2022 Local Media Digital Innovation Award Winners – Local Media Association + Local Media Foundation
This contest recognizes the best in local digital media in 15 categories such as Best Local Website, Best Virtual Event, Best Branded Content Strategy and more. It is a highly competitive contest designed to recognize both large and small media companies for their outstanding and innovative work.
It is FREE for local media companies to enter the contest thanks to our supporting sponsors.
Best Reader Revenue Strategy, sponsored by BlueLena
This award recognizes exceptional strategy and execution of a new consumer revenue initiative. This can include digital subscriptions, membership, e-commerce, targeted marketing, and other local media revenue opportunities.
WINNERS:
First Place
Mississippi Today
mississippitoday.org
Judge’s Comments: Mississippi Today offers an exemplary case study of leveraging their core asset — watchdog reporting in service of the community — to generate new reader revenue. What’s most impressive is how the entire organization rallied behind this initiative, despite the traditional church-and-state “we can’t talk with each other” operating mentality. The thorough, full-funnel, cross-departmental audience plan was “innovative” and the calls to action were “aggressive” and effective.
Second Place
Shaw Media
ShawMedia.com
Judge’s Comments: Outstanding execution. Not only did Shaw smartly optimize their marketing tactics, but they listened to their subscribers and prioritized reader value (e.g. more breaking news alerts), fueling their impressive 28% improvement in retention. Using paid social to promote high-performing content to at-risk subscribers demonstrates commitment to experimentation in pursuit of a clear goal. Great to see such specific outcomes and results.
Third Place
Madison Minutes
madisonminutes.com
Judge’s Comments: The radical candor displayed in the Madison Minute’s membership campaign is a refreshing alternative to the user data “arms race.” They’re successfully growing revenue by understanding their audience and talking to them like the friends and neighbors they are. The results demonstrate and remind us that smart strategy can accelerate growth even without tech tools and vendors.
Best Event (Virtual or Live)
We’re looking for the best single example of an in-person or virtual event to take home this award. We want to know all about it; from planning to ticket sales to revenue earned, and how successful this event was for your brand.
Judge’s Comments: Lots of opportunity for expansion. In true Village Media style, you found something meaningful, replicable and monetizable that brings value to your communities. The video production is great, and sponsors are appropriately represented. Nicely done!
Second Place
Cardinal News
cardinalnews.org
The Cardinal News speaker series
Judge’s Comments: What an inspirational story and fantastic outcome. This demonstrates such entrepreneurial spirit. You clearly know what your audience cares about. It was encouraging to read about the donations and new newsletter subscribers, the welcome and thank-you series, but mostly about how your success led to additional events. Congratulations.
Third Place
The Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/
State of Black Women event
Judge’s Comments: Congratulations for listening to and serving your community with this vital information and on attracting revenue from sponsors.
More than 250,001 monthly unique visitors
First Place
The Texas Tribune
texastribune.org
The Future of Rural Texas Symposium
Judge’s Comments: An important and well-devised event for communities that may not always get as much attention as they deserve in the state capitol.
Best Social Media Engagement Strategy, sponsored by Social News Desk
This award recognizes the most successful and creative plans for leveraging social media to expand audience and heighten engagement. Judges looked for exciting and new approaches to using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Nextdoor, TikTok, and others, that inspire audiences to connect with media and their local community.
First Place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/
Judge’s Comments: The social posts have clear engaging text over relevant video. The visuals match the text and subject matter and encourage people to click to watch the video. In our fast-paced world, you have just a second or two to grab someone’s attention, and these posts’ visuals and subject matter do a great job of that.
Second Place
The Kansas City Defender
kansascitydefender.com
Judge’s Comments: This social media strategy is definitely on the right track. I’m not a TikTok user but I loved the example because it was raw, unscripted and fit the demographic.
