LMA Fest 2024 will take place in Chicago on September 24. We are sharing some of the great sessions and speakers who will be there. Liz Hayes, the director of strategy for the Branded Content Project, answers questions about the workshop she’s facilitating about building a sales strategy for branded content.
What is one big thing you’ll talk about on your LMA Fest panel?
In our workshop, we’ll explore the essentials of building a storytelling sales strategy that drives results. We’ll explore steps for revenue growth and share success stories that combine sponsorship, custom storytelling and distribution — what we call The Peanut Butter and Jelly Plan.
Have you attended our conference before? What are you looking forward to the most?
Yes! Knowing I’ll take away insights from some of the local media industry’s best and brightest has me eager to attend. I can’t wait to listen in on the CEO roundtable on the current state of local media. Plus, it’s always a treat to visit with colleagues in person.
What keeps you up at night? What gets you up in the morning?
Local journalism cannot be replaced. It fosters civic engagement, strengthens democracy, and ensures that local stories and issues get the attention they deserve. Our work ultimately helps keep communities strong.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the local media industry?
We don’t have a shortage of challenges, especially declining revenue and digital disruption, but overall distrust in news has been gnawing at me. A growing distrust of the media, fueled by political motivations, has affected public confidence in local journalism. It’s our job to educate the public by emphasizing transparency, accuracy and ethical journalism.
Conversely, I see opportunities to create new revenue streams by exploring branded content, sponsored events and partnerships with large brands. We can also leverage our digital platforms to reach broader audiences and communities.
What has been the biggest revenue or audience win you have been a part of lately?
Certainly The Exchange, a collaboration of Black-owned newspaper publishers and Deloitte, has reimagined corporate support for diverse, local media. Having a powerhouse like Deloitte recognize that local, diverse voices should be supported, sustained and amplified has been a big win while creating a model that can be replicated.