It’s rare that we get a journalism conference in San Diego, but so was the case last week with the 2026 Local Independent Online News Publishers Independent News Sustainability Summit.
For three days, I joined dozens of news publishers, vendors and people from support organizations to work through some of the most challenging industry issues of our time: organizational sustainability, algorithmic disruption and AI.
Here’s a look at one of the sessions along the San Diego Bayfront.
Some key takeaways to share:
- Changes to Google Search and related products are hurting most publishers’ traffic to varying degrees. AI referrals to websites haven’t caught up to fill that void.
- Partnerships with social media creators are helping reach new audiences.
- Industry collaboration is strong as more news outlets build tools with the help of AI that work for other publishers.
A number of publishers asked about our innovative products (including the Group Chat!) and wanted to see how they, too, could benefit from doing local news differently.
Overall, I left the LION Summit excited and optimistic that we as an industry will continue to press forward through changing economic, business and political conditions — even if it means charting a whole new path.
Hoping you’ll join us if you haven’t already!
