Starting in 2022, the Knight x LMA BloomLab set out to support more than two dozen Black-owned local news media with resources for digital technology and business transformation — helping them find paths to long-term sustainability and independence.

Local Media Association and Local Media Foundation, backed by a $3.2 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, have facilitated the BloomLab for more than three years. Lab directors, participants and LMA/LMF leaders can all look back and cite clear successes, unexpected challenges and many helpful lessons learned on that road to sustainability.

In the initial 3-year phase, participant companies benefited from technology stipends of up to $50,000, as well as coaching from lab directors and other subject-matter experts on tech applications, revenue growth, audience growth and engagement, philanthropy, and organizational strategy. Lab directors have compiled a report highlighting outcomes and case studies from this first phase of the BloomLab.

BloomLab goals included:

  • Boost non-print revenue across the group by at least 50% to enhance revenue diversity.
  • Increase audience engagement by at least 20% to deepen community connections.
  • Implement improvements in workflows to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness.

And the results?

  • $4.4 million in cumulative digital revenue growth, easily beating the 50% growth goal as a group.
  • Audience growth proved tougher — amid a bad climate for social and search referral traffic. But subject-matter experts such as Adriana Lacy led “sprint” sessions funded by Walton Family Foundation to help navigate the headwinds and offer examples to build longer-term audience engagement.
  • No one-size-fits-all technology solution can address every need, but BloomLab leaders identified a combination of tailored solutions to meet the majority of challenges faced by participants. This framework fostered more than $3.25 million savings on new or upgraded technologies, across more than 250 implementations.
  • Beyond the up-front goals, BloomLab participants also had opportunities to experiment with artificial intelligence applications and gather community feedback about AI, as part of the AI Community Journalism Lab, also funded by WFF, which will wrap up later this year.

What’s ahead for BloomLab

Even with this progress, sustainability is not assured — so the work of the Knight x LMA BloomLab is far from over. Taking lessons learned from Phase 1, and thanks to new funding from the Knight Foundation, we launched Phase 2 in April 2025. In this new phase, while maintaining a series of training and convening opportunities for all BloomLab participants, we launched a set of pilot shared services led by the three BloomLab directors:

  • Shared Head of Technology (a “fractional CTO” service), led by Apryl Pilolli. “I’m thrilled to turn the BloomLab into a shared excellence center for newsroom tech, evolving from standalone workshops into a hands-on partnership,” said Pilolli. “In Phase 2, we’ll work side-by-side with newsrooms to architect and roll out next-generation, scalable technology — leveraging the $3.25 million saved and 250 solutions delivered in Phase 1 — to ensure lasting digital impact.”
  • Shared Head of Revenue (a “fractional CRO” service), led by Robert Walker-Smith. “Over three years as Digital Revenue Director, I saw how collaboration, coaching, and innovation helped BloomLab publishers exceed expectations — surpassing our 50% digital revenue growth objective and building real momentum in digital transformation,” said Walker-Smith. “As print revenue continues to decline, Phase 2 is about sustaining that progress through my role as Head of Revenue through shared revenue services and digital monetization strategies that support long-term growth and resilience for these vital voices in media.”
  • Shared Head of Funding led by John Celestand. “Journalism funded by philanthropy is one of our strategic pillars here at LMA. In today’s rapidly shifting landscape, we’re committed to working closely with publishers to help them identify and secure the funding they need to innovate and grow,” said Celestand. “While the funding environment has changed, our dedication remains the same – supporting BloomLab organizations in strengthening their applications, building efficient processes, and launching sustained donor campaigns that ensure local journalism continues to inform, uplift, and serve their communities.” 

In this pilot, BloomLab participants pay deeply discounted rates for critical services that go beyond lab-style “teach me to do it” training, into the realm of “do it with me” hands-on consulting. The goal is to demonstrate that shared services operated on a nonprofit basis can themselves become sustainable over time, while offering critical resources to clients at costs far below what they could access on their own.We will periodically share our progress with these services as they ramp up. Meanwhile, this report highlights results and participant case studies from Phase 1 of the Knight x LMA BloomLab. In case you missed them, the lab directors also prepared impact reports from Year 1 and Year 2 of the BloomLab, with even more case studies and examples that may help with sustainability efforts across the local media industry.