2023 Local Media Digital Innovation Awards Winners

This contest recognizes the best in local digital media in 12 categories such as Best Local Website, Best Virtual Event, Best Branded Content Strategy and more. It is a highly competitive contest designed to recognize both large and small media companies for their outstanding and innovative work.

Thanks to our supporting sponsors, contest entries are FREE!

Best Reader Revenue Strategy

This award recognizes exceptional strategy and execution of a new consumer revenue initiative. This can include digital subscriptions, membership, e-commerce, targeted marketing, and other local media revenue opportunities.

WINNERS

250,000 or less monthly unique visitors

1st place- Tie
Black Press Media / The Chilliwack Progress
https://www.theprogress.com/

Judge’s comments: There is so much power and thought leadership in this initiative by engaging a multitude of invested stakeholders to engage in creating a new and sustainable business model.

It is encouraging to see defined metrics with early success in both conversion to paid subscribers and retention. Many new initiatives focus so intently on the growth of the product that retention is an afterthought – building the model and then ensuring that the model is valuable is where the real magic happens.

“Frictionless” reader/user experience and a well-managed tech stack is critical and it is great to see a media company recruit resources that don’t align with their key skill set (i.e. recruiting tech resources in favor of putting all efforts toward business models and story telling rather than trying to also be a tech company).

Collaboration, innovation and growth. You’re doing it and it’s so exciting to see!

1st place- Tie
The Assembly
www.theassemblync.com

Judge’s comments: Wow. This is an initiative that really took what the organization was doing and put it under a microscope.

A major software migration, new strategy for consistent customer engagement, a top-of-funnel strategy and an investment in ad spend – this initiative is the refreshing “whole package.” Often initatives are driven from content creation, yet miss the tech, marketing and strategy components that are critical to longterm viability.

Internal communication is an often-overlooked piece of new revenue initiatives and it’s encouraging to see a media company that is involving and engaging the entire team in discussions about the role everyone plays in driving subscriptions and growing revenue.

A consistent increase in monthly subscribers is a nice start demonstrating that the tactics are working incrementally, which bodes well for the long growth game.

2nd place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/

Judge’s comments: Connecting community through a common value (Black History celebration) is a fantastic way to create organic engagement. The week-long “why” content initiative is a strong springboard for future revenue initiatives and readership growth. The initial success of this project can be built upon for next year’s annual reader revenue campaign, but don’t stop there! With $1,000 in one week with no promotion, could that be $52,000 in 52 weeks with a promotion strategy and continued focused content? The sky is the limit for the Defender. Capitalize on this early win and drive toward a reader revenue campaign next year that blows $1,000 out of the water.

250,001 or more monthly unique visitors

1st place
TAPinto
tapinto.net

Judge’s comments: $172,000 is REAL revenue. Well done, TAPinto. There are few companies succeeding in the DIY space and you’ve found a model that works an is already being scaled. Many DIY platforms are focused on one or two key areas (classifieds and ROP ads), but this focuses on all of the ways consumers may want to engage with bigger audiences leveraging TAPintos reach (obituaries, announcements, real estate listings, etc.). The added social media options are smart.

2nd place
WDIV-TV/ClickOnDetroit
clickondetroit.com

Judge’s comments: Well done and surveying your entire membership group to really get an understanding of what your audience wanted. Engaging with audiences and allowing them to help shape the future of the products we want them to invest in is key to longterm success.

It will be fun to see how this program drives revenue and scales in 2024.

Best Event, sponsored by CitySpark

We’re looking for the best single example of an event to take home this award.

WINNERS
250,000 or less monthly unique visitors

1^st Place
The Keene Sentinel
https://www.sentinelsource.com/

2^nd Place
Back Pocket Media
https://www.backpocket.media/

3^rd Place
Montana Free Press
https://montanafreepress.org

More than 250,001 monthly unique visitors

1^st Place
The Baltimore Banner
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/

2^nd Place
WBEZ Chicago
wbez.org

3^rd Place
Shaw Media
https://www.shawlocal.com/illinois-valley/

This award recognizes the collective efforts of a newsroom to create a strategy around listening to audiences and what changes were made to newsroom strategy as a result of those listening efforts. This strategy could be a new product or tool meant to gather audience input, a reader survey, an event series, or some other content type focused on listening, including social media.

