Member Homepage

Welcome to your one-stop shop for member benefits, announcements, links, and more!

Access quick links below. 

Highlights

  • Apply for the Sustainability Audit and Funding program
  • Register for the Independent News Sustainability Summit, which will take place in Chicago September 5–7, 2024. Our schedule will include:
    • Keynotes from industry leaders
    • Dozens of sessions on financial health, operational resilience, and journalistic impact –– LION’s pillars of sustainability
    • Facilitated networking opportunities
    • The sixth annual LION Awards Ceremony and Dinner
Happy group of award winners holding their awards and smiling
Independent News Sustainability Summit Opening Reception
A woman and man speaking on stage

New to LION? Here are your next steps!

  • Join the News Entrepreneur Community on Slack: This is a peer-learning community for active or aspiring news entrepreneurs and anyone interested in media entrepreneurship. We encourage any interested members of your team to join! Request access here.
  • Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: Get funding opportunities, business tips, industry updates, and other resources for independent publishers delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning.
  • Promote your work: We highlight LION member achievements in our newsletter and on social media. Do you have a success story to share? Email your good news to [email protected] so we can help celebrate you and your team!
  • Access your membership account: Log in to your LION membership account (managed by Memberful).
  • Schedule a one-on-one with LION's Immediate Past Board Chair, Rebekah Monson, to talk about LION Publishers, or volunteer to be on LION's membership committee.

LION Member Benefits

Direct funding, coaching, and consulting

LION's Sustainability Audits and Funding program offers a comprehensive process for members to identify and respond constructively to roadblocks to sustainability within their organizations. The 2024 program includes eligibility for up to $20,000 in direct funding.

Eligibility for the LION Sustainability Awards

The LION Publishers Sustainability Awards recognize excellence by local independent online news businesses in award categories focused on LION's pillars of sustainability — journalistic impact, financial health, and operational resilience.

The 2024 Awards feature:

  • Cash prizes for award winners (in 2023, we gave out more than $55,000 to LION Award winners)
  • The LION Awards Ceremony & Dinner, which will be hosted in person on September 5, 2024, during LION’s Independent News Sustainability Summit in Chicago.
  • Eight independently-judged award categories
  • Two recognition awards nominated by LION staff and board members
  • The opportunity for independent publishers to be evaluated against peer news organizations with a similar annual revenue
  • A sliding scale for entry fees based on annual revenue
  • One complimentary ticket to the LION Awards Ceremony & Dinner for finalist organizations

2024 awards entries are now closed 

Professional development through the News Entrepreneur Academy

The News Entrepreneur Academy offers LION members training, resources and members-only content to strengthen their news businesses and become more sustainable. All News Entrepreneur Academy content is available to LION members free of charge. 

The News Entrepreneur Academy features full guided courses; shorter lessons on specific topics that can be viewed to answer specific questions; and a resource library that includes downloadable tools and templates, written articles, and much more.

Connection and peer support via the LION community

LION has always been, first and foremost, a community of independent publishers facing shared challenges together. And we'll continue and enhance this work by:

Exclusive member discounts on media liability insurance and software tools

In partnership with InSource Insurance Group, a U.S.-licensed insurance broker, LION members in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., can receive a quote for media liability insurance by following these instructions.

Other current discounts and opportunities include:

  • Micro tier and nonprofit LION members get free access to Canva’s premium features (valued at approximately $6,000 per year).
  • Access to the SmartNews partner program 
  • 15% off all products from First Draft Notebooks. When members use this link, the discount code will automatically be applied at checkout.
  • Discounted fiscal sponsorship through the Tiny News Collective, which provides tools, resources, and expertise to help communities build sustainable news organizations. The discounted fiscal sponsorship fee for LION members is 5% of all program grants and donations received. Apply here. For more information, check out our FAQ!
  • Cybersecurity protection: Receive free increased web security and performance services through Cloudflare's Project Galileo. Email Jocelyn Woolbright, Program Manager for Project Galileo, at [email protected] to receive complimentary access to Cloudflare's Business Plan services (valued at $2,400 per year).
  • The Local Media Consortium offers a complimentary membership to LION members with less than 200,000 monthly unique visitors. Membership perks include partnerships with service providers (except the ad manager partnership), access to member resources and past and upcoming webinars, quarterly update meetings, and strategic initiatives, including the Branded Content Project. If you are interested in becoming a member of LMC, please complete this form, and LMC Member & Partner Engagement Director Allye Ratledge will get back to you!

Get legal help:

  • Lawyers for Reporters is a program of the Vance Center for International Justice. With a staff of in-house lawyers and the Vance Center’s proven co-counseling model, LFR provides pro bono legal services to independent local and mission-driven news publishers in such areas as newsgathering, pre-publication review, copyright, licensing and freelance agreements, entity formation and corporate transactions, media liability insurance, governance and fiscal sponsorship. LFR has Spanish and French speaking attorneys on staff. To contact Lawyers for Reporters, click here: https://lawyers4reporters.org/contact-us

Access to our Tools & Services Directory

We regularly hear from our members that knowing what tools and services they might use to build, manage, and grow their news businesses is helpful. While LION does not endorse any particular tool or service, we have compiled some of the most popular ones we know of across various business categories. We encourage our members to research and vet these tools and services to determine which are best for their specific needs. You can access the directory here. 

If you would like us to add a tool or service to the directory you've found particularly helpful, email [email protected].