Nancy Lane

Nancy is the dynamic leader of Local Media Association. In her role, she focuses on the organization’s mission: to help local media companies discover new and sustainable business models.

She is the author of more than a dozen industry reports on a wide variety of topics. Her disruption in local media blog has had more than 50,000 views since launching nearly 3 years ago. She is a sought-after speaker at a wide mix of media events. Over the past year she conducted sessions at the National Association of Broadcaster’s Digital Future Exchange, Borrell’s Local Online Advertising Conference, BIA/Kelsey’s ENGAGE program, WAN-IFRA’s World NewsMedia Congress/Cartagena, The Roundtable/Leap Media and Association National de la Presse/Chile. In 2017 she hosted a track dedicated to Facebook at Borrell’s LOAC17.

Nancy created the Innovation Mission in 2008 and has led eight tours since then. To date, the IM has visited with more than 110 of the most disruptive and innovative companies in the world.

Nancy spent 13 years in the newspaper industry as publisher and advertising director in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Missouri before taking over LMA in 2000. She was selected as the recipient of Borrell Associates’ 2019 Award of Merit for outstanding leadership and innovation in local media. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Villanova University and is the president of the Villanova Alumni Association.

Jed Williams

Jed is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Local Media Association, where he leads industrywide digital revenue and business transformation initiatives for newspapers, radio and TV broadcasters, digital publishers, and R&D partners. These programs include Innovation Missions, Chief Digital Club executive networking groups, digital boot camps, and LMA’s consulting practice focused on disruptive innovation.

Previously, Jed was Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Vendasta, where he managed partnerships with leading media companies and drove the company’s go-to-market strategy. He also spearheaded the development and launch of the Vendasta Marketplace, which connects channel partners to best-of-breed solutions.

Jed has also held positions as Vice President of Strategic Consulting at BIA/Kelsey and Director of Business Development at Main Street Hub. He has led strategic consulting projects for AT&T, Google, NBC, Time-Warner Cable and Yahoo!.

A veteran of the local media space, Jed is adept at analyzing and forecasting digital trends, and empowering partners to generate new revenue. His insights have been cited by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bloomberg, FOX Business, and the BBC, among others. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and corporate meetings. He has written extensively on creative destruction and disruptive media. His work has been published and taught by the Columbia Journalism School and the Yale School of Management

Jed received his master’s in media business from the School of Media and Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was named the Outstanding M.A. Graduate by the school.

Lindsey Leisher Estes

Lindsey Estes has a strong background in marketing and social media and spent five years working for the Newspaper Association of America. While at NAA, she specialized in helping smaller-market publishers and organizing the annual mediaXchange conference. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia Tech.

Jay Small

Jay Small is Chief Innovation Officer of Local Media Association. He helps guide and oversee key LMA programs serving the local media industry, including conferences, Innovation Missions and other events; Chief Digital Clubs and Chief Content Clubs; R&D initiatives; and enabling technology and content platforms.

He previously served as President of Cordillera Digital, a division of Cordillera Communications that drove digital strategy, sales, marketing, and operations for TV stations nationwide. A transformative executive with a background in business leadership and creative arts, Small held senior posts at The E.W. Scripps Co., Belo Corp., and Thomson Consumer Electronics. He has also driven digital growth as a strategic consultant, with clients including major media groups, trade associations, a global pharmaceuticals company, financial institutions and small businesses.

Small earned an MBA from Kennesaw State University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University. A guitar enthusiast, he enjoys performing in rock/blues bands.

Janice Norman

Janice has been LMA’s Director of Accounting and Finance since September 2001. Her previous accounting positions included, Accounting Supervisor, Senior Accountant, and Budget Analyst. She has experience in banking, legal, travel, property management, and transportation industries.

Janice received a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration with an Accounting and Finance Specialty from Lawrence Technological University.

She enjoys spending time with her family, especially her new grandson, the outdoors, gardening and the lakes of Northern Michigan.  Janice has also volunteered her accounting services to various organizations through the years.

Julia Campbell

Julia is a branded content strategist and innovative project manager who is leading a combined initiative focused on branded content for the Local Media Association, Local Media Consortium, and the Facebook Journalism Project. A former Gray Television executive with extensive branded content experience, Campbell is leading a group of 29 broadcasters, print, and digital publishers who are testing out promising business models. The ultimate goal is to report back to the industry and provide playbooks that publishers can use to succeed and grow revenue in their local markets.

Campbell spent nearly a decade at Gray Television, previously as vice president of media systems, where she created MomsEveryday, an award-winning television, digital, social and OTT branded content initiative focused on helping local businesses connect with families across the country while creating profitability for the TV stations. In addition to extensive branding experience, Campbell is familiar with the challenges and opportunities of local news, having served in director and editor positions at a number of local and national TV stations, including CNN. Her media career has crossed through some of the smallest of markets, like Casper, Wyoming, to some of the largest such as Atlanta. Campbell earned her bachelor of science in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Tonya Ratajczak

Tonya is the Data Entry Specialist for Local Media Association. In addition to the upkeep and maintenance of the LMA database for membership and events, she also assists in day-to-day LMA accounting duties.

