Tag: Lion Publishers
How being a solopreneur has forced me to reckon with my limitations
Learning to set boundaries while I launch a news organization — amid a pandemic — is as important as learning to market and fundraise.
What can grow in the desert?
We are awash with studies and white papers about the demise of local newsrooms as a threat to our democracy. But what if, instead of asking what we’ve lost, we ask what can actually grow in these deserts?
How to implement community listening
Eight steps to begin incorporating field canvassers into your newsroom’s work Borderless Magazine is a small (but mighty!) nonprofit news outlet based in Chicago. We cover immigration and immigrant communities, and about half of our online audience reads our work in Spanish. In order to stretch our modest resources and better serve our audiences, we … Continued
Succession planning is key to journalism’s sustainability
Digital news organizations need to prepare and plan for leadership transitions.
Putting Airtable to work in your newsroom
From surveying readers to tracking impact, it can do a lot more than a spreadsheet.
Financing multicultural media: New collaboration positions publishers of color as catalysts for equitable community development
A robust, resilient and diverse media ecosystem is as essential to a community’s well-being as affordable housing, reliable transportation and accessible capital.
Five takeaways from a new study of local digital news publishers
For-profit news startups are more likely to succeed than other small businesses, but many owners aren’t getting rich. I’ve been tracking these local, independent, digital news outlets for more than a decade and started Michele’s List in 2010. Now, with an assist from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, I updated my database and surveyed … Continued
Let technology plot the path forward
Like many journalists, I can remember when I first thought about pursuing a career in the field. As a teenager, I loved writing and reading well-done stories, and I often found them in the newspaper. By the time I reached high school, I was reading The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press everyday, and … Continued
Discovering a new news ecosystem
When Michele McLellan dug deep into how local, online journalists were making a living, the result was a three-year series of annual conferences that spawned a national nonprofit organization.
A LION is born
Dylan Smith was skeptical when, in 2010, he received an invitation to the first Block by Block conference. Leaving his one-person newsroom for a weekend to fly across the country for a conference aimed at local, independent, online news operators seemed like a waste of time. Smith ran a nonprofit site in a major metro, … Continued