LION is looking for coaches with experience in financial management and operations

Status: Independent Contractor

Point of Contact: Senior Manager of Coaching

Location: Remote within USA

Engagement Type: Short-term contract, with variable working hours, from August 29 – November 11, 2022

Project Summary

LION is launching an eight-week program on managing money and risk in September. The aim is to help independent news businesses shore up their operational and financial foundation in order to more confidently plan for the future and, ultimately, progress down the path to sustainability. It will provide news businesses with:

• Training around navigating risk and uncertainty, financial management, setting goals and planning for the future.
• One-on-one coaching to implement training and produce program deliverables. 
• Direct funding to execute deliverables.

We’re looking for independent contractors to provide coaching who:

• Have experience working with, or have themselves been, news publishers operating small teams
• Have a breadth of expertise with journalism entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities
• Have an expertise in news business strategy, revenue planning, financial management and aligning organizational finances and operations
• Share our vision that holistic sustainability lies at the nexus of journalistic impact, operational resilience and financial health 
• Are comfortable coaching around both big-picture strategy and specific tactical approaches, but know they don’t need to be an expert in everything 
• Can curate the LION community, industry knowledge and their networks to help publications prioritize their most urgent needs
• Can balance the delivery of empathetic encouragement and reality checks to resource-constrained publishers

Coaching project 

The coaching contractor will have two primary responsibilities:

• Support and guide four participating news businesses through weekly coaching sessions as they implement the training they’ve received and produce the following program deliverables: a financial plan and checklist of essential business documents.
• Document coaching sessions to inform programming and to help LION gain a deeper understanding of what news businesses need at different stages. These insights will be shared at regular coaching team meetings and through light-lift weekly coaching reports.

Coaching goals and deliverables

• Participating news businesses report that they felt supported throughout the program and as they produced their program deliverables
• Weekly coaching reports for each participant
• Share feedback on the program and your coaching experience through our offboarding survey

Time commitment and important dates

The program runs the week of August 22 through the week of November 11, 2022.

Compensation

Coaches will be paid a flat fee of $10,000 for the project, which consists of roughly 50 hours of work. Half will be paid upon signing the contract and the other half will be paid upon completion of the final deliverable. 

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 400+ 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 to opportunities at LION so that we 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. Pacific time on July 1st. You will be asked to provide:

• Your resume
• Any online links that show your work (a Twitter profile, a portfolio page, a LinkedIn profile, etc.)
• Answers to the following questions:
  • Why are you interested in coaching with Lion?
  • How would you describe your coaching style?
  • Tell us about your experience with entrepreneurship. What do you think are the biggest challenges and opportunities for independent news businesses?
  • Tell us about your experience with financial management and strategy. How did you learn those skills, and how did they evolve over time?
  • Tell us about a time when you had to translate complex financial management concepts for people who are not specialists in these subjects but have to make informed decisions. What were the main challenges? How did you solve these challenges? What would you have done differently?
  • Please share anything else you’d like us to know about your background, experience or skills that speaks to your ability to do this role.

If you have questions about this role, reach out to LION Senior Manager of Coaching Elaine Diaz ([email protected]) to learn more.