WINNERS

250,000 or less monthly unique visitors

1st place
Richmond Times-Dispatch
richmond.com

Judge’s comments: This entry is most rooted in the community listening focus. Love the advisory board idea and teh “4 ways…” execution. Not sure what the specific “conversion” really is, but I appreciate that they’ve attached a data-driven KPI.

2nd place
Bay City News Foundation
www.LocalNewsMatters.org

Judge’s comments: This seems to be well executed. I like the survey approach. The resulting actions weren’t as structured as my first choice. I like the high school event. Very nice marketing initiaitive.

3rd place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/

Judge’s comments: Love the effort put to high school sports. The efforst clearly grew their yound audience. I like the Instagram growth fro sure. THe listening part id not a significant part of this initiative.

250,001 or more monthly unique visitors

1st place
Connecticut Public
ctpublic.org

Judge’s comments: Well thought out. Expansive. Many media outlets have tried to do reach out to the hispanic community but not like this. Other news organizations should look at this investment as the gold standard in reaching out to the Hispanic population.

2nd place
WBEZ Chicago
wbez.org

Judge’s comments: Love the targeted segment (commuters post COVID). Relevant, targeted.SMS and social strategies are right in line with connecting where these people can be reached. Really great campaign. The only reason i didn’t rank it #1 is becasue the relative size of the target audience.

3rd place
Village Media
www.villagemedia.ca

Judge’s comments: I love the idea of setting up a consistent tool to continue the listen to the community. This is a great way to set up communication. But this is more a tool than a specific initiaitive. In other words, the news organization is now in teh position to listen and then change news coverage based upon what it finds. The change part is not covered here.

Best Local Website, sponsored by Newspack

This award recognizes the best all-around local media websites.

WINNERS

Large media companies (more than 15 media brands such as TV stations or newspapers)

1st Place
Richmond Times-Dispatch
richmond.com
Judge’s comments: This is an organization that is truly leveraging ominchannel customer engagement and creating relevance and impact in through platforms that are reaching audiences everywhere they are. It’s incredibly impressive to see how The Times-Dispatch dived in head first to create a studio with the tech and talent capabilities to compete with broadcast outlets anywhere. This is a modela and an organization to follow.

2nd Place
Cox Media Group – WSB-TV
www.wsbtv.com
Judge’s comments: It’s really fun to see an organization lean into the technology curve and create opportunities for better engagement with audiences and better position themselves for future growth. I particularly liked the intentional community engagement piece of adding a tip line and to have nearly 6,000 leads/tips is impressive (and much needed) engagement.

Small-medium companies (15 or fewer media brands such as TV stations or newspapers)

1st Place
PublicSource
https://www.publicsource.org
Judge’s comments: A refreshing entry focused not only on the growth metrics (time on site, number of pageviews and revenue), but on partnership and collaboration in storytelling and community impact, which is what local journalism is all about. I particularly loved reading that Public Source holds a core value of “collaboration for the common good,”and that they demonstrated signfiicant partnerships in the last year. This is the model that wins at the end of the day. I found the website to be easy-to-navigate, compelling and aesthetically pleasing. I loved seeing the callouts for donations that were subtle, yet effective such as “Giving Now Is Like Giving Twice.”

2nd Place
Georges Media (NOLA.com)
https://www.nola.com/
Judge’s comments: Our industry has historically had a very hard time admitting that our strategies are broken or that we need to reimagine what we’re doing if we want to move forward. We get married to the ideas that we loved even when they no longer work. When NOLA.com looked in the mirror, it didn’t like what it saw and decided to do something about it. The proof is in the pudding – 42% increase in pageviews, a 42% increase in users and a 44% increase in subscriptions based on Saints coverage shouts “winning,” to me.

3rd Place
Dallas Weekly
dallasweekly.com
Judge’s comments: This is a beautiful website. It is so clean, fresh and inviting. It made me want to stop running 100 miles an hour and just dive in for a minute. The “Presented By” collaborations are a clean and classy way to demonstrate branded content without the reader giving second thought to quality of the content.

