Invitation for LINA members to express interest
LINA has partnered with Bastion Transform to develop a Revenue Growth Pilot Program, tailored to local newsrooms. This hands-on program, which includes a 12 week pilot, will support publishers to experiment with a new income stream or expand your existing offering. Newsrooms will be paired with an experienced mentor for guidance and support while cultivating an experimental mindset, implementing the ‘test and learn’ experiment, and tracking revenue outcomes. The end result will be a deeper understanding of how to diversify revenue, how to utilise structured experiments to grow revenue and ultimately, a new or expanded revenue stream.
Expressions of Interest are now open to newsrooms willing to contribute $1,000 + GST to participate in the program. LINA will cover the remaining 75% of the program fees.
More details
The program is running from 25 March to 29 July, 2024.
Time commitments will vary depending on the complexity of the revenue experiment you would like to roll out, however it is expected that participants will:
- Join a half-day online training program in week commencing 25 March;
- Meet with mentors online each fortnight;
- Contribute to monthly check-ins with a cohort group of up to five participants; and
- Share your ideas and milestones with other LINA members.
Who are the mentors?
Participating publishers will be paired with one of these experienced mentors:
Jacqui Park
Jacqui Park is a journalist, editor, media builder and strategic designer with deep experience telling stories and building journalism communities around media innovation, press freedom and high-integrity journalism. She has led, designed, implemented, advised on, and taught innovation, creative problem-solving, design, entrepreneurship, product development, journalism-in-transition and digital media strategies.
She was most recently the head of network strategy and innovation for the Vienna-based IPI Global Network of editors and journalists where she led the global research on media sustainability strategies and designed and led the European digital transition accelerator for small newsrooms, an incubator for new media ventures and a global sustainability accelerator for local media.
Jacqui is the Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific journalism and innovation at the Centre for Media Transition, University of Technology, Sydney (News media innovation), and writes a newsletter, The Story, on media startups and innovation in Asia-Pacific. She was founding CEO of Australia’s Walkley Foundation for excellence in journalism, founding Asia-Pacific Director for the International Federation of Journalists and a JS Knight fellow at Stanford University, focusing on media entrepreneurship, innovation and strategic design.
Eli Flournoy
Eli is an award-winning veteran journalist and impact finance specialist, dedicated to building global communications partnerships for the restoration of news ecosystems and growth of local journalism businesses. Eli serves as a Senior Media Industry Consultant for local, national and international clients like News Games, Mather Economics, CNN International, Google, Meta, the International Center for Journalists, universities around the globe and a diverse portfolio of journalism, fact-checking and media tech companies.
During a 24-year career at CNN, Eli ran CNN’s global news agency and affiliate training, consulting and newsgathering operation as Senior Director of CNN International Newsource. Eli has provided on-site training and strategic support to hundreds of local newsrooms globally, and led the launch of news ventures like CNN Indonesia and CNNIndonesia.com.
Eli is a lecturer and speaker on circular innovation models, digital and social media newsgathering, multi-platform media management, diversity management and business modelling, news standards and practices (ethics), anti-misinformation, the servant leadership model, and social/local impact investing and finance.
Tracy Sheen
Known as ‘The Digital Guide’, Tracy Sheen is the author of “The End of Technophobia: a practical guide to digitising your business”, winner of The Australian Business Book of the Year Awards 2021 and Best Technology Book. She is also a regular technology, small business and marketing commentator in the media, including Kochie’s Business Builders TV show.
Appointed as one of 23 ‘Entrepreneurship Facilitators’ by the Australian Federal Government, Tracy has worked with dozens of Gov Departments to upskill small business communities, focusing on regional and rural Australia.
Recognised as a Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM) through the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI), Tracy has facilitated thousands of workshops and webinars on a wide range of topics across the digital landscape and is an in demand speaker for small business audiences across Australia. She is a regular on judging panels for esteemed industry awards, including The Australian Web Awards, Australian Podcast Awards, Australian Business Book Awards and NSW Tourism.