Louisiana Illuminator accepted in the Local Media Association's Lab for Journalism Funding • Louisiana Illuminator

The Local Media Association has chosen the Louisiana Illuminator as one of 17 news organizations to participate in the 2024 cohort of the its Lab for Journalism Funding.

The lab will help these local news organizations develop and execute strategies to fund essential local journalism via philanthropy. The six-month intensive lab runs from August through January 2025.

The lab, a program of Local Media Foundation, is operated by LMA with continued support from the Google News Initiative. Since its launch in September 2020, the lab has trained and coached more than 100 publishers, helping them raise more than $25 million to fund community service journalism.

This is the third cohort of the lab this year, after LMA launched two state cohorts in Colorado and Pennsylvania, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“Each of these newsrooms has a commitment to community service,” said Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer at LMA. “We are excited to help them develop philanthropy as one of the ways to sustain their essential local journalism.”

“The Google News Initiative has been a long-standing partner of the Lab for Journalism Funding,” said Tiffany Proscia, news partner manager, Google News Partnerships. “Through this partnership, the LMA has consistently shown its dedication to promoting the sustainability of the news ecosystem. Since its launch in 2020, this program has achieved notable success. We look forward to our continued partnership with LMA and its members.”

“This training will help further our mission as a nonprofit news organization to serve underrepresented and marginalized communities in Louisiana,” said Greg LaRose, the Illuminator’s editor in chief. “The knowledge and connections gained through the LMA workshop will help ensure that we continue to produce journalism with a local impact, with resources to focus on topics of critical importance to our readers.”

The 17 newsrooms accepted into the 2024 cohort include a diverse set of organizations in small and large markets, across varied media platforms, with a strong representation of family-owned outlets and publishers who focus on traditionally underserved audiences. These news outlets share a commitment to civic journalism.

Newsrooms will receive one-on-one coaching from the LMA team of coaches, including Joaquin Alvarado, Joanne Heyman, Sam Johnston and Jennifer Preston. Frank Mungeam will once again lead the lab. LMA will publish case studies on publisher lessons and successes from the lab that can be applied across the news industry.