More than 250,000 unique monthly visitors
First Place
WJXT-4 News4JAX
News4JAX.com
Judge’s Comments: This is such an important point: ‘News4JAX uses its social platforms to connect, inform and inspire its viewers with extra content and conversations they won’t see during our on-air coverage.’ Every media coverage should treat social as stand-alone, not as a way to get audience to the main product (website, broadcast, etc). This organization does a good job at that, with extra content just for streamers and TikTok news.
Second Place
PIX11 News
http://www.pix11.com
Judge’s Comments: These are great examples of how this news organization covered one very major event. The team was extremely organized and already had a breaking news plan in place. But what is the plan when there isn’t breaking news? That’s when coverage can actually be more challenging because you have to think deeper about what’s really important to your audience on a day like that. Every media organization should make the non-breaking news plan a priority as well.
Honorable Mention
OutThere Colorado
https://www.outtherecolorado.com/
Judge’s Comments: I want to highlight the use of the Facebook group by this organization. This is a perfect way to build a loyal fanbase and include your audience in your content. It works really well around specific topics (the love of your area).
Best Local Website, sponsored by Newspack
This award recognizes the best all-around local media websites. Judges considered all aspects, including user and customer experience, site design and organization, brand continuity, content (is it local and relevant?), use of photos, graphics and video, opportunities for user engagement, presentation of advertising, mobile adaptability, and more.
First Place
PublicSource
https://www.publicsource.org
Judge’s comments: I’m choosing PublicSource for best local website for several reasons. While a glimpse at the home page might feel familiar design-wise, PublicSource truly covers the gamut of happenings in Pittsburgh. From deeply reported investigative pieces to charming first-person stories, spending time on PublicSource.org feels like a warm welcome to all things Pittsburgh – from the devastating to the inspiring. Aside from the breadth of content, many of the stories on PublicSource are visually stunning – beautiful photography and videography, helpful explainer graphics – elements that all feel supportive and additive to the experience and not confusing or distracting. The clean design and navigation translate to the mobile experience seamlessly and advertisements are subtle and respectful to the user. All in all, PublicSource exemplifies what it means to be a clear, trusted resource in their community – by leading with compelling journalism and storytelling and supporting it with beautiful design.
Second Place
Bay City News Foundation
LocalNewsMatters.org
Judge’s Comments: I’m selecting Bay City News Foundation/LocalNewsMatters.org for 2nd place/runner-up for best local website. The overall design for LocalNewsMatters.org is clean, modern, and hypervisual – using card style treatments giving the home page an image-first, Instagram-like feel, especially on mobile. Their databases and resource hubs are useful and easy to navigate through to find the information you need. And their interactive pieces – especially their interactive news map – put a unique spin on helping readers find the news most relevant to them.
Third Place
Volume One
http://www.volumeone.org
Judge’s Comments: In 3rd place for best local website, I’m selecting Volume One. Their approach to tagging/labeling articles provides an easy path for users to navigate through relevant content. Their local guides are some of the best digital guides I’ve seen and are extremely intuitive, relevant, and helpful. Their events calendar is also top-notch – easy to filter on a number of variables, including time frame, event type, and neighborhood. VolumeOne.org seems to focus on utility for its readers – from its website design and experience to the content itself – surely making it an invaluable resource for locals.
250,001 or more unique monthly visitors
First Place
Texas Tribune
texastribune.org
Judge’s comments: There’s a reason the Texas Tribune is known not just throughout Texas, but throughout the country. The organization makes good on its promise to its audience, in a thoughtful, clear, clean and respectful way. The desktop site is crisp, and the mobile site is excellent. It’s easy to navigate and simple to find the news of the day, as well as ongoing coverage of topics like Uvalde. The journalism is stellar. Every journalist student (and journalist) could benefit by spending some time reading the Texas Tribune.
Second Place
Community Impact
http://www.communityimpact.com
Judge’s Comments: This is a very clean site with good ad placement (such a tricky thing). It stands true to its name – by providing hyperlocal community coverage with impact.
Third Place
Noozhawk
http://www.noozhawk.com
Judge’s comments: This is a very clean site with good ad placement (such a tricky thing). It stands true to its name – by providing hyperlocal community coverage with impact.
