local media insider
Case study

Leveraging a local business media into a money-making events franchise

Utah Business shows how to create an extra revenue stream

Alisa Cromer
Posted

At Utah Business, a successful statewide business magazine owned by MediaOne of Utah, events are an organic part of monthly recognition programs.

Monthly business awards luncheons created by business journals and magazines are now an important source of revenues - yielding $30,000 to $50,000 in profifts with a margin higher than 50% when produced correctly, industry sources say. 

Speaking at Newspaper Association of America's annual conference, Dan Hartman, Vice President of event business development, explained Utah Business'  strategy:

“We found that content between magazine and events is huge... that we can build opportunities to sponsor both content and events. B2B is a great place to start building higher margin events."

Typically the magazine creates a high profile recognition program, which is followed by the business event.

They include CEO of the Year, Best Company to Work For, Top 40 under 40, 30 Women to Watch, 30 Women Who Really Make a Difference, 50 fastest growing companies in the state and CXO of the year, which includes all C-level executives except the CEO.

The nomination process starts with with a panel of magazine editors with the goal of being as object as possible. May's issue selected the 30 Women To Watch:



Winners are invited to attend the recognition event, which includes an hour of networking with drinks and appetizers from 11 to noon, then an hour and a half luncheon recognition program, with high quality audio and video.

Table sponsorships are $1,500, and tickets to the luncheon are $75 each.

Additionally, there are a few events sponsors, such as WellsFargo and a major law firm.

Meanwhile, nominations for the next recognition program are starting, so there is always an application under "nominations" in the magazines top navigation bar. Nominations from the community are supplemented by editors, but help make sure that readers are included:

A continually evolving calendar of recogniitions and events keeps the community engaged and events revenues flowing. The program generates tens of thousands in events revenues a month.

MediaOn of Utah partners with other media  to assess and produce  events; see their listing in MediaExecsTech for details and contact information.

See also Governor's Summit events, also  highly profitable day long conferences for media in state capital and influential cities. 

Alisa Cromer

The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and  MediaExecsTech,  developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine,  to showcases perspectives from around the  world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.

wells fargo, business magazines, events, ceo of year, women