The Steinman Institute is proud to announce a historic investment in local news and information in Central Pennsylvania.
The grant, to Pennon, parent company of local news sources WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline, will help the organization continue to improve its user experience, enhance its coverage, and deliver innovative new products to the central Pennsylvania region.
Enhancing the business model:
Becoming one: WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline’s news teams are joining together in a single digital newsroom in the first quarter of this fiscal year, a move designed to improve the quality, speed, reach and impact of our journalism. Journalists in the combined newsroom will work with urgency, collaborate across units and be relentless in pursuit of – and be measured by – digital audience growth. The news division is shifting resources away from print and linear radio toward digital platforms.
Re-centering audience needs: The newsroom is adjusting its coverage strategy as necessary with reader interests and digital engagement and conversions at the forefront. The coverage strategy will be grounded in audience and conversion data and third-party research into the news consumption habits and interests in Lancaster County and the region.
Being faster. And more relevant: The newsroom values urgency and will find ways to deliver custom content. Among the most significant changes in Q1 will be the creation of a “Now Team” whose mission will be to report with speed, accuracy and in real time on significant news across web, social media and live video, as well as a dedicated newsletter team whose mission will be to report and curate news on niche or intensely local matters in Lancaster County.
Protecting innovation: The new structure of the news division places the production teams for print and linear radio far downstream from, and outside of, the all-digital journalism and product innovation teams. This move is vital to allowing the newsroom to build new digital products and successfully move beyond print in upcoming years.
New beats and initiatives:
Launch a youth newsroom: This fully functioning newsroom will be staffed by high school-age youth in Lancaster County who will create and maintain a unique local-news product whose audience would be their peers and would operate independent of their educational institutions and of legacy media including WITF Inc. and LNP Media Group.
Expand the newsroom’s social media team: This three-member team will enhance audience engagement, expand reach and provide valuable insights wherever potential readers are. It will also draw audience to the top of the funnel for additional subscribers as well as monetization of social platforms.
Creation of a podcast/audio on-demand team: This team will produce fact-based, contextual, deep dive reporting on issues impacting Central Pennsylvania through a series of smart storytelling through podcast series – and on certain occasions, serial narrative podcasts.
Creation a newsletter team for niche hyperlocal audiences: The mission of this team would be to curate, report and deliver news on very specific topics and geographies and drive audience and subscriptions to LancasterOnline.
Expanding the Data Desk work beyond local campaign finance records to other public documents and analysis as a shared service inside the newsroom.
Embracing public engagement through Opinion: The two-person Opinion section will hire a third staffer, an Opinion Engagement Specialist, whose job is to recruit a breadth of writers from across the community to enhance its mission of being a space for important, interesting and relevant conversations.
Investing in the Next Generation of Journalism
Pennon Education seeks to expand programming to include cutting-edge media and information literacy programs to address the opportunity gaps that have emerged as a result of fundamental shifts in the media and information landscape; science and technology alongside PA’s adoption of new STEM (STEELS) standards; and lifting up youth voices and connecting voices of all ages as societal discourse has become even more
Digital Model and Data Platform Project:
Building a best-in-class data management platform and rebuilding the existing digital business model and underlying technologies are key steps to Pennon’s service in the community and future growth, such as
Developing a North Star Metric focused on the conversion of audiences to subscribers/donors/members and client, building an Audience Activation platform and team to support digital engagement and data management to better cultivate general audiences to known audiences to paid supporters, and rebuilding parts of its digital stack.
Philanthropic Support:
This initiative aims to enhance sustainable funding streams by adding a Vice President of Philanthropy, who will seek funding to support local journalism, ensuring the communities Pennon serves to continue to have access to high-quality, independent news.
Marketing and Communications:
By investing in LNP-brand specific multi-channel marketing campaigns designed to communicate the vital role that local journalism plays in building and informed and engaged community, as well as the negative repercussions that occur when local journalism is underfunded or absent. These campaigns will reach beyond current subscribers to engage the entire community, showcasing how local news helps solve important issues, brings people together, celebrates community successes and supports local businesses.
This comprehensive approach will not only drive an increase in subscriptions but also amplify philanthropy efforts, helping to create a sustainable model for local journalism that the entire community values and supports.