The Week of September 28, 2026
LOOKOUT. LOOKOUT Named 2026 LION Business of the Year
LOOKOUT, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit newsroom, won LION Business of the Year in the micro/small revenue tier, a prize announced Sept. 10 at the Independent News Sustainability Summit in San Diego. Judges credited its accountability reporting and the business infrastructure behind it, including its first two full-time hires, standardized employment policies, employer-paid benefits, and expanded reader support, as it grows from Colorado into the wider desert Southwest.
Editor & Publisher. Building local news instead of mourning it: Inside Alabama Newswire's growth strategy
Alabama Newswire launched as a digital local news site and expanded into print less than a year later, despite a climate of closures and growing news deserts. Founder Scott Centers, a broadcaster for more than three decades, and publisher Jackson Kimbrell explain why they see local journalism as a real opportunity for entrepreneurs.
The Zebra. The Washington Sun Launches: A New Digital Newsroom
An independent Alexandria publisher writes about the relaunch of NOTUS as The Washington Sun, a privately backed digital outlet whose newsroom has grown to a reported 110 journalists, including at least 28 former Washington Post staffers. The subject isn't a small publication, but the piece is a small publisher arguing that new newsroom investment benefits the whole local news ecosystem.
The Boston Globe. Spectrum News NECN formally launches new regional network
Spectrum News has launched a six-state New England network and is hiring photojournalists, producers, and meteorologists across the region, aiming for 50 staff by year's end.
Poynter. Want to invest in journalism's future? Start with student journalists
In this commentary, Mike Canan, who led journalism strategy at the Scripps Howard Fund from 2021 until returning to the newsroom this month, argues that journalism schools often fail to prepare students for newsroom deadlines and pace, so the industry loses journalists early in their careers. He tells funders that student journalists are among the best long-term investments they can make, drawing on his own experience editing Ohio University's student paper during 9/11.
Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). Strategies To Seek Funding For Investigative Journalism
This is a GIJN Academy webinar, led by former Institute for Nonprofit News CEO Sue Cross, that offers individual journalists new to fundraising a decision-tree approach to finding story and project funding in their region or beat.