LMA Creates Chief Content Officer Post

The Local Media Association, which serves more than 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, digital news sites, radio stations, and research and development partners, has hired David Arkin as its first chief content officer.

Arkin’s experience spans nearly 20 years as an editor and content executive. He will develop several new programs for LMA, including a Chief Content Club, a content training program and a content consulting service. He will also work on news partnerships with Facebook and Google and oversee LMA’s website and social media accounts.

Arkin has an extensive background in audience development and local media content strategies. For the past year he was chief content officer for Community Impact Newspapers, where he oversaw content operations and strategy, for both print and digital, for the company’s 22 hyper-local newspapers with a distribution of 1.7 million.  

Prior to that, he was SVP for product and development for GateHouse Media, a position he held for almost five years. His total tenure with GateHouse was nearly 10 years. During that time, he built and successfully scaled the Center for News & Design, and hired 275 people to provide original content, page design, digital development services and training. He also led the company’s content strategies and developed successful social media, video and digital storytelling strategies. In his last year, he overhauled the user experience and design of GateHouse’s 500 websites.  

He was the LMA Digital News Innovator of the Year in 2015 and has served on the Local Media Foundation board of directors for the past five years, most recently as first VP.

“The hiring of a chief content officer is the next logical move in the evolution of LMA,” said Nancy Lane, LMA president. “David Arkin is the perfect choice for this position. His approach to digital storytelling is innovative and impressive. In conjunction with this hire, we are also announcing several new programs today that will go a long way in helping local media companies with their content strategies. One is the creation of the LMA Chief Content Club, modeled after the highly successful Chief Digital Club. We also will be creating an online training program focused on audience development and digital content strategies and a content consulting service that will help news organizations address challenges and new opportunities. David will lead and develop all of these efforts.”

The Chief Content Club will pair groups of 12 managers that are in charge of digital content and audience development for their companies for the purpose of sharing, networking and learning. This club will kick-off its meetings later this summer. Like the CDC, groups will meet monthly via video calls. These groups will also have access to closed-door calls with executives at companies such as Facebook to discuss issues of importance, opportunities and concerns. The cost is $139/month and is capped at 24 people (two groups of 12) for the remainder of 2017.

Arkin started with LMA this week. He can be contacted at [email protected].