Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Manager, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org
571.366.1009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NAA Announces Winners of 3rd Annual Accelerator Pitch Program
Winning media startups will present at NAA mediaXchange 2016 in Washington, DC
February 23, 2016
Arlington, Va. – The Newspaper Association of America today announced the seven winning media startups that will participate in the third annual Accelerator Pitch Program at NAA mediaXchange 2016, which will take place April 17-20, 2016 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. The program showcases new businesses that fulfill newspapers’ print, digital, mobile, audience and/or advertising needs, and the winners are awarded the opportunity to directly pitch their innovative solutions to approximately 1,000 top news media and advertising executives attending the conference.
“Each of these winning startups has created a product or service that has the potential to greatly benefit news companies, and we are thrilled to feature them in the third annual Accelerator Pitch Program,” said David Chavern, NAA President and CEO. “Our members are actively seeking innovative solutions to grow audience and revenue, and the Accelerator Pitch presentations offer new ideas they can implement. We have been very happy with the positive response to the program since its launch three years ago, and we look forward to this Accelerator Pitch program being the best yet.”
Past Accelerator Pitch program winners reported significant interest from leading publishers and industry executives following their participation in the program, elevating their business to a new level.
This year’s submissions were judged by an NAA committee based on usefulness to newspaper media companies, innovation and creativity. The following seven companies were selected to participate, with a quote from their entry:
AdCellerant (Denver, CO) – “AdCellerant is an ad technology company focused on providing digital marketing services to small business owners through its relationships with media companies. The company executes and manages digital marketing campaigns on behalf of media companies and their small business clients.”
Brand X Mobile (Durham, NC) –”Brand X Mobile is a mobile first marketing, strategy and technology firm. It focuses on building Awesome Mobile Experiences and designs, manages and supports an organization’s web, social and marketing efforts.”
Dimples (Ebensburg, PA) –”Dimples enables newspaper publishers to significantly reduce the burden of ink usage while retaining typographic appearance. It is a prepress font-based ink saving solution that complements downstream ink optimizers by applying perforations — or dimples — to the fonts in publishers’ font libraries.”
Keywee (New York, NY) “Keywee cost-effectively uses content – such as newspaper articles – to find new audiences on platforms such as Facebook and Yahoo to drive paid subscriptions and newsletter sign-ups, expand readership through audience development and boost exposure for branded content initiatives.”
NewsPix (Cambridge, MA) –“NewsPix creates a tighter bond between the newsroom and readers by subtly presenting a steady stream of top quality news pictures taken by newsroom photographers to drive more traffic to their webpages and keep their brand in front of readers.”
Stringr (New York, NY) –”Stringr allows customers to request custom video content nationwide, leveraging more than 11,000 videographers’ talents. Customers can review videos that are already in the Stringr archive or they can make custom requests.”
TicketSauce (San Diego, CA) – “TicketSauce is a private label ‘Software as a Service’ event management solution focusing on growing transactional revenue for media companies with ticketing service fees. By providing the ability for media companies to resale the product in their local markets, these companies can now provide clients a total event management solution along with servicing their advertising needs.”
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About NAA mediaXchange 2016
NAA mediaXchange 2016 will take place from April 17-20, 2016, at the Marriott Marquis Washington, DC. The conference is designed to inspire and provide valuable ideas to help newspaper professionals grow audience and revenue for their print and digital products. The theme of the conference is “local” — the importance of newspapers in providing localized knowledge and information, engaging and improving the lives of their local communities. Previous Washington conferences featured speeches from the top presidential candidates. We hope to add the leading 2016 candidates to the event, making it a particularly noteworthy affair for all attendees. For more information, visit www.newsmedia.com/events/mediaxchange.
About NAA
NAA is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 newspapers and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and Canada. NAA members include daily newspapers, as well as nondailies, other print publications and online products. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on the major issues that affect today’s newspaper industry: public policy/legal matters, advertising revenue growth and audience development across the medium’s broad portfolio of products and digital platforms. Information about the association and the industry also may be found at www.newsmedia.com.
Lindsey is Director, Communications at the News/Media Alliance. She has over 15 years of experience working in communications for nonprofits.
