Penny Riordan is the Director of Business Strategy and Partnerships for Local Media Association. She runs the LMA Digital Club, including two web conferences per month where members collaborate with industry peers on important digital revenue, product, audience and content topics. Penny also supports the work of the Oklahoma Media Center and LMA’s new initiative on locals news startups with the Tributary in Jacksonville, FL.

Prior to joining LMA, Penny worked for six years at Gannett and GateHouse. She helped run GateHouse’s digital strategy and led monthly calls on best practices with digital editors across the country. Penny also led product initiatives on analytics, audience engagement, comments, and social media platforms. Prior to GateHouse, she spent 4 years at Patch.com, first launching a site in Maryland and later moving to the corporate staff to run the company’s blogging and UGC efforts. Penny started her journalism career at a daily newspaper in Connecticut and worked at newspapers in Maryland. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park. She was also the local chapter organiser of the Online News Association for several years and loves making connections in the industry.

Penny lives in Austin, Texas. When she’s not working, she is doing yoga, going for a run, or rock climbing (both indoors and out) with her husband. Penny had her first experience with nonprofits serving on the boards of rock climbing advocacy organisations in Maryland and Texas.