Working primarily with small-to-midsized independent community news organizations across the country, BlueLena helps publishers build their email marketing technology, CRM systems, and strategic consulting to grow audiences and build sustainable reader revenue models.
We spoke with Sam Bennet, the VP of Operations and Programs at BlueLena, a company that serves as the “back office for newsrooms.”
A rebirth of independent journalism
"Over the past decade, there has been a rebirth of independent journalism, fueled by a new breed of creators, small community outlets, and nonprofit newsrooms largely funded by direct reader support. But these teams often struggle with limited staff, smaller operating budgets, and managing the complexity of modern marketing technology."
For publishers juggling content management systems, email service providers, CRM platforms, and analytics tools, the technological burden often outweighs their capacity to execute effective revenue campaigns. Most critically, these disconnected systems prevent newsrooms from identifying their most engaged readers or developing sophisticated donor cultivation strategies.
One platform, maximum impact
BlueLena's approach is elegantly simple yet strategically sophisticated: "To work with BlueLena is to adopt ActiveCampaign," Sam states. "When we sign on publishers, we are onboarding them onto the BlueLena version of ActiveCampaign. So we white label the tools, and that is the only ESP/CRM system that we use."
This single-platform strategy eliminates complexity while maximizing capability. Instead of juggling multiple disconnected tools, publishers get everything in one place. When someone opens their newsletter, that engagement automatically updates their donor profile. If they click on articles about local education, the system knows they care about that topic and can suggest they support education coverage specifically. No manual data entry, no switching between systems—the email activity directly informs fundraising strategy.
The results speak for themselves. BlueLena's publishers have generated more than $15 million in reader revenue in 2025 alone.
"What we have found really useful and important about this partnership is that we were able to pair the right technology, like ActiveCampaign, with our strategic consulting to literally help journalists and newsrooms continue to do what they need to do, which is serve their communities."
Advanced segmentation changed the game for BlueLena
When asked about ActiveCampaign's most impactful feature, Sam doesn't hesitate: "The best feature that we have really been able to cultivate and utilize in ActiveCampaign has been our segmentation."
But this isn't basic list segmentation. BlueLena leverages ActiveCampaign's unlimited custom fields and robust segmentation to create what they call "BlueDepth scoring"—a proprietary system that combines engagement metrics from ActiveCampaign and on-site behavior with wealth, demographic, and user-provided first-party data to identify readers who are most likely to support the organization, and identify the potential level of that support.
"We can identify a highly engaged user, and then we can also add in additional first-party data that we've been able to pull in through our own proprietary systems to identify, almost like wealth scoring, and that propensity to give to the organization," Sam explains. "So it really becomes twofold. It's people who are interested in an organization like a newsroom because they are engaging, they're reading emails, they're clicking on links, but they also have that ability to be a donor or even a higher-level donor."
How BlueLena’s ActiveCampaign partnership helped two newsrooms find success
Montana Free Press, a statewide nonprofit newsroom, exemplifies BlueLena's impact. In 2024, they saw a 25% increase in reader revenue by zeroing in on mid-level donors using BlueLena's CRM and segmentation tools.
"This mid-level group of donors that they're able to specifically target with ActiveCampaign is that group of readers who are highly engaged, but also have the ability to give," Sam explains.
The strategy delivered $136,000 in new revenue, funding nearly 1,000 stories, expanded local coverage, and enabled them to hire a data journalist.
Sam's hometown publisher, Montclair Local, also achieved dramatic results. "They have seen over 90% increase in recurring reader revenue since they started using our tools," she reports. "They were able to re-engage lapsed donors and really see an increase in recurring revenue with those publishers because they were able to really target who they were reaching out to."
"With ActiveCampaign segmentation, they saw a higher amount of revenue over time with fewer people contributing because they were able to identify those high-value donors."
The imagine, activate, validate framework in action
BlueLena's methodology perfectly embodies ActiveCampaign’s imagine, activate, validate framework, complementing how they’re championing the shift to autonomous marketing.
How BlueLena is using this framework:
- Imagine: Using predictive analytics and BlueDepth scoring to envision which readers have the highest potential for increased giving
- Activate: Deploying highly targeted campaigns through ActiveCampaign's segmentation to specific donor personas
- Validate: Measuring results through comprehensive attribution to prove ROI and refine future campaigns
"When we're able to send a very custom campaign to a very clear specific segment, and then all of a sudden we see that return, it sings," Sam describes. "It's so great to see that revenue because that's our publishers making money and that's their ability to do their jobs better."
Future-focused innovation
BlueLena is particularly excited about ActiveCampaign’s roadmap, especially AI capabilities, SMS marketing, and the WhatsApp integration for underserved communities. This represents more than just additional messaging channels—it’s about reaching communities that traditional news outlets haven’t served effectively.
"In certain areas of the country, there are a lot of audiences or really communities that are underserved by local news. And one of the things that we run into is that email is not always the best way to identify and to inform that group, but WhatsApp is," Sam explains. “A lot of our publishers are really interested in how we can integrate WhatsApp and SMS more broadly.”
And the need is immediate and specific. Sam mentions BlueLena recently signed Enlace Latino NC, another American Journalism Project-funded local news organization that provides critical news and solves information needs for Spanish-language audiences in North Carolina. “They’re interested in how they can integrate campaign emails with SMS and WhatsApp.”
Similarly, Detroit publisher Outlier Media has a long history of building relationships with audiences via SMS, but they are interested in integrating these communications into their ESP.
By partnering with ActiveCampaign, BlueLena helps local news organizations serve their communities and build relationships with readers.
This cross-channel approach allows BlueLena to create comprehensive communication strategies where email, SMS, and WhatsApp work together within ActiveCampaign's unified platform—eliminating the tool fatigue that originally drove publishers to seek BlueLena's help.
Beyond tech, BlueLena chooses ActiveCampaign for the strong partnership
For BlueLena, what sets ActiveCampaign apart isn’t just the technology; it’s the relationship.
"We feel really fortunate to have this relationship as a partner," Sam emphasizes. "We know that when we send an email that we need help with something, or there's an urgent matter with one of our publishers, you guys listen to us, you follow up, you check in, you're able to escalate things for us. We really appreciate the ability to feel like we have somebody that has our backs."
"When we need to loop in ActiveCampaign, we add your team, and we're able to get support and answers fast. Our publishers are a priority client. With ActiveCampaign, we're able to give them the service that they hope for when working with us."
A partnership that goes beyond revenue numbers
Beyond the revenue, BlueLena’s partnership with ActiveCampaign serves a higher purpose. "Publishers will tell us that they're using the money that they've fundraised to fund a new journalism, a new reporter job, or they are able to upgrade systems in their newsrooms, or they're able to produce more stories because they have this additional funding," Sam explains.
The revenue generated doesn’t just sustain newsrooms; it expands their capacity to serve their communities with more reporters, better coverage, and deeper local journalism.
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