Beyond ticket sales: How to create value, engagement, and revenue through events

Last month, we published a case study featuring examples of five LION members who have successfully added events to their product lineup.

While we know events usually don’t stand alone as a sole revenue source and often support other streams, this interview with Todd Stauffer explores the idea that events can, in fact, be solid (and sustainable) moneymakers and impact drivers.

Todd Stauffer has spent two decades at the intersection of journalism, community engagement, and revenue generation. As the association manager for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) and the lead digital specialist for AAN’s grant-funded revenue labs, Todd helps news organizations unlock new streams of revenue. His experience with LION Publishers’ Sustainability Audits has shown that many organizations are tapping into events, but few are fully capitalizing on their potential. 

We caught up with Todd over Zoom to discuss his insights on how publishers can turn events into strategic, revenue-generating opportunities, without sacrificing community impact. Whether you’re organizing small gatherings or large-scale community festivals, Todd shares best practices and real-world examples of how to get the most out of your events and what pitfalls to avoid.

Elaine: How do you recommend publishers leverage events to think about revenue beyond ticket sales?

Todd: The first thing I’d say to those publishers is, when you’re doing events that are aimed at showing your impact or building community trust, make sure you’re collecting email addresses. Get people to register so you’re capturing some data. That way, you can reach back out to them and grow your list, which also shows impact. Having a larger newsletter list in your community is another way to demonstrate that you’re making an impact as an organization.

Another thing to think about, especially for publishers with a strong reader revenue strategy, is to incorporate your VIP readers into events. Find ways to make it special for them — send a personal invite, give them a special link for registration, or just let them know they’re invited. It doesn’t have to be a big VIP section at an entertainment event, though you could do that too. But even for community events, make sure your most important supporters are involved.

That’s where you start layering in the thinking that eventually leads to monetizing events. If you’re doing group discussion circles on political or social issues, maybe you don’t want to monetize those. But at the end of the day, publications make money by renting access to an exclusive audience they control, manage, or ‘own.’ I hate to say ‘own,’ but these are your people — they follow your publication closely, and that’s valuable. Your local car dealer or nonprofit outreach organization doesn’t have access to that audience, but you do, and they need to rent access to it.

Where you start seeing a win is when you host something like a community event — say a chili tasting, a kids’ jump zone, maybe a healthcare outreach where you’re doing vaccinations. In each part of that, there’s an opportunity for a sponsor. They fit with the event, they complement what’s happening, and they pay for it. Then, when you move further along, like some AAN publishers, you can sell tickets or vendor spaces. If you’re doing something like a whiskey tasting or a hot sauce festival, you’re going to sell each slot because you’re the one bringing people together. It’s your media outlet that’s making it possible for 5,000 people to show up in a park on a Saturday, so everyone else pays you to be a part of that and to access your audience.

As you work toward that, you can layer in things along the way. First, make sure you’re collecting email addresses and reaching out to your VIPs. Next, look for sponsors that complement the event and can help cover costs, even if you’re not making a profit yet. Finally, when you’ve got 1,000 people coming to your event, that’s enough for Blue Cross Blue Shield to pay $5,000 to sponsor it, or for the ice cream company to pay $1,000 to hand out samples of their new flavor.

Elaine: Are there any industry trends you’re seeing around events and local media, especially for smaller or mid-sized publications? A lot of people refer to the Texas Tribune’s events as the gold standard, but that can feel unattainable for smaller organizations.

Todd: Texas Tribune is often the first example that comes up, but it’s important to realize smaller publications don’t need to replicate that exact model. I’d suggest for smaller publications go back to the idea that if you’ve got a reader revenue strategy, events can really help support that. And they don’t have to be a heavy lift. These don’t need to be big, dramatic productions to get your VIP readers engaged. It can be as simple as a Zoom call with your reporter who just broke a story, or a casual meet-up at a coffee shop or bar with the staff.

I say this because reader revenue, especially recurring reader revenue, is probably the part of the revenue stool you can grow the fastest. Selling digital ads takes time. Getting an extra 100,000 page views is slow, and then you still have to sell those ads. Growing your newsletter from 2,500 to 5,000 subscribers also takes time. But moving your reader revenue from 50 recurring donors to 100 can happen faster, especially if you focus on community engagement. If you’re doing events, gatherings, and organizing people to be involved, that’s where you can really see growth.

Look at how politics works right now — they’re organizing people into donating on a recurring basis. We can take some notes from that. You can do a group call, a fun in-person event, or whatever works to get your community engaged and involved.

