Financial Health was strong at this stage, with all activities implemented by at least 85 percent of organizations. Three key activities — a bookkeeping process, annual budgeting process, and budget documents — were in place for all organizations.

These organizations should have a strong handle on past financials, as well as a solid foundation for planning for the future. Having a balance sheet and annual revenue goals are also generally in place, as only a few Growing organizations lack either activity, which are straightforward to implement. A more complex task, tracking member/subscriber interactions, was in place for 18 out of 20 organizations. This suggests the practice is better implemented at an earlier stage as an organization is defining and executing on a reader revenue strategy.

The story is similar for Journalistic Impact. There was a cascade of achievement for four out of the five activities: All 20 organizations track Journalistic Impact data, 18 out of 20 define Journalistic Impact, 17 out of 20 use it for decisionmaking, and 16 out of 20 have all three components in place. While this overview shows that all organizations have at least one of these practices in place, there is still room for them to put all three pieces together.

The bright spots for Operational Resilience were activities that were nearly always in place: Media liability insurance (90 percent), general liability insurance (95 percent), and dedicated revenue staff (95 percent). Growing organizations also had near universal implementation of practices related to hiring, such as ensuring equitable compensation and posting salary rates/ranges while recruiting (19 each).

Even with the successes, there are still opportunities for continued development. Thirteen of these organizations had a documented one- or three- year plan, but only four (20 percent) had a succession plan in place. Growing organizations, as well as those aspiring to the stage, might consider additional documentation for organizational strategy, particularly a vision for leadership transition. As participating organizations can attest, there will always be a need to continue planning for the future.

Growing organizations look beyond defining what a metric or process means for their organization and tracking it, to leveraging that data for long term planning. Efficiency flows between pillars, with clear definitions and tracking processes around target audience and impact feeding intentional revenue and product strategies, and equitable, fair people operations creating the environment for a staff that has the energy and bandwidth to act on those insights.