Best Product Initiative and/or Digital News Project

Launching a new digital initiative takes time and resources, so this award showcases the best use of both that drove positive results. This broad category can encompass a public-facing or internal digital initiative launched in the last year, such as streaming/OTT/CTV, podcasting, virtual reality, insight selling, custom CMS, or something new and emerging.

WINNERS

250,000 or less monthly unique visitors

1st place
El Clasificado
El Clasificado
Judge’s comments: El Clasificado’s AbogadoMall lawyer directory illustrates provides a clear service to its community, making it easy for people to find vetted pro-bono Spanish-speaking lawyers. The directory is extremely user-friendly with filters that enable users to refine their search. This is a great example of how a local news org can provide a consequential utility to the readers they serve.

2nd place
Red Bank Green
https://www.redbankgreen.com/

Judge’s comments: Red Bank Green’s Partyline initiative is a delightful approach to engaging directly with community members. By allowing users to easily share updates via text message to share happenings in their community, Red Bank Green has found a smart way to generate new content in a collaborative, fun way.

3rd place
Montana Free Press
https://montanafreepress.org

Judge’s comments: The Capitol Tracker from Montana Free Press provided a useful resource for users seeking to stay up-to-date throughout the legislative session, drove engagement with its current audience, helped raise money, and attracted new users. The tracker itself is detailed without feeling cumbersome to navigate and provides a template for other news orgs to potentially borrow.

Honorable Mention
AFRO American Newspapers
https://afro.com/
Judge’s comments: AFRO American Newspapers’ Digital Billboard Network is a smart way for local news publishers to rethink advertising in the post-pandemic era.

250,001 or more monthly unique visitors

1st place
KSAT
KSAT.com

Judge’s comments: KSAT’s Know My Neighborhood illustrates how local news organizations are often the best historians, capturing the uniqueness, nuance, and beauty of our communities. This comprehensive digital project leveraging both video and written text provided a beautiful snapshot of each San Antonio neighborhood and, based on the feedback they received, delighted the people who make up these communities.

2nd place
WDIV-TV/ClickOnDetroit
clickondetroit.com

Judge’s comments: WDIV-TV/ClickOnDetroit’s work to streamline frequent user questions and requests into a comprehensive, user-friendly online help desk that also allows for self serve (through AI chatbot) and assistance from staff demonstrates how powerful this type of resource can be – saving time for both the user and staff, while leaving a positive impression with its community members.

3rd place
KPRC-TV
Click2Houston.com

Judge’s comments: DRAINED is a stunning piece of service journalism from KPRC-TV in Houston that tied together deep investigative reporting and direct audience participation in a comprehensive digital package that drove tangible local impact.

Best Contest and/or Promotion, sponsored by Upland/SecondStreet

This award recognizes a contest or promotion that was above and beyond expectations.

1st Place
Shaw Media
shawlocal.com

2nd Place
Dallas Weekly
dallasweekly.com

3rd Place
WPLG Local 10 News
https://www.local10.com/

Best Branded Content Strategy

Branded content is a powerful way to combine what publishers and local newsrooms do best: storytelling and helping businesses grow. This award showcases the very best in branded content initiatives.

WINNERS

1st Place
The Advocate
nola.com
Judge’s comments: Wow! $100,000 in revenue PLUS a commitment to renew in 2024; eleven powerful stories of success; a commitment to uplifting, promoting and telling the stories of women and forming a partnership to launch branded content in the way that we know works – consistency, frequency, and solid storytelling. THIS is how branded content is done.

2nd Place
Newsday Media Group
Newsday.com
Judge’s comments: Well done creating a branded content strategy that not only supports and important business sector – local retail – but uplifts the tourism so important to local economies. Very strong engagement and incredibly powerful average time on page (3 minutes, holy smokes) plus an incremental revenue lift of $55,000. Love that the program also created an organic lift in print and digital advertising, which speaks to the power of building comprehensive marketing strategies. Squeezing dollars out of local retail in tourism economies is hard – well done.

