(November 11, 2025) — The Local Media Association Board of Directors on Monday approved the appointment of Julia Campbell as co-Chief Executive Officer of LMA and Local Media Foundation, effective immediately.

Campbell will serve as co-CEO alongside Jay Small, who has been co-CEO for almost two years.

“I’m grateful and honored to continue this work reimagining local media’s future,” Campbell said. “Every day I’m inspired by how our local media partners are meeting today’s challenges with creativity and courage. I’m excited about building on that momentum with Nancy, Jay and our fantastic team and boards.”

Campbell joined the LMA team in 2019, first as project lead and then general manager of The Branded Content Project, a joint program of LMA, the Local Media Consortium and the Facebook Journalism Project. She was promoted to Chief Business Transformation Officer of LMA in mid-2023, and in addition to retaining leadership responsibility for The Branded Content Project, she has served as an LMA/LMF program lead for the Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab and Word In Black, among other initiatives.

Prior to joining the LMA team, Campbell served as Vice President of Media Systems for Gray Television, where she helped launch niche branded content programs and formed strategies for OTT/streaming services. She has also held roles as a television director, producer and editor at local stations and a national cable news network. 

“Julia and I started with Team LMA at almost the same time, and we have worked together on so many projects I’ve lost count,” said Small. “She’s a fantastic problem-solver, knows the media business very well, and carries a persistent optimism that lifts the whole team. Recommending her promotion was the obvious and correct choice for our future.”

Nancy Lane, CEO Emeritus of LMA/LMF, agreed. “We knew shortly after we hired Julia that we hit the jackpot,” said Lane. “There is no project or product too daunting or overwhelming for her. She dives right in and makes it happen. Her contributions to LMA/LMF have been enormous over the last six years. I couldn’t be happier for her and LMA.”

Campbell’s promotion is part of a multiyear succession plan the board first approved in 2022. The plan has evolved in the years since, by design. It is intended to be multigenerational and periodically refreshed to ensure leadership continuity and the ability to respond quickly to internal or external changes.

“We started the succession plan back then with the knowledge that Nancy would gradually step down from CEO to an Emeritus role, which she has done while continuing to serve an important role for the organization and the industry,” said Small. “We shifted into co-CEO mode last year, starting with Nancy and me, and we’re bullish on that model. Now Julia and I can carry it forward and develop the next generation of the plan and our leadership team, with Nancy’s wise counsel.”

Small, Campbell and Lane have begun efforts to identify a successor for Campbell’s current role, while addressing other staffing needs to ensure LMA and LMF provide best possible programs and services to local news media.

About Local Media Association / Local Media Foundation

Local Media Association brings all media together to share, network, collaborate and more. More than 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, digital news organizations, and research and development partners engage with LMA as members or constituents of our programs. As a 501(c)(6) trade association, LMA helps local media companies develop business strategies via cutting-edge programs, conferences, webinars, research and training.

Local Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable trust, serves as the innovation and transformation affiliate of LMA. Incorporating our four strategic pillars — business transformation, journalism funded by philanthropy, industry collaboration, and sustainability for publishers of color — LMF helps provide local media companies the strategies and resources for meaningful innovation and impactful journalism projects.