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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
Community engagement, solutions journalism and a baby shower

Ohio indie news site Richland Source is holding a community baby shower to "educate mothers, fathers and families in the community about infant mortality and safe sleeping."

"And like any good shower, those attending on Sept. 9 will leave with hundreds of dollars worth of goodies for their babies, including a proven way of helping them sleep safely."

The effort is part of Richland Source's work in solutions journalism and emphasis on community engagement.

"In a state with 7.2 infant deaths per 1,000 births, Brittany Schock's reporting focused on the issue and one solution to a big factor in infant deaths — how they're sleeping."

 

LION Podcast: Statehouse coverage and political advertising
First look at a packed agenda for LION's annual summit

Dozens of speakers are already confirmed for LION's annual conference Oct. 26-28 in Chicago, tackling revenue, technology, audience development, legal concerns and journalism challenges for local independent online news publishers.

In addition to an expanded program on the Friday and Saturday of the conference, a new addition this year will be a "boot camp" for new publishers and idea-stage local news entrepreneurs on Thursday, Oct. 26.

Led by industry experts and veteran local online news publishers with hands-on experience, it will include sessions on how to craft a business plan, choosing between nonprofit and for-profit status, advertising basics, other revenue streams, the "tech stack" needed to run a local news organization, and "staying out of trouble" by knowing what kind of insurance you need, when to hire a lawyer, and how to keep up with bookkeeping.

Register now and get an early-bird discount.


LION member Q&A: Kevin Lynch of SouthBmore.com

This week's LION member spotlight features Kevin Lynch, publisher of SouthBmore.com in Baltimore.

"Our laser focus on South Baltimore makes us unique. I also take pride in our style of coverage," said Lynch. "I have a lot of pride in Baltimore and want to highlight those who are working hard to boost this city like entrepreneurs, real estate developers, event planners, and notable members of the community. There’s no doubt there’s a lot Baltimore can improve upon as a city, but I want to put in the extra effort to highlight what’s great about it."


Nashville sites hope Facebook partnership boosts bottom line

Kelly Gilfillan, publisher of Home Page Media, a group of local independent online news sites in the Nashville area, is one of three LION members currently working hands-on with Facebook as part of a partnership with LION, the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

Gilfillan tells Street Fight that each news organization involved in the pilot project is choosing a special project to work on with Facebook, and hers is all about increasing revenue to support local journalism. She's getting her staff certified in Facebook's sales program, and hopes to increase the number of clients who are using Home Page Media's social media marketing services.

Related: Paying to promote news stories on Facebook is the ad world’s favorite new tactic. Here are some of the ideas from Facebook’s Journalism Project hackathons. Web pages that load faster on Facebook's mobile app will be more likely to show up at the top of your News Feed.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

ADVERTISING: Is your company short on star salespeople? Look to your newsroom. Consumers May Be More Trusting of Ads Than Marketers Think. For Some Marketers, Digital Transformation Is Still in the Early Stages. The Revolution in Advertising: From Don Draper to Big Data.

CROWDFUNDING: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture.

DISTRIBUTED CONTENT: Distributed and syndicated content: what’s wrong with this picture?

E-COMMERCE: Conde Nast is using Instagram and Facebook to sell mugs and beach towels.

FUNDRAISING: Funding Journalism: How Individuals and Foundations are Helping Deliver the News.

MEMBERSHIPS: News organizations increasingly realize membership programs are a must, but struggle with resources for launch, getting readers' attention. Why pay-what-you-want is the only realistic model for modern journalism. The Information launches an accelerator for subscription news startups, with investments starting at $25,000. Saving Journalism: What Big Media Can Learn from Non-profits.

PRINT: The Place of Newspapers in the Local Marketing Ecosystem.

VIDEO: Hungry for Video, Publishers Repackage Ads as Content. Google Said to Offer Publishers A New YouTube Deal. Business Insider is scaling on YouTube by cross-posting its Facebook videos. People Have Come Up With A Shameless Way To Generate Massive Video View Counts On Facebook. Publishers are desperately pivoting to video — but they should be standing up to Facebook.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

AI: AI is Changing These Newsrooms: What It Means for Digital Publishing.

DATA: How to Overcome Your Fear of Excel. Data empowers journalism independence in Trump’s era. For about $100,000, Columbia Journalism School will train you to be ready for the next massive leak.

DESIGN: Want more pageviews? This study found testing new homepage designs could be a good place to start.

DIVERSITY: Diversify Now, Stand Up for Staff and Other Lessons From a Bilingual, Multicultural Newsroom in Southern Indiana.

ENGAGEMENT: With an eye toward expansion, Whereby.us invites its community to help build it as a company.

HARASSMENT: ‘It was super graphic’: Reporters reveal stories of online harassment.

HEALTH CARE: Here’s how local TV news is making it harder for the Senate to repeal Obamacare.

IMMIGRATION: Migratory Notes reflects the movement of immigration from fringe topic to key beat.

INTERVIEWING: Q&A: Louis Theroux on interviewing controversial subjects.

LOCATION: Otherworld aims to make local news and events relevant through location-based storytelling.

METRICS: Sex, Lies and Metrics: The Truth Behind The Clicks. An intro to Google Analytics. Want to check what your subscribers are reading? Chartbeat has a new tool for that.

