As a Reynolds Fellow, Michele McLellan developed Michele’s List featuring local news startups and organized Block by Block: Community News Summit 2010, a gathering of more than 100 local news entrepreneurs, which was held annually until 2012. A new group — Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION) — formed in 2013 and launched the LION Summit in October 2013 to carry on the work of the Block by Block conferences.

After her fellowship, McLellan continued to develop Michele’s List and launched the site with a searchable database, with the help of funding from The Patterson Foundation. Michele’s List, which now features 200 news startups, was created to help publishers connect with each other. The filters on Michele’s List are designed to let a user search across a variety of site sizes and activities to find publishers with like models and challenges.