LION Publishers Podcast

Kelly Gilfillan is one of the premier sales pros in LION Publishers. She started Home Page Media Group with a partner, journalist Susan Leathers, and grew it from one site in a suburb of Nashville, TN to numerous local sites in the region. We asked Kelly about sales strategy, finding sales talent, launching (and monetizing) special sections, the difficulty of expanding, financial bumps in the road and about email marketing and client service.

LION members know Matt DeRienzo from his work as our executive director. But March 6 marks a milestone for Matt: his first day as LION's *full time* ED. Thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation, Matt is focused full time on serving members and growing LION as an organization. We talked with Matt about his work with LION, his print media background, the future of LION, and what LION members are doing to sustain and distinguish themselves and grow in an increasingly Facebook-and-Google dominated online advertising landscape.

LION member Joe Hyde, publisher of San Angelo LIVE! in Texas, talked with us about a variety of topics, from earning extra revenue from programmatic advertising to keeping your readers on your site longer. He also explained how he went from flying bombers for the Air Force to starting a small ISP to launching a LION site.

Kenny Katzgrau needs no introduction for many LION members, as his company, Broadstreet Ads, is the advertising technology provider many of us rely on to keep the business side of our shops humming. We talked with Kenny about the current state of online advertising, competition with Facebook for ad dollars, and where he sees the online ad business going over the next couple of years.

Host Scott Brodbeck (ARLnow.com, RestonNow.com) interviews "OG" LION publisher Howard Owens of The Batavian and the Wyoming County Free Press. We talk about Howard's path to launching the Batavian, growing readership and advertising, and what the future might hold for LION publishers in the age of Facebook.