NAA announces winning startups for the Accelerator Pitch program at NAA mediaXchange 2015

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jan. 29, 2015 - PRLog -- The Newspaper Association of America (http://www.naa.org/) is pleased to announce the participants for its second annual Accelerator Pitch program for NAA mediaXchange 2015 (http://www.naa.org/mediaXchange.aspx), which will take place March 15-18 in Nashville. The program is an opportunity for startup companies aimed at fulfilling newspaper companies’ print, digital, mobile, audience or advertising needs to pitch industry executives who will be in attendance.

“We were overwhelmed by the response from the startup community to our Accelerator Pitch (http://www.naa.org/mediaXchange/Accelerator-Pitch.aspx) program and are excited to announce our seven winners,” said Caroline Little, NAA president and CEO. “These startups will showcase new ideas and intriguing technologies that will help newspaper media companies to continue their transformation. The rapid-fire presentations were a huge hit last year and we are confident that this year's pitches will be equally engaging and informative.”

In November and December, startup companies submitted their applications and an NAA committee judged the entries based on usefulness to newspaper media companies, innovation and creativity. The following seven companies were selected to participate, with a quote from their entry:

·        AdHusky – “We provide a self-serve Facebook ad solution for small business owners. Local media ad sales team can use our solution to help small business owners advertise on Facebook.”

·        BuzzBoard, Inc. – “BuzzBoard is a sales enablement tool that drives more efficiency and effectiveness among the local media sellers. BuzzBoard accelerates account preparation and deepens prospecting and customer engagement.”

·        Hatchback – “Hatchback is a mobile retargeting platform. It gives marketers the ability to analyze, target and engage mobile audiences using passive yet persistent contextual data.”

·        Laudd, Inc. – “Publishers are increasingly required to offer unique content in the form of interactive features, infographics, and in-depth analyses to increase web and social engagement. Laudd can dramatically increase social buzz as well as digital subscriptions for publishers, by leveraging such unique content.”

·        Okanjo – “Our ‘plug and play’ platform creates both destination shopping marketplaces and content-integrated ‘native commerce’ functionality. This arms media companies with a self-service and completely unique product offering.”

·        TouchCast – “Our software turns an iPad into a TV studio, allowing journalists with no specialized training to make high-production value digital video 4x faster than existing production methods, and at a fraction of the capital costs to outfit a studio.”

·        Trion Interactive – “We solve a major problem for publishers in the mobile space – how to correctly and effectively display video advertising across mobile properties including mobile web.”

ABOUT NAA mediaXchange 2015:
NAA mediaXchange 2015 will take place from March 15-18, 2015, at the Omni Nashville. The theme of the conference is the critical role newspaper media play in storytelling, in facing outward to our communities and in improving the quality of our lives. The conference is designed to inspire and provide valuable ideas to help newspaper professionals grow audience and revenue for their print and digital products. Visit www.naa.org/mediaXchange for more information.