New Mexico Local News Accelerator Expands to Serve 21 Newsrooms
Our revamped revenue program will help publishers improve in advertising, memberships, fundraising and audience development
I’ve helped run the Revenue Initiative grant program for the New Mexico Local News Fund for the past two years, giving support to local newsrooms around the state so they can become more sustainable while serving their communities. The program had a simple mission: provide newsrooms with funding while also helping them develop new revenue lines or boost existing ones. And all the while, I was tracking their revenue goals to keep them on track.
We’ve seen some great successes with the program, including an increase in ad hoc collaboration among newsrooms and some creative ways to bring in revenue during the pandemic. But we thought we could do even better. So this year we have rebranded the program as the New Mexico Local News Accelerator and we’ve made these important changes:
- We had our very first Demo Day on April 1, with news technology platforms and services showing off potential solutions for our cohort. Those included Newspack from WordPress, News Revenue Hub, BlueLena, Indiegraf and Broadstreet Ads.
- To better understand the newsrooms and their tech and revenue needs, we had one-on-one assessments with the publishers, making recommendations about potential technology upgrades and revenue ideas.
- While we had 9 newsrooms in our first year and 10 newsrooms in our second year, this year we have 21 local news publishers on board, getting less grant money per newsroom but increased consulting support.
- How much consulting support? We’ve launched 6 breakout groups focused on advertising, memberships, fundraising, audience development — including two editorial breakouts on good government and data journalism.
Whew. With all that new programming, I couldn’t do it all myself, so we brought on some amazing coaches/consultants to support the newsrooms and run the breakout groups: Arjuna Soriano (advertising breakout), Anita Li (audience development), Yossi Lichterman (memberships), Shannon Kunkel (good government) and John Roby (data journalism). Plus, Stephen Jefferson from American Press Institute joined us as a technology consultant to help run the one-on-one assessments and offer tech support.
As a bonus, the newsrooms can call on any of the consultants for Office Hours each month of the program. That means they’ll get to meet up with all the other publishers in monthly cohort meetings and the smaller breakout groups, and get customized support from consultants during Office Hours.
Goals for the Cohort
We start the program by having newsrooms set up goals with deadlines so we can track their progress through the six months of the Accelerator. Here are some of their plans:
Abiquiu News (website and email newsletter) will launch a new website and increase its presence on social media.
Columbus NM News (online news site) will create a rate card and sell online ads, while boosting its email list.
Green Fire Times (monthly print magazine on sustainability) will upgrade its website, hire an ad salesperson, pitch foundation grants and set up digital archives.
Hobbs News-Sun (daily newspaper) will launch a new podcast and create a social media campaign to promote its e-newspaper edition.
KCCC Radio (country radio station in Carlsbad) will expand into local news and talk, with a community forum show, and will launch digital advertising offerings.
KENW Radio (public radio and TV in Eastern New Mexico) will grow its social media following and surpass its summer fundraising goal.
KSFR Radio (public radio in Santa Fe) will have an online fundraising event, and increase its email list.
Las Cruces Bulletin (weekly newspaper) will launch its first ever fundraising campaign, and increase coverage of public schools.
Mountain Monthly (print newspaper in Cloudcroft) will boost its presence on Facebook, increase video coverage and partner with students.
New Mexico in Depth (online nonprofit) will have a mid-year fundraiser and engage more local foundations and major donors.
New Mexico PBS (public TV) will host a public event in the fall about how the state legislature works and how it could be reformed.
New Mexico Political Report (online nonprofit) will increase email newsletter subscribers and launch a new fundraising initiative, possibly an event.
Questa Del Rio News (monthly newspaper) will create a new CRM database to track donors and subscribers, and launch a new digital ad offering.
KTAL Radio (community radio in Las Cruces) will improve its CRM database and revamp its email newsletter and build distribution for it.
Rio Rancho Observer (weekly newspaper) is rebuilding its email list, launching events and revamping its Advisory Board.
Santa Fe New Mexican (daily newspaper) will launch a reader survey, and increase digital subscriptions.
Santa Fe Reporter (alt-weekly newspaper) will identify major donors and build awareness for multiple fundraising campaigns.
Southwest Contemporary (biannual magazine and website on arts) will increase overall web traffic and build its email list.
Taos News (weekly newspaper) will host three community events and increase coverage of civic boards.
The Independent (weekly newspaper in Edgewood) will boost its membership program while also building its email list.
The Paper (alt-weekly newspaper in Albuquerque) will increase subscriptions and online donations while also having more investigative data journalism around policing, social justice and government.
That’s a lot of ambitious goals to track! Our first big cohort meeting was on the topic of audience engagement, and we’ll have future Zoom meetings focused on events, email newsletters, election coverage and more.
We’ve also recently launched a Slack channel so we can all keep in touch between meetings. I’ll continue to provide updates about the cohort here on Medium as the program progresses. So far, it’s been a joy to work with folks who are engaged, collaborative, and care about serving the information needs of all New Mexicans.
Mark Glaser is the Director of Business and Program Development for the New Mexico Local News Fund. He also supports communications at Knight Foundation, sponsorship sales at LION Publishers, and was the founder and executive editor of MediaShift.org.
