Ideas For Boosting Audience On Linear And Digital In ’22

Digital and newsroom leaders will offer practical, scalable tips for growing audiences on both stations’ linear and digital platforms in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar, Boosting Audience on Linear and Digital, scheduled for Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. ET.

Panelists will share novel and proven approaches for audience-building using newsletters, user-generated content, citizen journalism and the latest in social media strategies during the hour-long webinar.

“The playbook for building and holding on to audiences in a highly-fragmented local news ecosystem is always changing, and this webinar will hone in on some of the more creative and replicable moves we’ve seen recently,” said Michael Depp, TVNewsCheck’s editor.

Register here.

Speakers:

Ken Haddad, Special Projects Manager, WDIV Detroit — Day-to-day, he produces and manages the station’s portfolio of newsletters, WDIV’s free membership program and develops content strategy for news, sales and programming.

Jennifer Rigby, News Director, WXIA Atlanta — She oversees news and content of two television stations, WXIA and WATL, as well as 11Alive.com.  She joined 11Alive in November 2014.

She was previously VP of live programming at The Weather Channel television network, responsible for more than 99 hours per week of live programming. She joined the network in 2010 as multimedia content director, coordinating coverage on all platforms and also held the role of senior director coverage and talent.

Prior to The Weather Channel, Rigby was senior consultant at SmithGeiger, where she worked with various television stations in news, marketing and online strategies. Previously, Rigby led three Cox newsrooms as news director at WSB in Atlanta, WPXI in Pittsburgh and WHIO in Dayton. Rigby was the first female news director at all three stations and was the first and only female news director in Atlanta during her tenure.

During her 37-year career, Rigby also worked as executive producer and assistant news director at KFSN Fresno, Calif., and held producer positions at KTSP (now KSAZ) in Phoenix and KTVX in Salt Lake City. She started her career at KTVX before graduating from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Rigby is an alumna of Leadership Atlanta.

Joanie Vasiliadis, VP Digital Content, Tegna — She supports 49 local newsrooms across the country as they transform their content to keep up with changing platforms and audiences.

After graduating from Penn State, Vasiliadis started her career at WUSA, Tegna’s CBS affiliate in Washington where she went from digital producer to leading the station’s digital team in just a few years. Since joining the corporate team, she has built a national digital desk, launched good-news brand HeartThreads, led the debut of Verify on Snapchat and grown Tegna into a top 50 Comscore network. Vasiliadis was recently named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media 2021 list.

Apryl Pilolli, Head of Product and Innovation, Social News Desk — She is tasked with creating new technology solutions to help newsrooms generate audience and revenue. Pilolli is a social and digital expert with 20-plus years of experience in the local media industry. Apryl spent 12 years at Cox Media Group, leading social strategy across content, marketing, and sales.

Manny Fantis, Senior Director of Digital News and Publishing, Sinclair Broadcast Group — He has been a broadcaster since he was a teen, starting at a small station in Salisbury, Md., as a studio tech in 1995 and moving up the ranks.

Fantis’ career aligned with the digital news and social media boom. So, it was great timing for him to move from reporting and news management into the digital side of the business and dive deep into how people behave online. As more people started using their phones for news consumption, Fantis shifted his focus to mobile strategies, like push notifications and social media stories.

In 2015 he joined Sinclair Broadcast Group where he now leads the digital news efforts, overseeing more than 80 news operations’ digital products.

Tim Wolff, VP of TV and Digital Publishing Innovation, Futuri — He has 20-plus years of experience as a digital and broadcasting leader and now works with media outlets to leverage AI with Futuri’s TopicPulse, TopLine and POST systems. Wolff holds a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Michael Depp, Editor, TVNewsCheck (moderator)