The growth of public media is underscored by the increasing financial strength of local public radio organizations, with news-focused licensees experiencing a steady rise in revenue, primarily supported by individual giving and underwriting. The donor base for public radio has expanded significantly, with an increasing number of sustainers and major donors, indicating a robust financial future.
Over the years, we’ve seen more and more newsrooms posting job listings for roles like social media manager, newsletter writer and audience engagement editor. But can these roles evolve beyond early career positions and eventually find a space among news leadership?
How do you sustain digital local journalism beyond the nation’s big cities? Ask Richland Source. Launched nine years ago in America’s rust belt, Richland Source has earned its reputation as one of the strongest local news services rooted in “flyover country.” How did they do it?
The New Mexico Local News Fund brings news organizations across the state together to harness their collective reporting and fundraising power and tell regional or statewide stories that one outlet could not fully cover on its own. The organization is building on a collaborative mindset already in place among New Mexico’s journalists and providing them with resources and training to enhance their reporting.
Instead of letting public access channels wither due to commercial market fluctuations, we should publicly fund and expand the precious communication infrastructure that access media offers.
Frank Mungeam, Chief Innovation Officer with the Local Media Association share key insights from LMA’s inaugural Lab for Journalism Funding, including essential elements of a successful philanthropy pitch, mistakes to avoid, and case study examples from publishers. Larry Lee, CEO of the Sacramento Observer shares his story of fundraising for his family’s historical Black newspaper.
National Trust for Local News (NTLN) recently engineered the purchase of a family-owned newspaper chain in Colorado in order to sustain its irreplaceable local journalism. Is this business model a viable strategy to prevent vulture capital acquisitions of local media and closure of local papers across the country?
Newly established National Trust for Local News works “with communities to catalyze the capital, new ownership structures, and business model transformations needed for established local and community news organizations to thrive and remain deeply grounded in their communities.”
This Lightning Chat invited audience development and engagement practitioners to discuss their evolving needs for relationship management software (typically referred to as CRM), solutions others have found or developed, and the need for potentially new tools or approaches.
WFAE embarked on an ambitious journey to look and sound like the community it is licensed to serve. WFAE leaders Ju-Don Marshall and Joe O’Connor explain how they are reaching beyond the traditional “core” audiences of public media to understand and meet the information needs of people in their region.
WFAE’s 2015 transformation aimed to adapt to the digital landscape and have its staff and audience reflect the diversity of the area. Since then, WFAE doubled its content staff, increased its digital traffic seven-fold, attracted new members and grew its general revenues. It developed new habits around audience engagement, publishing frequency, hiring and mentoring, and more.
Founded in 2015, City Bureau is a nonprofit civic journalism lab based on the South Side of Chicago. Their programs mainly focus on training and equipping people with little or no journalism experience to lead community conversations, provide oversight of public meetings, and conduct investigations into local sociopolitical issues.
