselves from doxxing.

ENGAGEMENT: Four ways to get your audience involved in your election coverage. Why it’s important for news organizations to show their corrections.

FOIA: Six lessons from a five-year FOIA battle. Just launched: A tool that will make life easier for FOIA reporters.

HOME PAGE: The death of the homepage has been greatly exaggerated.

LEGAL ISSUES: How to protect yourself from legal risks while reporting.

METRICS: How to get hands-on experience with the Google Analytics demo account.

PR: Blurring the lines between news reports and press releases.

SOCIAL MEDIA: More and more people get their news via social media. Is that good or bad? Five top tips and tools for the social media reporter.

SOLUTIONS: Solutions journalism: What you need to know to get started.

STORY COMMENTS: How user comments got ruined — and what to do about it.

STUDENTS: In a Los Angeles neighborhood, teen reporters give a paper unique access to its community.

TIPS: With a new tool, The Marshall Project has turned the internet into a tipline.


Industry News

BANNER ADS: New York Times shuns banner ads in favor of proprietary ad format.

DAILY MAIL: Daily Mail owner cuts more than 400 jobs as it battles 'challenging market.'

DENVER: How massive cuts have remade the Denver Post.

INSTAGRAM: Instagram at 6: Kevin Systrom on moments, mission, ads, and stories. How Instagram’s algorithm is holding us captive.

McCLATCHY: McClatchy’s Charlotte hub: Less copy editing, more newspapers.

POLARIZATION: Study: Decline of traditional media feeds polarization.

TAMPA: Job cuts are coming to The Tampa Bay Times.

TIME: What Time Inc. learned from the small sites it acquired.

TWITTER: The most epic Fail Whale of all: What if nobody wants to buy Twitter? Sources: Google will not make a Twitter bid and Apple is also an unlikely suitor. On Twitter, hate speech bounded only by a character limit.


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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