Want to build a stronger earned revenue function in your news organization? Start by listening to potential sponsors
Since the American Journalism Project’s launch in 2019, we have supported 54 nonprofit news organizations as they meet ambitious growth goals that increase their impact and serve more community members. And as these publications work to diversify revenue and strengthen long-term sustainability, earned revenue has emerged as a promising — yet often underdeveloped — growth area.
In 2024, earned revenue (sponsorships, advertising, events, merchandise sales, etc.) made up just 11% of total revenue across 41 organizations in the American Journalism Project’s portfolio. That’s a modest increase from 9% in 2023, which included 34 organizations. And though 2025 percentages are poised to outpace that momentum, earned revenue remains the smallest slice of most nonprofit news organizations’ revenue pie. We see this as a critical growth opportunity and are providing both funding and support to help publications build this function.
Nonprofit news organizations tend to deprioritize earned revenue for a few reasons, says Johanna Derlega, who has helmed earned revenue efforts at The 19th and The Hill and led an earned revenue accelerator for organizations in AJP’s portfolio. Earned revenue functions require dedicated resources and attention to stand up and support, she says, so it often feels simpler to focus on fundraising and membership.
But that means missing a big opportunity for a consistent and significant revenue source that delivers mutual value to all stakeholders. Earned revenue programs are most effective when they’re designed around what sponsors and partners need in order to meet their goals. And the best way to know what those goals are? Ask them.
Community listening is already a cornerstone of audience-centered journalism. Extending that same practice to the business side is a natural — and powerful — approach. These strategic conversations can lead to a better understanding of a sponsor’s goals and challenges, what audiences they want to reach, what products would best fit their needs and how to work together toward a shared set of goals.
Yet many organizations approach earned revenue through the lens of selling an existing product rather than centering their client’s goals and designing or reframing a product in ways that directly meet those needs.
“Solid market intelligence is the foundation from which news organizations should set goals and strategy,” Derlega said. “Matching up organizational efforts and investments to market needs leads to organizational sustainability.”
Responding to sponsor needs is what builds long-term relationships and loyalty, she added, and bringing that market intelligence back to internal leadership teams enables publications to prioritize products that fit both their editorial mission and organizational bandwidth.
Two organizations in the AJP portfolio — Spotlight Delaware and Charlottesville Tomorrow — have built strong earned revenue strategies around this approach. By conducting needs analyses with potential sponsors, both turned guesswork into strategy, and strategy into real revenue. Here are their takeaways:
Spotlight Delaware: Learning before building
When Spotlight Delaware launched in 2024, the team was thinking about its long term revenue strategy on day one.
“Having received the largest-possible grant from the largest foundation in our state, we knew we would need to look beyond institutional philanthropy for long-term sustainability,” said COO Matt Sullivan.
That strategy was built on five pillars of diversified revenue: institutional philanthropy, major gifts, a membership program, events and sponsored content. But instead of rushing to build new earned revenue products, the operations team took a step back. For months, they spoke with local businesses, corporate leaders, nonprofits, chambers of commerce and agencies to test pricing strategies and validate offerings.
The team went into those conversations with an informed sense of pricing in their market, having already done a deep dive into publicly available rate sheets from local chamber of commerce events. Among many other insights, they learned that their sponsored content rates were deeply appealing to marketing professionals but not a financial fit for small business owners, which helped them understand who to target with which offerings. Once they landed on their own pricing strategy, they invested in professionally designed sales materials that reflected their confidence and signaled their professionalism.
The payoff has been significant. Spotlight’s earned revenue streams were on track to cover 25% of its budgeted expenses in 2025, and its first events brought in more than double their costs.
By starting with a needs analysis, Spotlight didn’t just launch products — it launched them with speed, confidence and immediate traction.
Charlottesville Tomorrow: Re-engaging to redesign
Charlottesville Tomorrow, a 20-year-old nonprofit newsroom, also leaned on listening to strengthen its sponsorship program. Sponsorships had long been part of its model, but the team knew there was room to grow. The key? Learn from past and current sponsors before retooling and reinvesting in the program.
The first step was re-engagement. Staff reached out to current and lapsed sponsors to ask what was working, what wasn’t and what would make sponsorship more valuable. These conversations revealed two meaningful insights: sponsors didn’t fully understand the impact of supporting nonprofit news, and they wanted more tailored packages aligned with their goals.
That feedback directly informed a new sponsorship program offering flexible, mission-driven options. Partners can now choose from expanded visibility placements in articles and newsletters, targeted support for beats like housing or education, or sponsorship of community resources such as their Housing Resources Guide.
“Community listening is at the heart of everything we do at Charlottesville Tomorrow, “said Sakeena Alkateeb, revenue and partnerships lead. “This process reinforced that financial sustainability comes from the same place as strong journalism: genuine trust and relationships with our community.”
Charlottesville Tomorrow was on track to at least double its 2024 earned revenue, and has invested in a revenue and partnerships lead to significantly grow their efforts. Most importantly, they have re-launched a program that not only brings in support but also strengthens alignment between sponsor goals and the newsroom’s mission.
Best practice: Leverage your listening later
The takeaway from both Spotlight Delaware and Charlottesville Tomorrow is clear: don’t design revenue programs in a vacuum. By conducting needs analyses with potential sponsors, they were able to build offerings that meet real demand, strengthen relationships before asking for support and launch products faster and with greater confidence.
But equally important is documenting and revisiting those insights over time. A sponsor’s idea that wasn’t a fit today may align perfectly with a future event series or new initiative. By tracking this input, newsrooms can design programs that anticipate and meet sponsor needs as they evolve.
This approach mirrors how editorial teams use community listening to shape coverage, and it also echoes best practices in donor cultivation. Sponsorship and development teams can share learnings and collaborate, creating more opportunities across the board.
At their core, nonprofit news organizations exist to meet the needs of their communities. Extending that listening mindset to sponsors and partners not only strengthens earned revenue but also helps build more relevant, responsive and resilient organizations.
Steal this list: Needs analysis questions that yield meaningful answers
Here is a curated list of the questions Spotlight Delaware and Charlottesville Tomorrow included in their sponsor conversations:
- Who are you trying to reach? Who is your target audience?
- What is your marketing goal? What type of engagement are you looking for? What message are you trying to convey?
- What’s your current market strategy? Who do you spend ad dollars with? Sponsor dollars? Grant dollars?
- Which parts of your past sponsorship have felt most effective for you?
- What are the pain points — and how have they changed over the past 5-10 years?
- Is there anything you wish were different? What do you think we could improve?
- Are there other types of opportunities you’d like to see us offer?
- Are there parts of our process that we could make easier for you?
- What is your budget for sponsorships? How much do you usually sponsor?
- What are typical market rates for sponsored content, web advertising, etc.?
- What type of return/response are you looking for? What do you consider good ROI? How do you track it?
- What kind of involvement do you like to have when you’re sponsoring events?
- Do you do other sponsorships or is this a rarity for you?
- When do you typically plan your marketing or sponsorship budget for the year?
- Is there anything that you’ve seen from another organization that you really like that you think we should try?
Lisa Heyamoto is vice president, portfolio learning at the American Journalism Project. Find her on LinkedIn.