Impact dashboards will help members of Australia’s LINA publishers’ association monitor engagement with local communities following a pilot group.
The Local & Independent News Association teamed with US-based Impact Architects – who focus on helping local newsrooms demonstrate the difference they make in communities across the world – and has developed a template impact framework based on this.
LINA data & insights analyst Zahra Khalid is set to help members customise the framework for each newsroom, setting up impact dashboards to help members monitor their engagement in one place and display their impact over time.
During LINA’s Summit in Port Douglas, Queensland (April 30), Impact’s Rosemary D'Amour will join Khalid for a one-day intensive to establish the dashboards.
The group is also preparing its input to the government’s News MAP draft policy framework. LINA members shared direct feedback with communications department representatives at the 2023 Summit in April, and the group will make a written submission in February.
LINA executive director Claire Stuchbery says the group has welcomes the productivity commission’s ‘Future Foundations for Giving’ draft report, which includes support for a deductible gift recipient status for public interest journalism.
Stuchbery and LINA chair Jon Bisset visited Parliament House in November to continue discussions on this topic, and met with Department of Communications representatives while in Canberra.
“LINA made a submission to the philanthropy inquiry, adding our voice to the many who have been calling for this change for some years now,” she says. “LINA will prepare a response to the draft report in January.”
Looking back on a year in which membership grew from 39 to 62. LINA, now with a team of seven, has expanded services to members to include on-demand training in media law and audio editing, and recordings of its “shop-talk” sessions throughout the year. Guest speakers address content management systems, chatbots, emergency reporting, best practice SEO, apps and alternative distribution models, copyright, mental health reporting, display advertising best practice, newsletter tools and industry research.
Among new members are Sydney Times (Edgecliff, NSW), the Western Echo Brisbane), Neo Kosmos (Melbourne), and Sunbury Life (Sunbury, VIC).
A session in November addressed content management systems, with contributions from John Montgomery (Blox Digital), Jan Thoresen (Labrador CMS) and Alex Kisielewski (Ghost CMS) facilitated by LINA chief technical officer Kris Morris.
LINA is also working with Bastion Agency on an eight-week revenue growth programme for members, which will include support for participants to experiment with income streams with one-to-one mentoring from an industry expert. The course will run March to June 2024.
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