It’s been two years to the month when we last connected with Ryan Dohrn, owner of Niche Media Events, which serves the passionate and lively world of niche media, defined as vertical and enthusiast brands, city and regional publishers, and more.
In 2023, we talked about emerging from the pandemic, the bounce back of in-person events, the state of the niche-media sector, and more. If there was a theme to that Q&A, it was about resilience and recovery.
Ryan Dohrn.
Now, with the annual Niche Media Conference having recently concluded last month, we thought it was a good time to reconnect and get an updated perspective on the business from Ryan. Here’s our conversation.
Fox Tales: It’s been two years nearly to the day since we last interviewed you. We talked about the pandemic, the state of niche media, and more. I see this as an update, a two-year review. Tell us about your last two events in terms of sponsors, attendees, growth.
Ryan Dohrn: Our events business is growing beyond our initial projections. Whenever you can bring together over 350 media professionals to grow and learn, you’re clearly on the right track. In 2024, we held our event in Chicago, with 327 attendees, including 30 sponsors. This year, we hosted the event in Las Vegas, drawing a crowd of 361, which came both for the fun and the valuable content we provided, featuring industry icons like Mr. Magazine and top motivational speaker Devin Henderson.
Fox Tales: Tell us how your program has changed in the last two years. Lots of new challenges and opportunities have emerged.
Dohrn: The key to our growth lies in offering speakers and topics that truly resonate with publishers and help them tackle their most pressing challenges. This year, we introduced an editorial track, which was a huge success. Currently, we offer five tracks of learning: Publisher Strategy, Sales Training, Editorial, Audience & Marketing, and Digital Strategy. While many events focus heavily on AI, we’ve chosen to incorporate AI into our sessions, blending it with practical, tactical advice attendees can immediately apply when they return to the office.
Fox Tales: If you were to name one or two hot-button issues your attendees/customers struggle with, what would they be?
Dohrn: The two main challenges our Niche attendees face are staffing shortages and transitioning audiences and advertisers to quality digital offerings. There’s no shortcut to overcoming these obstacles, it requires strategy and adherence to proven success methods. Time and again, we hear from attendees that the best ideas and advice come from networking with others in the industry. Networking is a crucial aspect of the Niche Media Conference, with over 20 networking opportunities throughout the event.
Fox Tales: If you were advising conference producers, what are the elements they should reconsider, rethink, add, subtract?
The Niche Media Conference.
Dohrn: Integrating sponsors into the program is essential for the success of any event. Sponsors dislike being isolated in a separate ballroom, making them feel like an afterthought. Let’s face it: without sponsors, events simply can’t thrive. We prioritize sponsor visibility through several strategies: Placing them in the main traffic paths, offering giveaways to encourage attendee visits, using interactive elements like the cash cube where sponsors engage directly with participants, providing stage time for each sponsor, and more. Most importantly, we limit the total number of sponsors to maximize ROI for each vendor.
Fox Tales: What’s your own outlook for media in the next 12 months?
Dohrn: The future looks incredibly bright for Niche Events as we expand the conference experience into robust LinkedIn and Facebook groups. Additionally, we’re hosting the Niche Ad Sales Summit virtually from July 21-24, attracting 200 media sales professionals to learn strategies for boosting sales. The Niche Leadership Summit will take place September 3-5 in Dallas, bringing together 100 media owners for roundtable discussions and workshops. We’ve already confirmed that the Niche Media Conference in 2026 will be held in Orlando, April 8-10. We’re seeing strong signs of growth across the niche-events sector.