{"id":217107,"date":"2023-01-25T13:05:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/?p=217107"},"modified":"2023-01-27T13:11:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T17:11:06","slug":"lion-publishers-2022-annual-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-publishers-2022-annual-report\/","title":{"rendered":"LION Publishers 2022 Annual Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2022 was a growth period for the burgeoning independent news industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing better exemplified the continued development of this crucial piece of the local news ecosystem than the Independent News Sustainability Summit<\/a>, which we co-hosted in Austin, Texas, in October alongside our partners at News Revenue Hub<\/a> and RevLab at The Texas Tribune<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider this: At LION\u2019s last pre-pandemic Summit that we hosted in Nashville, we drew around 200 independent publishers and their supporters. Last year, in collaboration with our partners, we sold 500 tickets \u2014 and drew rave reviews from attendees, funders, partners and sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came to hear Evan Smith, the outgoing CEO of the Tribune, interview former New York Times editor Dean Baquet about why he\u2019s bullish on the future of local news. (Spoiler: LION members like New York Focus are one of his reasons<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They packed rooms with talks about reimagining newsrooms with sustainable cultures; measuring trust and tracking impact; reaching new audiences; shoring up operations; generating new revenue; combating burnout; and many more topics focused on building sustainable news organizations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other signs of this maturation came from the LION Local Journalism Awards Ceremony<\/a>, with stories of impact and business success from winners on-stage; those tales drew an on-the-spot award pledge from the Knight Foundation<\/a>, as well as notice from Nieman Journalism Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, LION continued our recent growth as an organization and scaled the support we provide to our members. Notably, we completed more than 100 of our signature Sustainability Audits<\/a> in 2022, giving members personalized advice from industry experts and up to $6,000 of direct funding to help them invest in strengthening their businesses. Between that work, our 2022 GNI Startups Lab and the Meta Revenue Growth Fellowship program, LION gave out a record $1.8 million to our members in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our organization\u2019s supporters, and the overall news industry, have definitely noticed this growth \u2013 perhaps best underscored by the renewal of our grant from the Knight Foundation<\/a>, nearly tripling their support with a $2.85 million commitment over the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next for LION Publishers? We know more now than we ever have about the stages our members\u2019 businesses go through on the path to sustainability<\/a>; we know where founders get stuck; we know, increasingly, what it takes to move forward. We\u2019re looking forward to continuing to share what we have learned with program participants, members, supporters, founders and the industry we serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for a great 2022. Here\u2019s to more growth and learnings in the year to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Krewson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executive Director<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LION Publishers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Read LION’s 2022 Annual Report<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The independent news industry is growing, and so is our capacity to support more publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":217118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[196],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo.png",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo-768x432.png",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo.png",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LION-Annual-Report-header-photo.png",1200,675,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable":"

The independent news industry is growing, and so is our capacity to support more publishers.<\/p>\n","category_list":"Announcements<\/a>, News<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"Chris Krewson","url":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/author\/chris-krewson\/"},"comments_num":"0 comments","yoast_head":"\nLION Publishers 2022 Annual Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The independent news industry is growing, and so is our capacity at LION to support more publishers and aspiring founders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-publishers-2022-annual-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LION Publishers 2022 Annual Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The independent news industry is 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