Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016

Mega-Conference Break-Out Session:
Political Advertising

Posted

What's being done (and can be done) by newspapers to gain new political advertising dollars?  Find out during a Tuesday morning break-out session at the Key Executives Mega-Conference in February.

Rusty Coats, executive director of the Local Media Consortium, will discuss the national programmatic effort, and John Kimball of the John Kimball Group will outline the opportunity on the local/regional level. Listen to plans underway and hear about successful outcomes from having a focused effort.

Kimball says: "The opportunity for newspapers to capture a record share of the record $11 billion political advertising pie in 2016 has never been better ... IF they focus on the category with the surprisingly strong local newspaper story."

Coats believes there are good opportunities that newspapers need to capitalize on. He says: "Political dollars are legendary and have been elusive for local digital publishers. In 2016, the LMC is working to make sure its members see substantial political dollars in this record-breaking election cycle."

Our Presenters:

Rusty Coats
Rusty Coats is president and co-founder of Coats2Coats, a consultancy that focuses on a media future that is participatory, profitable and mobile. His clients include for-profit media companies, public radio and television stations, foundations that fund journalism innovation and startup tech companies serving the media industry.

He also serves as the executive director of the Local Media Consortium, an organization he helped found to maximize a multi-faceted partnership with Google, Yahoo! and more than a dozen other partners. The LMC includes more than 1,700 local newspaper, broadcast and pure digital titles and drives tens of millions of dollars in digital revenues.

Coats has worked in interactive media since 1993, driving audience and revenue for such news companies as McClatchy, Media General and E.W. Scripps. He served as director of new media for Frank N. Magid Associates, consulting with a wide range of media companies in North America and Europe to develop interactive strategies.

He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from Indiana University. He is also author of the novel, "Out of Touch," published in 2012, and "Avalon," due out in 2016.

John Kimball's career is defined by his 40+ years in the newspaper industry. Starting as an advertising account executive at the Detroit Free Press in 1970, Kimball left Detroit 11 years later as vice president of advertising for a similar position at The Denver Post.  Three years later he traded the Rocky Mountains for the Atlantic Ocean and spent 15 years in various senior management positions with what is now known as the North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, The Herald News and 40 weeklies in Northern New Jersey.  He left in 1998 as senior vice president of sales and marketing for the entire publishing division.


John Kimball
The Newspaper Association of America came calling and Kimball joined the organization as senior vice president and chief marketing officer to lead marketing initiatives for the newspaper industry.  As the head of the industry trade association's marketing efforts, he helped create programs designed to drive new revenue, increase audience and build the digital platforms that represent the new portfolio of products newspapers offer to their markets. He retired in July 2009 and started a consulting company, the John Kimball Group, specializing in helping newspapers improve their sales processes with the ASK-CRM sales software tool. 

The company also focuses on helping newspapers capture a larger share of the lucrative political advertising market where he says newspapers traditionally have "tons of growth potential."

After graduating with a BA in advertising from Michigan State University in 1967, he spent three years in the Army and received a Purple Heart for his tour of duty in Vietnam with the First Air Cavalry Division.  He received an executive education degree at the Harvard Business School in 1986 and has spoken on behalf of the newspaper industry both nationally and internationally.   He consults on a regular basis on the topic as well.

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political advertising, Coats, Kimball
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