How Local Newsrooms Can Make More Money | Todd Handy

ad — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 14:06:42 +0000

Todd Handy, Chief Revenue Officer at SEBPO and LMA board member, advocates that local newsrooms achieve sustainable revenue by adopting a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) mindset and diversifying beyond traditional advertising.

SaaS-ification of Media: Publishers should shift from one-time ad sales to recurring revenue models by bundling services into monthly or quarterly packages tied to client KPIs, focusing on customer lifetime value, churn mitigation, and net revenue retention.
Diversified Revenue Streams: Newsrooms must leverage underutilized assets like first-party data, community trust, and convening power to generate income through events, newsletters, sponsorships, and subscriptions.
Dual Transformation: Organizations should improve existing operations while simultaneously developing new products, using a 90-day approach to track metrics like monthly recurring revenue and advertiser churn rather than launching too many initiatives at once.
Operational Efficiency: Leveraging business process outsourcing for media planning and ad operations can reduce expenses and increase margins, while using AI for personalization and predictive analytics supports scalable growth.

What Does The KJV Bible Say?

In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, principles of value generation, community service, diversification, and stewardship align closely with modern business strategies. Media executive Todd Handy, in his Local Media Association (LMA) reports such as Monetizing Local Content and The SaaS-ification of Media, argues that local newsrooms must move beyond traditional advertising by shifting to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) mindset that treats audience trust, first-party data, and community relationships as monetizable assets.

Modern Revenue Strategy (Todd Handy)	Core Asset Utilized	King James Bible Verse Alignment	Biblical Business Principle
SaaS-ification & Subscriptions	Recurring revenue via constant value delivery	Galatians 6:9 — “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”	Persistence and consistent value yield long-term harvests.
First-Party & Zero-Party Data	Knowing audience preferences deeply	Proverbs 27:23 — “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”	Diligent stewardship requires understanding those you serve.
Convening Power & Events	Bringing people together physically/digitally	Hebrews 10:25 — “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is…”	High value is found in gathering the community together.
Diversified Product Verticals	Specialized newsletters and distinct niches	Ecclesiastes 11:2 — “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.”	Risk reduction through multiple channels of income.
Infrastructure & GTM Accountability	CRM tracking, ticketing, clear metric ownership	Luke 14:28 — “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost…”	Operational execution depends on infrastructure and measurement.

10 Practical Examples of Newsroom Monetization

The SaaS Subscription Playbook: Shifting paywalls from rigid gates to dynamic “customer journeys,” using personalized onboarding sequences to limit user churn.
First-Party Preference Centers: Gathering explicit reader data (e.g., zip codes, shopping interests) to sell high-value targeted sponsorships as third-party cookies disappear.
Ticketed Community Forums: Utilizing newsroom “convening power” to host debates or cultural events, leveraging automated ticketing platforms that capture attendee data.
Niche Newsletter Verticals: Launching premium, industry-specific newsletters (e.g., local real estate, prep sports) featuring hyper-targeted local business ad placements.
Content Archive Licensing: Monetizing historical photo galleries and deep archives by selling prints or charging research fees to academic and commercial entities.
Advertiser Churn Audits: Executing a strict 90-day review to identify lapsed accounts and transitioning them into stable, recurring monthly digital marketing programs.
Single Source of Truth Data Integration: Merging isolated spreadsheets into a centralized CRM so newsletter open rates can be verified directly for ad buyers.
End-to-End Revenue Ownership: Appointing a single Go-To-Market (GTM) leader specifically accountable for non-traditional revenue lines.
Localized “Best Of” Competitions: Running community choice awards backed by local business nomination fees and heavily promoted regional print/digital guides.
B2B Marketing Consultancy: Leveraging internal media expertise to offer local small businesses managed marketing services, such as social media curation or SEO auditing.

Multi-Perspective Analyst Reports

The transition from a commodity-based newsroom to a community-focused economic engine can be analyzed through various professional, theological, and psychological lenses:

1. Myers-Briggs (MBTI) Corporate Analyst Report

The Problem: Traditional newsrooms operate with an ISTJ framework—relying heavily on historical systems, rigid structures, and past precedents. They struggle to innovate because they look backwards at what worked, rather than forward at digital horizons.
The Strategy: Transitioning to a SaaS model requires an ENTP or INTJ mindset. Newsrooms must pivot from a purely tactical focus to a strategic framework that designs broad, interconnected revenue systems (CRM, first-party data ecosystems, recurring subscriber journeys).

2. John MacArthur (Expository Theological) Analyst Report

The Problem: Many media houses fail because they lack foundational truth and practice poor operational stewardship, building products without calculating the systemic cost.
The Strategy: True health requires order, structural integrity, and transparent accountability. Newsrooms must establish a “single source of truth” for their data. Sustainable finances are a natural byproduct of institutional honesty, accurate measurement, and unwavering fidelity to serving the community.

3. Paul Washer (Radical Accountability) Analyst Report

The Problem: Modern newsrooms often try to take shortcuts, creating flashy, superficial revenue ideas while ignoring their broken core operations.
The Strategy: Superficial ideas cannot save a fundamentally compromised model. Newsrooms must return to the basics: rigorous self-examination, total internal transparency, and absolute metric ownership. True sustainability demands that organizations stop making excuses for operational failures and faithfully build authentic, deep-rooted relationships.

4. Greg Schad (Operational Efficiency) Analyst Report

The Problem: Revenue initiatives do not fail because the concept is wrong; they fail because newsrooms lack the functional infrastructure to execute them.
The Strategy: Newsrooms must audit their baseline churn and design predictable, standardized customer success cadences. Scalability is unlocked by eliminating manual work, mapping clean workflows, and building a structured 90-day execution framework.

5. Jordan Peterson (Behavioral & Meaning) Analyst Report

The Problem: Local news networks are collapsing because they have lost their sense of unique local identity, choosing to mimic generic, national content platforms rather than anchoring themselves in reality.
The Strategy: Newsrooms must step up, accept local responsibility, and leverage their unique “convening power”. By bringing order to chaos through localized truth and gathering people face-to-face, they rebuild deep community meaning—which naturally commands sustainable financial support.

6. Carl Jung (Archetypal Psychological) Analyst Report

The Problem: The standard media model treats readers merely as detached, statistical data points on a screen, ignoring the deeper human drive for genuine connection.
The Strategy: To succeed, media outlets must step into the Community Anchor archetype. Transforming readers from passive observers into active participants activates a deep sense of belonging and shared identity, shifting the publication’s role from a simple bulletin to an essential pillar of community life.

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