New Revenue for News

52 Business Ideas to Support Local Journalism

This morning I spoke to 20 journalists who are enrolled in CUNY’s Summer Entrepreneurial Journalism Training about alternative revenue streams and business models for news. Below is a list of 52 revenue strategies to support local news, with links to newsrooms that are using them.

Follow the work of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Journalism & Sustainability project and subscribe to our newslettter, The Local Fix, for a weekly round-up of ideas and innovations in community engagement, reporting and revenue strategies.

Image via IDEO’s Human Centered Design Toolkit

My full slides are at the bottom of this post and include key questions you should ask yourself for each of the categories below.

Advertising

• Banners and Boxes (locally sold, network/programmatic, etc…) — The Batavian
• Directories — Technical.ly, Red Bank Green
• Content Recommendations — Outbrain
• Sponsorships — Greensboro News and Record, Wired and Slate
• Underwriting — VT Digger
• Native ads — custom or automated

Events

• Industry (professional conferences) — Mashable, Recode
• Ideas (multi-day idea festivals) — Texas Tribune, Atlantic
• Political (issue panels) — NJ Spotlight, Politico, Texas Tribune
• Social (happy hours, pingpong) — WNYC, Geekwire
• Lifestyle (wedding show) — Chattanooga Times Free Press
• Cultural (film, food, etc) — Morristown Green, WBEZ, Sheepshead Bites
• Gala/Awards (Banquets) — Technical.ly, MinnPost
• Education/Training (classes) — Amherst Media, Brooklyn Based
• Travel — WFCR, The Nation

Newsletters

• Web content & Curation — VillageGreenNJ
• Niche content — ex. Dedicated food, event, or parenting newsletter
• Advertiser/Sponsor supported — Politico

Merchandise

• Shirts, posters, etc… — Richland Source, Techdirt
• Subscription Box — My Little Paris, New York Times, BespokePost
• Amazon Associate Links — Wirecutter, Brainpickings
• Daily Deals — BoingBoing

Memberships

• Membership Program — CrossCut, Voice of San Diego, Berkeleyside
• Loyalty Program — Charging Readers — The Bungalower
• Loyalty Program — Charging Advertisers — Brick City Live

Services

• Digital marketing and social consulting with local businesses — NJ Bites, Gannett
• SEO advice and consulting — StateCollege.com
• Marketing Partnerships — JSHN and JS inMotion
• Job boards and networking — technical.ly
• Photography or Video services — Morristown Green

Side Businesses

• Web design firm — Heidi Heleniak
• Communications strategy and consulting — Deb Smith
• Coffee Shop that subsidizes a newsroom
• Co-working Space — Civic Hall/Civicist
• Financial Advice — Times of London

Print + Digital

• Magazines — LoDown
• Monthly Newspaper — NBToday
• Local Guides (food, outdoor, etc…) — Watershed Post

Premium Content

• Research (Industry and Issue) — NJ Spotlight, Skift, Economist
• Archives — especially creative uses of archives (WNYC, NPR)
• Apps — Radiolab, This American Life

Paywalls

• Hard or Metered — Franklin Reporter and Advocate
• Micropayments — Winnipeg Free Press, Blendle
• Google Surveys — Columbia Missourian, others

E-Books

• Exclusive editions (new content only available) — Forbes,
• Packaging older content — New York Times, ProPublica

Philanthropy

• Donations — MinnPost
• Crowdfunding — New Brunswick Today, The Lo Down
• Foundations — Tips from INN

For even more discussion of business models don’t miss:

Sources of subsidy in the production of news: a list. By Jay Rosen

76 Ways to Make Money in Digital Media. By David Plotz

• Updated — Moved Berkeleyside to membership