3rd Place
Black Press Media
https://www.blackpressmedia.com/
Judge’s comments: Love the variety of organizations represented in the Branded Content storytelling as well as harnessing the power of branded content to achieve different goals (sales conversion, increased donations, brand awareness).
I love changing and bolstering strategy based on scale and learnings (tapping into evolving SEO practices and adding the long form Branded Content).
Metrics indicate solid performance.

While the death of email has been long-predicted, it’s turned into one of the most significant growth areas for many publishers, bringing with it new engagement opportunities and ways to bring in additional revenue. This award honors the best strategies related to email campaigns designed to connect local news consumers with content right in their inboxes.

250,000 or less monthly unique visitors

1st Place
La Raza Chicago
www.LaRaza.com
Judge’s comments: While a 15% increase in subscribers in three months and a 19-point increase in open rate is impressive by itself, it’s the thought leadership, critical thinking and analysis that La Raza has done that makes them the big winner.

It’s so heartening to see a media company that is willing to look critically at what they’ve always done (generic, automated lists of links to content) and to reconceptualize a newsletter concept based on audience research, data and engagement tactics. It is hard work to take what has worked well enough and reinvent it in the name of growth and amplification and La Raza has done exactly that. Moving away from rehased content links to a curation of customized topics as well personalization from the editor is exactly what audience engagement is all about.

It’s wonderful to see the team putting intention behind the strategy to develop the best partnerships and collaborations with Latino-owned businesses and to see them using omni-channel leverage for newsletter promotion.

2nd Place
Montana Free Press
https://montanafreepress.org

Judge’s comments: I’ll admit that I didn’t expect to be wowed by a legislative newsletter, but the Montana Free Press turned the dial to 11. What’s most impressive is their understanding of the important correlation between subscribers and donors. With nearly 1/4 of their subscriber base also being donors, the sky is the limit for the Montana Free Press.

It can be very difficult to get everday citizens to care deeply about local politics, but the Free Press has not only built a strong subscriber base for the Capitolized, but is watching it become one of its premier news products – a true testament to what is possible with dedicated resources (watchdog political reporter Arren Kimbel-Sannit) and a committment to an engaged audience.

The Free Press has taken political coverage to another level by passing up the time-honored tradition of trying to force politics to be consumed by a broad and largely less-engaged audience, and doubling down on creating a product for the political class to sink their teeth into. Niche journalism works well when done well.

P.S. – I love the touch of the newsletter that started with “Dear Friend …” I thought … awe .. that’s me! We all love to belong and be seen. Well done, Arren.

3rd Place
OutThere Colorado
https://denvergazette.com/outtherecolorado/

Judge’s Comments: This listicle-format newsletters is bite-sized, but chock-full, easy to digest and creates an almost guaranteed pathway from inbox to website. I love the “pulling people into the newsletter and then pushing them to our website” philosophy. While many list-format newsletters offer click-bait headlines and often leave the reader disappointed with the actual content on the other side, these headlines lead me to links to journalism outlets around the state writing thoughtful, interesting and relevant content.

250,001 or more monthly unique visitors

1st Place
Maine Trust for Local News
CentralMaine.com

Judge’s Comments: I love everything about a strategy that pairs a core community value – connection – with useful and relevant resources to improve the lives of readers.

The Maine Trust for Local News nails it by putting relevance above ego (i.e. including links outside of the publication when necessary) and collaborating with local nonprofits and citizens to create ownership and belonging for its readers.

It is refreshing to see the model work (1,244 subscribers and a 43% open rate) and plans for scaling (six community weekly newsletters on deck).

The Maine Trust for Local News should be proud of its willingness to grow and evolve by estabslighing greater trust and reader loyalty … and most importantly finding a meanginful way to truly be the reflection of the communities it serves.

2nd Place
Detroit Free Press
freep.com

Judge’s Comments: When you have a James Beard Journalism Award for Emerging Voice recipient on the team, it begs you to put that voice into action cultivating a foodie following.

Lyndsay C. Green is such a fresh perspective on the food scene with incredible content ranging from practical (where to get the best Veterans Day meals and deals) to where and when to get your hands on those coveted white truffles.

