American Press Institute’s Beyond Print program awards $60,000 in grants to four news organizations to test digital revenue strategies
Summary
The American Press Institute awarded grants to four news organizations participating in the Beyond Print program, a cohort designed to guide publishers away from print-centric revenue models toward a sustainable digital future. The challenge fund granted $15,000 to each participating organization to help them test new ideas to create and expand their digital models.Since May, the cohort has learned from experts at organizations that have reduced their print frequency about best practices for internal and external communication around changes, including boosting customer service; logistical considerations for moving from carrier delivery to mail delivery; and increasing digital offerings. These efforts have included moving subsets of 7-day-a-week print subscribers to digital-only, offering digital-plus Sunday print edition packages and more.Each organization received funding to support the following work: None will launch and promote a texting service to provide housing news to Latine audiences in the Phoenix area to help grow its overall digital audience. We look forward to sharing the lessons from these initiatives widely across the industry, said Emily Ristow, APIs director of local news transformation.The Lenfest Institute, a key design and program partner, has been publishing lessons and best practices from the Beyond Print cohort to help share resources with other news organizations working to create digital-first revenue streams. The Knight-Lenfest Fund collaborates with news organizations, leaders and communities to grow capacity and meet journalisms technology, business, and audience realities of the future.