LMA Hires Newsroom Innovator Frank Mungeam

Frank Mungeam, Knight Professor of practice in newsroom innovation at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will join the Local Media Association on Sept. 8 as chief innovation officer, reporting to CEO Nancy Lane.

Mungeam brings to LMA a track record of leading newsroom transformation. He was previously vice president of digital content for Tegna; and most recently coached the Knight Foundation-funded Table Stakes Program for Local TV News, accelerating newsroom transformation for eight local broadcast companies.

“Frank’s leadership made the difference,” said Catherine Badalamente, vice president and chief innovation officer, Graham Media Group, and LMA’s second vice president. “Our entire team is thinking differently because of our experience with the Table Stakes program and Frank’s coaching. He is going to be a great asset to LMA and our members as we launch new labs and projects.”

While at ASU, Mungeam collaborated on experiments in local television and digital news formats and storytelling with Cronkite News students and faculty, local broadcasters, platform companies and startups. He has written and published many case studies, and he is a frequent presenter at industry events.

Before ASU, Mungeam was vice president of audience engagement and digital content at Tegna for nearly four years. In that role, he led many of the company’s innovation efforts.

At LMA, Mungeam will lead industry labs, experiments, news collaboratives and journalism funds. This includes a new lab for journalism funding that will launch in September, the Fund for Black Journalism and the Fund for Local Journalism.

“A healthy local news ecosystem is essential to the health of communities and democracy,” Mungeam said. “There is an urgent need to develop new and sustainable business models for news, and I’m excited to join the team at LMA, which has been a bold leader in this effort.”

“We are thrilled to add Frank Mungeam to our growing team,” Lane said. “He is passionate about our mission to reinvent business models for news and will make an immediate impact. I’m particularly excited for him to lead our new lab focused on funding journalism through philanthropy. The 15 participants will benefit greatly from his coaching skills and the rest of the industry will benefit from his fabulous case

LMA is in a major growth mode. In addition to hiring Mungeam, the association also just announced former Tribune/Nexstar executive Steve Baron as chief strategy officer, and Camryn Allen as philanthropy journalism coordinator.