Scottsdale event will explore wide range of topics and feature keynote speakers from media industry experts
NEW YORK, May 2, 2024 – The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a strategic alliance of local media companies, today announced the speaker lineup and sponsors for its 2024 Spring Conference, which will be held May 6-8 at the Hilton North Scottsdale at Cavasson in Arizona. Sponsored by Google and AdCellerant, this year’s event will gather a diverse group of media industry experts to examine and discuss the various challenges, possibilities and trends of interest to the digital advertising and publishing communities. Registration for the event is now open to LMC members, partners, vendors and non-member local media publishers here.
“We are excited to welcome a top-notch lineup of presenters and panelists to this year’s LMC conference and look forward to hosting productive discussions and debates about how best to navigate the changes within the local media industry,” said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. “It’s inspiring to see the energy and ideas that have stemmed from the annual conference, and we thank our sponsors for making it possible to keep the momentum going.”
This year’s keynote speeches will be given by Varun Shetty, head of media partnerships at OpenAI, and Arran Bardige, executive director of audience, opinion and sub brands at The New York Times. Shetty will explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the field of journalism, especially within local media, and the many innovative ways AI tools are enhancing news gathering processes and content creation, and streamlining business operations. Bardige will address what matters to readers of local media and overcoming current business, journalistic and societal headwinds.
Other speakers include Chelsea Wierbonski, group product manager at Google, who will present “Grow Audience and Diversify Revenue with Google’s Reader Revenue Manager,” focusing on how news publishers are facing unprecedented challenges in growing, engaging and retaining their audience while also diversifying their revenue streams. She will discuss how Google’s Reader Revenue Manager helps publishers address these challenges through a wide variety of new features focused on reader engagement and diversified monetization.
Benjamin Bouslog, VP, new business development and Elizabeth Bernberg, senior director, business development at AdCellerant, will discuss “Technology & AI in Media: Working Smarter, Not Harder,” exploring how advancements in technology have revolutionized the operations and efficiencies of businesses across all sectors, and how media companies are embracing cutting-edge technologies and AI to enhance the efficiency of their sales, operations and leadership teams.
The conference will also include a panel titled, “Ensuring Optimization of Your Video Revenue,” led by Will Hathaway, VP of strategic partnerships at Ex.Co, for a deep dive session on the buyside decision making process; and a panel on NewsPassID led by Tobias Bennett, LMC VP of partnerships, to discuss how this venture is creating a more scalable, privacy-compliant way for local media to directly connect brand marketers, advertising buyers and consumers. Additional panel and session topics will include “The Changing Ad Ecosystem and How Publishers Can Emerge as Winners,” “How Publishers are Using AI Now” and “Unlocking Tomorrow with Revolutionary Insight Infused AI.” The full agenda can be found here.
Additional 2024 Conference sponsors joining Google and AdCellerant include Audience, Basis Technologies, BlueConic, EX.CO, Hashtag Labs, Jobcase, LiveIntent, Monster, OpsCo and RevContent. Other LMC partners and vendors are welcome and encouraged to participate.
About the Local Media Consortium
The Local Media Consortium delivers more than $50M in annual economic value through digital partnerships and strategic initiatives on behalf of more than 150 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, Meta, Monster, and others. The aggregated LMC audience footprint spans 200 million unique monthly visitors, and its member companies serve more than nine billion pageviews to consumers. More information is available at http://www.localmediaconsortium.com
Thatcher+Co Christina Gillham cgillham@thatcherandco.com
Kristin Brocoff