As you’re reading this, I’m packing up from a few days from a cold, very breezy Chicago to return to Atlanta, which I understand has had some wet, wintry weather this weekend as well.
I’ve been in the Windy City attending the national conference of LION Publishers, which is a five-year-old organization devoted to helping publishers of local online news organizations grow and sustain business models that in turn help them serve their communities.
I am new to LION as I am new to launching East Cobb News. What I’ve learned here about building a news service, selling advertising to local businesses, using the latest technology to report the news and practice journalism in an authentically community-focused way will be invaluable as I continue to develop East Cobb News into an indispensable source of news and information.
I know that sounds ambitious, but I’ve surrounded myself with some ambitious, hardy people at this conference, some who launched their sites years ago, in the wilderness of newspaper layoffs and without any road map. They have been true inspirations to me this weekend.
Local news has been particularly hard-hit by the downturn in the media industries, and yet there was an encouraging spirit of optimism at this conference about the possibilities for reviving it. One of the big stories coming out of the LION Conference was the awarding of a $250,000 grant by the Democracy Fund, a non-profit, to help people like me get our footing in this online news space.
The grants that will be awarded will help publishers with the business and advertising sides of their operations, which is welcome news. As Howard Owens, the publisher of The Batavian in upstate New York, a LION founder and a true pioneer in this field has written, we need more investment in developing sustainable news businesses than anything else.
The existing “legacy” organizations—newspapers, television and radio and other media—cannot or will not do this. They are in the midst of massive technological and generational change, and in some cases are fighting to survive. Believe me, I have experienced a lot of this at previous places of employment.
Many of them have never really embraced the need for change, much less embarked upon significant innovation to reach readers and advertisers where they went to long ago. Too many insist on “scaling” with top-down, cookie-cooker approaches that don’t really connect with their communities. Worse, some have become complacent because they don’t have serious competition.
One of the missions of LION is to foster grassroots, independent voices in local news. We’re not just trying to fill the gaps left behind by other media, we’re trying to replace it with something more relevant to our fellow citizens. As someone who grew up in East Cobb, and who worked for a variety of corporate and non-local media companies, this is very important. The theme of the conference has been “Keeping It Real,” and that’s a big part of what I have in mind for this site.
When I get back home, I’ve got so much more to unpack—besides my suitcase—that I learned here in Chicago, and that I am eager to implement for East Cobb News.
It’s been a good week back home, too, as our traffic, social media, newsletter subscriptions and other metrics keep growing. I appreciate all of you who have supported this site and continue to share what you read here with others.
I’ve heard some good things from some of you about what I’m trying to do here, and I really do appreciate that. I want this site to serve your news, information and local business advertising needs, and I promise I will always be all ears. Please feel free to contact me at wendy@eastcobbnews.com or 404-219-4278.
