Digital Revenue Summit 2021: Agenda

Google News Initiative — Supporting publishers’ digital revenue efforts

In this keynote session, Ben Monnie, director of global partnerships, will highlight the products, programs, and partnerships from the Google News Initiative that support publishers’ digital revenue efforts. In addition, he will talk about the future of local news and long-term sustainability. Monnie helps oversee strategy and operations for the Google News Initiative. Prior to Google, he spent 10 years at The New York Times in various roles including vice president of strategy. This Q&A-style keynote will be moderated by LMA CEO Nancy Lane.

Presenter: Ben Monnie, director of global partnerships, Google News Initiative. Moderator: Nancy Lane, chief executive officer, Local Media Association / Local Media Foundation.

Reporting as a retention tactic

How to keep your clients through better data and share that data with them. This session is for sales managers and sales leaders to find out what KPIs, dashboards and website metrics to use in reporting with clients. Our panel will also share tactics on how to train reps to walk through this data with clients.

Presenters: Stephanie Slagle, senior director, brand agency and sales strategy, Graham Media Group, Reva Henderson, director of client services at King and Columbus, Charleston, S.C.; others to be announced.

The top of the sales cycle

This session will provide a fresh look at the “leading activities” of digital sales: lead generation, prospecting, calls, needs analysis, proposals, demos. How do sales specialists optimize all the up-front activities that lead to a profitable sale and successful client relationship? Regardless of which CRM, reporting suite, or ad network provider, how do you make the most of the tools you have?

Presenters: Lenora Howze, executive director, The AFRO, Baltimore; Willy Grant, director, digital, Great West Media; Shannon Kinney, founder and client success officer, DreamLocal Digital. Moderator: Jodelle Bailey, director, local digital sales, Sinclair Digital.

Journalism fundraising success stories

Hear how three local media companies generated nearly $2 million in funding in just nine months by implementing philanthropy strategies. The Sacramento Observer has grown its newsroom from two to six; The Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., has developed a new audience in its Latino communities; and The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., has raised more than $1 million to fund investigative and educational reporting. These top executives will share what they have learned, how to get started and how philanthropy can be a funding pillar going forward.

Presenters: Autumn Phillips, managing editor, The Post and Courier; Liz White, publisher, The Record Journal; Larry Lee, publisher, The Sacramento Observer. Moderator: Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer, Local Media Association.

Aligning media sales compensation practices with today’s realities

The local media sales industry incurred massive shifts over the last year given the pandemic and its impact on local businesses, yet firms remain optimistic. Alexander Group research indicates that many media ad sales organizations are increasing sales forecasts by up to 15% with much of the anticipated growth coming from digital. To meet these forecasts, aligning the right sales roles and motions to the optimal compensation program is crucial. Ultimately, sales comp plans must drive the desired behaviors and pay for performance. In this session, results of an industry-wide survey of sales compensation programs will be shared along with tactical guidance on how to ensure you get the most ROI from your plan.

Presenters: Quang Do, principal and media practice lead, Alexander Group; Tim Meuschke, director, Alexander Group. Moderator: Penny Riordan, director, business strategy and partnerships, Local Media Association.

Sales is a contact sport

Building on the first session, this discussion will provide direction and round out strategies to help you prepare and get the most of your interactions with clients. Catch up with the state of the art on consultative sales approaches with multiple product lines. Understand and be able to explain the relationships and overlaps between digital advertising and digital marketing services. How do you overcome objections to digital campaigns and services? How do you ensure the conversation proceeds to next steps? And for those who often serve as two legs of a four-legged sales call, learn methods to work effectively with transactional sellers to strengthen the overall client relationship.

Presenters: Michelle Liddy, director of digital sales, Allen Media Broadcasting; Amber Aldrich, senior director of advertising, The Seattle Times; Michael Martoccia, vice president, digital sales and marketing, Adams Publishing Group; Peter Lamb, owner, Lamb Consulting. Moderator: Lamb.

Honing the pitch for OTT/CTV

TV sales teams may “get” selling OTT and CTV, but what do the rest of local media sellers need to know to go to market with streaming video inventory? And regardless of comfort level, how can account executives effectively position OTT/CTV campaigns along with other offline or digital advertising solutions and services? How and when does OTT fit in a diagnose-and-prescribe sales approach?

Presenters: Jesse McCambridge, senior director, digital revenue and sales strategy, Cox Media Group; Brian Hunt, head of OTT/CTV advertising sales, Sinclair Digital Group; Shaun Fogarty, executive director of sales, Virginia Media. Moderator: Maggie Drake, senior director, OTT revenue, The E.W. Scripps Co.

Life after third-party data

Why is first party data more important than ever? This session will discuss life after cookies. Industry leaders will discuss the options for next steps, how to protect your revenue stream and more.

Presenters: Jeff Burkett, vice president of product for display media, Gannett; Shawn Riegsecker, founder and chief executive officer, Centro; Fran Wills, chief executive officer, Local Media Consortium. Moderator: Penny Riordan, director, business strategy and partnerships, Local Media Association

Sold! Now what?

