Six LGTBQ+ publishers saw revenue and audience growth as a result of their participation in the inaugural Queer Media Sustainability Lab. The one-year lab, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, wrapped up at the end of June.
Penny Riordan, LMA’s director of business strategy and partnerships, led the program jointly with consultant David Arkin.
As part of the program, the publishers received technology grants to upgrade their tech stacks, as well as monthly training with digital and revenue experts.
Almost all of the publishers launched or rebooted their reader revenue strategies and have seen financial support coming in consistently for the first time. SEO was also a big growth area, and several publishers have changed their approach to headline writing.
Here are five areas of growth as a result of the lab:
Reader revenue
While nearly all had some sort of donation module on the site before, the publishers had never sent automated emails asking for support, or included buttons in their newsletters. That has changed and publishers are now seeing revenue come through directly from readers, helping set a new course to diversify revenue streams in the future.
Several of the publishers used their technology grants to work with BlueLena, an audience and revenue consultancy company, to improve their messaging and checkout flows.
After Bay Area Reporter sent its first campaign explaining to readers its role in breaking an important story, it received more than $500 in donations.
“The greatest thing that happened to us was growing our newsletter subscribers more actively and getting them to become donors,” said Bay Area Reporter Publisher Michael Yamashita. “We had a way for readers to give us donations in the past, but we kind of let that go on automatic. So, having the guidance to really be strategic about acquiring recipients was really helpful to us. The trajectory has only gone up. It’s just kind of amazing.”
Branded content
Branded content training has been a key part of the QML training experience. It allowed the publishers not only to search out new branded content opportunities, but to diversify their revenue streams, setting them up for future sustainable success. Many of them had never sold branded content before but now have a rate card and process, aligned with editorial standards, to sell it.
For example, Dallas Voice expanded its branded content strategy to diversify its revenue streams and provide more value to advertisers. Branded content revenue is now more than 22% of its advertising revenue.
Tagg Magazine was also new to selling branded content as an option to advertisers. So far, branded content campaigns have brought in thousands of dollars in new revenue, said Sondra Morris, Tagg’s owner and publisher.
Tagg worked with a local Washington, D.C., venue on its “Out and About Festival” for Pride. Tagg expanded coverage from the previous year and used a multimedia approach for a new branded content campaign.
“We did a social recap of the day where our social media manager went and got footage through the whole day,” Morris said. “Then we’re doing an event recap to help get people excited for it next year, so it’s on the radar early.”
The Washington Blade had been selling branded content, but the training showing new ideas for campaigns and advice on packaging allowed it to fine-tune its offerings.
Brian Pitts, senior account executive and co-owner of the Washington Blade, said the program gave more confidence to sell branded content.
“Some of our mom-and-pop advertisers, it’s a little out of their reach,” he said. “But for others that have the means for it, it gives you the best of everything we can offer. It gives you an online story that lives on our website forever.”
Technology improvements
As part of the program, each publisher received a grant to upgrade technology. Riordan and Arkin helped the cohort members vet new technologies and make the right decisions based on price and features.
Windy City Times, which has been on the same scratch-built CMS since the late 1990s, was able to migrate over to Newspack, a WordPress-based CMS that works with hundreds of news organizations.
Tracy Baim, publisher and co-owner of Windy City, said the team changed its process of posting articles and photos to match the Newspack process, which saved a lot of time.
“We could not have afforded the cost and expertise needed to make this happen,” she said. “This is a game-changer for Windy City Times.”
Search engine optimization
Through learning extensively about updating SEO tactics, the publishers are now better positioned to have their content reach an even wider audience through search. This learning has led to an increase in traffic for all the publishers.
For Tagg Magazine, the change has been significant.
“We’ve completely changed the way we use SEO,” Morris said. “It’s been really helpful, because most of our visitors come from organic search. So we want to make sure we’re constantly making sure SEO is on top of it. Otherwise they won’t find us.”
Bay Area Reporter updated the way it formatted its URLs, making for a more SEO-friendly experience.
“We now have headlines as part of our URL,” said Scott Wazlowski, vice president of advertising at the reporter. “It still has the story number and the section number, but it actually does have the keywords or we can override that with a different headline for the URL specifically, and then we can also add some SEO keywords for our photos as well.”
Artificial intelligence
Bay Area Reporter and Tagg applied some of their grant funding to purchase AI-enhanced copy editing tool Tansa. Both publications have shared that the AI editorial support saves time and makes work more efficient. Articles are also clearer and easier to read thanks to Tansa.
All publishers in QML were trained on ways to use ChatGPT for generating headlines and taking care of simple yet time-consuming tasks like checking for AP Style errors, grammar issues and more.
Martin Alfaro, associate publisher of Philadelphia Gay News, shared how ChatGPT is changing the way the editorial team creates headlines.
“Jeremy, our editor, has been incorporating ChatGPT in a lot of the stuff that we’re doing, which is great. They are also making sure the other staff writers are also aware. Everyone’s using it really well and embracing it.”
Program feedback
Arkin, who helped lead the twice-monthly trainings and worked individually with the publishers, said he was impressed with the progress publishers made over the year.
“It’s great to see them apply the practical lessons of writing better headlines, but also grow revenue with branded content,” he said. “We’ve seen again and again in this industry how great an impact of topic-specific training, paired with coaching, can drive results.”
Leo Cusimano, publisher of the Dallas Voice, said the program was a “game-changer” for him.
“This initiative has provided us with education, resources and support needed to amplify diverse voices and enhance our storytelling capabilities,” he said. “The program’s impact on our community engagement and journalistic excellence cannot be overstated. It is vital for ensuring that LGBTQ+ perspectives remain an integral part of the media landscape.”
Yamashita echoed Cusimano’s take.
“We knew we needed these new tools and skills, but we lacked the ability and knowledge to be effective. Guidance and financial support were key to successful results,” he said.
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