News Revenue Hub was founded in 2016 by former Voice of San Diego Publisher Mary Walter-Brown. She was joined by Voice alums, Tristan Loper, Hub co-founder and COO, and Christina Shih, Senior Vice President of Revenue.

News Revenue Hub was founded in 2016 by former Voice of San Diego Publisher Mary Walter-Brown. She was joined by Voice alums, Tristan Loper, Hub co-founder and COO, and Christina Shih, Senior Vice President of Revenue. Having developed the gold standard for nonprofit news membership programs at Voice of San Diego, the Hub’s trailblazing team challenged newsrooms to better serve their community members in order to earn their trust and financial support. Starting with just three employees and five pilot newsrooms in 2016, the Hub team quickly began proving that news consumers across the country were willing to meaningfully support news outlets they considered essential. Today, the Hub has nearly two dozen full-time staffers, each bringing unique expertise from some of the leading digital news outlets in the U.S. We also work with a highly curated group of specialized contractors. Together, this talented team has helped more than 70 newsrooms raise $67 million dollars – and counting! Overhauling your website is one of the most significant projects you can undertake as a news organization. Whether you’re pursuing a cosmetic redesign or changing your name and identity, few initiatives will have a bigger impact on the way your readers experience your work and perceive your brand. These projects can be stressful, time-intensive and expensive. But they can also help clarify your unique value as an organization and optimize your site for audience engagement and revenue growth. This guide includes insights from News Revenue Hub staff members and clients who have managed newsroom rebrands. Our aim is to help you define priorities, balance competing demands among stakeholders, and preserve critical technology so that you can grow your audience and steward your volunteer donor base through this exciting transition. Who this is for We wrote this playbook for small to midsize news organizations who intend to rebrand their websites and want a high-level overview of how to manage the project. If you’re reading this because you’re about to launch a rebrand, there’s a good chance that you’ve already done some work to arrive at your decision. Maybe you’ve conducted audience research, taken the matter up with your board, lined up funding or completed a vision exercise with your staff. We’re going to assume that anyone at this step is working with a digital agency to lead the creative work and technical implementation of the new site. (If you haven’t hired a vendor yet, we have tips below for how to choose one.) If you’re considering a rebrand but haven’t committed to one yet, this guide won’t definitively tell you which course of action to take – that’s something only your staff, board and executive leaders can decide. We can, however, help you understand why a news organization might embark on a rebrand, and offer steps you can take to help you arrive at a decision. This guide will also sketch out the full scope of a rebrand effort and determine whether your organization has the bandwidth to commit to one. Why rebrand? The News Revenue Hub has helped more than 70 small and mid-size newsrooms launch and sustain reader revenue programs. Our clients run the gamut from century-old publications that survived digital transformation to brand-new startups that compete with legacy publications in local markets. In the six years we’ve been working with publishers, we’ve seen clients undertake rebrands for three chief reasons: A newsroom has outgrown its original niche and wants to reach new readers. A site looks dated, or it doesn’t support new storytelling forms or tools. A site doesn’t support calls-to-action or aggressive email acquisition, and it’s impeding fundraising efforts. Don’t just take our word for it, though. The Hub interviewed leaders from two-nonprofit newsrooms to understand how they executed ambitious redesigns. Their advice informs many of the action items and insights in this playbook. Case Study: San Antonio Report Robert Rivard and Monika Maeckle started The Rivard Report in 2012 as a hyperlocal publication covering city news in San Antonio, Texas. Eight years later, it had morphed into a 20-person newsroom with reporters covering city hall, education, arts and the economy.the site grew, “we needed to communicate the evolution of our organization so we could stand independently,” said San Antonio Report COO Jenna Mallette. The newsroom embarked on a board-led succession planning initiative as its eponymous founders prepared for retirement. (The effort also closely followed the site’s migration to Newspack, a WordPress-based Content Management System.) They adopted a new logo in 2018 – its first update from the original. The publication changed its name in 2020 to San Antonio Report, and adopted a new tagline and visual language to use across its site and marketing collateral. Case Study: Grist Founded in 1999 as a newsletter, Grist is now a 50-person nonprofit newsroom covering climate and the environment. By the time they embarked on a rebrand in 2020, the online publication was winning national awards, being cited in Congressional proceedings, and trying to convince readers of the gravity of the climate crisis. Their new look debuted in early 2021 after months of preparation.