It’s no surprise that one of our members’ most common challenges is an unsustainable workload. What may be surprising is this: While hiring additional staff can certainly alleviate some strain on a small team, independent news businesses that experience sustainable workloads are more likely to have more well-established operational and financial processes in place despite usually being smaller and younger.
That insight is based on data we gathered from 100 LION member publishers through our GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program last year. Our audits are an opportunity to give independent news publishers a high-level understanding of the state of their businesses and create a roadmap with industry experts to move toward sustainability. It’s also an opportunity for LION staff to review the data, analyze trends and share insights that can benefit all our members.
“We often hear from news leaders that their top priority for increasing revenue is to hire more staff in order to ease their workload,” said Elaine Díaz, LION’s senior manager of coaching. “However, we’re also witnessing smaller organizations taking a different approach by proactively optimizing their editorial and operational processes right from the start. In doing so, they’re not only setting up their teams but also themselves for long-term success.”
We dug deeper into the data to highlight four actionable insights for publishers feeling spread thin and struggling to create a more manageable workload.
