Central Current, San Antonio Report engage with the Hub to accelerate audience, membership growth
We’re excited to welcome local nonprofit newsroom Central Current as a new News Revenue Hub premium client. Longtime client San Antonio Report will also start an engagement with the Hub at the premium service level.
Frustrated by the gaps in local news coverage, a group of local philanthropists came together to found Central Current — a startup newsroom that seeks to equitably serve the communities of Central New York. While the nonprofit is in the midst of hiring its inaugural team, they’ve already welcomed their founding editor-in-chief, chief of staff and began publishing earlier this year after hiring their first reporter.
“We are in the process of identifying those gaps in news and are putting feedback tools in place so that we’re responsive to the community and can use our reporting and editorial muscle to help people make decisions about their daily lives,” said Julie McMahon, Central Current’s editor-in-chief.
With financial backing from its founders and major foundations as well as donations from local community organizations, Central Current will now launch a membership program and deploy a reader loyalty strategy. The Hub will work closely with staff on these two critical areas.
“The Hub is the standard bearer in the industry. From the history of how the Hub was founded to your team’s expertise, the people on your team encountered the obstacles we’re about to experience and can help us solve through them,” McMahon said.
“The quality of the work you do, we can see that from the other organizations that you work with. They’re the ones that we admire the most,” McMahon said.
“Since our first meeting with Julie and her Board, we have been impressed and inspired by Central Current’s thoughtful approach to building a sustainable newsroom inside and out,” said Christina Shih, the Hub’s Senior Vice President of Revenue.
The San Antonio Report is a nonprofit digital newsroom that covers San Antonio — from government to the local arts scene. The newsroom is committed to earning the time and trust of readers by providing useful and informative news and perspectives they won’t find anywhere else, aiming to spur interest and action in San Antonio communities. The organization started off as the “Rivard Report,” a blog run by a husband and wife team, and has grown into a team of 22 people.
The Hub staff is excited to deepen their relationship with the San Antonio Report, which has been a client since 2017. In this new chapter the Hub will ensure the newsroom is connecting with even more members of its community, from increasing the visibility of their articles on search engines like Google and optimizing their newsletter strategy to converting loyal readers into recurring donors.
“The Hub has been the gold standard for us when it comes to growing membership. We are now ready to expand our partnership to the next level with the Hub’s audience development premium service. As one of the more mature all digital, nonprofit newsrooms, this work is critical to our growth,” said Angie Mock, the Texas newsroom’s publisher and Chief Executive Officer.
“I’m excited to be offering this new level of support to the San Antonio Report because they’ve been in the Hub for several years now. It’s exciting to imagine what a bolder audience strategy can achieve for them. They are aggressively pursuing a younger audience. And we are eager to help them build a case for that growing subset of the community,” said Mary Walter-Brown, the Hub’s founder and CEO.