Last month in this space, I announced LINK 2.0, our strategic plan for the next three years of LINK nky. We’re focused on revenue and audience growth, innovation, community ownership and creating a financially sustainable organization by the end of 2027.
Today, I want to dive into what I think is the most important part of LINK 2.0: Radical Transparency.
As a business owner, I’ve always believed in transparency in my organizations, but being a leader of a company that belongs to the community requires even greater openness. Because we ask for support from the community, y’all deserve to know exactly what we’re doing with the money you entrust to us.
There are a lot of questions I could answer about LINK’s financials, but today I’m going to focus on the one we get asked most often:
How do we pay for LINK?
Diversification is the name of the game at LINK. We have to have lots of different revenue streams in order to make up our $1.5 million operating budget. (And, spoiler for future columns about our expenses: We use every penny we bring in.)
- Print Advertising – This is probably what most folks think of when they think about how newspapers make money. 34% of our revenue comes from selling ads in our Super Issues and weekly print editions. Our Super Issues are the most expensive product we create – each one costs more than $50,000 to print and mail – but they are also our largest revenue stream. Advertisers like being able to reach the entire NKY community – all 173,000 households – with one ad buy.
- Digital Advertising – Selling advertising on our website and in our email newsletters makes up 14% of our revenue. We do not use Google Ads or any other national advertising platforms, so all our digital ads are sold to local, NKY businesses. You’ll never see one of those creepy “I was just talking to my friend about this thing and now there’s an ad for it on my phone” ads on LINKnky.com.
- Sponsored Content – We are editorially independent, so if an advertiser wants to control the content of an article, they have buy what’s called (and clearly marked) Sponsored Content. The LINK editorial team doesn’t create or edit this content, but companies benefit from having content on a site like ours because of SEO and the opportunity to tell their story in their own words. Spon con, as we call it, makes up less than 10% of our revenue.
- Readers’ Choice – We just launched our Readers’ Choice program this year, to give NKY residents a chance to recognize the companies, people and organizations they love in our community. We make money on Readers’ Choice by selling sponsorships and ads. (Buying an ad or sponsorship doesn’t affect the results – winners are chosen by votes only!)
- Sponsorships – We rely on sponsorships to help pay for our events and certain special content areas, like our sports Team of the Week competition. These sponsorships cover the cost of venues, marketing and staff time, and sponsors get recognition. Last year, Sponsorships were about 20% of our total revenue.
- Small-dollar donors – LINK doesn’t charge anyone to read our content on the website, but there are folks in the community who see value in what we do and want to support our work. These donors send us small donations every month or quarter. Our average recurring monthly donation is just $11.82. We also have folks who donate during our annual fundraising campaigns. We’re working hard to grow these donations, because it is such a critical piece of our ongoing sustainability. If you see value in what we do, please consider supporting our work!
- Major gifts – We consider a “major gift” anything over $500. We have a small but mighty group of donors who have given generously to support LINK’s work, and we are incredibly grateful for them. Donors, no matter how much they give, don’t get any special privileges or editorial say, but the money we receive from them makes a huge difference in our ability to cover NKY.
- Grants – Over the past three years, LINK has received several small grants from national journalism support organizations for projects ranging from stories on housing to growing our small-dollar donation revenue stream. We continue to apply for these grants, and hope to win more in the future.
- Subscriptions – Newspaper subscriptions used to make up the bulk of revenue for news organizations. Thousands of people paying hundreds of dollars a year for the print edition adds up quickly. At LINK, however, we have a very small subscriber base for our weekly print edition, and our annual subscription only costs $50. It’s a tiny part of our revenue mix – about 2%.
So, that’s it. Those are all the revenue streams that make up our $1.5 million operating budget. Next time, we’ll break down how we spend all that money. (Hint: we spend it on paper and people.)
If you have more detailed questions, or you’d like to know more, feel free to email me OR come visit me at Unataza coffee shop in Dayton every Friday from 8-9:30, when I have Office Hours.
Click here to read more Inside LINK columns from Meghan Goth and LINK nky President and CEO Lacy Starling.