Publishers will find solutions to industry concerns on Mega's Solutions Stage

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A wide range of topics that are on the minds of newspaper publishers will be addressed on the Solutions Stage at the Mega-Conference next month in Fort Worth.

One person can't attend all of the great sessions at Mega.  So, we're offering some "bring the team" discounts for newspapers and newspaper corporate offices that send multiple attendees.

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View the full Mega-Conference Agenda

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Topics scheduled for the Solutions Stage include:

Regain Control of Your Video Data and Revenue Earnings

Presented by Luke McDonough, CEO, AIR.TV

Newspapers are heavy users of social video embeds on their websites, but that data and revenue flow to Google, Twitter and Facebook. AIR.TV wants to show you how to fix that, without any change to your workflow. A case study will be presented showing how AIR.TV's line of code can generate a new revenue stream for your paper, from the work you already do curating news video from portals like YouTube and Twitter.

McDonough said: "I work in online video, and I consume a lot of news: From that intersection, I have watched Google & Facebook leverage ‘platform dependence’ to take all the revenue, while newsrooms produce all the content. AIR.TV harnesses YouTube’s strength to benefit news publishers, and we need your help to scale it up.”

Mapping the Bond Between Ad Viewability and Revenue

Presented by Rafael Guerrero, principal solutions architect, Marfeel

For years, publishers have been focused on optimal speed and page performance. There is a need to make ad speed times match page speeds so one cohesive impression can be delivered. Hear how publishers are increasing their ad revenue and overall reader engagement by optimizing every stage of the mobile experience. 

Guerrero will explore Marfeel's objective to decrease the "time to first ad impression," and fight the dreaded white space of a blank ad.  This includes the company's research to reduce latency via mobile infrastructure optimization, leading to an increase of up to 10% in revenue for publishing websites.

Showcase Premium Video Content on Your Website

Presented by Sal Cacciato, managing director, North America, Video Intelligence

Austria’s oldest and leading newspaper went from a traditional newspaper to a video-powered digital platform with vi’s contextual video platform which matches video content to its editorial pages. This case study will show how Die Presse increased its available pre-roll ad impressions 100 times, from 350,000 (in 2016) to more than 31 million (in 2018). Learn how you can create new in-stream inventory and incremental revenue!

Cacciato said: "High costs and resources required to create good quality video have posed challenges for news publications to complement their digital editorial pages with video.  Lack of video content also impede their ability to monetize with in-stream ads.  I’ll be discussing easy to implement, highly customizable turnkey solutions to: introduce premium and relevant 3rd party premium video, optimize current video assets and drastically improve video monetization strategy."

Using Mobile and GPS Data to Drive Sales on the Print Side

Presented by Jonathan Muzio, chief business development officer, AdCellerant

By matching mobile devices to your subscribers’ physical address, you can now determine if those devices enter the physical brick and mortar location of local businesses. Learn how “Location Lift” data can help you show advertisers why print needs to be a bigger part of their media mix. In addition, by digitizing your subscriber database and print audiences, learn how to create print audience extension campaigns to make it easier for legacy sellers to generate digital revenue by focusing on selling their audience.

“We hear from our publishing partners all the time that it is difficult for their legacy sales reps to sell digital," Muzio said. "By digitizing your subscriber database, we enable our publishing partners to focus on selling their audience in packages that include their print publication, their website, and display or video ads in the mobile devices of their subscribers.”  

Grow Your Recruitment Advertising: Complement your sales efforts and be a one-stop shop for employers

Presented by Roberto Angulo, CEO, Recruitology, and Terry Hall, director of revenue transformation, BH Media

Since 2019, BH Media has partnered with Recruitology to sell its full-service recruitment solutions, including programmatic advertising, niche networks and novel ways to reach passive candidates. Taking the partnership to a deeper level, Recruitology is providing external sales resources to help power BH Media’s digital advertising growth. Come see this presentation from the director of revenue transformation at BH Media and the CEO and co-founder of Recruitology. Hear their perspective on what it takes to accelerate the transition to digital revenue and to grow advertiser wallet share. 

“I am excited to share the stage," Angulo said, "with a seasoned BH Media executive who is on the front lines of their digital revenue expansion. We will share insights on today’s media company challenges and strategies for breakout sales and market share growth.”

The Local Events Strategy

Presented by Richard Green, CEO and founder, Evvnt

Consumers highly value local events. Publishers list events in their Top 3 for content, but at the bottom in terms of revenue. Take 13 minutes to learn how to make local events your Top 3 for content and revenue.

Green said, "We've built a self-service technology platform that integrates into your current CMS platform to access the $18.2 billion vertical behind local events using your current infrastructure. Say 'Yes' and we turn it on.  You go revenue active within minutes."

Strategies for Driving Significant Real Estate Revenue: Both digital and print

Presented by Eric Bloom, advertising director, Bay Area News Group - LeadHax, and Brian Gorman, executive vice president, iPublish Media Solutions

LeadHax is a self-service application and a door opener sales tool. See how you can reenergize your real estate business by providing your sales reps with a valuable sales tool. LeadHax has created new accounts, driven revenue and expanded BANG’s real estate presence in the Bay Area. 

Branded Content: Increase your revenue, improve your margins and generate results for advertisers

Presented by Apryl Pilolli, head of innovation, Social News Desk

Are you trying to take your Branded Content strategy to the next level to increase revenue? Learn about the five steps to create a solution, educate your sales teams easily and execute the new solution brilliantly. Social News Desk’s Apryl Pilolli, head of innovation, will present a Graham Media Group case study to illustrate massive growth — 51% in revenue, 40% in new advertisers.

