Local Media Association, or LMA, is pleased to announce 46 newsrooms selected to participate in three state cohorts of the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding in 2025.

These newsrooms in California, Illinois and New Mexico will engage in a six-month cohort learning program to develop fundraising strategies to help sustain their essential local journalism.

Among the California cohort members is Lake County News.

“We’re excited to work with the lab and other member publications to bring best practices for fundraising and community engagement to Lake County, with a view to learning new and successful strategies for conversing with community members to find out what coverage is critical to them,” said Lake County News Editor and Publisher Elizabeth Larson. “Our hope is that, from this experience, we will create avenues for fundraising that will strengthen our publication’s resources and enhance our ability to carry out the journalism that’s important to Lake County, both now and in the future.”

Since its launch in September 2020, the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding has trained 148 newsrooms in five national and two state cohorts on fundraising best practices.

Collectively, those newsrooms have raised more than $28 million to support their journalism. Training for newsrooms in the lab is made possible through sustained support from Google News Initiative.

This expansion will bring the lab’s proven training and fundraising to 19 news outlets in California, 13 news outlets in Illinois and 14 news outlets in New Mexico, enabling them to support their civic journalism in part through philanthropy.

“We are excited to expand the proven practices of the Lab for Journalism Funding to these three new states,” said Frank Mungeam, who leads the lab as LMA chief innovation officer. “These newsrooms have a deep commitment to community service journalism, and we look forward to helping them grow local support for their essential reporting.”

“The Google News Initiative has been a long-standing partner of the Lab for Journalism Funding,” said Lauren Ashcraft, news partner manager at Google. “It was exciting to see the success of the new state cohorts of the lab from last year and we’re thrilled to support an expansion of the program in these important states. We look forward to our continued partnership with LMA and its members.”

The state cohorts will be led by Mungeam and Liz White Notarangelo, LMA’s co-CEO, along with a team of best-in-class coaches including Joaquin Alvarado, who has been instrumental in the development of philanthropic funding at The Seattle Times and other local newsrooms; Jennifer Preston, formerly vice president of journalism at Knight Foundation; executive coach Joanne Heyman; and Judi Terzotis who as CEO has helped dramatically grow philanthropic support for journalism at Georges Media Group.

Each publisher in the state cohorts will set a fundraising goal, receive one-on-one customized coaching, and create and pitch a journalism project to be funded through philanthropy. Newsrooms will also gather for an in-person training and convening and have the chance to compete for stipends to kick-start their projects.

In 2025, in addition to these three new state cohorts, LMA will once again offer a national cohort of the Lab for Journalism Funding with new support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. LMA has also published two industry reports, Pathways to Philanthropy and Sustaining Philanthropy for Journalism, available as free downloads to help all local newsrooms learn and apply fundraising best practices.

Six-month program to focus on fundraising practices

Local Media Association said the news organizations selected to participate in the California cohort of the Lab for Journalism Funding will take part in an intensive, six-month program that brings the lab’s proven fundraising practices to independent news organizations across the state.

The 19 organizations selected for the 2025 Lab for Journalism Funding California cohort represent local newsrooms big and small, serving diverse communities across the state of California, all united in their focus on civic journalism.

The news organizations selected are:

Beyond Borders Gazette
California Health Report
Community Alliance Newspaper
Fountain Valley Living and Huntington Beach Living Magazines
Indigenous Network
inewsource
La Opinión
Lake County News
Mission Local
Monterey County Weekly (Monterey County Now)
Post News Group
Santa Cruz Local
Street Spirit
Tahoe Daily Tribune
The Mendocino Voice (Bay City News Foundation)
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper
The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol del Valle de San Fernando
The Trinity Journal
Vida Newspaper

The California cohort of the Lab for Journalism Funding is made possible with support from Google News Initiative. The lab will help these local news organizations develop and execute comprehensive programs to secure philanthropic support for their essential local journalism that is responsive to community priorities.

The lab runs from April through September 2025.