![\"Awards](\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Awards-graphic-2023-3.png\" "\\"Awards")
\n\t\n\tThe LION Publishers Sustainability Awards<\/strong> recognize excellence by local independent online news businesses in award categories focused on LION’s pillars of sustainability<\/a> – journalistic impact, financial health, and operational resilience.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGet tickets to the LION Awards Ceremony & Dinner\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t Over the last five years of running the LION Publishers Local Journalism Awards, we’ve made some changes along the way as our focus within the media ecosystem has become clearer.<\/p>\n Our mission<\/a> is to help independent news entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. The annual awards program aims to celebrate our members’ transformational achievements as they progress toward becoming sustainable news organizations for their communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n That’s why, for our sixth annual LION Awards, we’re rebranding as the LION Publishers Sustainability Awards<\/b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n At the LION Awards, we don’t just celebrate great journalism. We celebrate sustainable<\/i><\/b> journalism<\/b> that is built to last longer than one story or impactful series. We want our focus to be on the work our members are doing to design replicable processes and community-centered workflows.\u00a0<\/p>\n Along with journalistic impact, we celebrate our members’ progress in strengthening their organizations’ financial health and operational resilience, because we know that sustainability happens at the intersection of these three pillars<\/a>. <\/p>\n Here’s what we mean by each of those terms:<\/p>\n Here are our 2024 categories that are being evaluated by a panel of independent judges:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tLION Business of the Year<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t Recognizes a LION member that has made significant progress toward achieving sustainability through strengthening its operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. <\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for initiatives that show consistency as opposed to one-off efforts across our three pillars of sustainability: operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. Specifically, they are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member – founded after January 1, 2023 – that exhibits, even in its very early stages, a clearly defined commitment to working toward achieving sustainability through operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. <\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that has made significant progress toward strengthening its operational resilience by establishing processes, policies, and a people-centered company culture designed to support staff, manage growth, and promote sustainability.<\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are seeking initiatives that demonstrate new or improved processes and policies designed to support staff, manage growth, and promote sustainability. We understand that building a healthy and resilient work culture takes time, and judges won’t be expecting perfect processes and systems. Instead, they will be evaluating the intentionality and results of those efforts. Specifically, they are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that has made significant progress toward strengthening its financial health by developing a plan for earning money, managing a budget, and\/or monitoring revenue and expenses to extend its financial runway. This can also include the development of a successful and creative strategy to grow or diversify revenue while positively impacting their financial health.<\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for initiatives that have a successful and creative strategy to grow or diversify revenue while positively impacting their financial health. The dollar amount isn’t the only metric for success, your own growth against your goals is most important. Specifically, they are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that has consistently produced journalism with meaningful and demonstrable impact in its communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for initiatives that show consistent efforts to produce journalism that has meaningful and demonstrable impact in the community as opposed to one-off efforts. Impact Architects define<\/a> impact as the change to the status quo on the individual, community, and structural level. Therefore, judges are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that has achieved general excellence in journalistic impact by demonstrating an intentional and systematized approach to community engagement that consistently tells stories for, with, and by the people they are working to serve. <\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for initiatives demonstrating an intentional and systematized approach to community engagement. Specifically, they are looking for organizations that:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that has successfully formed a short-term or long-term collaboration with at least one other organization to positively affect their journalistic impact, financial health, and\/or operational resilience. Entries can include both business-focused and\/or editorial-focused collaborations, however the most successful entries will be able to demonstrate a positive impact on more than one of LION’s pillars of sustainability (journalistic impact, financial health, and operational resilience).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Judges especially want to hear how your initiative improved your operational resilience, financial health, and journalistic impact. Specifically, they are looking for organizations that show:<\/p>\n Recognizes a LION member that developed a successful and creative short-term or long-term product to strengthen their journalistic impact, financial health, and\/or operational resilience. We use News Product Alliance’s definition<\/a> of a news product: “A defined article, series, program, or other content created by a news organization to meet the needs of news consumers, membership and subscription programs, and streaming services.”<\/strong><\/p>\n Judges are looking for products. Specifically, they are looking for products that:<\/p>\n And here are the 2024 recognition awards that will be nominated by LION staff and board members:<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCommunity Member of the Year<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t Recognizes an individual affiliated with a LION member organization who exemplifies LION’s core values.<\/strong> They routinely go above and beyond to help support, acknowledge, and celebrate their fellow news entrepreneurs. They are dedicated to building a sustainable news business and helping other LIONs do the same.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tTransformational Impact Award<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t Recognizes a LION member that has achieved transformational impact for their organization through dedication to improving their operational resilience, financial health, and\/or journalistic impact.<\/strong> This member organization is not only making an impact internally, but its growth has had a positive impact on the communities it serves and the independent news ecosystem.<\/p>\n Those who submitted entries to the Awards agreed to the following terms:<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s how we’ve iterated the LION Awards for 2024 and the reasoning behind any changes:<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tWe are introducing the Journalistic Impact Award, which will replace the Accountability Award, Outstanding Coverage Award, and Public Service Award.<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t In the past, we saw significant overlap between work submitted for our award categories celebrating journalistic achievements our members have made related to Community Engagement, Public Service, Accountability, and Outstanding Coverage, without there always being a clear distinction between each award.