New View at the Top of The Hill

One month and change into Clifford McKinney39s pictured below right return engagement at The Hill as Vice President and Head of Sales he39s out to demonstrate there are exceptions to a familiar adage you can39t go home again and deliver exceptional advertising results to the political and policy news outlet owned by Nexstar Media GroupquotWhen I left the company a couple of years ago as Senior Account Director it was just being acquired by Nexstar and things were in a state of fluxquot McKinney recalls quotComing back I can see how things have developed and the synergies that are coming into play from a sales perspective It39s exciting to see the opportunities we have and we39re just on the verge of taking advantage of these great opportunitiesquotBefore and between his tour of duties at The Hill McKinney had roles with Bloomberg Media The Washington Post Atlantic Media ABC affiliate WJLATV in Washington DC and Roll Call All that experience in different elements of the media universe will be tapped by McKinney now that The Hill has evolved from a website that now receives over 355 million unique visitors a month to also be a video platform landing more than 46 million monthly views a MondaythroughFriday late afternoon hourlong TV program on NewsNation a thoughtleadership events powerhouse and 247 adsupported streaming channel available to viewers on smart TV sets and digital devicesA top priority for McKinney is to land more corporate advertisers for The Hill on a recurring basis stressing that this is a credible trusted nonpartisan home for their messages that has a substantial audience way beyond the DC Beltway About a third of The Hill39s video and digital viewers come from five states California Florida New York Pennsylvania and Texas quotWe want to maximize monetization of that audiencequot he continues quotThe Hill has scale on a national basis reaching over 17M affluent adults and 7M business owners and executives We have the quality audience publishers like The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have and should be considered in that competitive setquotMcKinney also wants to encourage his salespeople to package crossplatform opportunities for clients One is combo sales for The Hill39s various media properties Besides the website and video initiatives The Hill also publishes newsletters reaching more than 700000 subscribers and a live events circuit that offers between 3540 events per year on topics from health to clean energy developmentThe other is grouping The Hill with NewsNation and ad time avails on Nexstar39s local TV station websites across the country quotWe39re just figuring out how to utilize some of these relationships in local marketsquot maintains McKinney quotWe39re also working on refreshing our products and potentially introducing some new products in the near futurequotOne example of how a crossplatform partnership came together is NewsNation39s live presentation of the latest Republican Presidential Debate on December 6 from the University of Alabama The CW carried the debate live in the Eastern and Central time zones and reporters from The Hill were onsite preparing a recap of highlights and initial analysis playing on their video platforms Advertisers had the chance to get time on The Hill39s recap along with predebate newsletter spacequotMore opportunities like that will developquot McKinney promises quotWe want to arm our people and Nexstar39s national sales team going into every meeting with the opportunity to sell products across the spectrumquotWith a big Presidential election year ahead McKinney and his sales force will speak with advertisers and agencies about incorporating The Hill NewsNation and local Nexstar stations into their budgets for political primary and convention coverage He foresees a jump in sales for both political candidate and issue advocacy commercials and will have special brand safety procedures in place quotAll creative will be reviewed for airing and follow documentation guidelinesquot adds McKinney quotWe39re committed to all sides of an issue representedquotAs for The Hill39s own image before advertisers McKinney believes it will be a far stronger consistent one by Election Day 2024 quotWe want to be viewed as the nonpartisan goto news sourcequot he muses quotAbove all else we will maintain the integrity of our brand and the quality of our product giving our advertisers confidence that we are the right partner for themquotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNetamp160

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New View at the Top of The Hill

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