(8/13/2020) — Local Media Association is pleased to welcome broadcasting and digital media innovator Steve Baron to its leadership team as Chief Strategy Officer, reporting to CEO Nancy Lane.
Baron comes to LMA with a rich history of working at the intersection of digital product, content, audience development and revenue. At Tribune Media, Baron built a network of local television websites into the nation’s No. 1 source of local news online (per comScore) and brought many groundbreaking ideas to life across web, mobile, app, and Over-The-Top video platforms.
At LMA, Baron will lead strategy for all core activities as well as Accelerate Local, the organization’s initiative to reinvent business models for news. This includes leading LMA’s experiential learning programs such as Innovation Missions, the Chief Digital Club and Chief Content Club, and overseeing the growth of Accelerate Local and related projects. He will start work with LMA in late August.
“I’m excited to be able to work with LMA and its 3000-plus media partners to drive innovation at this critical time when people around the world are in such need of local news,” said Baron.
“We recognized Steve last year [2019] as LMA’s Digital News Innovator of the Year, and can’t wait to get started working on some new ideas to help publishers grow content, audience, and revenue with his help as part of the organization,” said Lane.
A journalist at heart, Baron started his career as a broadcast meteorologist and news reporter, winning an Emmy™ for breaking news coverage and working at many local TV stations across the U.S. before pivoting to digital leadership in 2008, joining private equity-funded Local TV, LLC, as VP/Digital Content, working with 21 TV stations in 16 cities.
Baron then joined Tribune Media as part of Tribune’s $2.73 billion purchase of Local TV, LLC, and held escalating positions at Tribune Media, eventually landing as VP/Digital and Head of Product, responsible for all customer-facing digital strategy and operations of Tribune Media. Baron then joined Nexstar Media Group in the $6.4 billion sale of Tribune Media to Nexstar and recently departed Nexstar after the successful integration of the two companies.
About Local Media Association/Local Media Foundation
Local Media Association (https://www.localmedia.org/) is a thriving and innovative organization serving more than 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, digital news sites, radio stations, and research & development partners. LMA is the only industry trade organization that brings all local media together for the purpose of sharing, networking, collaborating, and learning. The association’s focus is on reinventing business models for news. LMA’s innovation engine, Accelerate Local, launched six projects in 2019 with 50 different media partners and six projects so far in 2020, including the COVID-19 local news fund, the Oklahoma Media Center, Solving for Chicago, the Fund for Black Journalism, the Fund for Local Journalism and the Center for Journalism Funding. The Local Media Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable trust that supports the mission of LMA and the essential role of local news and information in a healthy democracy.