Voice of OC is one of 15 hand-picked newsrooms selected for a program to accelerate local newsrooms marketing efforts.
“We’re honored to be included among such a vibrant and diverse group of publishers and have the opportunity to really hone in on the best audience growth and marketing strategies for our individual markets and newsrooms,” said Voice of OC Publisher Norberto Santana, Jr.
The Facebook Journalism Project and Lenfest Institute for Journalism project includes 15 North American newsrooms for a second round of the Local News Membership Accelerator.
The group will meet three times in Austin and work with news industry experts to strengthen their membership strategies both on and off Facebook. Training is coordinated by Tim Griggs, an independent consultant/advisor and former New York Times and Texas Tribune executive.
“The Lenfest Institute is pleased to support this diverse group of publishers as they work together to create sustainable membership models for local news,” Lenfest Institute CEO and Executive Director Jim Friedlich. “We were impressed by this year’s applicants, by their broad range of business models and by their diversity of leadership and audience. We look forward to reporting lessons learned to the broader local news industry.”
The 2020 Membership Accelerator participants are among 500 news industry leaders joining the Accelerator in more than a dozen countries this year, bringing the program’s membership to more than 1,000 global participants. Facebook works with the The Lenfest Institute to manage the Accelerator in the US and with the International Center for Journalists globally.