In newsrooms across the country, editors bear heavy responsibilities — leading the newsroom, determining what stories should be told and who is best positioned to tell them, challenging assertions, developing talent, elevating journalism — all while maintaining an unwavering commitment to the public’s interest. Their names may not always be as familiar as bylined reporters or celebrated columnists, but their insight, experience and leadership are indispensable. We hope you enjoy meeting this exemplary group of E&P’s 2022 Editors Extraordinaire.

Advertising, events, sponsorships, newsletters and paywalls are critical revenue streams for news media. Although not entirely new, philanthropy as a revenue stream is quickly becoming a welcomed funding source for both nonprofit and for-profit news operations.

The nonprofit Baltimore Banner is taking shape and preparing to launch soon. Its website will come first this summer, followed by the mobile app about three months later. The launch date hasn't been announced yet, but the pricing model for a Banner subscription will be comparable to The Baltimore Sun. And it will draw revenues from three sources: philanthropy, subscriptions and limited advertising.

Ben August is a serial entrepreneur whose experiences led him to take on the mantle of labor injustice and buy The Chief, a weekly newspaper serving as “A Voice for Workers.” He launched a redesign of the New York City-based publication about six months into his role as its owner and publisher.

In this 137th episode of “E&P Reports," David Chavern, president and CEO of News Media Alliance, is joined by Rita Cohen, president and CEO of The Association of Magazine Media, to talk about why these two organizations have merged and what the future holds for the new association that represents hundreds of publishers nationwide.

When Luanne Rife, a longtime journalist with The Roanoke Times, left the paper in early 2021, a nonprofit interested in supporting quality journalism approached to ask her opinion about the viability of an online-only news outlet. This led to a $100,000 grant. The grant and a matching amount were the seed money to develop The Cardinal News, which launched in September 2021.

Attacks on media companies are escalating. It’s hard to pinpoint whether cybercriminals strategically target media companies or whether the criminal net is just so widespread that it ensnares news outlets almost incidentally. But news businesses around the world have found themselves on the receiving end of hacks, breaches and ransomware demands, perhaps the most insidious of them all.

One-time Pulitzer Prize finalist David Fitzsimmons has been drawing six cartoons a week about his sun-soaked corner of the country for the Arizona Daily Star since 1986. Avoiding the fate of many of his contemporaries, Fitzsimmons has managed to remain a vital part of his newspaper and the community for the past 35 years and only recently decided at the age of 66 to begin to slow things down and go part-time.

Gen Z is connected, digitally savvy and concerned about social and policy issues, but what does this generation desire or demand from a news provider? What steers them to a news source? What inspires them to pay for news content? What does it take to earn their trust?

Now more than ever, news publishers need to be supported by suppliers and vendors that help create content, build audience and monetize every eyeball for the best return on investment. That is why we at E&P decided to launch this salute to “Business Partner Powerhouses” — those superb companies that excel at supplying our industry with the products and services that make us sleep better at night, knowing they have “our backs” every day.

Erstwhile Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke is settling into his new gig at USA TODAY. The “humor(ish)” columnist is from Florida, went through Indiana via a stint with The Associated Press and banked nearly two decades at the Trib. Huppke talked to E&P after a few weeks nesting in his new editorial home.

As digital advertising spending increases, publications need to set themselves apart from the crowd. One great way to do so is to provide exclusive offerings to marketing partners that are effective and will enable them to set themselves apart from their competitors.

The Rent-a-Pressman (RAP) program dispatches pressmen to newspapers, large commercial printers and other operations who need them in a pinch. It’s a growing offering for imPRESSions, headquartered in Burlington, Washington. Among the presses the imPRESSions team has run are Baker Perkins, Hantscho, Goss Community, Goss Urbanite, Goss Sunday, DGM 440 and Heidelberg Mercury.

Sales can get a bad rap, but there are fundamental elements of selling that can be useful at any level in an organization. In fact, I'd argue that many of the core tenets of sales are really just good management skills. And the higher up the corporate ladder you are, the more essential sales skills could be for you.

After a pandemic-caused hiatus, America’s Newspapers’ Mega-Conference is back in 2022 — held at the JW Marriott Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida. On the conference agenda are mission-critical topics: boosting subscriptions and engagement, building sustainable business models, and delivering a product and audience that advertisers desire.

If you’ve received any business advice in the past, say, 50 years, I’m willing to bet that it came with the assumption that you wanted to expand. We hear that advice all the time — make it bigger and better, scale this area, try these new strategies for growth and similar ideas. But should growing always be the ultimate goal of every business venture?

There is something to be said for one particular philosophy from 1991’s “City Slickers.” The grizzled old ranch hand, Curly, relays the secret to life — to focus on “one thing. Just one thing.” As you're starting 2022, pick one single thing to focus on. If you can't pick one big thing, try to find four things you can give your attention to in 2022. Then, rank them in order of when you think you could reasonably roll them out during the year.

Managing is a constant juggling act, where you’re trying to get your organization, your team and yourself to the place you want them to be. And as you work on getting to that place, you’ll often find that that goal you’ve been working toward isn’t actually what you want.

We’re well past the halfway point for the year, and in many ways, it’s starting to feel like the new normal is setting in. It’s not quite what most of us were used to, but as new buying habits, new patterns, new products, and new services have changed everyone’s lives, we’re starting to see groves form as the baseline for “normal” shifts.

When was the last time you called your own phone system? If you don’t remember, now is the time to make that call. Literally, stop reading right now and call your own main number—not somebody’s office, call the one that rings to your auto attendant.

While managing different companies over the years, I learned a few tricks with onboarding new employees. One of my favorites could help a lot of people in the coming months.

It may seem impossible after dealing with the pandemic for so long, but we are finally on the cusp of the world reopening. There’s some variance depending on where you are, your vaccination rates, and other important factors, but the overall trend is that we're certainly inching closer to a post-pandemic world.

After more than 12 months of getting by in a pandemic, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all learned a lot. We’ve all but made it through one of the biggest business disruptions in contemporary history, and that has required a lot of adaptation and flexibility from all of us.

I recently had lunch with a friend of mine who’s an architect, and in our conversation about our lives, he told me that before he shows a client a first draft of his work, he gives them a disclaimer: “This is not the house you need. It’s the house you thought you wanted.”

Congratulations. You’ve started your year and the 2021 budget is officially in full swing. Bet it’s going just how you planned it, right? You put time and research into crafting your budget, you make educated assumptions, and you put in the work to get ready for the new year.