Why LION is getting out of the big-conference business (for now)

It was the open secret of this year’s Independent News Sustainability Summit, LION’s signature big, in-person event – which, this year, unfolded in an unseasonably warm San Diego. 

“Have you heard this is the last LION Summit?”

And yes, instead of announcing next year’s location in the conference’s closing remarks, as we did last year to attendees in St. Louis, I did make the following allowance:

“We can’t run an unsustainable Sustainability Summit. We’re definitely planning on some smaller events where we’ll gather folks in person next year; stay tuned for how that will work. But this is LION’s last big Summit like this.”

Two of LION’s values are transparency and iteration. On the first, for an organization dedicated to serving publishers, helmed by those who largely started their professional lives as journalists, any other approach is doomed to failure. For the second, we have coached hundreds of organizations about the importance of responding to what the market is telling them about their business. We owe it to ourselves, and them, to do the same.

Why did we think this would work?

The very first Independent News Sustainability Summit was a bigger event than LION had pulled off in the past; we started planning it in 2021, coming out of the COVID-19 lockdown and in partnership with two organizations: the News Revenue Hub and the RevLab at the Texas Tribune.

Judging by our two main metrics, attendance and revenue, that 2022 event was a huge success. And we sought to replicate that success by hosting an event for around 500 attendees, with relatively low ticket and hotel costs, in a different location every year. (We skipped 2023 to produce two smaller conferences, which proved just as much work to pull off, so we returned to a single big-conference format in 2024.)

What worked about it?

Many of our members and industry supporters prioritized attending, so we consistently drew over 400 people to each event. Healthy ticket sales, enthusiastic sponsors, and multi-year funding from institutional partners meant we covered most of our costs. Both audience and sponsor surveys indicated high satisfaction with the Summit, with 99% of attendees and 100% of sponsors from 2025’s event reporting they’d recommend this offering to others. It felt as though we had cracked the code.

What isn’t working about it?

Hosting an event of this size in a hotel, in any major city, is expensive. There’s just no way around it. You’ve noticed, we’re sure, that each year, we increased ticket prices, reduced travel support, and adjusted our fundraising goals to try to offset production fees. Revenue increased, but not enough to outpace other costs. We never want this event to feel out of reach for our members, most of whom are solopreneurs. We simply couldn’t keep jacking up the prices. Sponsors have raved about the event, but they’re businesses as well – and they didn’t sell enough in services to feel comfortable paying into the high-dollar sponsorship packages (which we consider $20,000 and above) to keep this event comfortably in the black.

What did the bigger trends affecting the Summit and our attendees portend?

Philanthropy is famously fickle, and funding priorities have shifted, making this kind of conference a very tough lift. Also, over the past few years, many of our members, especially our friends up north in Canada, have told us they have felt unsafe traveling to and within the United States. Rising costs have kept us from trying a hybrid virtual/in-person event, and we realized it would be some time – if ever – before we could convene the entire LION community.

What will we do now?

For now, we’re diligently working to see what’s possible for 2027. We’ll unveil our new strategic plan later this year, which will offer more insight into our priorities and goals. Our aim is to continue offering some in-person connection points, but the format and timing are still to be determined.

When will we tell people?

You can expect to hear another update from us by the first quarter of 2027. 

Until then, we want to give a shoutout to every attendee, sponsor, speaker, vendor, promoter, partner, and well-wisher of the Independent News Sustainability Summit. We had a fantastic run, thanks to all of you.