Honorable Mention
OutThere Colorado
http://www.outtherecolorado.com
Judge’s Comments: The niche audience served well with good stories and great visuals
Honorable Mention
WSLS
wsls.com
Judge’s Comments: I really like the Digital Transparency Guide and the Watch Live page, with the schedule right there for viewers.
Best Audience Listening Strategy, sponsored by FUTURI
This award recognizes the collective efforts of a newsroom to create a strategy around listening to audiences and what changes were made to newsroom strategy as a result of those listening efforts. This strategy could be a new product or tool meant to gather audience input, a reader survey, an event series, or some other content type focused on listening.
First Place
Epicenter, TBN 24 and ClearHealthCosts
Taskforce for Racial Inclusion and Equity program.
Judge’s Comments: This project is truly inspiring. Partnering with two other news organizations to bring a life-saving vaccine to a community in need brings new meaning to journalism’s mission of ‘serving the public.’ The group partnered on a vaccine van location and on transportation to bring residents to the van. This line right here says it all: ‘Meeting people where they are. Engagement. Listening.’ This is how journalism changes peoples’ lives.
Second Place
Conecta Arizona
http://www.conectaarizona.com
Judge’s Comments: This team was very smart about meeting people where they were – using WhatsApp and text messages! They interviewed hundreds of people to learn what coverage was important to them and then carried through. They made it super easy to sign up for the newsletter, and I loved the use of substack as a ‘website.’
Honorable Mention
RJ Media Group
http://www.myrecordjournal.com/Latino-reporting-Lab
Judge’s Comments: Another robust and well-thought-out initiative to serve an underserved audience. I liked the journalists’ thoughts on What the Lab Means to our Staff.
Honorable Mention
WBEZ-FM, Chicago Public Media
http://www.wbez.org
Judge’s Comments: Great initiative to serve a very underserved audience on a platform they have access to. I love this: ‘This was an exercise in power-sharing and using our journalistic and audio expertise to serve an oft-forgotten community with the content they told us they wanted to hear.’
Best Product Initiative
Launching a new digital initiative takes time and resources, so this award showcases the best use of both that drove positive results. This broad category can encompass a public-facing or internal digital initiative launched in the last year, such as streaming/OTT/CTV, podcasting, virtual reality, insight selling, custom CMS, or something new and emerging.
First Place
Cruzando Líneas by Conecta Arizona
http://www.cruzandolineas.com
Judge’s Comments: The mission, goals and strategy of the podcast are both clear and important. I appreciate the focus on providing perspective about the border for an audience that is likely underserved with that kind of content. The distribution strategy is effective and shows that you know your audience. The use of WhatsApp and partnership with other media organizations helps expand your reach and also reach people who have limited internet access and other barriers to information. I’m impressed not only with the execution of the product but also with the success of forming partnerships and creating distribution channels that help people find and access this content. This is an example of a product that clearly meets an audience need, as demonstrated by the number of listens and downloads.
Second Place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/
Judge’s Comments: Targeting specific audiences rather than general audiences seems to work for you in multiple ways: driving revenue from branded content and events, organizing content to help your audiences navigate your product, and moving people through your funnel by providing them with information about specific topics they value. It’s encouraging that you’re already planning to iterate and add additional content to channels. As you continue to learn about what your audiences are most interested in, you’ll easily be able to make decisions about adding or changing channels in the future. This approach to product development should set you up for quick iteration based on what you learn from your audiences.
Third Place
Montana Free Press
https://montanafreepress.org
Judge’s Comments: Voter guides like these provide important civic information to communities during election season. Your guide was designed in a way that was clear to navigate and find basic details about the candidates. I also appreciated the “how to vote” section of the guide. The metrics show that your audience benefited from this guide and that it filled a need they had for comprehensive election information.
Honorable Mention
Village Media
https://www.sootoday.com/insidethevillage/inside-the-village-young-lotto-winner-determined-to-give-back-to-community-6485614
Judge’s Comments: The behind-the-scenes approach is engaging and provides a different style that sets it apart from other Village Media offerings. The revenue generated in such a short timeframe is a test case for future gains. Well done on impressive audience engagement metrics!