With solid subscription numbers and competitive click-through and open rate, Eat Drink Freep is a fusion of down-home (a true connection to Lyndsay as a person and a food critic), expert witness (James Beard a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and through-and-through foodie. Once I began to connect with Lyndsay through her voice, I trusted her opinion and was excited to make a list of places I’ll need to visit in Detroit and the surrounding areas.

The newsletter also has a classy and modern vibe, which makes the design as appealing as the content.

3rd Place
Albany Times Union
https://www.timesunion.com/

Judge’s Comments: There’s something magical about having a local talent in a specific vertical who can speak to and engage an audience in a way that nobody else can. The Times Union has that voice in Steve Barnes and uses it expertly in Table Hopping. Food (especially in the post-COVID years) is near and dear to readers across the globe and there is nothing better than a local cuisine expert who is also willing to share their personal adventures with food. Table Hopping is a fun way to create local celebrity status (Steve Barnes) while delivering fun, fresh and relevant content to his followers.

Best R&D Partner

Media companies are asked to nominate an R&D company/industry provider that helped drive new digital revenue and results for their company.

1st place
Broadstreet
Judge’s comments: Broadstreet is solving a crucial need for local publishers in its advertising offerings, and its partners have seen tangible impact in revenue generated and costs saved.

Client nomination: We started with Broadstreet years ago when our existing open source ad server was hacked, distributing malware in our community. Kenny and his team had us up and running again in three days. He saved our business. The Broadstreet team has never failed since to be as responsive since. Broadstreet has also implemented some of our suggestions for ad units. When GA4 turned out to be a mess, Broadstreet listened to its customers and developed a new stats platform. My sales rep has been able to participate in multiple webinars about sales on the product.

Broadstreet provides exceptional tools to help us have a variety of products to upsell retail advertisers. This is more than just an ad serving platform. It is an innovative suite of tools that offers innovative options to help local business succeed with local online advertising.

Broadstreet serves all of the direct sell (almost all) banner ads currently on Noozhawk. Their easy to use platform not only gives us the immediacy that we need to be competitive, they offer unique banner, video, and social media integrated ad templates for clients who want something unique. Their analytic reports prove the value of our offering in an easy to read and understand format. Clients renew because they know we can respond to their needs immediately AND have the analytics to prove their effectiveness.

2nd place
David Arkin Consulting
Judge’s comments: David Arkin Consulting is driving real results for its clients through its varied expertise on content, design, and sales.

Client nomination: Arkin Consulting launched our branded content studio. Within two months we had six active campaigns — enough to justify a f/t branded content hire. Shortly therafter we landed our biggest single sale of the year (mid-six figures!): a biweekly branded content centerfold for Sands Las Vegas, which is competing for a development project in our communities. The Sands and the communities loved the writing (authored by Arkin Consulting) and design (quarterbacked by Arkin Consulting), which led to even more large institutions doing branded content campaigns with us. Our clients love working with Arkin Consulting (as does our own staff).

Since we began working with David Arkin Consulting we have nearly tripled our web page views. That has had an impact on our revenue. We are currently implementing new sales strategies which we believe will be a game changer for our digital revenue.

3rd place
Second Street
Judge’s comments: Second Street garnered rave reviews from many of its partners championing how easy the platform is to implement, the diversity of its solution, and their hands-on approach to assisting its clients.

Client nomination: Julie at Second Street is one of the best partners we have. She is always very attentive and has solutions at hand. Most solutions come with a revenue model that can be deployed by any media organization.

Via the Second Street platform, WGN-TV was able to execute on easily 5 promotions per MONTH, all with unique clients and tied to digital buys and executions!

Julie has collaborated with us on numerous contests and has been my go to at Second Street for years. One of the biggest ways she’s done this is by helping us maximize revenue for our Best of Contests, we manage 3 of those together.

Honorable Mention
Village Media
Judge’s comments: Village Media is working to support small local news organizations by building a collaborative network of publishers while also building tools that help them do business.

Client nomination: Village Media provides us with digital focused teams including: development, creative, content and overall management. Village also provided us with a new CMS for our content. Their expertise as a digital news organization clearly was evident. We have also been included in their monthly Village Townhall meetings, which has proven to be very interesting.