Beyond the Paywall: Join us for our first conference! (plus a $20K grant announcement)
Mark your calendar! The Hub is co hosting an *in person* journalism conference unapologetically dedicated to revenue and sustainability in news.
Join us on October 27-29 for the 2022 Independent News Sustainability Summit, a partnership between LION Publishers, News Revenue Hub and RevLab at The Texas Tribune, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Together we’ll provide publishers tools, resources and best-of-industry advice on how to operationalize sustainability. The Summit will use LION’s framework of sustainability to design three tracks of programming: financial health, operational resilience and journalistic impact.
Whether you come as a multi-team staff or attend as a small newsroom leader wearing all the hats, you’ll be able to participate in a wide range of sessions and leave with actionable information on how to build and run a sustainable business.
We are still nailing down logistics and will officially announce the location and more details by the end of the month. Registration opens later this year, but you can RSVP now to get updates.
We’re so excited to share more details in the coming weeks!
Stacy Fernández
Marketing & Communications Manager
‘We were blown away’: How Grist revolutionized their member strategy with the Hub
Written by Katie Hawkins-Gaar
Grist is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories about climate solutions. Their goal is to convince and inspire audiences that a just and sustainable future is within reach—and that the time for climate action is now. In order to achieve that goal, Grist wants to reach as many people as possible.
That’s why they joined the News Revenue Hub. Grist was looking for help with their audience and membership strategy, and ultimately to increase their annual revenue.
“We already felt like we had a strong membership foundation, but we lacked the capacity and bandwidth to achieve what we wanted to,” said Jess Alvarado-Lepine, Grist’s director of membership. “Working with the Hub catapulted us to the next level.”
After a year of working with News Revenue Hub, Grist saw an 88.3% increase in monthly donors and 47.9% increase in monthly donation revenue. In 2022, Grist anticipates $140,000 in monthly revenue: a 57% increase from the previous year.
Alvarado-Lepine can’t help but laugh when sharing such dramatic statistics. “I think it’s fair to say that all of us were blown away by the numbers,” she said.
Read the full case study here.
Checkout more about Grist’s journey in this Adweek article: “How Grist Increased Its Monthly Donor Base 88% by Honing Its Asks”
Apply for the $20K Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant 🖥
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is inviting nonprofit newsrooms and newsrooms that serve underrepresented communities to apply for the Sustainable Publishing Solutions (SPS) grant.
For a third year, this opportunity will offer 25 publishers with a one-time grant of $20,000 that can be applied to the adoption or management of a Content Management System (CMS) of their choice. That includes development costs, migration, hosting, or ongoing maintenance fees. The grant can also be used towards staff or technical consultants who will specifically work on development or migration.
At its core this grant helps newsrooms invest in their technical infrastructure and adopt publishing tools so they can:
📈 Increase revenue
👥 Grow their audience
🤠 Improve user experience
The deadline to apply is April 10. Full details, resources and the application can be found on our website.
Interested applicants are encouraged to attend an information session hosted by our team and The Miami Foundation on March 22 at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET. Register is now closed.
Talent Pipeline 🪜 Work in one of our newsrooms
Job listings accompanied by the 💸 emoji offer salary transparency — a necessary step towards salary equity.
- Bethesda Magazine | Bethesda Beat is hiring for the following positions: Managing Editor, Longform and Politics Reporter. [Montgomery County, Maryland]
- THE CITY is hiring for the following positions: Associate Director of Development, Foundation and Corporate Relations, Senior Editor, Membership Manager, Development Operations Associate and Engagement Director. [NYC, New York] 💸
- The Trace is hiring for the following positions: Community Engagement Specialist and a Chicago Local Reporter. [Chicago, Illinois] 💸
- Kansas City Beacon is hiring for the following positions: Executive Editor, Housing, Labor and Infrastructure Reporter and Community Engagement Bureau Manager. [Kansas City, Missouri] 💸
- Wichita Beacon is hiring for the following positions: Education Reporter and Community Representatives. [Wichita, Kansas] 💸
- Religion News Service is hiring a Sponsorship Manager. [Remote]
- Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is hiring a Finance and Operations Manager and a Development Assistant [within 60 minutes of Madison or Milwaukee, Wisconsin] 💸
- Montana Free Press is hiring a Investigative Political Reporter [Helena, Montana] 💸
- NextAvenue is hiring for the following positions: Digital Editor – Health and
- Digital Editor – Work & Money. [Remote, United States]
- WyoFile is hiring a Major Gifts Officer. [Western Wyoming, preferably Teton County] 💸
- Grist is hiring a Chief Executive Officer. [Flexible within United States]