Lane is the dynamic co-CEO of Local Media Association, a thriving and innovative organization that works with over 3,000 local media brands (newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, digital news sites & more), as well as several hundred R&D partners in the industry. Lane also serves as co-CEO of the Local Media Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable trust, affiliated with LMA. The mission is to ensure a healthy future for local journalism, which is essential to a strong democracy, by reinventing business models for news.The LMA/LMF 2024-2026 strategic plan is focused on four pillars: industry collaboration, sustainability for publishers of color, business transformation and journalism funded by philanthropy. Under Lane’s leadership, some of the most important industry initiatives have been launched in the past four years including: Word in Black (led by 10 of the nation’s iconic Black publishers), LMA Covering Climate Collaborative (with 40+ news, science and academic partners), News is Out – a Queer Media Collaboration, The Meta Branded Content Project (over $100 million sold to date), the Lab for Journalism Funding (over $30 million raised to date), the Local News Fund (over $20 million raised for journalism projects), Knight x LMA BloomLab (sustainability for 26 Black publishers) and dozens of other initiatives. She is a champion for diversity, equity, inclusion and press freedom. Word In Black was incubated inside of the Local Media Foundation for three years and spun off to a public benefit corporation in January 2024. It is the only digital news startup backed by 10 legacy publishers and a foundation. The learnings were used to launch News is Out, in 2022, and soon LatidoBeat, a collaboration with 7 of the leading Spanish-language local news organizations. Lane spent 13 years in the newspaper industry as publisher, ad director and senior level executive in Pa., Conn. and Mo., running companies as large as $50 million, before taking over LMA in 2000. She is a past president of the Villanova University Alumni Association and now serves on the dean’s advisory council for the college of liberal arts and sciences. She lives in St Augustine and Jacksonville Beach, FL with her husband Dr. Shawn Burton, and their adorable dog Hugo.