JOHN A. NEWBY - Founder
Favorite Quote: “If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less.”
John’s has experienced a unique and diverse career path providing him with a set of unique perspectives and qualifications. His experiences across many disciplines have allowed him to blend several different worlds into one focused approach for assisting local communities.
National Columnist & Community Consultant – John is the author of the weekly National column titled, “Building Main Street, not Wall Street”. This column, which appears in 50+ communities across the country serves as a starting point for communities, local news-media companies and local businesses to come together and build foundational synergies lead to community and local businesses economic resurgence. Instilling a Truly Local mindset within a community is one of the answers to unlocking the faucet of pride, economic transformation and lost revenue. This is major passion for John!
Revitalization, Transformation, Tourism & Economic Development – John began his journey as the Founder of Starved Rock Country, a regional branding initiative in Northern Illinois. This initiative is credited with assisting the growth of tourism in the region from 2 million visitors to nearly 4 million in just a few short years. This was accomplished with a unique blend of marketing and branding initiatives. These included Starved Rock Country Magazine, Starved Rock Country Marathon, concerts, events and aggressive E-commerce business platforms. Over the years, he has worked with the Hearst Corporation in building a Truly-Local mindsets in many of their communities. He has as a Main Street director, sat on many economic development boards, tackled downtown revitalization and transformation efforts, and much more.
Media Executive – John's career took him to the Omaha World-Herald, Ogden Standard-Examiner, Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil and Logan Herald Journal bringing each of them to all-time audience highs along the way. Additionally, he served as Publisher in Laporte, IN, Ottawa, IL. and Muskogee, OK. He was also the publisher of the prestigious and award-winning Lake Magazine as well as founded several localized and tourism magazines along the way. His newspapers always exceeded industry expectations and led the way in innovation. He was named by the leading media industry magazine, Editor & Publisher, as one of the “10 Newspaper that do it Right.” He was branded the poster child of the Newspaper Next initiative with the “Delivery QC” loyalty platform. (A precursor to Groupon in many ways) His passion for connecting the media with the community they served proved highly successful at each stop. He is the founder of the 360 Media Alliance and the Mega Summit concept that has provided media guidance and support for the past decade.
John is a 10-yr. veteran of the U.S. Air Force serving as a weather forecaster. His hobbies are history, economics, sports and traveling so that he and his wife Kathy can spend time with their nine children spread throughout the country.