Ashley Woods Branch
Executive Director, Fund for Equity in Local News
The Fund for Equity in Local News is thrilled to announce the launch of Transformation Tech, in partnership with the Google News Initiative.
The Fund for Equity in Local News (FELN) is a collaboration between the leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). The three associations collectively represent the leaders of hundreds of community publications across America and focus on serving historically underrepresented populations with news and information.
This summer, FELN will launch Transformation Tech, an intensive program designed to equip publishers with top-flight coaching and curricula to aid their transition from print to digital revenue streams. Each publisher admitted into the program will launch a revenue or growth experiment with the assistance of industry experts and will receive resources to help them build their tech stack, grow their digital audiences or adapt their print-focused sales skills to new digital products. Publishers will receive $20,000 for completing the program to help fund their digital transformation plans, courtesy of the Google News Initiative.
“Transformation Tech is the culmination of months of planning for this Lab—and years of working on the partnership behind FELN,” said Todd Stauffer, Association Manager for AAN and Lab Director for Transformation Tech. “Now, with the GNI’s support, we can undertake this massive effort to help legacy print publishers explore new digital revenues to help deliver critical local journalism in their communities.”
This incredible investment is part of GNI’s support of other associations supporting local news, including LION Publishers and the Institute for Nonprofit News, with the stated goal of providing investment and training to 1,000 local news organizations across America.
