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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
Advice from profitable, growing local independent news sites

Street Fight has interviews with two LION board members, Scott Broadbeck, publisher of Local News Now in the Washington, D.C., area, and Kelly Gilfillan of Brentwood Homepage and sister sites in Tennessee, that offer tons of advice and perspective from operators of profitable, growing local independent online news operations.

Brodbeck talks about not sharing many stories among his sites because of their intense focus on authentically local news coverage. He predicts the downfall of programmatic advertising, and says that advertisers will increasingly be looking for "quality" over quantity. And he expects more than 50 percent of his revenue this year to come from non-display ad revenue sources as growth in native advertising and other areas happens.

Gilfillan said local news entrepreneurs who are rooted in the community have a great opportunity for success:. "I live in the county, I grew up here, and I know the audience. I tell my customers all the time it is the easiest marketing job I’ve ever had because I am the target customer, and I know how to reach them. That said, our strength, consistency, speed and integrity on the editorial side are what keep us viable."

Related: The Washington Post looks beyond Washington... and the U.S.


Local newspapers in 21 states don't cover Congress

In 21 states, local newspapers lack a dedicated reporter keeping tabs on Congress.


LION webinars on native advertising, directories, email newsletters

LION Publishers' free monthly webinar series for members continues with a program on the revenue and readership potential of online local business directories in January and on native advertising best practices for small local news sites in February.

From 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, Scott Barnett, the founder of directory business Bizyhood, will talk about his product and the business of business directories in general. Joining him will be three local independent online news publishers - Denise Lockwood of Racine County Eye, Lisa LaGrou of Oakland County Moms and John Ward of Redbank Green.

From 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, former Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow Jaci Smith and ARLNow.com publisher Scott Brodbeck will offer tips, advice and best practices on native advertising, particularly for local news organizations with limited resources. They'll talk about collaborating with advertisers on content, ethical concerns, labeling, pricing and the sales pitch.

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.


Philadelphia newspapers donated to nonprofit trust

Owner Gerry Lenfest is donating the long-financially troubled Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com to a nonprofit trust.

Related: One editor will run Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.


News About Local Independent Online News Sites

LION MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: This week we feature a Q&A with Barb Warden, publisher of local independent online news site Golden.com in Colorado. "Golden.com is unique because of its relentless local focus.  I never cover events from surrounding towns.  It's both tapping into and reinforcing the Golden community's desire to focus inwardly and differentiate itself from the surrounding metro area."

HEALTH SITE CLOSES: After five years of strong work, a Colorado nonprofit news site ran out of money at the wrong time.

INDIE LOCAL SITE CLOSES: California indie news site Corona Del Mar Today shuts down after six years.

SCALE: Can we foster community engagement and participatory journalism and still chase scale and growth?

WOMEN IN DIGITAL MEDIA: Applications for ONA-Poynter Women's Digital Leadership Academy accepted next week.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

AD BLOCKERS: What Forbes learned after asking readers to turn off ad blockers. You say advertising, I say block that malware. How online video is defeating ad blockers.

AD GROWTH: Ken Doctor on 2016: "Advertising woes continue — deepen, actually."

APPLE NEWS: Apple underestimated how many people were using its News app. It's off to a rocky start.

DATA: Parse.ly CEO: Turning ‘data exhaust’ into action.

FACEBOOK: Facebook continues to experiment in local — but its focus is long-term.

FRAGMENTATION: Here’s the big story of 2016: Fragmentation.

LOCAL MEDIA CONSORTIUM: Digital sales collective, Local Media Consortium, gets straight on its total audience.

MOBILE: Marketers: Native and video ads yield superior results on mobile.

NATIVE ADVERTISING: Publishers are about to hit a wall with native ads. Here's what top ad agencies think of the FTC's new native advertising rules. Native advertising must be audience centric to foil ad blockers. How Quartz is bringing storytelling, interactive design to sponsored content. And the secret to Time Out’s native ad success.

PHOTOS: Four cool ways to monetize your visual content.

