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.

This session by Mike Blinder is both motivational while providing practical tips to getting it done.  He will incorporate some of the basic approaches used to bring Editor & Publisher magazine back from the dead.  He will also utilize recent real word case studies from other successful, growing media groups over the past year. Attendees will leave with a real word sense and actionable ideas of how to prosper by just focusing on our basic strengths and keeping our “eyes on the ball” and “just getting to work”.

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.

Listen as Tom Silvestri, Executive Director of the Newspaper Relevancy Project discusses how newspapers can reestablish themselves as a community focus in their local communities. Building local relationships are the foundation of success in the community. Learn how to create the synergies needed to help the community while helping your company thrive.

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.

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.

In today’s news publishing industry, finding new and innovative news/revenue models are essential. Listen as the Baltimore Banner, the latest innovative model to hit the ground running. Their mission: “is to be an indispensable resource that strengthens, unites and inspires our Baltimore community. We will accomplish this through trustworthy, quality journalism that tells the varied stories of our people, delivers local news that readers are willing to support, and holds our leaders accountable. As a nonprofit founded by The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, we are truly independent and we do not endorse leaders or political candidates”.  A session you will not want to miss!

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.

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.

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.

We all are constantly seeking great ideas that we can return home from the summit and implement right away. Every attendee at this summit should be able to return home and impact the bottom-line immediately.  Join fellow audience executives from around the country as they share what has worked, and not worked, in their markets.  A fast moving can’t miss session.

We all are constantly seeking great ideas that we can return home from the summit and implement right away. Every attendee at this summit should be able to return home and impact the bottom-line immediately. Join fellow advertising executives from around the country as they share what has worked, and not worked, in their markets. A fast moving can’t miss session.