✍️ How to apply for Press Forward funding
It’s here: Press Forward’s first open call for funding is LIVE! And many LION members should qualify.
Grants will provide selected news outlets, both for-profit and nonprofit, with $100K in unrestricted funding over two years. Small, local newsrooms that publish original reporting in underserved communities are encouraged to apply by Wednesday, June 12, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Review the program guidelines and apply for funding.
Got questions? Sign up for these information sessions:
Thursday, May 9, at 2 p.m. ET | This session will cover grantmaking criteria and eligibility guidelines, how to use the application platform, and resources for grantseekers. And LION’s Chris Krewson will present how our definition of sustainability will affect the grantee selection process. Register.
Monday, June 3, at 2 p.m. ET | This is a Q&A session. Bring your questions to be answered by Press Forward staff. Register.
If your organization doesn’t meet the criteria for this first call, create a Press Forward profile and sign up for updates.
– Hayley Milloy, LION’s marketing manager
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Bay Area member meetup
Last week, the LION team traveled to Oakland, CA, for our biannual staff retreat. While there, we hosted a social hour for LIONs in the Bay Area. A few dozen people attended, and we had a great time reconnecting with familiar faces and meeting new friends (shoutout to CalMatters’ Neil Chase, Broke-Ass Stuart’s Stuart Schuffman, The Berkeley Scanner’s Emilie Raguso, and the many others who joined us).
P.S. If you’re based in the Bay Area, sign up for our #bay-area-local Slack channel to connect with local industry peers.
Thank you, Anika Anand!
During her nearly five-year tenure at LION Publishers, Deputy Director Anika Anand has honed and relied on her ability to ask good questions to help lead the organization to success. This week, she’s wrapping up her time with us, but not before imparting some wisdom on the essential art of asking questions. Here are the three questions she used to guide her work at LION.
LION welcomes 8 new members
We’d like to warmly welcome all the new LION members who joined us this month, including The Estes Valley Voice, The Hardwick Gazette, Georgia Voice, Orlando Weekly, Better to Speak, India Currents, Lake Wales News, and The Sunrise News.
Learn more about LION membership.
Apply for a Summit travel stipend
✈️ Our first call for $600 Summit travel stipends will close this Sunday, May 5, at midnight PT. This round will prioritize Focus Members and those in our Micro-tier. We’ll announce another call closer to the event date, and selected attendees will be notified by July 31. Apply for a stipend.
🎟️ We sold out the 2022 Summit and are on track to do so again this year. Purchase your early bird tickets by June 28!
7 resources for independent publishers
1. Apply for the News Product Alliance’s News Product Management Certification, a part-time virtual program for mid to senior-level news professionals looking to boost their product development and innovation skills. (TODAY)
2. Experiment with AI. Sign up for ONA’s new AI Mini Lab series; these free, expert-led sessions will allow you to test AI applications to complete a specific task. (Next session is May 7)
3. See what’s next. Canva has set aside 50 free tickets for LION members to attend Canva Create, an event in Los Angeles showcasing new product launches and offering sessions led by visionary creatives. Use code “CreateLION” at check-out. (May 23)
4. Apply for the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, a six-month program that will teach selected participants how to develop reporting projects that can be funded through philanthropy. (Apply by May 24)
5. Get tickets to INN Days. Don’t miss this premier in-person conference for nonprofit news leaders, featuring five unique tracks and ample opportunities to network with fellow attendees. (June 11-12)
6. Strengthen your financial skills. Register for A Bookkeeping Cooperative’s four-part financial foundations workshop, which covers core topics like understanding your organization’s finances, cash flows, and financial reporting while keeping your mission in mind. (Three sessions available)
7. Build a better survey. Inbox Collective explains how these three survey questions can help you better understand your audience’s perception of your content.
What we’re reading
Collaborative journalism trends. New research shows an uptick in more sophisticated, successful partnerships as collaboration in journalism becomes a nationwide focus (and expectation). (Center for Cooperative Media, Medium) And this post offers insights on and examples of successful collaborations. (Silvia Solis, Medium)
Perfect your pitch. How to boost your confidence in news media advertising by exploring mutually beneficial partnerships, creating pricing structures with comfortable profit margins, and fostering long-term commitments. (Editor & Publisher)
Break time. Why taking short and longer breaks from work can be a massive benefit to creativity and productivity. (The New York Times)
What’s working. Four newsrooms share strategies for navigating the changing media landscape, from prioritizing utility coverage and incorporating subscription models to repurposing evergreen content and creating interactive experiences. (Nieman Lab)
“Meeting the moment.” As pro-Palestine protests continue to develop on college campuses around the country, student newspapers are providing essential coverage. (Teen Vogue)
LIONs in the news
Independent outlets that directly address community information needs are the future of local news. LION member The Jersey Bee’s journalistic approach, adapted from healthcare, education, and social work, goes beyond the traditional model of journalism and highlights the barriers people face to civic participation. And by centering people’s basic needs, they help readers improve their quality of life.
“The Jersey Bee doesn’t just cover the news. We make the news useful. We aim to make a tangible difference in our community’s health and well-being.”
Learn more about their approach.
In other LION member news:
Block Club Chicago’s Rachel Hinton was honored with the Distinguished Alumna Award by DePaul University’s Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence.
The Oaklandside’s Tasneem Raja is the recipient of the 2024 International Women’s Media Foundation Gwen Ifill Award.
Former Mississippi Today reporter Isabelle Taft is up for the 2024 Livingston Award in the local reporting division.
Mississippi Free Press won the Poynter Institute’s Robert G. McGruder Diversity Award.
Streetlight is hiring a part-time development operations contractor.
The Buckeye Flame launched a successful, week-long NewsMatch campaign called “Wildfire Week.”
Richland Source updated its account management system.
Representatives from The Appeal, The Dreamland Report, The Xylom, India Currents, The Current, Open Campus, and MLK50 have been accepted into INN’s 2024 Emerging Leaders Council.
The Highlands Current has been named Newspaper of the Year by the New York Press Association for the third year in a row.
How to reach us
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