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A mobile wake-up call, lessons from failure, revenue optimism and more from the LION summit

If you missed the complete roundup of speakers and panel discussions from the LION Publishers 2015 Summit in Chicago in last week's newsletter, you can find it here.

Nieman Lab wrote about how "Mobile is still a missing piece for local indie online news publishers."

Poynter wrote about a "post-mortem with a silver lining" in examining local news sites that have shut down and publishers who have left the business.

Michele McLellan wrote about how online news sites are exploring revenue opportunities beyond traditional digital advertising.

Josh Stearns of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation curated tips, tools and insights from LION's Summit and ONA for those who were unable to attend in person.

And Joe Amditis detailed key takeaways from the conference at NJ News Commons.


LION elects officers, thanks departing directors

At its annual summit in Chicago last week, LION Publishers re-elected officers, re-appointed members of the board of directors and thanked three influential original board members who are stepping down - Howard Owens of The Batavian in New York, Ned Berke, formerly of Sheepshead Bites in Brooklyn, and Jesus Sanchez of The Eastsider in Los Angeles.

Staying on as chairman of the board of directors is Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel in Arizona, while Charlotte-Anne Lucas of NowCastSA in Texas and Doug Hardy of CTNewsJunkie.com will continue to serve as secretary and treasurer of the organization, respectively.

Previously: Traven Rice of The Lo Down in Manhattan, Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville Tomorrow in Virginia and Jay Allred of the Richland Source in Ohio join the LION board of directors.


Gannett gets even bigger with Journal Media purchase

With its acquisition of Journal Media including the Milwaukee Sentinel and a number of dailies across the South, Gannett will own one-seventh of the country's daily newspapers.

What Gannett gets by getting bigger and why newspaper consolidation will continue.


A nonprofit Philadelphia Inquirer and non-existent alternative press?

Could The Philadelphia Inquirer become part of Temple University? And if the Inquirer and Daily News wanted to convert to nonprofits, what would stand in their way?

The idea is floated as the city's leading alternative weekly, Philadelphia City Paper, was shut down last week after being purchased by a competing publication.

"... On the local level, news gathering is just being eviscerated," a staffer said in an NPR report on the shutdown.

Even City Paper's past journalism was at risk, as the purchase threatened its archives.


Twitter unveils "Moments," its own news digests

Twitter has unveiled its own news digests, a type of real-time curation tool, and similar to Facebook's "Instant Articles" and "Apple News," some news organizations are participating.

Related: RIP Twitter engagement. It was already off and now Twitter Moments will cause a swift death.


Google aims to speed up the news on mobile web

Google has unveiled "AMP," designed to speed up news article downloads on mobile devices.

Publishers are warily embracing Google's new fast article format. From Nieman Lab, here's what they need to know about it. "They're telling us how the Web should work," was one publisher's take.

Related:

- Nuzzel founder: Google's version of Instant Articles is better because it's open.

- Google's AMP project: Better than Facebook, or just a different walled garden?

- How ads will work in Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages.

- Independent Internet is losing ground: Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn have growing share of online ad revenue.


News About Independent Local News Sites

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: This week's LION member Q&A features William Cleary Sr., publisher of CNBNews.net, a local independent online news site in Gloucester City, New Jersey. "We give them in-depth news along with controversial articles and commentary that the local newspaper and the dailies don’t cover for fear of angering their advertisers. The daily newspapers have long forgotten local news."

MOST ADMIRED: Kelly Gilfillan, publisher of Brentwood Home Page and sister sites in Tennessee and a LION board member, was recently named among Nashville's "Most Admired CEOs."

REVENUE LESSONS: Membership, advertising and events for nonprofit news sites, with lessons from Texas Tribune and the Voice of San Diego. Article from Columbia Journalism Review here and video of ONA panel discussion here.

ABOVE AND BEYOND: City & State, which covers government and politics in New York, recently recognized LION member Liena Zagare of Corner Media in Brooklyn as part of its "Above and Beyond" list of 25 women "who exhibit exemplary leadership in their fields and have made important contributions to society in the fields of business, government, media, nonprofit and labor."

PUBLISHER SOUGHT: The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is searching for a publisher to succeed LION member Paul Socolar, who is retiring.

PUBLIC MEDIA PARTNERSHIP: The Austin Monitor in Texas, led by LION member Michael Kanin, has partnered with a local NPR affiliate (KUT) and the local PBS affiliate (KLRU) to produce a series on the growth of a small town outside of Austin called Manor. The goal is to examine the impact of Austin’s growth on relatively far-flung communities that weren’t necessarily prepared to absorb what was coming. It starts running today, and can be found at austinseasternfrontier.com.

HUDSONITE LAUNCHES: The local Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting to formally welcome Hudsonite, a new local news site that LION member Micheal Foley just launched in Wisconsin.

WORDPRESS: Researchers at the Reynolds Journalism Institute are asking LION members who are on WordPress to take this brief survey on your WordPress workflow and on building tools to help with your daily digital tasks.

BILLY PENN BIRTHDAY: Billy Penn, the local Philadelphia news site run by LION member Jim Brady, is celebrating its first anniversary, and is celebrating with a bowling party.

AUDIENCE FIRST: Three New Jersey newsrooms, including indie sites Brick City Live and New Brunswick Today, have started using Hearken, a platform that lets audiences choose reporting topics. From the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's Josh Stearns, "A new journalism collaboration puts people’s questions first."


