Spotlight Delaware celebrated its official launch on Monday, March 1, with a newly designed website, a base of community-informed and action-oriented news, a weekly newsletter curated by editor Jacob Owens — and more to come, including community events and a members-only newsletter.
Spotlight Delaware is the flagship initiative of the Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware, a nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen democracy and community by strengthening the First State’s local news ecosystem. LJI tapped BlueLena in the fall of 2023 to help coordinate the launch of Spotlight Delaware, including data- and community-informed messaging development, reader engagement, revenue and audience goal-setting and campaign management.
“The community’s incredible response and support for Spotlight Delaware reinforces what we learned in our research – Delawareans urgently want and need local news and information,” LJI Founder and CEO Allison Taylor Levine said. “BlueLena created streamlined processes and helped us inspire the community to support us financially in building a sustainable model to meet their needs.”
Flipping the switch: Spotlight Delaware reached their launch fundraising goal ahead of schedule
- Spotlight Delaware worked with BlueLena to craft a two-week launch fundraising campaign with a goal of 50 new donors. At the end of the two-week timeline, Spotlight Delaware had reached 65 new donors
- Including early donors and members, Spotlight Delaware is proud to be supported by 137 Founding Members
- In the month since launching, the Spotlight Delaware team has increased their newsletter list by 81%
We were honored that so many members of our community joined as Founding Members so early in our existence. Their belief in the mission and purpose of Spotlight Delaware is inspiring. We look forward to proving that their trust in Spotlight was worthwhile. -David Stradley, Director of Membership and Community Engagement
Among the milestones in BlueLena’s partnership with Spotlight Delaware’s launch:
- Developing their initial donation strategy, including donor benefits and FAQ, followed by a research-backed membership program
- A mission-driven reader onboarding and engagement strategy, informed by community listening data and audience persona workshops
- A roadmap for ongoing development of reader engagement, including audience surveys, as well as conversion-focused marketing automations such as an abandoned cart series
- Implementation of a low-friction first-party data strategy to grow the newsroom’s understanding and relationship with audiences
- Providing the technical guidance and execution of data infrastructure for membership, including product setup for checkout pages and newsletter popups, providing a wealth of segmentable data into the BlueLena-powered ESP & CRM
- Supporting product development for Spotlight Delaware’s flagship newsletter design and build and on-site UX and audience flows
Spotlight Delaware: Shining a light where it’s needed most.
- Even before they had a website, Spotlight Delaware highlighted its commitment to collaboration with other Delaware newsrooms by publishing an important environmental story on DelawareLive in mid-February.
- True to its mission, Spotlight Delaware articles often feature a call to action, like in this story about a bill to change how hospital budgets are regulated, which offered the option for readers to send an email to the bill’s sponsor.
We’re thrilled to witness Spotlight Delaware’s inspiring beginnings, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth in the coming year.