Digital Revenue Playbook Update: 4/9/24

Just a quick note that I’ve updated the Digital Revenue Playbook for Local News Revenue with a short insert on “Getting Other People to Pay Your Reporters” in the section on Grant Funding.

(This might work as a direct link to that section. And it might not.)

In that section, I’m looking at three different ways that funders can help you hire into your newsroom, including programs such as Report for America, fellowships at the national level for reporters, and the potential for local project-driven funding to pay for a reporter or a freelancer. Let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, bienvenue!

The DRP, in case it’s interesting, was developed in Gamma, an AI-driven publishing tool—in which I used nearly zero AI features. (It helped me generate an outline at the outset, but anything other than that, the writing and summaries were too AI-ish for me. The content — and typos — are pure me.)

It has a unique “card”-driven interface that I enjoyed using to write the playbook, as it allowed me to replicate somewhat the old consumer-focused computer books I wrote in the 90s with their callouts and sidebars.

Since launching the Playbook, I’ve been asked two questions repeatedly:

• Why did you write all that?

• What’s next?

Why? The answer to the first question is that I thought it’d be nice to collect all those thoughts in one place, in part so I can reference them with a link instead of typing them over and over. 😉 Now they’re easy to share!

I’ve been writing and presenting as Lab Director for GNI Transformation Tech for the past year, coaching and auditing for LION Publishers, and before that was the GNI Ad Transformation Lab. Thinking about this content and recognizing how it resonated with many publishers, I thought publishing it all would be a net positive.

What’s Next? I plan to constantly update the Playbook online at revenueplaybook.news, so there will continue to be more links, embedded sidebars, and entirely new sections. I’ve already been asked to look into a few topics, starting with how to do sales and how to get a little better at working on your business and not in it.

I’m very tempted to start a podcast and interview industry folks, asking them for their top tips on their topic of expertise. Let me know if you (a.) like that idea and (b.) want to participate.

Alright, that’s it for this week. Next week, I’ll send another update on what’s new in the Playbook and my plans for expanding its reach.

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