The constant reinvention of local media

Takeaways from LMA strategic planning session

Like the local media industry, LMA has been in a state of constant reinvention for the last two decades. Back in 2008, our classified network represented more than 80% of our revenue. Today it represents 0%. In 2011, we mainly served print publishers. Today, broadcasters and digital sites represent about 50% of our membership. From 2016-2019, industry events dominated our revenue stream (we hosted up to 10 events each year). Today, events make up 2% of our revenue. 

Today, 39% of our funding can be attributed to industry labs (Knight x LMA BloomLab, LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, Branded Content Project, Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab/FIMS, etc.); 31% funds Word In Black (this is still a project of the Local Media Foundation that supports a newsroom with nine full-time employees); 15% to collaboratives (News is Out, LMA Covering Climate, Oklahoma Media Center, New York and Michigan Solutions Journalism, Solving Sacramento); and 7% to fiscal sponsorships/Local News Fund. The rest (about 8%) comes from dues, events, subscriptions, LMA Digital Club and interest on reserves. 

During our daylong strategic planning session two weeks ago in Chicago, we tapped the strategic brain power of LMA and LMF board members to think bigger and bolder. We talked honestly about the threats we face, not the least of which is the public’s waning trust in news. We looked at the impact of our programs with an emphasis on the initiatives that deliver the greatest ROI. Funding for future LMA programs was a hot topic, especially with Meta funding going away (our largest funding source from 2019-2022). 

We focused on these action items:

• Sustaining and growing LMA labs is the top priority. The more high-touch, the greater the ROI. As we know from Knight x LMA BloomLab, LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, Branded Content Project and FIMS Lab, the secret sauce is a combination of group cohort meetings plus one-on-one coaching sessions. It is labor intensive and requires subject matter experts. As an example, the Lab for Journalism Funding works because we have a highly competent leader, Frank Mungeam, teamed with coaches who bring significant experience in this space (such as Joaquin Alvarez and Jennifer Preston). Incoming Local Media Foundation board chair Larry Lee sums it up best: https://youtu.be/E_HDdlZhwwk

• Trust in news is one of the biggest problems we face. LMA board chair Catherine Badalamente will convene a gathering of CEOs to talk about short term/low cost ideas and long term/higher cost projects to confront this issue. We are also looking to partner with other industry organizations (we have already talked with many leaders), the funding community and those already doing great work in this space, especially when it comes to training newsrooms. If you want to get involved in this effort, let us know. We think this needs to be an all-in effort, representing the biggest collaboration our industry has ever seen, to make it effective. It’s more than just a marketing campaign, although an educational campaign would be part of this. We hope many of you will join us. 

• Incubating Word In Black as a project of the Local Media Foundation was an enormous undertaking and a huge risk. It’s paying off as WIB will spin off into its own legal entity next year. How do we scale the learnings from this incredible collaboration to others? We are already doing it with News is Out, a national queer media collaborative, and having early success - but what other models should we be exploring? In our board survey, members repeatedly challenged us to incubate more projects like this. They take significant financial and human capital resources, but the results are very promising. We welcome ideas, funding and partnerships as we look to scale these learnings and incubate other startups. 

• Future funding is a top priority to replace Meta’s enormous investment in labs, accelerators and other initiatives. These industry programs are most important for family/independent media groups, smaller local news organizations (including nonprofits and legacy media) and publishers of color. Communities served by these local media organizations are at risk of becoming news deserts. But the programs are also important to larger legacy brands that employ a significant percentage of local journalists in North America. There’s a reason why Scripps, Graham Media, Gannett, Sinclair, McClatchy and Nexstar are all represented on our board along with a wide mix of very small to medium-size local media organizations. Both Gannett and McClatchy have added journalists to their team after completing the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, as have digital startups, family-owned media and broadcasters. 

Everything we do, along with our peer organizations representing local media, must move the needle in the direction of long-term sustainability. Democracy is at stake. We take that seriously and can’t wait to scale our programs to even more local media companies in 2024 and beyond.