Philanthropy overtakes advertising as most common revenue stream for LIONs

As philanthropic funding at the national and local levels is on the rise, as seen by the over $400 million distributed to local newsrooms by Press Forward, LION members are leaning into philanthropy and cultivating audience-supported revenue.

In 2025, LION collected business data from over 300 local, independent newsrooms across the U.S. and Canada. Here’s what we’re seeing around local newsroom revenue strategies in 2025:

More LION members, across all tax statuses, report philanthropic support as a major part of their financial picture.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen philanthropy and community-driven revenue streams play a more important role in revenue strategies for both for-profit and nonprofit newsrooms. For the first time since LION started tracking this data in 2020, philanthropic funding is the most common revenue stream across our membership, unseating direct-sold advertising. The share of organizations with philanthropic giving as a revenue stream increased by 35 percent in 2025 across our membership of for-profit and nonprofit newsrooms, as more philanthropic dollars from national and local foundations reached local newsrooms. 

Pass-through funding has also played a role in this development; for example, 40 percent of LION members in this analysis received funding from LION as part of program participation in 2024, totaling over $2.5 million.

The second most popular revenue stream for for-profit organizations changed from subscriptions in 2024 to philanthropy in 2025. Historically, philanthropy primarily benefited nonprofit organizations; in the last couple of years, local and national foundations have been supporting local newsrooms regardless of tax status. Roughly eight in 10 nonprofits and six in 10 for-profits report philanthropy as a revenue stream.

Audience-supported revenue streams continue to grow.

For some newsrooms, active audience engagement is meaningfully contributing to their financial health. Audience-supported revenue streams, including small individual donations, subscriptions, and memberships, increased by an average of 19 percent for all LION member newsrooms regardless of tax status. 

Seventy-seven percent of LION member newsrooms reported revenue from small individual gifts, making it the second most popular revenue stream across all LION members. For for-profit organizations, direct-sold advertising is still the most common revenue stream, but we’re seeing increased growth in small-dollar contributions. Fifty-seven percent of for-profit organizations report revenue from small donors (under $1,000), 57 percent from memberships or subscriptions, and 78 percent earn revenue from one of the three sources. 

Another way that newsrooms are monetizing their audience: One in three newsrooms earned revenue from events this year.

Staffing data helps shed light on how newsrooms are supporting this shift in revenue strategy. The median LION member has six editorial staff and one revenue staff. Forty-three percent of LION newsrooms have a dedicated revenue staff member. Newsrooms with dedicated revenue staff are seeing a return on their investment. On average, organizations of the same staff size that have at least one dedicated revenue-generating staff member earn 38 percent more revenue.