The dream scenario after the close is a campaign or service that performs better than expected, and a client that is happy enough not just to renew or extend, but to upgrade. How do you make that dream the norm? We’ll look at techniques for checking in with clients on campaign performance, explaining and telling the “whole story” from different performance metrics, and adapting digital programs to deal with underperformance or changing client needs.

Presenters: Brock Berry, chief executive officer, Adcellerant; Jodelle Bailey, director, local digital sales, Sinclair Digital; Helen Speiser, director of digital sales, Pixelent (WBNS, Columbus, Ohio). Moderator: Julia Campbell, general manager, The Branded Content Project.

Finding the ROI in new digital platforms

It seems almost every day some new digital platform is being born. From Clubhouse to TikTok, if you don’t move fast enough, you could miss it. But should you invest in new and emerging digital platforms, when the return on investment isn’t 100% clear? Hear from panelists who think gaps in the local media landscape could be a great opportunity for engaging audiences with new platforms, and building revenue at the same time.

Presenters: Joanie Tobin, senior producer, emerging platforms, GBH; Chris Bennett, chief executive officer, Tiloben Publishing Co./The Seattle Medium; Ian MacSpadden, chief technology officer, Arizona Public Media. Moderator: Andrew Ramsammy, chief content and collaboration officer, Local Media Association.

Four good ideas from Facebook Accelerator participants

Hear Facebook Accelerator participants explain what they are doing to grow reader revenue, why it matters, and how others can benefit from their strategies.

Presenters: Ashley Woods, founder and chief executive officer, Detour Detroit; Michelle McCoy, editor-in-chief, Michigan Banner; Penny Riordan, director, business strategy and partnerships, Local Media Association. Moderator: David Grant, program manager, Facebook Journalism Project.

“Post-pandemic” realities

Everyone is trying to plan for life post-pandemic. But are we even there yet in light of the Delta variant and the recent surge in cases? In this session we’ll hear how companies are reacting to this new threat and how they are tweaking their return to office and travel plans. What will this mean for the local media industry? Your company? Sales and newsroom employees?

We’ll also discuss what we learned about remote work, technology and retaining/hiring employees during the pandemic and how this will shape strategies going forward. 

Presenters: Tom Sly, VP revenue, National Media, The E.W. Scripps Co. and Julie Dreixler, chief human resource officer, Graham Media Group; Samantha Howland, chief people officer, Gannett Media. Moderator: Ryan Browning, senior director client capabilities and innovation, WPP

The state of events

Hear from a panel of sales leaders and event planners on what is going to happen with events as we come back from the pandemic.

Presenters: Martin Alfaro, director of business development, Al Dia News Media; Tanisha Leonard, president, RTM360°; Agnes Varnum, formerly with Rev Lab and Texas Tribune. Moderator: Penny Riordan, director, business strategy and partnerships, Local Media Association

O&O OTT

Not unlike web display, a lot of the local media money in OTT/CTV comes from selling others’ inventory across a wide swath of third-party platforms. But what moves can local media make to develop owned-and-operated content and products that generate meaningful revenue opportunities in the space? Can TV broadcasters learn, from their efforts in the streaming world, how to gain more leverage from emerging NextGenTV/ATSC 3.0 products?

Presenters: Ron Stitt, vice president and general manager, NewsON; Michael Newman, lead developer/architect, Graham Media Group; Maria Farricielli, vice president, digital sales strategy and operations, FOX Television Stations; Adam Wiener, executive vice president and general manager, CBS Television Stations Local Digital Media. Moderator: Stitt.

Branded content uses the strength of storytelling to provide a valuable benefit to advertisers while increasing audience engagement and revenue for local media publishers. The Branded Content Project has two on demand sessions to help your sales reps and your advertisers take advantage of this powerful revenue stream that has shown to be a success for many media organizations.

Success for Sellers 

The Branded Content Project’s Success For Sellers training platform educates and informs individuals on successfully creating, selling and implementing a branded content strategy within your local media organization. This track is intended for account executives who are or will be actively selling branded content in their market.  Discover the history of branded content, the benefits of selling it, best practices and the ideal clients to target among topics. Improve your content marketing strategy with our program. This free online video curriculum awards users a branded badge and sales certificate upon completion.  

Estimated time to completion: 1 enjoyable hour. No need to register – train at your own pace.

Branded Content 101 for Advertisers

This track is intended for advertisers to better understand the benefits of branded content. Advertisers will learn why top businesses are using branded content now to tell their stories and why small businesses are expected to prioritize content marketing in the upcoming year. Your sales team can download and share three short videos with current or potential clients to help explain the value and opportunity with content marketing. Help your clients discover the importance of building a branded content strategy while generating new revenue for your organization. 

Estimated time to completion: 15 easy minutes.  No need to register – download at your own pace.