More than 250,000 monthly unique visitors
First Place
Capital City Press LLC
NOLA.com
Judge’s Comments: Sometimes news organizations forget that sometimes their audiences want to be entertained as much as they want to be informed, but you have figured out a creative approach to provide both local information and entertainment in one product. The local phrases or words as answers make this game unique and different from those offered by national publications or sites. The approach of offering this to paid subscribers as a value-add should also draw in new subscribers to receive the same benefit, in addition to decreasing churn rates for existing subscribers.
Second Place
Stacker Media
stackermedia.com
Judge’s Comments: As you mention, “a great product always starts with a problem to solve,” and in this case you clearly responded to your partners’ needs for low-friction ways to find and publish sydnicateds tories. The platform seems use friendly and intuitive to use. I also appreciate the iterative nature of planning for future features of ths product and expanding its use. This is a product that seems to provide your partners as much value as it provides you.
Third Place
WNJU / Telemundo 47
https://www.telemundo47.com
Judge’s Comments: This initiative was clearly designed to meet a need that you discovered about your audience, and the audience metrics back up the use case. The content is engaging and accessible, and the incremental revenue gained show that this initiative has business value as well. I’m impressed that the reach has been organic. There’s so much potential for future growth!
Honorable Mention
Arizona Central
https://www.azcentral.com/
Judge’s Comments: This initiative is a creative solution for the challenges of collecting first-party data, and the information can be valuable for a number of use cases for audience development, editorial strategy and, of course, advertising. The high engagement rate is clearly an indicator that this works as a solution. The next story to tell will be about the business and editorial use cases and how the information gained from this tool will be used.
Best Digital News Project
The award for best digital news project will be given to entries that display captivating, innovative, and intentional storytelling. This can be a single piece, a collection, or an ongoing journalism series. Did you take an investigative story, a big project, or a continuing topic and tell the story as no one else could? Did you build a digital experience that was enjoyable to read and interactive?
Judge’s Comments: A mobile-friendly design to this people-first story. The pull quotes, the shorter paragraphs all make for easier consumption of these stories… all people repping the neighbor of someone else.
Second Place
MoCo360
moco360.media
Judge’s Comments: With a mobile-responsive website, it was a smart play by the organization to embed the vertical Instagram video on the story instead of going with the classic, horizontal video at the top of the story.
Third Place
PublicSource
https://www.publicsource.org
Judge’s Comments: A powerful piece of reporting. The few IG posts were interesting and drew praise; I also noted the custom, easy-to-remember URL for those who want to read more. Hitting the newsfeeds of Gen Y and Z is a must in a series of this nature.
250,001 or more unique monthly visitors
First Place
The Oregonian/OregonLive
http://www.OregonLive.com
Judge’s Comments: This gorgeous and captivating digital presentation honors and reflects the care and respect woven into this team’s reporting. Kudos for the innovative use of a “story booth” to help students, teachers and counselors tell their stories in their own words. Beyond the compelling user experience, this award honors the Oregonian’ s commitment to and significant investment in responsible storytelling. Bravo! Way to raise the bar.
Second Place
WPRI-TV
wpri.com
Judge’s Comments: The “12 on 12” digital experiences offer well-designed, thoughtfully-organized “deep dives” into WPRI’s investigative journalism. More than just a gallery of coverage, WPRI’s actionable links to external resources encourage meaningful user engagement.
Honorable Mention
News 12 Digital
http://www.news12.com
Judge’s Comments: The interactive timeline alone demonstrates Tara Rosenblum’s dedication and commitment to pursuing this story and advocating for safety in Rockland County. News12 has assembled and organized a wealth of information in an easy-to-digest format.
