Local Media Consortium Names Executive Board

The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a strategic alliance of leading local media companies, elected executive board members Nicole Goksel of Tribune Media, Jeff Moriarty from GateHouse Media and Newsday’s Andrea Rothchild. These newly elected board members will join the 10-person committee, which is comprised of executive digital leadership from a broad range of member companies.

“We look forward to working with our 2019 board to identify compelling new opportunities and revenue streams that leverage the scale of our combined membership, particularly programs and partnerships that deliver member value around consumer data, ad revenue, subscription models and operational costs,” said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. “The board will focus on strategic priorities to reach our goal of delivering $10 million in economic value per year through partnerships that increase revenue or reduce cost across all members.”

Chaired by Christopher Loretto, Digital First Media’s chief digital officer and EVP digital, the board guides the LMC in its mission to support local media and deliver economic benefit to its members.

“We are energized by the opportunities ahead for the LMC to expand member opportunities to drive revenue, fuel pathways for improved subscription and user-pay models, and drive adoption of more cost-effective operations platforms,” said Loretto. “Under Fran Wills’ new leadership and with the addition of this diverse and dynamic board, the LMC is ideally poised to invest in and deliver on new programs that offer a quantifiable impact to the local media industry.”

Nicole Goksel has more than a decade of experience in digital advertising and revenue capacities. As senior director of digital revenue operations for Tribune Media, she leads the operations team accountable for millions of dollars in advertising revenue across 42 digital properties with more than 50 million unique users. She oversees a team responsible for ad technology, ad servers and reporting capabilities performing at optimal levels to support digital revenue growth.

Jeff Moriarty has over 20 years of success building digital news and commercial businesses in both the U.S. and the U.K. As senior vice president of digital for GateHouse, Moriarty is responsible for guiding the company’s digital vision, product development and audience growth roadmap. Moriarty’s experience in the U.K. will be an asset as the LMC considers expansion beyond the U.S.

Andrea Rothchild, senior vice president, advertising sales at Newsday, has a 25-year career in the media industry.  She oversees sales strategy, execution and revenue growth for Newsday Media Group across a diversified product line including print, digital, live events and digital marketing services. Rothchild was also instrumental in the creation of Brand360, a Newsday branded content studio that offers clients custom, strategic marketing solutions to leverage the strength of the Newsday brands across all platforms. Under Rothchild’s guidance and leadership, Brand360 has grown to be a significant division within Newsday Media Group, and has earned numerous awards and recognition, including an International News Media Association’s global media award in 2017.

The newly elected board members replace departing members Eric Johnston of Adams Publishing, Peter Newton from GateHouse Media and Thom Kastrup from BH Media, who have completed their two-year terms. Returning to the board this year are James Green from Lee Enterprises, Andrew Pergam of McClatchy, Mike Orren from A.H. Belo Corporation, Doug Phares from Sandusky Newspaper Group, Tom Sly from the E.W. Scripps Company and Gary Smith from The Seattle Times.

All terms are elected and take effect Jan. 1, 2019.

The board meets quarterly in person and monthly via teleconference.