“It’s really an exciting time for news organizations to make headway in the Branded Content space," says Pilolli. "There’s a huge opportunity. With the right strategy, know-how and tools — the possibilities to reach new audiences, deliver the right content and make revenue are limitless. I’m thrilled to show clients tried and true methods and generate new ideas.”

The Age of Video: Trends, insights and the journey to revenue success

Presented by Jason Whitney, director of sales, Tubular Labs

Today, 2.5 billion viewers worldwide are watching video on social platforms, generating trillions of views.  But, with an increasingly fragmented video ecosystem, it’s challenging to confidently navigate and win in this new world order. Graham Media Group took on this challenge, with a data-driven approach that has transformed how the company tracks, validates and monetizes video. Learn from its journey!

"In this session, I’ll review best practices for selling and distributing branded video content on social media," Whitney said. "Learn what types of content perform well on each social video platform and discover what your sales team needs to be successful. From sales education, to reporting, to new content creation, I’ll send you home with tips and tricks that can be implemented NOW!"

Addressing North America's Digital News Deserts

Presented by Bill Ostendorf, president and founder, Creative Circle Media Solutions

Creative Circle is partnering with state press associations to identify and recruit newspapers which have never had or don’t currently have a functioning website. Creative Circle also is soliciting grant funds to provide a customized website and integrated training and support program for these newspapers to establish a digital presence. Through this project, Creative Circle hopes to learn things about the challenges small newspapers face in creating and maintaining a website that can be shared with the industry to show the impact and challenges of digital news at the smallest scale.

“I’m concerned about the future of these small newspapers,” said Allen Beermann, executive director of the Nebraska Press Association, “because these owners just don’t know how to grow and gain any revenue from having a website. A website is critical to their survival.”

From Single-Site Publishing to Enterprise-Wide Success

Presented by Tom Reinacher, CEO, ppi Media US, Inc.

Centralized ROI-driven workflows at Advance Local helped to increase production efficiency, improve workflow transparency and communication, reduce cost and enable more printing throughput with smaller teams at print sites nationwide. Get some insight regarding the strategy, the results, the advantages provided by ppi Media’s system suite and the ROI in terms of cost savings and production efficiencies!

Reinacher will show how ppi Media’s EPWS (Enterprise Publishing Workflow System) "enables publishers to significantly reduce maintenance and support contract costs and improve overall efficiency and productivity by establishing enterprise-wide production standards and workflows." He said publishing houses with multiple, independently operating printing sites will hugely benefit from the insights of this session.

Converting Casual Digital Visitors into Highly-Engaged Members or Subscribers

Presented by Joe Hansen and Tim Turner, directors of content and data services, TownNews

Two ambitious new products are giving media organizations supercharged audience conversion capabilities and actionable data insights that will help them transform their businesses. Hear about a new audience acquisition and retention platform that allows local media organizations to completely tailor their conversion funnels according to their own needs using proven industry best practices. And, learn about new ways to analyze the performance of your digital products and take decisive action based on rich analytics.

“The biggest challenges facing media organizations today include finding new ways to convert casual visitors to paying subscribers, and marshaling the vast amount of data they’re creating to drive revenue and audience growth," said Turner.  "At our Solutions Stage presentation, we’ll introduce two all-new initiatives — iQ Audience+ and Data Insights — that will be game-changers for our clients, and for the industry.”

The Key to Audience Engagement: Maximizing what readers want

Presented by Adam Shapiro, co-founder, AlertMe

Audience engagement is a realistic goal, but it requires spending time and effort on those things readers really want to know about, such as schools and public safety. Hear about some tools that can help you get readers further down the subscription funnel, develop new revenue streams and reduce dependency on search and social media for traffic.

“In 12-minutes, we’ll discuss why local publishers have the golden ticket needed to drive digital subscriptions and why the most ‘boring’ content could be the most important,” says Shapiro.  “It’s 720 seconds to see how relevancy can help you acquire 50-100 new newsletter signups every day while escorting them down the sales funnel.”

Strengthening Hyperlocal Journalism with New Technology and Platforms

Presented by Morten Holst, strategy director, Innocode

Local newspapers can revitalize their operations and community impact with a modernized approach to their mission that reconnects with newspapers’ historic role as community hubs. The core idea is simple: Local news operations need digital models that survive small-scale environments. Case studies will be presented from innovative newspapers using Innocode’s technology in communities with as few citizens as 10,000, as well as early results from a highly innovative project scalable to a large number of communities.

Holst said: "The hyperlocal opportunity — hyperlocal done profitably and at scale, is your best defense against the giants. Local media scales differently than national or global media operations. The keys are strategies and monetization techniques that work all the way down to the local neighborhood, without overstretching the newsroom and setting off cries for a new CMS."

Implementing Reader Revenue Strategies to Grow your Business

Presented by Vineet Panjabi, vice president of sales, Quintype

Reader revenue is the future. But the road to success is paved with challenges and frustrations. In this session, we’ll ease your apprehensions around content monetization and help you walk away with a plan to implement a profitable reader revenue strategy.

"The pennies per click model is no longer sustainable," Panjabi said. "Twenty-five percent of local media organizations view monetization as their biggest challenge. This session aims to ease your apprehensions."

Register to attend

View the full Mega-Conference Agenda

Reserve your hotel room  - rooms are almost sold out