Honorable Mention
KGW News
kgw.com
Judge’s Comments: This digital extension of KGW’s “One Day” documentary offers a compelling entry point into the 14 unique perspectives on Portland’s housing crisis, connecting viewers not only with new faces and underrepresented voices, but inspiring them with ways to get involved and support the various solutions being tested in the community. The presentation stands out for its thoughtful and mobile-friendly packaging: offering more than a set of embedded video players.
Best Contest and/or Promotion, sponsored by Upland
This award will recognize a contest or promotion that was above and beyond expectations.
Judge’s Comments: This was a strong campaign, with high participation rates resulting in a very low customer acquisition cost, especially considering the value exchange Stratford Today could have with those newsletter subscribers in the long term.
Second Place
Anchorage Daily News
https://www.adn.com/
Judge’s Comments: A smart, straightforward execution with high margins. More news organizations should look for locally relevant opportunities like this.
Third Place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/
Judge’s Comments: Well conceived and organized campaign, all for the betterment of the community. Impressive to see how the goals of content creation, citizen engagement and return on investment can be achieved in the same campaign.
Best Branded Content Strategy
Branded content is a powerful way to combine what publishers and local newsrooms do best: storytelling and helping businesses grow. This award showcases the very best in branded content initiatives.
Judge’s Comments: A significant effort with well-produced stories that should pay dividends long after the last frame is filmed.
Second Place
Foundry425 at StarTribune
http://www.foundry425.com
Judge’s Comments: The video storytelling is beautifully done. The Foundry website is well organized and full of examples that would give a client confidence in a tailored approach. Overall a well-executed campaign.
Third Place
Adams Publishing Group-East Central Minnesota Group
http://www.southernminn.com
Judge’s Comments: Clear message and results. Love the audio option. Seems like a solid ROI.
250,001 and more monthly unique visitors
Judge’s Comments: Great work at recognizing an opportunity and running with it. I’m impressed with the execution of branded content into a targeted newsletter with so many sponsors.
Second Place
Newsday Media Group
http://www.newsday.com
Judge’s Comments: Fantastic results measurement and reporting, not just on revenue, but the number of new BC clients and how many plan to advertise or participate in a new BC program. Time spent with the content is a great sign that the content met the expectations of the readers. A smart way to support the local community while also generating revenue for all involved. This work will be referenced long after the initial campaigns are over and provides a smart blueprint for future work.
Best Philanthropy Journalism and/or Fundraising Campaign
Funding important local reporting through philanthropy and fundraising is emerging as an additional pillar to support journalism. This award seeks to highlight creative, effective fundraising efforts that have impacted local publishers’ ability to fund journalism’s critical work.
Judge’s Comments: The community-focused approach to fundraising and incorporating the needs of community members into the strategy puts this strategy ahead of others. The team has raised an impressive amount of funds, showing a need for this kind of coverage and focus. What’s most impressive is the impact made by this fundraising approach. The community conversation event shows that people value this information and are willing to fund it to keep it going. Overall, this was a great example of a targeted fundraising strategy that used multiple sources and directed the funds for a specific project that had major impact in the community.
Second Place
Jacksonville Today, a product of WJCT Public Media
jaxtoday.org
Judge’s Comments: This campaign had an impressive outcome by exceeding goals, but I was most impressed by the strategy. The campaign not only raised funds for Jacksonville Today; it also raised awareness of the importance of supporting local news through philanthropic funding. This kind of campaign benefits both the news organization and the ecosystem at large. I have no doubt that this is a replicable campaign that will only show growth in fundraising year after year.
Third Place
The New York Amsterdam News
http://www.amsterdamnews.com
Judge’s Comments: The impact stands out! This approach to fundraising led to specific outcomes in reporting for a specific community that has been underserved by other media. In addition to funding reporters, the use of funds for product improvements shows that this team is thinking about the experience of its audiences.
Best Local Newsletter / Email Strategy, sponsored by Social News Desk
While the death of email has been long-predicted, it’s turned into one of the most significant growth areas for many publishers, bringing with it new engagement opportunities and ways to bring in additional revenue. This award will honor the best strategies related to email campaigns designed to connect local news consumers with content right in their inboxes.
