LION Publishers receives $1 million Press Forward infrastructure grant

Press Forward, a national initiative to reimagine local news, has awarded a $1 million, three-year grant to LION Publishers as part of its Open Call on Infrastructure, which is providing $22.7 million to 22 projects that address the urgent challenges local newsrooms face today. LION intends to use the funding to provide financial and HR consulting services to as many as 80 independent newsrooms. 

“Here at LION, we’ve always seen our work as infrastructure as we help independent publishers build more sustainable businesses,” said Chris Krewson, executive director of LION. “We couldn’t be more honored to be among this incredible group of grantees, and we’re excited to get started in helping even more organizations benefit through this effort to strengthen and stabilize their organizations.” 

For the past six years, LION’s work has focused on helping its publisher members build more sustainable news businesses by strengthening three key organizational pillars: financial health, journalistic impact, and operational resilience. The LION Sustainability Audit, now a self-service tool that gives newsrooms a comprehensive assessment of their business performance and progress, has been instrumental in guiding publishers toward sustainability, as well as providing a field-level look at challenges independent publishers are confronted with. 

LION has conducted Sustainability Audits for more than 350 newsrooms, and many share similar challenges centering their finances and HR policies. In 2024, LION launched a pilot Sustainability 360 program to address these hurdles by providing participants with free consulting services. We recently scaled the program to 40 more organizations.

And now, with this infusion of additional funding from Press Forward, LION will be able to offer financial and HR consulting services to as many as 80 independent newsrooms over the course of three years. This, in turn, will boost participants’ operational resilience and financial health, two of the three pillars of sustainability. 

“Today’s local newsrooms are much smaller than 25 years ago, yet must do more with less – particularly due to rapid changes in technology and demands of a 24-hour news cycle. These projects being funded represent a range of solutions that are needed to meet urgent challenges,” said Dale Anglin, director of Press Forward. “LION’s Sustainability Audits have become an industry standard, and we’re delighted to help expand their consulting services in vital areas to more newsrooms.”

Many of Press Forward’s Open Call on Infrastructure grantees are working hard to protect a free and independent press. The full list is available online here and includes LION members City Bureau, Documented, Sahan Journal, El Tímpano, Deep South Today, and Spotlight PA.

Stay tuned for more details on LION’s programming efforts. For additional information about this round of Press Forward funding, visit pressforward.news/infrastructure25.

About Press Forward

Press Forward is a nationwide movement to strengthen our democracy by revitalizing local news and information. Press Forward’s growing coalition of funders has committed to invest more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news, and scale infrastructure the sector needs to thrive. Named to Fast Company’s 2025 list of Innovative Non-Profits, Press Forward is housed at The Miami Foundation. For more, visit pressforward.news.

Learn more about LION here.