A three-year LION Publishers programme shows that assessment, coaching, and funding help independent newsrooms boost sustainability and revenue.
LION Publishers’ 2025 Sustainability Audit Report reveals that local news organisations participating in its audit and funding programme saw year-on-year median revenue growth of 60 per cent.
The initiative, which ran from 2022 to 2024 and served 357 newsrooms across the US and Canada, combined comprehensive assessments, expert coaching, customised action plans, and up to $20,000 in funding for each participant.
Three quarters (77 per cent) of organisations providing follow-up data made significant progress in building infrastructure, improving financial processes, or demonstrating the impact of their journalism. Having dedicated staff focused on revenue generation was identified as transformational, with those organisations earning median revenue 700 per cent higher than those without such staff.
A lack of business operations systems (legal, HR, and management) was highlighted as the greatest weakness among newsrooms. The analysis also showed that organisations with at least three established revenue streams were more likely to achieve stability, underlining the importance of revenue diversification.
This article was drafted by an AI assistant before it was edited by a human