Copy
News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
Local news start-up success stories, legal issues, revenue ideas and more at LION gathering in Philadelphia

The founders of two celebrated Philadelphia local news startups - Jim Brady of BillyPenn.com and Brian James Kirk of Technical.ly Philly - will be among the speakers at LION Publishers' "Independents Meeting" June 6 and 7 at Temple University's downtown Philadelphia campus.

The focus of Brady's site has been "mobile first" and reaching millennials. Kirk's site has been held up as a great example of how a local news business can be built around one particular topic.

The gathering is free to LION members and students, and only $25 for non-members. It's a great opportunity for LION members to learn from each other and expert speakers, and for people considering starting their own local news site to get a crash course in the experience.

Also:

Jesse Holcomb of Pew Research Center will speak about the organization's major recent study of local news media.

Jan Schaffer of J-Lab will speak about a guidebook she recently co-authored on legal issues facing digital news sites.

There will also be workshops and panels on topics relating to local publishing, covering real-world strategies for revenue, including crowdfunding, membership programs, alternatives to display advertising, and hands-on technology demonstrations and effective reporting tips.

CLICK HERE to register!


LION member spotlight: Charlottesville Tomorrow

Charlottesville Tomorrow, an independent local news nonprofit in Virginia, is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and this week we did a Q&A with LION member Brian Wheeler, its publisher.

He touts the site's partnerships with other media in extending the reach of Charlottesville Tomorrow's work, and also emphasizes the site's disciplined focus on core areas of local coverage such as education and development.

"We believe informed citizens create better communities. Journalism is a vehicle for our work today, but not an end to itself. Like all nonprofits, we depend on the generosity of our local community members to enable us to provide them with clear, non-partisan information and research on key quality of life issues."

Check out the full interview here.


Journalists as entrepreneurs

PBS Media Shift has two interesting essays up: "Why journalists make great entrepreneurs" and "How to transition from news to the business world."

It's offering an online course on "How to create and monetize an entrepreneurial journalism venture."

CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism also announced this week that it will be offering some online courses, including on the topic of journalism entrepreneurship.


Pew Report: Newspapers miss out entirely on digital ad revenue explosion

Pew Research's "State of the News Media 2015" report was released this week, and it tells a story of a newspaper industry in the U.S. that is still frighteningly reliant on print revenue and print-only audience.

It also shows that while digital advertising revenue has exploded in the past eight years, the newspaper industry's digital revenue has remained basically flat, and tiny in comparison to even single digital-only companies such as Google and Facebook. Meanwhile, print revenue has plummeted and continues to (see McClatchy and New York Times in our "Industry News" roundup below).

The full report is up on LION's website here.

Here's Nieman Lab's writeup on the Pew report, and here's Poynter's version.


News sites continue to struggle as mobile audience, revenue skyrocket

A big theme of Pew's "State of the News Media 2015" report was the explosive growth of mobile - audience already surpassing desktop, and revenue growing rapidly.

Steve Buttry writes about how badly the newspaper industry missed out on mobile and placed itself far behind competitors.

"UX from hell" talks about how bad the mobile user experience still is on news sites, and Judd Slivka writes, "We're doing it wrong: The mobile journalism problem."

BIA/Kelsey predicts mobile will have an 11.5 percent share of local media revenue by 2019. And an interesting study this week shows the difference between mobile activity in cities vs. suburbs. A case study from Massachusetts.


LION offers webinar on foundation funding, underwriting

Molly de Aguair of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent will lead a free LION Publishers members' webinar May 7 on foundation funding and underwriting for independent local news sites. It's part of a monthly series of free webinars that LION launched this spring.

It will include information for both nonprofit and for-profit sites.

Sign up here.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

FACEBOOK: Facebook now hosts 40 million active small business pages. And how one publisher is working around the site's ban on pre-roll video ads.

PROGRAMMATIC: Programmatic advertising is coming to local news sites. Are we ready? Also, programmatic's increasing focus on mobile.

MICROPAYMENTS: Blendle, the European company focused on paywalls that allow readers to pay per story, is celebrating its first anniversary.

DISPLAY FRAUD: Best practices for publishers when it comes to digital display advertising fraud. Also, debunking some of the biggest myths about ad viewability.

INFOGRAPHICS: Are there revenue opportunities in online infographics?


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

SOCIAL MEDIA VERIFICATION: Baltimore "looting" images show importance of quick and easy image checks before publishing.

ACCURACY: Where's the line between poor journalism and fabrication?

POLICE COVERAGE: Two things newsrooms everywhere should do to cover cops and the community.

TRANSGENDER LANGUAGE: The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association has offered advice to the media in how to refer to transgender individuals as Bruce Jenner's high-profile transition makes news.

DATA: How to enhance your stories with data. And ... it's time for every journalist to learn basic data skills.

STORY PARTS: Breaking stories into pieces and reassembling them in innovative ways.

FACEBOOK: Some are arguing that Facebook has actually become "more predictable" for publishers who've complained over the past year about falling and/or erratic organic reach of posts.

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS: Their jobs are changing, and increasingly require the ability to produce content quickly themselves for specific platforms.

TWITTER SEARCH: Some very practical, good advice on improving how you search for potential news sources on Twitter.

FACT CHECKING: Do fact check stories have an impact?

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Molly de Aguair and Josh Stearns of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation outline a "Declaration of Dependence," arguing that "communities and news organizations working together will transform local journalism.


Industry News

GATEHOUSE: New Media Investment (formerly Gatehouse) now owns the largest number of daily newspapers in the country, and plans to spend another $400 million on newspaper acquisitions over the next year and a half.

PRINT DECLINES: McClatchy newspapers have reported a 15.7 percent decline in print advertising. The New York Times reported an 11 percent decline in print and posted a loss.

JOURNOS HURT: A number of journalists were injured while covering protests in Baltimore that turned violent earlier this week.

PATCH: A former news side Patch executive blames the company's revenue model for its failure in this lengthy piece. And the "new Patch" is being criticized for one of the most egregious examples of irresponsible clickbait in recent memory.

GUILD: "Paper" has been dropped from the name of the Newspaper Guild of New York. More than 100 of the union's members voted against the change.

J SCHOOL: "I am editor-in-chief of a college newspaper and I'm training for a job that doesn't exist anymore."

NEXT DOOR: The secret to the neighborhood social networking company's $1 billion valuation.

KNIGHT FUNDING: The Knight Foundation has funded 20 projects related to media and technology through its "Prototype" program.

GANNETT: Gannett executives' spoof of The Lego Movie's "Everything is Awesome" song isn't sitting well with journalists who've been laid off by the company.


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 www.lionpublishers.com/members/dues 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.)

Thanks to our current members who have already renewed!
Follow on Twitter   Friend on Facebook   Forward to Friend 
Copyright © 2015 LION Publishers, All rights reserved.


Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences