The Local Media Consortium announced its board-appointed seats for the 2022-24 term, which includes returning member Stefanie Manning of Masthead Maine and Rafael Cores of ImpreMedia, as well as newly-appointed board member Larry Lee from The Observer Media Group.
NEW YORK – February 24, 2022 – The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a strategic alliance of local media companies, today announced its board-appointed seats for the 2022-24 term, which includes returning member Stefanie Manning of Masthead Maine and Rafael Cores of ImpreMedia, as well as newly-appointed board member Larry Lee from The Observer Media Group. The 12-member LMC executive board recently added appointed seats f to help ensure representation from a diverse mix of media outlets in terms of audiences served, media type and market size.
“We are grateful to have board participation from such seasoned professionals representing a broad and diverse mix of local media companies,” said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. “The Local Media Consortium looks forward to working with our elected and appointed board members to oversee strategic initiatives that propel the industry forward and help navigate important issues ranging from privacy and scalability to diversity and inclusion.”
Larry Lee, President and Publisher of The Observer Media Group, is a second-generation media publisher who is passionate about serving underserved communities through information services. With a lifelong career in ethnic media and marketing, Lee inherited his sense of quality, community and dedication to excellence from his late parents, Dr. William H. Lee and Kathryn C. Lee, founders of the award-winning Observer Newspapers. Regarded as “the most honored Black newspaper in America,” The Observer has received more than 700 awards for journalism excellence and community service. Lee has led several Observer product launches, including SacObsever.com and Mobile News 2 U, aimed at building corporate relationships while presenting information services to underserved communities. In 2009, Lee served as a Gubernatorial appointee on the California Census Complete Count Committee. He is also a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Mountain Valley Chapter and a founding member of Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program. A graduate of the San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Lee was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2006.
Stefanie Manning is on the leadership team at Masthead Maine, serving as Group Vice President, Consumer Revenue. Masthead Maine is the state’s largest media network, including five daily newspapers and 25 weekly publications. In her role, Manning is charged with driving consumer revenue and overseeing the circulation operation and its evolution to digital. She is focused on acquisition and retention of subscriptions, creating new sources of revenue, building communities of readers and giving (local) journalism heightened visibility in the communities they serve. In addition to her board position with the LMC these past two years (serving on the Community and Strategic Initiatives committees), Manning sits on the Board of Trustees for the Portland Public Library and is President of the Press Herald Toy Fund, delivering holiday gifts to 3,500 underprivileged Maine children each year. Manning spent most of her publishing career in New York City, most recently as Associate Publisher of O, The Oprah Magazine at Hearst for 13 years.
Rafael Cores, Vice President, Digital Content at Brooklyn-based ImpreMedia, is a digital media professional with ample experience in content strategy, audience development and newsroom management for the Hispanic market having worked for more than 15 years in leading Spanish-language media companies in the United States. In his current role, he leads the content teams of all ImpreMedia digital properties, including La Opinión in Los Angeles, El Diario in New York City, La Raza in Chicago, and the vertical sites Solo Dinero, Siempre Auto, La Vibra and Comedera. Previously he managed the Digital Editorial Strategy for Univision. Rafael has served on the LMC board over the past two years and was recently appointed to the Audit Committee. Born and raised in Spain, he is a graduate of the University of Navarra. He also earned a master’s degree at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, thanks to a Fulbright grant.
These three appointed board members compliment the nine elected board seats announced earlier this year: Chairman of the Board Chris Loretto from Media News Group; Karen Godin, StarTribune; James Green, Lee Enterprises; Bala Sundaramoorthy, Atlanta Journal Constitution; Gary Smith, The Seattle Times; Lori Tavoularis, Nexstar; Tom Sly, EW Scripps; Sarp Uzkan, McClatchy; and Jay Horton, WEHCO Digital Media. Board members help the LMC determine strategic priorities that will have the most significant economic impact for the organization’s 100 members representing 5,000 news outlets, including opportunities to increase revenue, reduce costs and create a more sustainable business for local media. Over the past year, the board has guided the LMC in several successful initiatives including the launch of NewsNext and NewsPassID, the $3 million milestone of its Branded Content Project, and the release of the LMC’s first annual member economic impact report demonstrating its strength-in-numbers business model, which delivered $44 million in cumulative revenue and cost savings to members in 2020.
About The Local Media Consortium
The Local Media Consortium delivers economic value through strategic partnerships on behalf of more than 100 local media companies in top markets across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, and includes more than 5,000 newspaper, radio, TV and online only news outlets. By harnessing the combined volume and scale of its members, the LMC reduces costs and increases revenue with technology and service providers like Google, Facebook, Monster, and others. The aggregated LMC audience footprint spans 200 million unique monthly visitors, and its member companies serve more than 6 billion pageviews to consumers each month. More information is available at http://www.localmediaconsortium.com/. # # #
Christina Gillham
Kristin Brocoff
kbrocoff@thatcherandco.com