A blueprint for local news survival

LION releases sustainability 2025 audit showing need for strong structures

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How is the crisis of local news measure? Shuttered papers? Shrinking newsrooms? Watchdogs gone quiet?

The LION Publishers Sustainability Audit 2025 offers something different: a blueprint or a glimpse of what it looks like to survive when newsrooms are built deliberately, system by system, around people.

LION evaluated 357 independent local news organizations across nearly 300 indicators — from HR and workflow documentation to revenue diversity and community impact.

It grouped those indicators into three areas: Operational Resilience, Financial Health, and Journalistic Impact. For each organization, it looked at how it was doing in each area, but also at what stage the organization was in:

• Preparation: working to establish foundational infrastructure while identifying effective revenue streams and journalism products for their market.
• Building: established infrastructure but still require development, likely across all three pillars of sustainability; focused on growing their audience and revenue in order to hire staff beyond the founders.
• Maintaining: established infrastructure, while still seeking the ability to sustain operations and generate profits consistently over time.
• Growing: achieved mission critical operational and financial infrastructure; reached a level of viability across the three pillars; and are often working to scale or establish clear plans for succession and future stability.

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Percentage of participating organizations assigned to each stage overall and within each pillar

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A follow-up with 98 newsrooms revealed many improved dramatically, with some increasing revenue by nearly half in a single year through building and maintaining revenue streams, tracking monthly website users, and growing reader engagement. They are using all the systems to, as LION put it row in the same direction.

The data also exposes a quieter danger: many outlets are still running without foundational structures. Reporting is strong, but the operations beneath it are not: a mission-rich but structurally fragile boat sailing in news waters.

This gap comes alive through Courtney Cole, co-founder of The Excelsior Citizen, who participated in the audit and used it as a turning point for the Excelsior Springs, Mo., hyperlocal news outlet.

The audit put us on the right track, Cole said. We could suddenly see what was missing — and what we had ignored.

Her team rebuilt operations from the inside out. They redesigned their website, integrated new technology including AI, and created documentation that had never existed.

We were paired with industry leaders who mentored us on rebuilding our site, introducing technology, and creating an employee handbook we needed to scale, she said.

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Proportional stage assignment after implementing new activities

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The newsroom is still small, but no longer vulnerable in the same way. Cole captured what many founders know but rarely say aloud: passion tells the story; structure lets it last.

The audit forced us to slow down and build, she said. It helped us lay the groundwork to stay accountable to our community.

This is where the audit moves from numbers to philosophy. Sustainability is not just revenue — it is infrastructure. Payroll. Workflows. Documentation. Design. Policies strong enough to survive turnover. Even truth needs scaffolding to stand upright.

One finding stands out with urgency: newsrooms with three or more revenue streams are significantly more stable: membership plus ads plus philanthropy or sponsorship plus training plus events. The combinations differ; what matters is diversification. And outlets with dedicated revenue staff, rather than editors juggling grants at midnight, grew fastest.

The lesson learned is obvious: investment will be more effective when combined with coaching and responsibility. Not grants alone. Not training alone. But

• Money

• Mentorship

• Structure

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Key activity growth when publishers take action

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Still, there is an element that many newsrooms push to later: accessibility. In the scramble to publish and survive quarter to quarter, accessibility feels like an upgrade. In reality, it is a prerequisite. A newsroom people cannot access is a newsroom that cannot serve. And unused journalism cannot grow.

Accessible sites, readable layouts, transcripts, alt text, disability-inclusive design, multilingual content are not extras, but pathways to audience, trust, and use.

The challenge often feels like this:

“We built the boat — now we’re waiting for the water.”

The infrastructure exists. The mission exists. The people exist. But for many outlets, the water — funding, capacity, systems, access — is only now rising.

The LION audit is not a rescue mission. It is a map — proof that survival is happening, and that it is learnable. Sustainability isn’t magic. It is slow, intentional work. Planned, Documented, Practiced.

Local news is not dying — it is rebuilding. Policy by policy. Workflow by workflow. Audit by audit. And the newsrooms bold enough to invest in structure may not only survive, but define what community journalism becomes next.

Because if we build the boat well — piece by piece, with people at the center — the water will come. And when it does, newsrooms won’t just stay afloat.

They’ll sail.

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