2022 News Media Business Summit - Harrisburg, PA.

This is a special ticketed event for PNA Foundation Keystone Media Award recipients, other award winners and guests.  Please click here to register through the PNA website.

Join Jim Porter, the President & CEO of the National Football Leagues “Pro Football Hall of Fame” in Canton, OH. as he discusses navigating change, transformation, and above all perseverance in today’s business climate. Just like every business, the Pro Football Hall of Fame had to quickly adjust, change, transform and persevere when COVID struck. Listen as Jim discusses their transformation and their hurdles standing in the way. Jim is an ex-audience executive and publisher and understands and relates to the media business with the best of them.

Author/educator Andrew Conte discusses the findings of his research in a community that lost its newspaper and then rediscovered its local voices. Together, professional journalists and the public are reshaping the future of local news across communities small and large. It’s not only the right thing to do for American democracy but also good business. Featuring an announcement with Trib Total Media CEO Jennifer Bertetto. Andrew has also agreed to sign a few complimentary copies of the book for conference attendees.

Whether it is advertising, audience or content ramifications, there probably isn’t a topic more discussed today than the most effective and profitable frequency of our print products. This lively panel visits the topic of frequency from the eyes of those that have either changed or operate in a non-tradition print cycle.  Regardless of where you sit on this issue, this panel will bring to life not only the various frequency options available, but the ramifications of those options on the business model.  John Newby, the founder of the 360 Media Alliance will moderate this panel as they drill down into this controversial topic.

One of our most anticipated sessions features Corey Elliott of Borrell Associates discussing what the numbers tell us about the future in advertising, marketing and branding spends. This is a must see presentation regardless of the size of your company or the size of your budget.  What has changed? What is changing. What are the attitudes of those advertisers these days and so much more.

Newspapers across the country have been able to grow their digital subscriber base over the past few years. That being the case, while growth has been seen, the revenue that follows has been lacking. This session discusses the various ways and options available to news-media companies to grow their audience revenue without stunting their overall growth. What is the best paywall approach? Is it the ESPN model, is it the Hearst model? Do we lock-down completely or leave a portion open? You will hear the pro’s and con’s to the many varied approaches and be able to come away with further insights into the those various options and others.

While the industry has undergone a great many changes in the past decade, as they say, hold on to your hats as change is only expected to continue and in some cases, speed up. Technology is forcing these changes, but many of these changes are simply new opportunities for our industry. Whether it is AI, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, NFT’s, Robotics, Big Data, or a host of other new technologies, it presents enormous revenue growth for those that understand it and commit to it. Guy Tasaka with LMA will guide us through a tour of what can be and what we ought to be looking at and paying attention to.

Perfect time for networking, renewing friendships, and great food.  Walk yourself through the plentiful buffet luncheon and relax.   Go back for seconds if you wish, plenty for all.

Diversification strategies are critical to a local media company’s future success.  This session provides practical solutions to help any size market evolve to a stronger multi-media organization. From audience-driven programs to grow reader revenue from the digital and print side, to opening new channels like video and podcasting, you’ll get valuable insights to build strategies for the future.

Did you know that 67 cents of every marketing dollar are now being spent on Digital Solutions in Local Markets? Let that sink in! This fast-paced informative session will highlight many of the best practices and strategies gathered from over 200+ media companies.  What are the best products that drive the highest revenue share? How do we best bundle to grow our ROI?  How do we incorporate new digital solutions into the traditional footprint of our current offerings and strategies?  These and many other questions will be answered in this session you will not want to miss.

Hear the latest on the legislative front as our panelist discuss issues facing the industry and their battles with high tech.  There are several legal battles currently underway, our panelists are involved in these cases all the way up to testifying in front of the Senate on these critical issues.

Recruiting carriers, retaining our audience (both print and digital) and carrier/employee burnout are each hot topics today. In a sense, all three are related or linked in one way or another. Sit back and relax and our moderators discuss these topics, better yet, bring your great ideas, thoughts and suggestions on how the industry can better handle these situations in their own buildings and companies.