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

MOBILE: Publishers share their biggest headaches in monetizing mobile. The first rule of news apps? DO NOT MAKE A NEWS APP. The cost of mobile ads on 50 news websites. The mobile web is alive and well: A new study shows that the mobile Web is being used just as much as apps. And mobile searches surpass desktop searches at Google for the first time.

PROGRAMMATIC: Publishers that say no to automated ad sales: Some believe they can make more money on their own and reduce annoyance.

AD BLOCKING: Ad blocking and iOS 9: How bad it could get and what publishers can do. Publishers worry that native ads are vulnerable to ad blocking. Apple approves an app that blocks ads in native apps, including Apple News. Adblock Plus to allow independent board to decide which ads are "acceptable."

SOCIAL MEDIA: Getting the most out of hyperlocal social media marketing.

MICROPAYMENTS: Micropayments gain momentum with major news publishers in Europe.

TV: How digital ads could give TV a run for its money.

AD FRAUD: "Advertisers are, essentially, getting ripped off." A look at fake traffic.

PODCASTS: Small is beautiful: Local podcast networks latest hope.

BANNER ADS: The UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau says: Banner ads don’t work.

LOCAL ADVANTAGE: Ads on local press sites "more trustworthy" than nationals, claims UK study.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

SOCIAL MEDIA: How to edit for social media: A checklist. How to tailor news for each social media platform. It's not a simple "dislike" button, but Facebook launched a number of alternatives to the "like" last week. Here's how it will impact News Feed.

VIRTUAL REALITY: Immersive journalism and virtual reality: Limitless potential, many barriers.

ADVOCACY: A call for journalists as advocates in an era of information overload.

EDUCATION: Solutions Journalism Network offers free solutions journalism toolkit for education reporters.

HEALTH FELLOWSHIP: California Health Data Fellowship open to 10 California-based journalists. Deadline to apply is Oct. 16.

NIEMAN FELLOWSHIP: Have an idea that could change journalism? Apply for a visiting Nieman Fellowship. Applications are due Oct 31.

ANNOTATION: How annotation can save journalism.

DATA JOURNALISM: The shocking costs of pursuing data journalism stories — and how newsrooms can afford them. And how to do data journalism on the cheap.

VIDEO: How journalists are finding new ways to experiment with online video. How not to break the bank with video.

LEGAL ISSUES: How to work with a media lawyer, courtesy of INN and Josh Stearns' latest newsletter on local news.

ENGAGEMENT: Community engagement models (a huge collection of resources) for more inclusive journalism. How a journalism class took a more holistic approach to covering community narratives in Miami. We’re in this together: Takeaways from Experience Engagement conference. Engaging women: Building news community that looks like the audience. And, "to understand the difference between a network and a community, ask your Facebook friends to help paint your house."

STORY COMMENTS: Digg wants to build the internet comment section of the future. Goodbye, comments. Hello, “conversations.” A brief history of the end of online story comments. Are comments dead, or have media outlets just given up on them? And Motherboard announces, "We're replacing comments with something better."

FOIA: Top 10 tips for getting public records.


Industry News

TWITTER: Twitter renews efforts to court advertisers. Twitter opens pre-roll video ad marketplace. Video ads could become Twitter’s biggest cash cow yet. Twitter’s video ad strategy now looks like YouTube’s ad strategy. Twitter makes "buy" button widely available.

BOSTON GLOBE: Inside The Boston Globe's niche website strategy.
The Globe shrinks its Saturday edition as it straddles the print-digital divide.

UNIONS: Unions wage turf battle for millennial digital newsrooms, but what will a new labor look like? Huffington Post writers seek union, question company’s diversity.

CHICAGO: A plan to turn the Chicago Sun-Times into a national brand helped make a mess of its website. The slow humiliation of the Chicago Sun-Times.

LOCAL TV: Media General drops bid to buy Meredith in local TV consolidation move. Teens and millennials are abandoning network TV.

NEW YORK TIMES: How the New York Times plans to double digital revenue by 2020. Four takeaways from The New York Times’ new digital strategy memo. And the Times creates separate editorial group for production of print edition.

VERIZON-AOL: Verizon to combine its “supercookie” data with AOL for online and mobile targeting.

TRIBUNE CUTS: Tribune Publishing CEO announces buyouts. Behind the scenes of the L.A. Times buyout drive. Also, Tribune Tower is up for sale. Welcome to media layoff season.

UK PAPERS: UK newspaper publisher Johnston Press announces closures of 11 free newspapers to focus on 'digital offering.'

NEWSEUM: The Newseum has launched a site to help students explore the past through the news.

YELP: Orlando's anti-Yelp app reaches new milestone.

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island’s media stocks are getting crushed - local media may feel the pain. 

GAWKER: Gawker gets one-third of its revenue from native and e-commerce.

REDDIT: Reddit to launch its own news site, Upvoted.

KNIGHT FUNDING: The Asian American Journalists Association is getting $230,000 from the Knight Foundation for a program to develop digital leaders.

PRINT FREQUENCY: Why newspapers must dare NOT to be daily.

SHIELD LAW: Montana passes landmark reporter shield law.

MOTHER JONES: Mother Jones just won a long and expensive legal battle with a billionaire who didn't like its reporting about him.

NEWSPAPER SALE: A 20-year story of employee newspaper ownership comes to an end.


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!
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