<\/p>\n This change ensures that each award recognizes unique elements of our members’ work and serves our goal of celebrating the process over the final product. We are confident that our Journalistic Impact Award and Community Engagement Award will lift up the work our members are doing to move toward sustainability.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCollaborative entries between more than one journalism organization must be submitted in the Collaboration of the Year category.<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t We highly encourage collaboration between LION members and other organizations, because we know that collaborations – if executed well – can increase capacity, resources, and impact. Because of that, we know that collaborative entries are often much more likely to stand out in their revenue tier, and we want to encourage fair competition for the other award categories that do not explicitly celebrate collaboration. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tWe are introducing the Transformational Impact Award, which will be another recognition award nominated by LION staff and board members.<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t The goal of the Transformational Impact Award is to recognize a LION member that has achieved transformational impact for their organization through dedication to improving their operational resilience, financial health, and\/or journalistic impact. This member organization is not only making an impact internally, but its growth has had a positive impact on the communities it serves and the independent news ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n We are introducing this award to celebrate a member organization that has achieved holistic growth for their news organization across our pillars of sustainability that may not apply for a Business of the Year or New Business of the Year award. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tThe eligibility period for work to be considered slightly overlaps with the eligibility period for the 2023 LION Awards, which considered work achieved up until and June 21, 2023.<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t This year, we are holding an earlier application period for awards entries in order to have adequate time for judges to determine winners and have our finalists informed of their status with enough time to make travel arrangements to attend our in-person LION Awards ceremony on September 5, 2024, in Chicago. Because of this, the eligibility period for work to be considered overlaps slightly with the eligibility period for the 2023 LION Awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n Specific work that was accomplished between March 3 and June 21, 2023, and recognized as a finalist for our 2023 LION Awards<\/a> will not be considered <\/i>for the 2024 LION Awards. Essentially, you can’t be recognized as a finalist for the same work you achieved in 2023 for last year’s LION Awards again in 2024. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tWe’re sharing more resources to help our members put together a successful LION Awards entry application. <\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t Our Making the Case session at the 2023 Southeast News Sustainability Meetup<\/a> helped attendees learn how to successfully engage funders, donors, clients, and sponsors. We received positive feedback about this session and will continue to provide similar resources to help LION Awards finalists and winners use this as an opportunity to showcase their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n We want you to get every bit of credit and all the accolades you deserve, both from us, and from other sources like grantmakers, donors, and your readers. You’ve done the work, now toot your own horn! <\/p>\n\t More than 175 news leaders and journalism supporters attended the fifth annual LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony on October 3 in Durham, North Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n There, we celebrated our 99 finalist entries<\/a> from 74 LION member organizations, announced the 37 winning entries<\/a>, and awarded $55,800 in cash prizes to 36 unique LION member organizations thanks to generous support from our sponsors. Each winning entry received at least $1,300, and winners of our marquee award, LION Business of the Year, collected $3,000.<\/p>\n We received a record-breaking 300 entries this year and featured 10 award categories, plus the Community Member of the Year Award. Learn more about the 2023 award categories and application process here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t2022 LION Awards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t We celebrated the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/a> at the Independent News Sustainability Summit<\/a> in Austin, Texas, where winners were announced in 12 award categories:<\/p>\n To help level the playing field for publishers with different budgets and newsroom sizes, we named finalists and winners for up to four revenue tiers per category:<\/p>\n Award winners and finalists were determined by independent judges based on specific criteria focused on how our members’ work is helping their news business achieve sustainability and how their work reflects LION’s organizational values<\/a>.<\/p>\n Learn more about the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/b><\/a> and meet the<\/b> winners<\/b><\/a> and<\/b> finalists<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t2021 LION Awards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t The 2021 LION Local Journalism Awards saw a 40 percent increase in submissions – a testament to the growth of the LION community and the impactful work our members did throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2021, we celebrated the finalists with a virtual dinner ceremony<\/a>, presented by the Google News Initiative.<\/p>\n Learn more about the winners and finalists<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t2020 LION Awards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t The second LION Local Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, were celebrated virtually in October 2020. The event’s keynote panel, sponsored by the Google News Initiative, featured S. Mitra Kalita<\/b>, SVP of News, Opinion and Programming at CNN Digital; Mazin Sidahmed<\/b>, co-executive director of Documented; and Kate B. Maxwell,<\/b> publisher and co-founder of The Mendocino Voice.<\/p>\n Learn more about the winners and finalists<\/b><\/a>, and watch a recording of the virtual ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t2019 LION Awards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t We celebrated the inaugural LION Local Journalism Awards at the LION Summit in Nashville<\/a> in October 2019.<\/p>\n2024 LION Awards<\/h2>\n
\n\t\tThis isn’t your typical journalism awards program.\n\t<\/h4>\n\t
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\n\t\tThe 2024 Awards will feature:\n\t<\/h4>\n\t
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\n\t\tEvaluated Award Categories and Judging Criteria\n\t<\/h4>\n\t
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\n\t\tRecognition Award Categories\n\t<\/h4>\n\t
\n\t\tEligibility Requirements and Terms of Agreement\n\t<\/h4>\n\tLION members who submitted entries to the 2024 awards were asked to review our eligibility requirements and terms of agreement:
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\n\t\tChanges to the 2024 LION Awards\n\t<\/h4>\n\t
Retrospectives<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t2023 LION Awards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t
2023 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/h3>\n
2022 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/h3>\n
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2021 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/h3>\n
2020 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/h3>\n
2019 LION Local Journalism Awards<\/h3>\n