Project Will Help Local Media Expand and Improve Branded Content Programs Through Funding Grant

The Local Media Consortium (LMC) and the Local Media Association (LMA), two of the local media industry’s most innovative organizations, have announced a call for applications, inviting media organizations to apply to participate in a pilot project focused on helping local newsrooms develop revenue streams through branded content. Through an innovative partnership between the LMC and the LMA and funded by the Facebook Journalism Project, this branded content project will provide grant money to 3-5 organizations that have achieved some success with their branded content program to expand their program while increasing revenue.

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Branded content uses the strength of storytelling to provide a valuable benefit to advertisers while increasing audience engagement and revenue for local media publishers. This powerful revenue stream has shown to be a success for many media organizations. The branded content project is designed to help facilitate additional growth, engagement and success for more publishers of all shapes and sizes.

“Research has shown that good branded content can have a positive emotional impact on people and ultimately improve ROI for brands, advertisers and media companies,” said Branded Content Project Lead Julia Campbell. “As local media companies explore new revenue streams, we are excited to be able to help the selected applicants expand their branded content programs and potentially increase revenue and audience engagement.”

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The branded content project is part of a $1 million investment from the Facebook Journalism Project to help more than 2,000 local newsrooms across both the LMA and LMC membership better understand, develop and implement revenue streams through branded content both on and off Facebook.

For this project, branded content is defined as any sales initiative that uses content to engage the user and is paid for by a client who participates as part of the content, helps supply the content or sponsors the content that is distributed across any platform. Native advertising articles, social videos with a sponsor tag or element, product placement, sponsored live events, sponsored collections of stories or paid video segments are examples and included inside our definition of branded content.

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