Local Media Consortium Announces 2020 Virtual Spring Conference

Month-long online series features leading industry experts sharing insights on optimizing revenue streams and engagement during COVID-19

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Local Media Consortium

Apr 30, 2020, 16:26 ET

NEW YORK, April 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local Media Consortium, a strategic alliance of local media companies, today announced that it will hold its annual spring conference via webinar throughout the month of May, with sessions taking place every Tuesday and Thursday starting May 5. The 2020 Virtual Conference is in lieu of the LMC's annual in-person spring conference, previously held in Chicago, which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual conference, sponsored by AdPay and OpsCo, will bring together a strategic mix of industry experts to share insights around the impact of COVID-19 and how local media companies can optimize their revenue streams during this challenging time.

The conference sessions are open to anyone and interested parties can register at https://www.localmediaconsortium.com/agenda-lmc-vconf-2020. The conference will kick off on Tuesday, May 5 at 2 p.m. EST with a discussion led by Bill Day, vice president of Magid, on COVID-19 advertiser and consumer insights. Beth Grossman, Revenue and Analytics Team Lead for Google, an LMC partner, will present advertising revenue yield management best practices on Tuesday, May 12 at 2 p.m. EST, and David Grant, Program Manager of the Facebook Journalism Project, also an LMC partner, will discuss global lessons for growing reader revenue from Facebook's Local News Accelerator on Wednesday, May 13 at 2 p.m. EST.

Additional COVID-19-related sessions will be featured throughout the month, with presenters from Piano, FTI Consulting, LiveIntent, Site Impact and others covering topics such as best practices for subscription and email/newsletter trends during the coronavirus pandemic.

"COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on communities and businesses around the world and local media is no exception," said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. "This crisis illustrates the importance of bringing together our local media members and technology partners to discuss and brainstorm ways to move forward during a time when communities need their local news outlets more than ever. The LMC is focused on providing our members with insights and programs that will help them reduce costs and navigate revenue disruptions in the short term while exploring longer term solutions. While we're disappointed that we are unable to meet in person, we are glad to be able to convene this virtual convergence of industry thought leaders."

For the May 26 session, Editor & Publisher will feature the winners of its annual 10 News Publishers That Do It Right awards. The LMC partnered with E&P earlier this year to incorporate the awards as part of the annual conference. E&P's 10 Newspapers That Do It Right awards recognize some of the biggest and brightest ideas taking place in the media. These ideas range from successful digital innovations to strategies helping lower costs, and revenue ideas improving the bottom line. This year, the awards profiled all news publishers, including newspaper, television, radio, digital-only and non-profit. The winners, announced earlier this year, include the Chicago Sun Times, WKMG-TV (Graham Media), Arizona Republic and Salt Lake City Tribune.

The LMC unites the local media industry to address vital strategic business initiatives such as creating a scalable advertising revenue channel through their programmatic auction package; promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across the industry; developing standardized privacy practices for publishers; and leading an initiative to help local media grow branded content revenue. Recently, the LMC worked with the Brand Safety Institute and Cunningham Consulting to fast-track a local news advertising whitelist to unblock local media ad inventory with agencies and advertisers during the coronavirus pandemic.

All conference sessions will run from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST. The full agenda for the LMC 2020 Virtual Conference can be viewed at https://www.localmediaconsortium.com/agenda-lmc-vconf-2020

ABOUT THE LOCAL MEDIA CONSORTIUM
The Local Media Consortium delivers economic value through strategic partnerships on behalf of nearly 90 local media companies in top markets across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and includes more than 3,300 outlets. The LMC delivers over $50M in annual financial benefit to its members by harnessing their combined volume and scale to reduce costs and increase revenue with technology and service providers like Google, Facebook, Monster and others. According to ComScore, the aggregated LMC audience footprint spans 212 million monthly unique visitors and reaches 80% of the U.S. online audience. More information is available at http://www.localmediaconsortium.com/.

Media contacts:

Christina Gillham, 646-868-5174
[email protected]

Kristin Brocoff, 949-400-4899
[email protected]

SOURCE Local Media Consortium