Local newsrooms around the country continue to grapple with challenges related to audience, business models and revenue. Many lack the dedicated personnel and expertise to plan and manage new strategies. That’s the disconnect the Lenfest Expert Network (LEN) intends to bridge.
Launched by The Lenfest Institute last November, the LEN pairs vetted consultants with local newsrooms trying to solve a problem related to audience, product, financial modeling, communications strategies, technology and other dilemmas.
Cheryl Thompson-Morton, head of advisory programs at The Lenfest Institute, explained how each relationship between consultant and client is different. They determine the parameters of their partnership — the objectives, how they’ll meet and communicate, and the length of their collaboration. “The typical engagement lasts two to three months,” Thompson-Morton said.
Ninety newsrooms have already applied to the program; 44 of those have been accepted.
“The response has been really positive,” she said. “We have newsrooms that represent 35 states so far. They really run the gamut, from newsrooms of record for their regions to small rural outlets, ethnic press, nonprofits and digital-only public media.”
And it’s all free to the newsroom.
Monique Curry-Mims was relatively new to the role of news publisher when she tapped into the LEN. She is principal and owner at Civic Capital, a consulting and investment firm based in Philadelphia. In 2023, she acquired Generocity.org, a community-focused nonprofit publication. “Our key audience are nonprofit, foundation, government and corporate social-responsibility leaders — social impact leaders, the people who are putting dollars and programs into communities. We want our stories to be inspired by and be very community centered,” Curry-Mims explained.
She has now worked with two LEN experts — first, on a social media strategy and then on a more comprehensive three- to five-year business plan, which she crafted with Jim Bernard, a digital strategy consultant and LEN expert.
“I didn’t know much about owning a media outlet,” she said. “I have gone through several cohort programs that gave me a really strong foundation, but working with Jim — who has this business-side experience running media outlets and understands the ins and outs of working with journalists and managing the day-to-day structure — was really powerful.”
“I’ve worked with a lot of publications or with business units — people with great news ideas or audience ideas, but need some help on the commercial side,” Bernard said. “I could tell that Monique had a great audience; she had a great hypothesis. What she needed was somebody to think through the hard commercial pieces of how to make it work economically.”
“She said, ‘I need to put myself in a position to grow and thrive over a longer period of time. I don’t need to worry about Q4; I need to worry about 2027.’ That shaped the way we thought about her customers and her revenue opportunities, and it also gave me a chance to be invited into her long-range thinking in a way that was really fun for me to participate in. It felt like an honor to get to be with somebody who’s like, ‘I don’t want you to come in and paint a room; I want to build a house,’” said Bernard.
Karen Singer is also a LEN expert. As a digital strategy consultant, Singer consults with local newsrooms on matters of audience engagement and marketing. When E&P spoke with her in early May, she’d already completed three consultancies — matches made through the LEN — and was working on two current assignments.
“I love working with each individual newsroom, delving into what’s working for them, what’s not working for them, and customizing efforts and plans for them, and helping to execute on it — like, for example, Mountain Xpress. I designed a campaign for them and wrote all of the copy, and I’m excited to see them rolling it out,” Singer said.
Singer was matched with the team at Mountain Xpress in Asheville, North Carolina — an independent newspaper — emphasis on paper — covering western North Carolina communities, including Asheville. It prints 21,000 weekly print editions, with more than 600 distribution spots. Mark Murphy, office manager at Mountain Xpress, describes their editorial mission as “grassroots, impartial news.”
“We are a reflection of the community,” he said. “We highlight what people are doing in the region. We keep a close eye on the city and county council governance, and also the local tourism development authority. And our mission is to serve the people of the region.”
Murphy explained that they are decisively committed to print — and want people to turn off their phones more — but they also maintain a website and leverage social media and email.
For their LEN collaboration, Singer and Murphy virtually met every Thursday to develop a comprehensive membership campaign. Ad dollars diminishing, they sought to diversify revenue with member-donors.
“Karen built an amazing set of documents, including text for five different newsletters, daily email toppers, landing page copy and text for Instagram,” said Murphy. When E&P spoke with Murphy in May, the campaign was due to launch the next day.
“We’re excited for the rollout tomorrow, and we’re excited to build on it. … Ultimately, what we want is a strong, independent newsroom. Any additional new income that we can bring in goes to our operations and editorial team. It helps make for a stronger newspaper,” he concluded.
“I’m thrilled to be working with newsrooms through Lenfest, and it’s not just for me. It’s making an impact and seeing these newsrooms be able to thrive,” Singer said.
Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.
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