LION is hiring Sustainability 360 coaches

LION Program Coach: Sustainability 360 Program

Status: Independent Contractor

Point of contact: Associate Director of Coaching

Location: Remote within the U.S.

Engagement type: Short-term contract, with variable working hours, from October 21, 2024, until June 27, 2025.

Compensation: Coaches will be paid a flat fee of $21,000 for the project, which consists of roughly 105 hours of coaching and administrative work. 50% billable upon contract execution, 50% billable upon successful completion of all contract deliverables.

Project summary

LION is launching the Sustainability 360 program this year. This program was designed to make the independent news industry more accessible to LION members by connecting them with the support and resources they need to move their businesses toward sustainability.

In an eight-month pilot, LION will test a new strategy to provide access to experts who will offer strategic and tactical advice, consultants who can increase a team’s capacity, and conversations with other publishers who are working on similar challenges. 

This initiative will give news publishers a chance to identify and implement solutions tailored to their specific needs while also helping our team identify what’s missing in our current programs for members. The ultimate goal of the program is to help this cohort move to the “Growing” stage of LION’s Independent News Maturity Model, which is part of our Strategic Growth Plan.

Coaching project

The coaching contractor will have the following primary responsibilities:

• Co-design a Success Plan for each publication based on its own growth trajectory and current challenges
• Through regular coaching sessions, support and guide three participating news businesses as they implement their Success Plan
• Help publishers identify barriers to reaching their North Star goal that might impact the publication’s growth and develop a plan to address them
• Document coaching sessions to inform programming and help LION develop a deeper understanding of what news businesses need at different stages. These insights will be shared at regular coaching team meetings and through short coaching reports 
• Participate in regular monthly meetings with LION staff and other coaches

Coaching deliverables

• A Success Plan designed for each publication
• Monthly coaching reports for each publication
• Feedback on the program and your coaching experience shared through an offboarding survey

Skills and qualifications for this role

• Have experience in strategic planning, including setting goals, identifying barriers, and developing actionable plans to achieve desired outcomes
• Can analyze quantitative and qualitative data and insights gathered during coaching sessions to inform program improvements and adjustments
• Have the ability to coach multiple newsrooms effectively, providing personalized support and guidance to each publication assigned
• Have experience with financial management and analysis, including budgeting, forecasting, and aligning organizational finances and operations. This includes the ability to guide participants in analyzing financial health, revenue, expenses, and cash flow data
• Knowledgeable about best practices to identify, attract, and retain talent specifically for revenue roles within the news industry, including understanding the skills and experience needed for success in these roles
• Have an understanding of how to evaluate and analyze current revenue streams within independent news organizations, which includes identifying opportunities for expansion and optimization
• Familiar with various revenue models, such as reader revenue, ads and sponsorships, major donors, etc. This includes knowledge of best practices, pricing strategies, and value proposition development

Other skills and expectations

• Have experience working with news entrepreneurs operating lean teams
• Have a breadth of expertise in journalism entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities
• Have experience working with organizations facing historical institutional barriers to building a sustainable news business
• Are comfortable coaching around both big-picture strategy and specific tactical approaches, but you don’t need to be an expert in everything
• Share our vision that holistic sustainability lies at the nexus of journalistic impact, operational resilience, and financial health 
• Can curate the LION community, industry knowledge, and their networks to help publications prioritize their most urgent opportunities 
• Can balance the delivery of empathetic encouragement and reality checks to resource-constrained publishers

Hiring process

• Candidates selected to advance to the next round will be invited to complete a written exercise in which they will be asked to apply their experience to a real-life situation (This should take no more than 45 minutes to complete)
• Finalists will be invited to a 30-minute Zoom interview with members of the LION team

About LION Publishers

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional journalism association for independent news publishers. While most of our 500+ members across the U.S. and Canada run local news businesses, we also have members who serve larger regions and specific identity-based communities across geographies. LION provides teaching, resources, and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses.

LION is an Equal Opportunity Employer

LION believes that a team with diversity of backgrounds and experiences will generate the most innovative ideas and ultimately do the best work in support of our mission. This is why we welcome contractors, vendors, staff, and board members who contribute to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment. We understand diversity as multi-dimensional and intersectional, encompassing aspects of our identities, including race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, class, geography, lived experiences, and more. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply for opportunities at LION so that we can build a team that reflects the diversity of independent news entrepreneurs we wish to serve.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all the boxes listed below or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

Application materials

Submit your materials using this form by 11 p.m. ET on October 4. You will be asked to provide:

• Your resume
• Any online links that show your work (a portfolio page, a LinkedIn profile, etc.)
• Answers to the following questions:
  • After reading the program announcement, we are interested in hearing why you want to coach for this program. How do you believe your expertise and experience can contribute to the growth and success of the participating news businesses?
  • Tell us about a time when you successfully guided an organization through a period of significant growth or transformation. What strategies did you use? What specific areas of expertise did you bring to the table, and what were the outcomes?
  • Please share anything else you’d like us to know about your background, experience, or skills that speak to your ability to perform this role.