Winners of the 2023 TVB NEXT and TVB DEI Leadership Awards were announced yesterday at TVB’s live Executive Summit, part of this year’s hybrid Forward Conference. Every year, TVB, the not-for-profit trade association representing America’s local broadcast television industry, honors individuals and organizations who are shaping the future of local media.

“It is TVB’s honor to recognize these forward-thinking and dedicated leaders in our industry,” said Steve Lanzano, President and CEO of TVB, “The efforts, innovation and accomplishments of this year’s award recipients highlight the ongoing exciting future opportunities our industry possesses.”

TVB NEXT Awards

Since its inception in 2016, TVB’s NEXT Awards Program, underwritten by WideOrbit, gives the next generation of media leaders access to today’s thought leaders, insights into industry innovation and a leg up on career advancement at the annual TVB Forward Conference.

2023 TVB NEXT Award honorees for media buying and selling were presented by Toni Coonce, Chief Revenue Officer, WideOrbit, who had the pleasure of announcing both Nicole Besen, Buyer, Local Investment, Havas Media, and Jennifer Kempton, Account Executive, KUSA, Denver, TEGNA, as this year’s recipients of the TVB NEXT awards in Media Buying and Media Sales, respectively.

When asked about her views on the media buyer’s role over the next five to ten years, Nicole Besen said, “In the future, I see the role of media buyers expanding. I believe buyers will be responsible for multiple forms of local media, activating holistically across platforms, rather than focusing on just one piece of the puzzle.”

“Local TV has the influence to grow local businesses by reaching a loyal audience and turning them into lifelong customers,” said Jennifer Kempton, describing her views on the power of local broadcast TV and localism. “Combining the power of broadcast TV with the sight, sound, and visual elements of a local commercial creates the most effective marketing tool for businesses.”

“As a leader in broadcast advertising technology, WideOrbit is proud to be the underwriting sponsor of the TVB NEXT Awards Program,” said Toni Coonce. “We believe it is crucial for the future of our industry to support and encourage emerging talent, and the NEXT Awards recognize and honor the industry’s next generation of media buyers and sellers. Nicole and Jennifer are deserving recipients, and on behalf of all the TVB Forward Conference attendees, I congratulate them on this recognition.”

TVB DEI Leadership Awards

A new award this year, the TVB DEI Leadership Awards recognize the efforts of TVB broadcast members and media agency partners who have committed time, resources and vision toward advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion among their organizations. The new awards follow TVB’s formation last year of a task force made up of 14 broadcast member groups to help hiring managers diversify their sales teams, increase retention, and promote inclusion and belonging.

Media Agency DEI Leadership Award

The recipient of the inaugural Media Agency DEI Leadership Award is Horizon Media for their commitment to promote and represent multicultural communities, providing thought leadership to the industry, and actively creating campaigns in the DEI space. Horizon Media’s Project Embrace program helps clients reach multicultural audiences and ensures that minority-owned media compete for ad buys. Most recently, Horizon has partnered with Burst to deliver local DEI stories on local broadcast TV. Nancy Larkin EVP, Managing Partner, LocalONE Investment and DEI Impact Team Leader, Horizon Media, accepted the award on behalf of the company.

Broadcaster DEI Leadership Award

An active member of the TVB DEI task force, Cox Media Group (CMG) was recognized as the first Broadcaster DEI Leadership honoree at the TVB Executive Summit for their promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion through hiring and recruiting practices, a mentorship program, scholarship fund, and community-based campaigns. Aisha F. Thomkins, Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, for CMG accepted the award on behalf of the company.

In addition, the Ad Council Catalyst Award was presented by DJ Perera, Chief Media Officer for the Ad Council, to Allen Media Group.

About TVB

TVB is the not-for-profit trade association representing America’s local broadcast television industry, including linear and digital platforms. Its members include the U.S. television stations, television broadcast groups, advertising sales reps, syndicators, international broadcasters, and associate members. TVB actively promotes local media marketing solutions to the advertising community and works to develop advertising dollars for the medium’s multiple platforms, including on-air, online, and mobile. TVB provides a diverse variety of tools and resources, including its website, to support its members and to help advertisers make the best use of local ad dollars. For more information, visit www.tvb.org.

About WideOrbit

WideOrbit helps media companies do more business by making it easier to buy and sell advertising. Say hello to a Wider World with WideOrbit, the one platform that ties everything together, from pitch to payment. In a rapidly evolving media landscape, doing more business means doing less paper-chasing, less back-and-forth between systems, and less data re-entry. Only WideOrbit brings a Wider-World approach, providing the broader capabilities, bigger insights, and better connections that media companies need. That’s why so many industry leaders – including E.W. Scripps, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, TEGNA, Graham Media Group, and Audacy – have partnered with us.

In February 2023, WideOrbit became a part of Lumine Group, a Canadian listed company which in turn is a part of the Constellation Software Inc. (CSI) ecosystem, a multi-billion-dollar global public company. WideOrbit is headquartered in San Francisco with offices worldwide. Learn more at wideorbit.com.

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