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News, information and much more for independent online news publishers. 
As Hurricane Harvey bore down, local journalists stepped up

As Houston flooded, this independent journalist delivered the news to hundreds of thousands of people. LION member Dennis Spellman's CoveringKaty.com in Katy, Texas, has been working nonstop to keep residents informed of areas affected by flooding, road closures, shelter availability and how to access food, water and gas.

At the Houston Chronicle, staff have been working around the clock, and literally wading through waist-high water to get to work and cover the story. A smaller Texas newsroom lost power and kept covering the storm. And as the water rose, this Houston TV station fought to stay on-air.

They worked despite losing their own homes. A reporter's tale in Houston: When the story becomes your own disaster.

And stepped in to help, not just observe: 'Overwhelmed' journalists are jumping in to rescue those trapped by Hurricane Harvey. In Harvey reporting, two ethics questions raised.

Texas will need great regional reporting for months and years. Can we muster a cavalry?

Related: What Houston newsrooms can learn from Hurricane Katrina. This free tool will help you pinpoint the news in a disaster zone. Zello app connects storm victims with rescuers.


LION Summit will feature 'boot camp' for new local news sites

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.


How two indie publishers found success with sponsored content

Street Fight recently caught up with two LION members, Dan Silverman of PoPville in Washington, D.C., and Scott Brodbeck of ARLNow.com, to highlight a sponsored content success story.

"I tried to think about everything I hated about sponsored posts and do the opposite," Silverman said. "As a reader, I find that sponsored posts on blogs are often lengthy, impersonal and overly centered on sales.  I set out to write a post that would be succinct and personal that only quietly makes an attempt (in one small paragraph) at conversions."

You can hear Brodbeck and Silverman talk about their experiences in local independent online news publishing on a recent episode of Brodbeck's podcast.


LION webinar tackles hiring, managing, paying ad sales reps

Three veteran local independent online news publishers will share advice, ideas and best practices on finding, hiring and keeping advertising sales reps, managing performance and structuring the right pay plan.

Scott Brodbeck, publisher of ARLNow.com in Virginia, Kelly Gilfillan, publisher of Home Page Media in Tennessee, and Jay Allred, publisher of Richland Source in Ohio, will lead a LION webinar for the publishers of small news organizations who've struggled with finding people to sell advertising for their site and structuring a pay plan that makes it worth their while.

This webinar is free for LION members and only $15 for non-members.


Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue

AMP: How Will Changes in Google AMP Results Affect Your Newsroom?

BANNER ADS: BuzzFeed is ditching its anti-banner-ad stance to better cash in on its huge audience, after years of criticizing them.

EVENTS: How Gannett is growing its events business.

FOUNDATIONS: Four local funders will use design thinking to fill local news gaps.

MEMBERSHIP: What European investigative news startups can teach media worldwide about memberships. The Atlantic is starting a membership program.

NEWSLETTERS: For Many Marketers, Email Is Still King.

NONPROFITS: The Guardian sets up a nonprofit to support its journalism in the U.S. Could The Guardian’s quest for philanthropic support squeeze out other news nonprofits?

PROGRAMMATIC: Things you should know about AdTech, today. Google and Microsoft Can Use AI to Extract Many More Ad Dollars from Our Clicks.

SOCIAL ADS: Social Advertising Isn't Really Driving Conversions.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Identifying "the persuadable audience" to reduce churn. Digital Subscriptions, Data Warehouses and Personalizing Audience Segments. A New Paradigm that Solves the Problems of Audience Attrition, Churn, and Aging. If You Install It, They Will Subscribe: How The New York Times Uses a Mobile App To Convert Readers To Subscribers. Behind The Athletic’s plans to grow local sports news subscriptions. Philly.com is launching a metered paywall.


Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology

BOTS: With its first Facebook Messenger bot, ProPublica is collecting reader stories about hate speech.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Covering Climate Change, with Urgency and Creativity.

COLLABORATION: To Solve The World's Biggest Problems, Should Industries Cooperate More and Compete Less? (How About Media?)

ENGAGEMENT: Five ways digital journalism puts audience at the center. How to introduce engagement efforts to your newsroom.

FREELANCE: Six Ways Hiring Local Freelancers Saves Time & Money.

INTERACTIVES: How to Create Interactive Journalism with Prezi.

OPIOIDS: Hundreds of New Jersey residents are dying from drug overdoses. Here’s how these reporters are keeping track.

PODCASTING: Rethinking audio editing on mobile.