READERS FIRST: Three questions to ask when evaluating a reader-centric strategy for 2016.

SEARCH: Digital display ads to overtake search, bringing a reckoning for Google. Report: Only 36% begin local searches with a search engine. And how Apple could play spoiler for the search ad business.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: The Information's Jessica Lessin: 'The business model for news is broken.'

TWITTER: Twitter’s longer tweets pave the way for more publisher deals. So, what will Twitter’s ‘long tweets’ actually look like? Twitter's new pitch to brands: Turn everyday fan tweets into ads. Twitter is hoping users retweet ads with new ad format.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

ARCHIVES: Reinventing 'the past' in the digital world.

AUTOMATION: A new Tow Center report outlines the state of automated journalism.

COLUMNS: Connecting as a columnist: Your voices, your choices.

DATA: When data become news. A content analysis of data journalism pieces. A data visualization that is invariant to the data.

DRONES: Why 2016 could be a breakout year for drone journalism.

ELECTIONS: How much influence does the media really have over elections? Digging into the data.

ENGAGEMENT: The case for (community) engagement.

FOIA: Government secrecy was the biggest threat to a free press in 2015. Will this year be better? Freedom of information under siege in Tennessee, U.S. House to weigh overhaul of open records process.

PODCASTING: To attract new listeners, podcasts need to move beyond sound.

SEO: The power of evergreen content for SEO.

STORY COMMENTS: Comments can be good if you let them.

TWITTER: Edit tweets? Users debate a missing Twitter feature.

VERIFICATION: Five vital browser plugins for newsgathering and verification. Fact-checking: does anyone even care?

VIDEO: Down with Periscope? Some of the legal issues surrounding new live video streaming apps.

WEB DESIGN: How to use analytics to test your web design. New York Times: The homepage still plays a prominent role.

WRITING: Five tools to make 2016 your most productive writing year ever.


Industry News

BOSTON: Boston Globe delivery problems persist.

CANADA: Do Canada's legacy news orgs have digital strategies? Do they make any sense?

FACEBOOK: Facebook wants 2016 to be the year messenger makes apps irrelevant.

GANNETT: Newsquest/Gannett forced to change policy over remote subbing.

LAS VEGAS: How the Las Vegas Review-Journal unmasked its owners. A local newspaper publisher puzzles staff with his role in Las Vegas. Before fake byline debacle, Connecticut publisher offered freelancer $5,000 to write about judge in Adelson case. What’s next for the Las Vegas Review-Journal? (Normalcy?)

MICHIGAN: Advance's Michigan operation, MLive, to cut 29 jobs as part of reorganization.

MILLENNIALS: AJ+, Fusion and Timeline offer advice for engaging millennial audiences.

NEW YORK TIMES: New York Times' public editor: "A Year of Challenges in the News Business­."

NICHE PRINT: Are niche publications the future of print?

NPR LOCAL: Out of many, NPR One: The app that wants to be the “Netflix of listening” gets more local.

OPEN WEB: It’s time to care about the open web. Big cable owns Internet access. Here’s how to change that. And the media democracy needs — and deserves: A response to 'Seven trends in old and new media.'

PINTEREST: Insiders say what's going on inside $11 billion Pinterest — and it's not all good.

PRIVACY: ProPublica launches the dark web’s first major news site.

TECH MERGERS: Five reasons tech and media companies merge.

TRACKING REPORTERS: Telegraph installs then removes motion trackers from staff desks.

TWITTER: Can Twitter ‘police the madness’ on Its platform? Twitter integrates Periscope, adds autoplaying live video to timeline. Months after Twitter revoked API access, Politwoops is back, tracking the words politicians take back.

VILLAGE VOICE: New Village Voice owner hires an old hand as his plans start to take shape.

VOX: How Vox Media grew from its roots as an Oakland A’s blog into one of the Internet’s biggest publishers.

WIKIPEDIA: Exploring how people discover knowledge on Wikipedia and its sister projects.

YAHOO: Inside Yahoo's troubled advertising business.


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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