Overview:

The Academy's mission is to help community news organizations develop, implement and execute strategies to achieve long-term sustainability. BlueLena designed the program curriculum based on proven best practice approaches established through our support of over 200 independent publishers with strategy development, technology integration and managed services since 2020.

Last October, we introduced BlueLena Academy, a one-year audience and revenue development training program that blends accelerator-style coaching with hands-on execution support in a peer-based learning environment. The Academy was created specifically for small and midsized publishers interested in growing audiences and building direct reader support for independent community journalism.

Our pilot group included Bay Area Reporter, NEXTPittsburgh and Tagg Magazine. 

In January Cardinal News, Dallas Voice, LA Blade, Montclair Local, Philadelphia Gay News, New Bedford Light, Racine County Eye, Washington Blade and Watermark joined as part of our second class of publications.

Today we are excited to welcome six independent community news organizations that will begin the program this month:

The Academy’s mission is to help community news organizations develop, implement and execute strategies to achieve long-term sustainability. BlueLena designed the program curriculum based on proven best practice approaches established through our support of over 200 independent publishers with strategy development, technology integration and managed services since 2020.

Among the benefits of the program:

  • Program management led by Sam Bennet, VP/Operations, Christine Holbert,  Engagement Manager, Teresa Ristow, Audience Strategist and Katie Kutsko, Strategy & Solutions Consultant
  • BlueLena’s email marketing and audience management platform (powered by ActiveCampaign) with unlimited send volume
  • Integration with your CMS including design, configuration and ongoing support of donation and membership programs
  • Fully managed services including newsletter automations, new donor/member onboarding series, abandoned cart series and more
  • Strategy consulting and messaging playbook development to promote your mission and value proposition to build long-term brand loyalty
  • Proven best practices that build and nurture reader relationships and bolster your reader revenue funnel
  • Audience listening tools including surveys and onsite collection methods to inform your editorial and content strategies
  • Peer-based learning opportunities along with dedicated program management
  • Robust training on platforms, solutions and workflows to manage and advance your audience development program for years to come

You can learn more about the program here.

Our next cohort will launch in July. If you are interested in learning more we invite you to complete this form and a member of our team will contact you to schedule an overview of the program and the criteria for participation.

Apply for the July 2024 Cohort

Meet the newest Academy participants

Baltimore Fishbowl reports the fun, factual and sometimes controversial scoop on local schools, real estate, money and power, culture, lifestyle, and community. Find daily posts Monday through Friday, longer original weekly stories, assorted columns and curated news from around the region, all accompanied by photos and video.

Dallas Free Press is a nonprofit news organization that focuses on community journalism that informs collaborative projects to tackle complex civics issues with solutions journalism. Founded by award-winning journalist Keri Mitchell in early 2020, LION Publishers named it the 2021 “New Publisher of the Year.”

The Erie Reader is the local voice for news, arts, and culture, and is Erie’s only independent, alternative newspaper. Founded in 2010, the Reader has quickly become the region’s award-winning source for arts coverage, a strong cultural compass, and a dynamic resource for news and opinion.

Impacto Media is a community news outlet in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, representing the diversity and the different perspectives of its community. Impacto focuses on multigenerational, intercultural and inclusive coverage of community, regional, national and international news, along with health, technology and cultural news reporting.

NJ Urban News is the Black news source in the Garden State. It is dedicated to covering New Jersey’s vibrant African American community through informative stories and thorough coverage. Founded in 2018, The motto of NJ Urban News is “A Voice for the Voiceless.” It covers stories often overlooked by mainstream media impacting the 1.3 million people that makeup New Jersey’s Black community.

Southwest Contemporary is the leading resource for contemporary arts and culture in the Southwest. Headquartered in Santa Fe, NM and in print since 1992, Southwest Contemporary publishes curated and critical perspectives on contemporary arts and culture through the Southwest, supports Southwest-based artists and arts organizations through print and digital platforms, and produces events and career development programming.

About BlueLena

BlueLena was founded by an experienced team of publishers, journalists and newsmedia marketing executives to create a sustainable future for independent local media. We do so by deploying world class technology, and delivering the expertise and professional services to build and support subscription, membership and donation models for long-term success.

In the short time since our founding in early 2020, we have quickly grown to support leading community-based media brands coast-to-coast across the United States and Canada, including in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Nashville, Detroit, St Louis, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Raleigh, Omaha, Little Rock, Washington, DC and many other markets.

Our 200+ member publishing consortium represents a diverse mix of non-profit and for profit newsrooms, pure digital and print plus digital publications, as well as established and new media brands. Our clients represent membership with Local Media Association (LMA), LION Publishers (LION), the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), the Black Press Association (NNPA), the National Association of Hispanic Press (NAHP) and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN).

We facilitate the sharing of best practices through a weekly newsletter, a community Slack channel, and monthly Zoom meetings where we spotlight success stories from across the BlueLena publisher consortium.

BlueLena is founder-funded and backed by investment from Automattic (owner of Newspack), Local Media Association and Old Town Media, a New York-based firm that has supported the American Journalism Project, The Colorado Sun, Block Club Chicago and Chalkbeat, among other successful media-related projects.