When we launched this thing we knew we wanted to make it as transparent as possible. People deserve to know where their money is going.
Here’s a very long look at year two of Minneapolis Voices. Our revenue and audience both grew by about 60%, putting us in a strong position.
As Minneapolis Voices enters its third year, here’s a look at how Year 2 went.
Every dollar we received, every dollar we spent, all of our biggest pieces, and a few media trends that we’re watching as we continue to build our news organization in public.
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We still need to grow a lot more to get to where we want to go. We’ve expanded, but are just covering our costs with ads, memberships, and foundation $$. If that pie doesn’t grow, we’ll be hamstrung.
But some bets we made at the beginning about our structure are paying off.
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One more thing to add – the team is cranking out a remarkable number of great stories. This is one week (!) of stuff.
If you want to support our work and help us create more of this stuff in Minneapolis, consider becoming a member:
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@charlierybak
This was really informative and parts of the story resonated with me. Because even though I have a national audience, I still have some of the same challenges. I am a bit jealous that you have other local news orgs to lean on for support. I kinda feel out here on my own.
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@aysrick
Thanks - glad you enjoyed.
The solidarity has been super helpful. I think there should be some better networks for this nationally (I know of them in local news, but less in what you do). Will pass along any I see.
Flip side - I would KILL to have your TAM!
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@charlierybak
Genuine question - is it common for foundations to give money to for-profit entities?
I've never really seen that before, so I'm just curious. Or do you guys have some sort of nonprofit entity that takes in those dollars?
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@TimRobinsson
In local news it is going to be part of the puzzle. The Star Tribune is doing the same. Foundations to date have really been underinvesting in news as civic infrastructure.
We have a fiscal sponsor. The foundations give grants to our sponsor, and they track & dole it out to us.
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