MOBILE: Mobile is dominant in readers’ lives, so why aren’t we talking about it more? How mobile journalism thrives in the era of fake news. Stop pissing off your users with push notifications.

REPORTING TOOLS: How Document Cloud bolsters investigative journalism and the exchange of public information. These free Wayback Machine hacks will make you a better online sleuth. Using Google Reverse Image Search to see if an image has appeared online before.

SOCIAL MEDIA: How the Early Social Media Editors Embraced Collaboration in New York City. Social media platform changes you may have missed in July. The Personal Always Wins Over the Institutional When it Comes to Social Media.

TRANSCRIPTIONS: Two college students started a transcription service. After journalists heard about it, it crashed.

TRUST: Trusting News Project sets out to re-establish news media credibility and value.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE: A better way to praise journalists for putting in extra hours. Can we really afford to take time off from work?

WRITING: Katherine Boo’s 15 rules for narrative nonfiction. On 9/11, N.R. Kleinfield was downtown. His story is a master class in deadline writing.


Industry News

ALT RIGHT: PayPal, GoFundMe, And Patreon Banned A Bunch Of People Associated With The Alt-Right. Here's Why.  

AMAZON: As Amazon’s Influence Grows, Marketers Scramble to Tailor Strategies. Advertisers warm to Amazon’s increasing ad pitch.

CHARTER: Charter Says It Isn’t Interested in Acquiring Sprint.

CHATBOTS: On the heels of its own success, Spain’s Politibot is opening up a chatbot builder for other outlets.

DAILY VOICE: Smaller Patch-like attempt to build a chain of local news sites hires new CEO, eyes expansion.

FACEBOOK: The Campaign Against Facebook And Google's Ad "Duopoly" Is Going Nowhere. Facebook Outlines Messenger Advertising Plans, But Remains Focused On Video. Pages That Reshare Facebook Videos Are Losing Access to Some Metrics. Facebook will let brands target ads to people who RSVPed to their Pages’ events. First proof that Facebook dark ads could swing an election.

FAKE NEWS: School librarians launch fake news detection program called CRAAP. The spread of fake news by social bots. The future of fake news: don't believe everything you read, see or hear. InVID Wants to Help Journalists Debunk Fake Videos. Games might be a good tool for fighting fake news. Here’s what three developers have learned. Facebook Drowns Out Fake News With More Information. Scaramucci learned his press tactics from Wall Street. They’ll only get uglier. The White House isn’t at war with leaks. It’s at war with basic transparency. “Stories may have political impact less by persuading than by reminding people which side they are on.”

GANNETT: Despite disappointing results, Gannett wants to buy more newspapers. Gannett to Close Nashville Design Studio.

GATEHOUSE: After purchasing family-owned daily newspaper in Bucks County, PA, Gatehouse starts cutting journalism jobs.

INSTAGRAM: How wannabe Instagram influencers use bots to appear popular. Instagram wants you to know people spend more time with Instagram than Snapchat.

LEXIS NEXIS: Newspapers to LexisNexis: Time to Pay Up.

NEW YORK POST: "What I learned about journalism at the New York Post."

NEW YORK TIMES: Is The New York Times vs. The Washington Post vs. Trump the Last Great Newspaper War? The New York Times Needs Two Bold Moves. Inside The New York Times’ international programmatic strategy.

PAY GAP: The Gender Pay Gap at the Financial Times Could Lead to a Strike.

PODCASTING: Podcasts are the future of biography.

PRESS FREEDOM: Google Fights Against Canada's Order to Change Global Search Results. 35% of Republicans think the government should be able to shut down news outlets. That R. Kelly ‘cult’ story almost never ran. Thank Hulk Hogan for that. The European Union’s new data privacy rules will make companies worldwide clean up their online security, or else. New website to track press freedom violations in United States.

SINCLAIR: Sinclair Broadcasting – and 2 Maine TV stations – under fire for pro-Trump segments.

SNAPCHAT: Snapchat is partnering with college newspapers to make campus editions for its Discover section. Insiders say Google was interested in buying Snap for at least $30 billion last year.

SPLINTER: What is Splinter, anyway? Editor-in-Chief Dodai Stewart explains Fusion’s rebrand.

TRONC: Tronc’s digital results are headed in the wrong direction.

TV: Fox in Talks With Ion Media to Operate Local TV Stations.

TWITTER: Twitter adds updates about interesting links, trends and accounts to its Notifications tab. Despite High Hopes, Twitter’s User Growth Fell Flat in the Second Quarter of 2017. Twitter’s First Subscription Service Turns Your Tweets Into Ads for $99 a Month.

WIKITRIBUNE: How will WikiTribune actually work? Here’s the man responsible for figuring it out.

YOUTUBE: YouTube is the new talk radio for far right.


UPCOMING EVENTS

LION SUMMIT - CHICAGO: Save the dates! LION Publishers' annual conference will be held Oct. 26-28 in Chicago.

LION WEBINARS: LION Publishers hosts a monthly webinar series. Upcoming webinars:
* Aug. 17: Free content for local publishers from national partners, with Tucson Sentinel Publisher Dylan Smith.
* Sept. 14: Hiring, paying and managing sales reps at local independent online news sites, with ARLNow.com Publisher Scott Brodbeck, Home Page Media Publisher Kelly Gilfillan and Richland Source Publisher Jay Allred.


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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