100 Australian publishers are getting LION Sustainability Audits

LION Publishers has teamed up with Australia’s Local & Independent News Association (LINA) to offer free LION Sustainability Audits to 100 independent publishers Down Under.

“We’ve been refining and scaling the Audit for the past six years, and we’re confident that the process can reliably diagnose and help independent publishers in the U.S. and Canada,” said Chris Krewson, LION executive director. “We’re very pleased that publishers in Australia – especially those who’ve asked for this – will have access to the very same tool that hundreds of North American news businesses have utilized.”

The LION Audit, introduced in 2021, is an on-demand news business assessment that measures the overall health of independent online newsrooms and provides insight into core challenges and opportunities, expert guidance and tailored resources, and industry benchmarks. The process includes:

• A questionnaire to assess various operational, financial, and journalistic metrics
• An immediately available report that reveals where an organization sits on the path to sustainability, benchmarks, and recommendations for next steps, plus a summary of responses for future reference
• Access to LION’s News Entrepreneur Academy, a curated database of educational guides, templates, and more

At LION, we just completed our 1,000th Audit, but this is our first time adapting the assessment for another continent. Working in tandem with LINA, we’ve designed this iteration of the Audit to align with the Australian regulatory environment, including updates to questions and resources on business tax and legal compliance policies. We’ve also reviewed our stages of sustainability to localize our maturity model for independent news businesses in Australia.

“Thanks for this – I’ve been waiting about five years to be eligible to have a crack at one of these!” said Peri Strathearn, founder of Australia’s Murray Bridge News and a LINA board member. “I’ll be interested to see what LION’s tool comes up with.”

In addition, LINA will have access to a secure, dynamic dashboard to view and analyze aggregate data from the Audit, providing an unprecedented look into these news businesses’ operations and their long-term needs.

“The Sustainability Audit helps publishers focus on the fundamentals of news business sustainability: operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. In a world where one can follow any thread, the Audit helps prioritise activities that will have the greatest impact on business stability now and into the future,” said Claire Stuchbery, executive director of LINA.

“LINA is proud to partner with LION Publishers to make this tool available to Australian publishers,” she said. “We’ve seen how useful it has been for news publishers in the U.S. and have tailored the Audit to the Australian market to ensure the learnings are relevant and actionable in a territory that sorely needs to strengthen its media diversity.”

The Audit has a proven track record of success; for example, the median revenue increase for news businesses that have taken the Audit twice is 100%, and half of news businesses saw increases in monthly web users between Audits. We look forward to publishing key takeaways from the Australian Audit.

If you’re a member of LINA, stay tuned for information on how to access the Australian Audit. If you’re interested in learning more about how LION partners with organizations to provide Audits for independent news publishers, contact Sarah Gustavus Lim at sarahlim@lionpublishers.com.