Elaine: For organizations that are already running events but don’t have a reader revenue program, would you recommend they develop one?

Todd: Absolutely. I think if you’re an organization that’s building that kind of loyalty from your readers, you absolutely should have a reader revenue program — and it should be as far away from subscription as possible. It’s about donations, recurring donations, and recognition. It’s not transactional — you’re not giving them a hat or a t-shirt. You’re giving them your thanks for being part of this, for making it possible for you to do more. That’s the first thing I’d focus on.

The second thing, and where a lot of publications get uncomfortable, is with sales, especially when it comes to sponsorships. They think, ‘How do I sell this? How do I go out and ask for it?’ That’s why I like reader revenue. You’re not really selling in the traditional sense. You’re just saying, ‘Didn’t you have fun at this? Please support us so we can do more.’

There are two approaches to that. First, if you’ve shown that your events or convenings are valuable — whether socially or culturally — you can go to individual high-net-worth donors and say, ‘If you give us $30,000 a year, we can do a lot more of these.’ Or you can tie it into something like NewsMatch, with a $5,000 match that helps fund more events next year.

The next level is to think of sponsorships more as partnerships. When I ran Jackson Free Press, some of the easiest sales calls were with the local liberal arts college. They wanted to sit down and plan out the whole year. They’d pay us for advertising, partner with us on events, and even provide venues. They’d say, ‘What are we going to do together all year?’ The Museum of Art was the same way. They wanted to figure out how we could help bring an audience to their younger, hipper events or their beer garden.

As you move toward sponsorship dollars, think of it as a partnership. Look for organizations that have a budget to work with and see it as a collaboration. In sales, we often talk about turning your chair sideways — when you stop looking at each other across the table and start working on the problem together. It’s a lot less intimidating than standing in a car dealership lobby, hoping someone will talk to you about an ad!

Elaine: What would you advise to news leaders paying out of pocket for some of their event costs? And what metrics should news organizations use to measure progress and success in events?

Todd: I think the first thing you have to do is stop thinking in that ‘excuse it away’ mindset. Look, if you want to buy $100 worth of snacks every month, that’s fine, I’m not going to stop you. But as it gets bigger — and I’ve seen nonprofits and publications throw events that cost $5,000, $10,000, even $50,000 — you have to start thinking about the return on that investment. And that’s where mistakes happen. You’ve got to ask yourself: What kind of return do we want, whether it’s in terms of time or money?

At least do some math around it. Maybe that $100 investment isn’t going to give you $1,500 in returns every month, but maybe it’s adding 20 or 30 new subscribers to your email list, and of those, one or two convert to reader revenue. If the lifetime value of someone who attends one of your events is $360, then you can start to map out a real return on investment.

I think it’s too easy to say, ‘We had people show up, they were happy, there was an impact.’ But if you’re not showing a monetary impact, then you need to double down on the social or cultural impact. Get case studies, quotes from attendees, and make sure you’re surveying them afterward. So if you’re spending $100 on snacks, there should be a survey on the back end that shows the value or benefit of hosting that event.

There are ways to track your key performance indicators (KPIs), too — whether it’s building an audience, collecting email addresses, or getting phone numbers. And the thing is, people who are really engaged around events should be serious about reader revenue. If you’re doing this work, people should support you financially, especially those who can afford to contribute more.

You don’t have to get paid for every single event, but it should be supported financially. You can survey, test things, and come back with answers to questions you had going into the event. Maybe you realize that event wasn’t as valuable as you thought, and you need to steer away from it or try something else that offers a better return on your time and resources.

Elaine: What are some red flags that publishers should watch for to determine if their event strategy needs a rethink?

Todd: The biggest red flag is if there’s no return on investment — whether financial, audience growth, or community impact. If you’re consistently not seeing any value come out of these events, that’s a sign you need to reevaluate. For example, if you’re running community dialogues but only attracting the same group of people each time, and it’s not expanding your reach or fostering diverse perspectives, that’s something to reconsider.

If you’re losing money on these events and can’t point to any financial or major editorial impact, that’s a huge red flag. Sure, spending money on surveys or focus groups that help inform your content is valuable, but if you’re just losing money with no return on investment, it’s time to rethink things. Even if you like 60 or 70% of what you’re doing, how can you adjust the other 30% to either pay for itself or make money?

Resource: Check out Todd Stauffer’s Planning Checklist for Events Revenue Template