Local publishers are increasingly using newsletters

Hello! Here’s what’s in this week’s issue:

→ New Podcast Alert: Small Press, Big Ideas

→ RevContent and the Local Media Consortium announce partnership

→ Local publishers use newsletters across the board

→ Laid off staff launches new nonprofit hyperlocal publication in D.C.

→ Minnesota local news fund raises $6 million

🎧 New Podcast Alert: Small Press, Big Ideas

On this week’s episode of Small Press, Big Ideas, I spoke with Claudia Amaro, founder of Planeta Venus in Wichita, Kansas.

Claudia tells her story of coming to the US as an immigrant from Mexico as a child, being fascinated with journalism from a young age, and her winding road to founding a hyperlocal news outlet serving the Spanish speaking community in Wichita.

Listen wherever podcasts are found or on my site.

📰 RevContent and the Local Media Consortium announce partnership

Native advertising platform RevContent has been selected as the preferred native advertising platform for the Local Media Consortium.

RevContent, which offers a suite of web, mobile app and email newsletter monetization products for publishers, already has existing partnerships with top media companies.

The new partnership aims do drive new revenue and increase user engagement for the LMC’s 5,000 local media outlet partners across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

📰 Local publishers use newsletters across the board

A new report from LION suggests that nearly all local online publishers use newsletters as a part of their distribution.

According to LION Publishers, 95% of its members are producing newsletters in 2024. This number is up from 81% in 2022.

In addition to this growth in newsletters among the cohort, events are up substantially as well: 60% of members are utilizing events in 2024, up from 34% in 2021.

These massive upticks may be a sign of local newsrooms embracing alternative news products to combat the decline of Google referrals and decreased interest in news on social media in recent years.

📰 Laid off staff launches new nonprofit hyperlocal publication in D.C.

The staff of local news site DCist, which was shut down by the local NPR affiliate earlier this year, have announced that they’re launching a nonprofit to cover the community news in the nation’s capital.

The new site, to be called the 51st, will initially consist of a website and newsletter, and will report hyperlocal news relevant to the residents of Washington D.C.

The founders are looking to raise $250K to cover basic startup costs for the new organization, with donations becoming retroactively tax deductible once they attain their 501c3 status.

📰 Minnesota local news fund raises $6 million

Press Forward Minnesota, a regional effort of the larger national Press Forward coalition, has raised $6 million in donations since launching last January.

The donations, coming from a number of organizations including the McKnight Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, is part of a five year effort to bolster local journalism in the state.

The fund will be administered by the Minnesota Council on Foundations and will start accepting grant applications this fall. Both for profit and nonprofit organizations in the state will be eligible to apply.