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WisCommunity has been selected to participate in the LION Publishers Sustainability Audit program. The program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations, resources, and up to $20,000 in direct funding to help them take the next steps toward organizational sustainability. We are one of 43 LION Publishers sites that are participating in this round of the audits.
We have completed most of the audit process and are currently awaiting the audit report that will make recommendations about how to make WisCommunity more financially sustainable. We hope to make serious improvements to our news coverage along with attracting more users and members, allowing us to continue on a path to sustainability. Look forward to changes.
You may read more about this program and the other participants at the LION website.
Memberships
There are still lots of things going on. I've closed the community survey that has been running for a few weeks and am looking over the results, which I will use to help guide the direction of WisCommunity.
I recently received news that we will receive a grant for the Sustainability Audit that has been going on for the past couple of months. The money will be coming through LION Publishers, The Knight Foundation, and the Google News Initiative. This is good news and will help to fund some new things here, including hiring some freelance reporters. Please contact me if you are interested in writing for us.
One of the things I agreed to do in the audit was to consider a re-branding of the site. WisCommunity made sense when the site was intended to be a state-wide discussion platform in its early days, but it has slowly morphed into a news website, and the name no longer fits. There will be a contest to pick a new name - watch this space.
Obituaries are coming soon. I have signed a contract with legacy.com to work with them on obituaries. Many of you have told me over the past few years that you would like to have a local source of obituaries. There are still some issues to work out, but expect to see them here in the next few months. We will also be accepting obituaries on-line that will not only appear here but in the network of legacy.com websites.
Some time in the next few weeks we will be starting to send out an events newsletter on Thursday every week. It will list our featured events for the upcoming week. We're changing to a new email distributor for this - there may be some irregularities for a while.
We are also having discussions about a state-wide syndication of news stories from independent publications. This is just in the early stages but is an exciting opportunity.
There will be a WisCommunity booth at Let's Paint The Town in July. Stop by and let us know what you'd like to see us do.
Steve is a member of LION Publishers , the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Online News Association, and the Local Media Consortium, and is active in Health Dunn Right.
He has been a computer guy most of his life but has published a political blog, a discussion website, and now Eye On Dunn County.
I am a member of LION Publishers. LION is expanding its Ambassador program which is a set of cohorts in the journalism business. I am going to be the ambassador to newsrooms that serve rural populations. Starting in a few weeks I will be hosting monthly virtual meetings of rural newsrooms where we will discuss our challenges and solutions to the problems.
There are 10 different groups. The groups were announced today and LION members can join the groups starting today. The announcement is here.
Steve is a member of LION Publishers , the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Online News Association, and the Local Media Consortium, and is active in Health Dunn Right.
He has been a computer guy most of his life but has published a political blog, a discussion website, and now Eye On Dunn County.
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