250,000 or less unique monthly visitors
First Place
Jacksonville Today, a product of WJCT Public Media
jaxtoday.org
Judge’s Comments: I love so much about this newsletter! The content is engaging. The design is clean and easy to navigate. The goals of helping people feel more connected to each other and to Jacksonville are admirable. And, the strategy and tactics used to grow the list have certainly worked, with impressive growth in just over a year. The above-average open rate shows that people value receiving this newsletter. Well done!
Second Place
Houston Defender Network
https://defendernetwork.com/
Judge’s Comments: What impressive growth using a strategy of multiple platforms that complemented one another! I especially appreciate the understanding that gaining sign-ups is only part of the plan, and that moving people through a loyalty funnel is the true aim. The newsletters are designed professionally and provide an engaging experience for readers, and your welcome series seems to help your audiences learn more about your work as well as your team.
Third Place
Chatham News + Record
http://www.chathamnewsrecord.com
Judge’s Comments: The newsletter provides an engaging way to dive into stories and also view the front page of the print edition. The highlights from the week are scannable and fun to read, with emojis and brief statements about topics in the news. From a business and audience development strategy, it’s clear the newsletters also generate revenue and lead to subscriptions.
Honorable Mention
NonDoc Media
http://www.nondoc.com
Judge’s Comments: I like the variety of newsletter types and topics that you provide. There’s something for everyone, whether they want a run-down of stories from the week or updates about local government. The Monday Minute is a creative way to provide updates that are quick to read and digest. The narrative style of the Monday Minute and Edmond newsletters makes them engaging and interesting to read. Well done on the open and growth rates. There’s no doubt future campaigns and calls to action will be successful in increasing sign-ups.
250,001 or more unique monthly visitors
Judge’s Comments: I’m choosing Community Impact’s newsletter strategy for best newsletter/email strategy. Their hyperlocal, daily newsletter has a succinct, informative, and, at times, fun format that gives the reader the day’s top stories – and entices just enough to encourage clickthrough. A good newsletter strikes the right balance between brevity and detail – and these newsletters do just that. And the design – from font choice, to emoji use, to labeling – make it easy to skim or read line by line.
Second Place
KGW News
https://www.kgw.com/
Judge’s Notes: I’m selecting KGW News for 2nd place for best newsletter/email strategy. By sticking to a clear “3 Things to Know” format – KGW does a great job of setting a reader’s expectations and boiling down all of the headlines into the 3 most important things to know. They also incorporate engagement opportunities with video and reader-submitted photos.
Third Place
The Daily Memphian
https://dailymemphian.com/
Judge’s Comments: I’m selecting The Daily Memphian’s Early Word newsletter for 3rd place for best newsletter/email strategy. I appreciate the “voice” of their newsletter and how it feels like a friend giving you the rundown of the day’s top stories. They do a good job of keeping everything you might want to know contained to the newsletter (no need to click through to the site) and cover a wide range of topics on a daily basis to leave you feeling well-informed.
Best R&D Partner
This award allows media companies to share an R&D company/industry provider that helped drive new digital revenue and results for your company: the more detail, the better.
Second Place
SEMRush
https://www.semrush.com
Customer comments: Their training was top-notch, patiently explaining how to use their tools. But what we really appreciated was the follow-up with tips and tricks that we could apply to our specific use cases. They’ve been a great partner, and we look forward to another year with SEMRush.
Third Place
Broadstreet
https://broadstreetads.com
Customer comments: Broadstreet’s team has helped us customize some of their templates to give our clients customized looks in some of their ad formats. (i.e. larger logo, centered) They are always willing to assist in special requests in a timely and professional way. We recently migrated our website to Newspack, and they worked with us on our mobile ad implementation at no additional cost.
Digital Innovators of the Year
This year’s contest was judged by some of the industry’s leading consultants. Thank you to our following judges: Dorrine Mendoza, Eric Brandner, Evonne Benedict, Jason Jedlinski, Mariah Craddick, Sam Ragland, and Shannon Bowen