Local Media Association is launching a second lab aimed at finding paths to sustainability for family-owned and independent local media organizations, thanks to funding from Knight Foundation and Google News Initiative.
Directors of the LMA Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab — FIMS Lab for short — and a team of expert consultants will work for at least one year with leaders of 10 family-owned and independent local media companies, immersing in business transformation strategies intended to build long-term sustainability and financial independence.
The new cohort of 10 media companies will join the original FIMS Lab cohort for joint group sessions, in-person meetings, and working sprints.
FIMS Lab leaders will develop curriculum based in part on needs identified by the participating media companies. Lab focus areas will include:
- General strategic planning
- Business transformation
- Building sustainable advertising, branded content and marketing services portfolios, especially focused on digital.
- Consumer (reader) revenue and first-party data strategies.
- Rethinking local media as both product and service.
- Making the most of journalism funded by philanthropy.
- Optimizing technology application to strengthen revenue opportunities, make processes more efficient and better control expenses.
- Developing opportunities for participants to collaborate on topic-focused journalism projects with philanthropic funding.
Additionally, the FIMS Lab will provide a travel stipend for each participating media company to send its main stakeholder to an in-person, full-cohort meeting in New York in early April and Chicago, coinciding with LMA Fest in August.
Have a question about the FIMS Lab? Check our Frequently Asked Questions below.
Lab directors and subject-matter experts
Leading the FIMS Lab as full-time program director will be John M. Humenik. Serving as co-leads with Humenik will be Liz White Notarangelo, LMA co-chief executive officer, Julia Campbell, LMA chief business transformation officer, Jay Small, LMA co-chief executive officer and Judi Terzotis, CEO at Georges Media Group, will join as a consultant and coach. The program directors will consult with Lab participants on product, process, operations, technology, revenue opportunities and general strategy.
Frequently asked questions
How big a commitment is it to be in the Lab?
We don’t want to scare anyone off, but this is a bigger commitment than just a webinar series or a bunch of downloadable research reports.
You will get out of FIMS Lab what you put into it.
In the application form, we ask for a letter from your company’s owner or CEO expressing a commitment to participate in the Lab. It is essential for senior-level leadership — people empowered to make major strategic decisions on behalf of the company — to be involved in the virtual meetings and be in attendance at the in-person convenings in April and August. Meaningful business transformation begins at the top. Without that commitment from the C-level, the Lab will not lead to positive outcomes for your company.
If your company is selected, you will participate in surveys and assessments to understand your business characteristics, general financial profile, similarities and differences with others in the cohort. We will have virtual (Zoom) group meetings roughly twice a month and virtual meetings with just your company team roughly once a month. We need you present and engaged for all these conversations, virtual or in-person.
If selected, your company will need to execute a participant agreement that details these obligations before joining the lab.
Our company would benefit from some of the topics of the Lab more than others. Can we pick and choose?
Yes, to an extent. We recognize that some companies might be more interested in B2B/sales transformation, and others might be more interested in, for example, learning about journalism funded by philanthropy. That’s why we will begin our work with the 10 companies by surveying and assessing their needs and characteristics. Much of the training will be available across the board and will be worth your attention even if a topic is not a focus area for your company. But we can also customize our direct consulting to meet your needs.
Is my company too small/too big for the Lab?
We don’t want to be too restrictive, but we do require that your company have at least $1 million (U.S.) total annual revenue to apply.
Do nonprofits qualify?
By definition, nonprofit associations, trusts, foundations etc., do not have “owners” per se. The Lab is intended to help family-owned and independently-owned local news media companies. Nonprofits can have ownership stakes in for-profit entities, however, and that would not disqualify the for-profit from applying.
Do Canadian companies qualify?
O Canada! Yes.
Will this cost us anything to participate?
Generally, no, but you may choose to invest to get more out of your company’s Lab participation. Example: The Lab will supply a travel stipend for one person to attend the in-person cohort meeting in New York in April and in Chicago, adjacent to LMA Fest in August. If you want to bring additional people — both for the Lab meeting and the conference that follows — that would be at your company’s expense. But it would also be a great way to get more people involved in the Lab and cost-effectively avail yourselves of all the LMA Fest conference programming.
What kinds of company information will we have to provide?
As part of initial surveys and assessments, we’ll ask each participating company to provide organizational and financial overviews, missions, strategic goals and current KPIs. Many companies will consider this information proprietary; however, the participant agreement includes confidentiality provisions similar to what management consultants typically provide. We need financial and strategic data at the outset for benchmarking, and again at the end of the Lab year, so we will know if the work makes a difference.
As the Lab progresses, we may ask each company to lead a “share-out” or two to the full cohort — typically a case study or success story. When we present metrics on Lab progress to the industry, we will do so only in aggregate, anonymized to protect anything you consider proprietary.
Will our company receive any grant or stipend funding?
YES! Each participating company will receive up to a $10,000 stipend to conduct an experiment focused on growing audience or revenue.
Will there be a FIMS Lab community where we can seek advice and help from our fellow participants and the Lab team?
Yes! We will establish group email lists and Slack workspaces for the participating companies as conversational communities and resource archives.
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