SOCIAL MEDIA: There’s a better way to tweetstorm. How the Texas Tribune uses tweetstorms and other social media strategies to drive audience engagement. Three ways to make sure you stand out in the news feed. New study finds Facebook page reach has declined 20% in 2017.

STORY COMMENTS: From civil to cesspool: Local news battles offensive comments. Verizon’s Oath is tapping users’ comments across its platforms to find news trends. Fairfax New Zealand "restores civility' in comments section, increases engagement.

TRAUMA: Caregiving in and around journalism: What we’ve learned about taking care of people while working in news.

VIDEO: Want more audience engagement in video form? This startup is betting there’s a business in there. KIT uses data-driven insights to create compelling social videos. Publishers are making more video, whether you want it or not. The Age of 1,000 Streaming Services is Upon Us—and It’s Going to Get Ugly.

WRITING: Stop misusing the word ‘equivocate.’


Tools and Tips: Industry News

ALASKA: Trustee recommends Chapter 7 liquidation after sale of Alaska's largest daily newspaper. $1 million loan is approved to keep Alaska Dispatch News afloat.

ALT WEEKLIES: What Cities Lose When an Alt-Weekly Dies. The Village Voice wasn’t a victim of the internet. It was a victim of greed.

FACEBOOK: Hearst’s Barrett on talks with Facebook: Progress, but more needs to happen. Facebook has hired former NYT public editor Liz Spayd as a consultant in a ‘transparency’ effort. Facebook is going after one of the big ways fake news spreads. Facebook will start blocking ads from pages that repeatedly share false news. Facebook’s Fight Against Fake News Hits Pages and Business Listings. Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, And It Won't Tell Me How.

FAKE NEWS: The Fake-News Fallacy: Old fights about radio have lessons for new fights about the Internet. When it comes to the academic study of fake news, “bullshit receptivity” is a thing. The Guy Who Tweeted The Fake Viral Street Shark Photo Wants You To Know He Regrets Nothing. Why do hoaxes go viral during natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey? Helping readers tell the difference between news and opinion.

GOOGLE: Google begins biggest crackdown on extremist videos.

INSTAGRAM: Want amazing Instagram Stories? These publishers know what’s up.

MEDIUM: Ev Williams on Medium’s Spotify-ish future, why publishers left, and why he changed his mind about ads. The problem with Medium's New Metric: Public vs Private Analytics. Thoughts on Medium’s “Clap” feature and content compensation.

MOBILE: Smartphones help blacks, Hispanics bridge some – but not all – digital gaps with whites.

NET NEUTRALITY: FCC flooded with comments before critical net neutrality vote.

NEWSEUM: Newseum’s president steps down as financial review begins. Why the Newseum deserves to die.

NEW YORK TIMES: New York Times accused of age discrimination in lawsuit.

OWNERSHIP: Government and corporations hinder journalists with ‘media capture.’

PLATFORMS: Platforms and Publishers: A Definitive Timeline. Is “platform” the right metaphor for the technology companies that dominate digital media? German publishers are joining forces against the duopoly.

PRESS FREEDOM: How an independent publication survives in Russia. Media fear Trump will inspire violence against reporters. How the Trump administration has changed the game between investigative reporters and their government sources. Twitter bots unleashed in a social media disruption tactic.

SNAPCHAT: Snapchat has a team of in-house journalists fact-checking user-generated content.

SPORTS: How Kids’ Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry.

TV: Local TV news has lost significant audience.

UK: If Jon Snow thinks local journalism is dead, he needs to get out of London more. UK's Oldham Evening Chronicle folds after 163 years as 'majority' of staff laid off.


UPCOMING EVENTS

EIJ CONFERENCE: The Society of Professional Journalists' Excellence in Journalism conference will be held Sept.7-9 in Anaheim.

NLGJA CONFERENCE: The National Association of LGBTQ Journalists conference will be held Sept. 7-10 in Philadelphia.

LION WEBINARS: LION Publishers hosts a monthly webinar series. Upcoming webinars:
* 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.

BUSINESS PLANNING FOR NONPROFIT NEWS: The Institute for Nonprofit News will host a one-day intensive on business planning for nonprofit news organizations Oct. 3 in Philadelphia.

ONA CONFERENCE: The Online News Association's annual conference will be held Oct. 5-7 in Washington, D.C.

ASNE CONFERENCE: The American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors joint conference will be held Oct. 8-10 in Washington, D.C.

LION SUMMIT - CHICAGO: Register now! LION Publishers' annual conference will be held Oct. 26-28 in Chicago.


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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