“It had to happen now.” How one workshop inspired a wave of successful newsroom events
By Katie Hawkins-Gaar
In September 2023, Bruce Putterman, the CEO and publisher of The Connecticut Mirror, seized an unique opportunity to connect with Senator Chris Murphy. It wasn’t in their home state of Connecticut or at Murphy’s office in Washington D.C. It was backstage at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas.
Murphy was among the many notable guests at TribFest, The Texas Tribune’s signature annual gathering featuring hundreds of politics and policy speakers, ideas, and sessions. Putterman attended the Festival after participating in a two-day workshop teaching 19 newsrooms how to host events — and grow an events-based revenue line of business.
Led by the News Revenue Hub and The Texas Tribune, the workshop aimed not just to inspire participants like Putterman, but to provide the tools they needed to launch their own event series.
After Murphy’s TribFest session, Putterman used the opportunity to pitch an idea. He knew that the senator was familiar with CT Mirror and asked Murphy if he’d be interested in participating in an event series in Connecticut. Murphy replied that he was “absolutely” on board.
Six months later, on March 27, 2024, Murphy was the inaugural guest for CT Mirror’s monthly interview series, In the Room. The standing-room-only conversation “was a great way to signal what kind of event series this was going to be,” Putterman said. Since then, CT Mirror has hosted monthly conversations across the state, with plans to continue the series through 2025.
Empowering newsrooms
Mary Walter-Brown, founder and CEO of the News Revenue Hub, said Putterman’s story reflects the impact the Events & Sponsorships Workshop would have. The representatives from the 19 news organizations that attended the gathering returned to their newsrooms with fresh ideas and plans for hosting events, tools and tips for seeking sponsorships, and built-in accountability and strengthened connections with their peers. “We wanted the experience to be empowering for these newsroom leaders,” she said.
Walter-Brown acknowledged that the scale of the TribFest — with its hundreds of speakers, thousands of attendees, and major sponsorships — could be intimidating for news outlets to consider at the beginning of their events programs. However, the workshop, which featured candid discussions with key Tribune staffers, including co-founder Evan Smith and chief revenue officer April Brumley Hinkle, detailed what it took to put such a large-scale event together. “By the time everyone attended the festival, it all seemed a lot more doable,” she explained.
She added that the Hub has a long history of collaboration with The Texas Tribune and greatly enjoys working with them. In particular, Walter-Brown was impressed by how “gracious and hospitable” Tribune staffers were in sharing their advice during such a busy time. “Seeing their takeaways in real-time — straight from the workshop to the event — was incredibly helpful and demystified things to a great degree,” she said. Learn more about the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival at tribfest.org.
Guests from other news organizations, like Maple Walker Lloyd of Block Club Chicago, Jon Cohn of LAist, and Lance Knobel of Cityside, also shared their event-planning insights. The two-day workshop included intention-setting exercises, lightning rounds, panel discussions, and time for participants to plan and present their own event ideas. The final session of the workshop helped each news organization develop their events plan, from potential sponsor ideas to building community engagement, delivering something they could take home and execute.
Ben Warner, director of sponsorships at CalMatters, found the workshop helpful. “We were especially informed by hearing real experiences from industry peers,” he said.
‘It had to happen now’
Toward the workshop’s end, Gillian White, chief revenue officer at Capital B, shared an idea she had been mulling over: a series of conversations focused on the 2024 presidential election for Black audiences in battleground states. “It was the first time I’d ever talked about it outside of mentioning it in a Capital B Zoom call,” she explained. “There was nothing on paper.”
Her idea resonated strongly. “The excitement that we got from the room marked the moment when we knew that we had to do it,” White recalled. With just over a year until the 2024 election, her team had to hit the ground running. “It had to happen now,” she said.
Within months, Capital B’s Black Political Power Tour was born. The national outlet, with two local newsrooms — one in Atlanta and the other in Gary, Indiana — has partnered with news organizations across the country to host events, including Pittsburgh’s Spotlight PA and The Oaklandside, two news outlets that attended the workshop. The first event, held in Oakland, California, on May 23, sold out within 12 hours.
White likened the external pressure to having an accountability coach. “You’re going to be more apt to get off your butt and do it,” she said, laughing. Capital B’s team, with one event producer and outsourced help from a production company, will host events in seven cities total leading up to the 2024 election. They are pleased with the outcome so far.
“It’s special for us,” White said. “If our mission is to reach black communities that have been left out of the conversation, then we need to be in community with them. A lot of the people we’re meeting with aren’t reading us on their desktop. Some of them aren’t reading us on their phone. We need to be able to meet people where they are.”
“It’s so important to do this kind of grassroots community engagement — at whatever scale makes sense,” said Walter-Brown. “We were really intentional in saying that we aren’t telling everyone to create their version of TribFest. We are telling them to think about the most meaningful ways they can connect with their communities.”
Putting lessons into practice
Following the workshop, the News Revenue Hub provided attendees with a packet including checklists, sponsorship tips, and event timelines. The Hub also launched its Mission-Driven Ads and Sponsorships Lab in March, helping newsrooms diversify and strengthen their revenue streams. Five of the 19 newsrooms that attended the Events & Sponsorships Workshop — CT Mirror, El Paso Matters, The Nevada Independent, San Antonio Report — are now members of the Hub’s ads lab.
Putterman and CT Mirror’s director of operations Christine Nilson returned from TribFest inspired. “We went back and immediately conceptualized our own event series,” Putterman said. They put together a two-page sales sheet, with sponsorship opportunities ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, and began to meet with local businesses. Over the course of several months, they raised $50,000 from sponsors and received in-kind support for their first event.
CT Mirror is now developing another event series called Invested!, featuring interviews with Connecticut-based entrepreneurs. The series, which will be hosted by economic development reporter Erica Phillips, will kick off in January.
“It’s been great to finally get something off the ground,” Putterman said. “Sometimes, the act of writing something down and letting it marinate ultimately impels you to action.”
Walter-Brown hopes to host similar in-depth workshops in the future. “It was great to see it all come together — to see people from newsrooms all over the country in the same room,” she said. “It’s even more validating to see how it’s inspired everyone to make their own successful events happen.”
Looking for support jumpstarting your advertising, sponsorship and events programs? Contact the Hub’s business development manager Lily Black to schedule a consultation.