Delivered $55 million in cumulative revenue and cost savings, new tools and research to publishers in 2022
NEW YORK, July 25, 2023 – The Local Media Consortium, a strategic alliance of local media companies, today announced the release of its third annual member economic impact report, which quantifies how its strength-in-numbers business model helps local newspapers, broadcasters and online outlets maximize cost savings and increase revenue through strategic partnerships with digital platforms and service providers.
The report finds year-over-year gains in each of the economic impact report metrics, including a $1 million increase in cumulative revenue and cost savings, and a 17% increase in member engagements with the LMC’s now 32 partners. By combining to leverage scale, in 2022 the LMC delivered an estimated $55 million in benefits to its now 145 media members, which comprise more than 5,000 vital local news outlets across North America and Puerto Rico. This included more than $16 million in cost savings and nearly $39 million in member partner revenue based on numbers reported by the organization’s partners. The report also finds that for the second year in a row, 98% of LMC members realized an annual ROI of 100% or higher compared to their membership dues last year.
“The Local Media Consortium continues to take an active leadership role to help local media providers stay nimble as they navigate challenges in the ever-changing digital news and advertising space,” said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. “This annual economic impact report enables us to analyze which programs best help our members and partners. Despite continued challenges, it’s gratifying to see new and existing programs gain traction and benefit the bottom line for new and longtime members.”
The LMC, with support from partners, also invested more than $500,000 in the introduction and growth of strategic programs. This included an investment from Google for Digital On Demand Services (DODS), a new program providing local media companies with lower-cost access to developers and technical consulting services. In 2022, the LMC also completed its pilot of NewsPassID. A vast programmatic ad network of thousands of credible local news sites across the U.S., NewsPassID has delivered millions in value to participating members by enabling them to provide major ad agencies and global brands with high-quality target audiences, content and privacy compliance.
"As a community publisher, we place a high priority on strategic digital partnerships producing positive ROI,” said Michael Martoccia, VP digital sales and marketing, Adams Publishing Group. “We participated in four LMC partnerships in 2022 and realized significant gains and operational efficiencies that resulted in an ROI versus what we invested in LMC dues."
“As an LMC board member, I’ve seen first hand the positive impact of participating in LMC partnership programs. Through our participation with 11 partnerships in 2022, we received financial benefits that have made a significant contribution to our digital business,” said Sarp Uzkan, Sr., VP partnerships and corporate development, McClatchy.
In addition to quantifiable economic benefits, the LMC provides intangible value to its members and the local media ecosystem through its annual spring conference and constantly evolving lineup of working groups and committees for peer-to-peer idea sharing to tackle specific industry opportunities and challenges.
“We greatly value the work of the Local Media Consortium and its meaningful contributions to supporting the newspaper industry and the cause of journalism in general. We're proud to count ourselves among its members,” said Ben Friedmann, CRO/COO of the New York Sun, the LMC’s newest member. “We joined in 2022 and saw notable benefits within months."
Wills adds that the LMC really stepped up last year with the creation of new working groups to address hot button topics such as first-party data, legal and privacy concerns, ad tech operations, and branded content. The consortium also expanded its committees to discuss media-specific opportunities and challenges with small community publishers, broadcast TV and radio.
A key part of the LMC’s mission is to continually deliver value to its members by leveraging its collective scale to work with digital publishing technology and service providers. The LMC’s member economic impact report finds that in 2022 ad serving with Google Ad Manager delivered the highest expense savings and significant programmatic advertising growth for members. Other top-performing cost-saving programs in 2022 included data and insights services through Adswerve; branded content creation and distribution through The Branded Content Project. Top-performing revenue generators included obituaries through Adpay, digital marketing with AdCellerant and email marketing via LiveIntent.
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 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, 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/.
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Thatcher+Co Christina Gillham cgillham@thatcherandco.com
Kristin Brocoff