Her professional background includes database management, e-marketing and communications, record-keeping and photography.

A graduate of the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!), she is an active mother of four. Blessed to be living in the beauty that is northern Michigan, she enjoys boating with her family and friends, singing for the church, dabbling in piano and guitar, and relaxing with a good book.

Emilie Lutostanski

Emilie Lutostanski is the director of LMA’s Local News Resource Center, a partnership with Facebook, Instagram and CrowdTangle. She collaborates with local media organizations to refine social media strategies, discover and share industry successes, and support the adoption of new social tools.

Emilie has helped nonprofits, businesses and newsrooms strategize captivating content and heighten audience engagement through social media for more than ten years. Previously she led digital product development, enhancement, and monetization strategies, online content innovation, and extensive training as Community Impact Newspaper Company’s first digital product manager. She oversaw a complete website redesign and content shift that led to record-breaking traffic, engagement and sales.

In 2017, she accepted four awards from LMA’s 2017 Digital Innovation Competition, including best social media strategy and best local news strategy. Last year she was named to Editor and Publisher Magazine’s 25 under 35 professionals in the industry.

Emilie is a graduate of Texas State University – San Marcos with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. She has experience working in radio and newspaper newsrooms including as a reporter, editor, community manager, managing editor, and producer. She volunteers as a board member and marketing director for the nonprofit Austin Humanists at Work.

Jim Brady

Jim Brady is the founder and CEO of Spirited Media, a mobile-focused local news startup.

Jim has spent almost 20 years in digital news, working in both digital-only and legacy operations, and has the gray, thinning hairline to prove it. He came to the digital world in April 1995 as sports editor of Digital Ink, the Washington Post’s first new media effort. He was on the core team that launched washingtonpost.com in June 1996 and has been a sucker for all things digital ever since.

Along the way, Jim has served as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, general manager of the now-deceased TBD.com, editor-in-chief of Digital First Media and in various executive roles at America Online.

During Jim’s tenure as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, the site won a national Emmy award for its Hurricane Katrina coverage, a Peabody Award for its “Being a Black Man” series, an Editor & Publisher award for Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Web Site, two Digital Edge awards for Best Overall News Site, a Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, two Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards, four Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Non-Broadcast Affiliated Web Site, and more than 100 White House News Photographers video awards.

At Digital First Media, Jim was the editor overseeing 75 daily newspapers, 292 non-daily publications and 341 online sites. He also oversaw the conception. launch and — eventually — the demise of Project Thunderdome, a centralized digital innovation hub that produced high-quality news products for DFM properties.

At TBD, Jim built a local news operation dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the Washington, D.C. region that combined the values of traditional journalism and the power of citizen journalism. As general manager of TBD, he was responsible for the business operations and editorial oversight of both TBD.com and TBD TV, a 24-hour local cable news station.

During Jim’s four-plus years at America Online, he served as Group Programming Director, News & Sports; Executive Director, Editorial Operations; and Vice President, Production & Operations. During his time at AOL, Brady was in charge of the service’s coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential election.

Jim is also a Past President of the Online News Association, where he’s been a board member since 2005. He also serves on the boards of the American Society of News Editors and the National Press Foundation, on the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute and on the advisory boards of GlobalPost, Kaiser Health News, The American University School of Communication and the Fiscal Times.

Brady earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism from The American University in 1989. Born in Queens, N.Y. and raised in Huntington, N.Y., he lives with his wife, Joan, and two stubborn beagles in Great Falls, Va.

In his spare time, Jim likes to rant on Twitter about the New York Jets, drinks an ungodly amount of Diet Pepsi, listens to Rush and, according to Philadelphia Magazine, wears Dad jeans.

Matt DeRienzo

Matt DeRienzo has worked in local journalism for more than 25 years, as a reporter, editor, publisher, teacher, regional and corporate news director, and journalism nonprofit executive director. He writes a monthly column about the media industry for Editor & Publisher magazine.

Most recently, he served as vice president of news and digital content at Hearst Connecticut, where his newsrooms produced anationwide investigation into sexual abuse connected to Boys & Girls Clubs in the summer of 2019. He oversaw the launch of six daily newspapers’ first digital subscription program, while growing overall audience and traffic at the same time.

As the first full-time executive director of LION Publishers, he helped establish a nonprofit organization supporting hundreds of local independent online news organizations across the country.

His past work as a publisher in Connecticut was recognized as one of Editor & Publisher magazine’s “10 Newspapers That Do It Right,” he was named to the magazine’s annual “25 Under 35” list of leaders in the newspaper industry, and in the fall of 2011, was awarded the Associated Press Managing Editors Innovator of the Year Award in recognition of The Register Citizen Newsroom Cafe, an “open newsroom” launched in Torrington, Connecticut.

In 2014, his efforts at the New Haven Register were recognized with the APME’s and ASNE’s Robert C. McGruder Award for Leadership in Newsroom Diversity.

Matt is a full-time single dad who lives in Litchfield, Connecticut, with his two kids, Marley and Cash.

Terese Kartholl

Peter Lamb

LMA Consultant | LAMB Consulting