Business Sponsor:     TELECOM STRATEGIES

Finding and retaining our digital audience has never been more important or critical to our business model. The tools and insights available are better than ever before – yet we still have difficulty in these two arenas.  This session will discuss effective ways to build your digital audience, but just as importantly, retaining them once you have them.

Newsletters aren’t only a viable news and information tool, they can play a huge role in the future of the industries bottom-line. We must reach our consumers in ways they embrace, not ways we want them to embrace. Newsletters are a rapidly growing method of reaching what might be otherwise difficult demographics. If you are involved with content, revenue or audience – this session will not disappoint.

Mike Zinser, of The Zinser law Firm, will discuss the latest in the legal world as it impacts the news-publishing industry. From labor law issues, unionization, independent contractors, and much more, he will walk us through the landscape which is becoming much more tricky with the Biden administration. This is a session for everyone in the company as the issues discussed impact the entire organization.

This is an hour you won’t want to miss. We have 5-6 business partners coupled with a user taking you through a rapid-fire session on innovation and how it can transform a problem your company has faced. Listen as the user highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly of this problem-solving initiative.  This one-hour session is designed as a fast-paced session tackling 6 issues in a single hour.

Join us in this traditional after-hours event sponsored by the Zinser Law Firm in Nashville, TN. This is a great time to network with fellow industry executives and discuss industry issues over a drink and light snacks. Great way to get to know and make new friends.

This is a special ticketed event for PNA members and their guests.  Please click here to register through the PNA website.

All I-SCMA members and guest can come and relax, network, have casual conversation after a long day of learning.

The Baltimore Banner website proudly displays a mission: “To be the leading provider of news and lifestyle content in the Baltimore metro area,” which Nielsen ranks as the 26th largest Designated Market Area (DMA) in the United States. The city has 11 newspapers, four broadcast TV news operations and a full-time news/talk radio outlet.  But when the well-known Chairman of Choice Hotels International and philanthropist Stewart Bainum’s battled with Alden Capitol to acquire the Baltimore Sun from Tribune media failed, he turned to an already strategized “Plan B.” He pledged $50 million of his own money to enter the market as a standalone, digital-only, nonprofit news platform: The Baltimore Banner.

When it comes to changes in the auditing and accounting arena, we can be sure they are plenty. Kevin Rehberg, representing Alliance for Audited Media, will walk us through the many changes and more importantly, the impact associated we can expect with these changes. This will be a great session for those audited or not audited.

Publishers today are very focused on the long-term objective of digital transformation and are now confronted with a new challenge of declining audience levels.  How can you make digital progress if audiences are declining?  Are there ways to reverse the trends?  What are the key levers in the publisher toolkit to leverage data and grow audience?  Pete Doucette and Matthew Prieto of Mather Economics will look to answer some of these fundamental questions through real world case studies and present actionable insights that publishers can use to grow audience.

BUSINESS SPONSOR:     STEEL CITY CORPORATION

Moving consumers from a reduced print print format into the mail can be a very difficult task.  On the surface, how hard can it be?  Brad Hill, of Interlink has been in this arena for sometime and has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly when helping others make this transition. Listen as Brad provides a practical approach on shares methods that will help you in this transition.

The relationship between content and sales and how modern-day news media can stake its claim in future generations. Deciding who you are as a news entity and choosing to have a challenging conversation is only the beginning. Journalism and revenue must carve out their path and adapt together if there is any hope for sustainability or a future for news media.

We all do it. Our audience assumptions are based on our experiences or conversations with readers, or a 10-year-old study collecting dust on the shelf.  The pandemic changed everything, so how do we understand what our audience wants today?  Ask them. Dan Christ will describe how to capture reader feedback to drive consumer revenue. He’ll use examples of recent work by Advance Local’s Customer Research team to help you apply research best practices while avoiding pitfalls so you can move your revenue needle..

The younger generations will define our industries future.  How do the younger generations consume informational and advertising content? This is information we must have today to better position our companies for a brighter future tomorrow. Rebecca will share with us what the data indicates and how we can better be prepared for the habits of the younger generations.