Applications due May 5 for program to help family-owned and independent local media firms achieve sustainability

The Local Media Association is launching a program to help family-owned and independent local news-media organizations find paths to sustainability, with funding from the Google News Initiative.

"Directors of the LMA Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab — FIMS Lab for short — and a team of expert consultants will work for one year with key leaders of 12 family-owned and independent local media companies, immersing in strategic business transformation work intended to advance them toward long-term sustainability and financial independence," LMA reports.

Any local news company in the U.S. or Canada with at least $1 million annual revenue that can demonstrate it is family-owned or independently owned is welcome to apply. Qualified organizations may include single-location/single-outlet organizations as well as family or independent media groups serving multiple locations. 

The program will be run by Dorrine Mendoza, formerly in news partnerships and strategic program development at Meta, with the help of LMA chief operating officer Jay Small and LMA chief business transformation officer Julia Campbell. They will consult with participants "on product, process, operations, technology, revenue opportunities and general strategy," LMA says. "Industry-leading subject-matter experts will also serve as lab coaches and consultants."

“We are adapting some of the lessons from the Knight x LMA BloomLab, while recognizing the constituency for the FIMS Lab will have different business characteristics and challenges,” Small said. “Revenue diversification and improved application of technology remain universal needs, and with 21% overall revenue growth in Year 1, BloomLab taught us we can make a big difference with programs like this.”

LMA says specific curriculum for the lab will be developed through identification of participating media companies' needs, but focus areas will include:

• General strategic planning and business transformation
• Building sustainable advertising, branded content and marketing services portfolios, especially focused on digital
• Consumer (reader) revenue and first-party data strategies
• Rethinking local media as both product and service
• Making the most of journalism funded by philanthropy
• Optimizing technology application to strengthen revenue opportunities, make processes more efficient and better control expenses
• Developing opportunities for participants to collaborate on topic-focused journalism projects with philanthropic funding

Also, the lab will cover costs for each participant to send its main stakeholder to an in-person meeting in Chicago coinciding with LMA Fest the week of July 31.

Applications are open through 11:59 p.m. PT Friday, May 5. The lab team will respond to questions from prospective participants and interested parties; send them to jay.small@localmedia.org.