Tim Redmond is executive editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and AAN first amendment chair.

Harlan Mandel is deputy managing director of Media Development Loan Fund, a mission-driven investment fund providing low-cost financing to independent news media in countries with a history of media oppression. MDLF has provided over $85 million in loans and equity financing to more than 70 print, broadcast and on-line news outlets in 25 countries, helping journalists in challenging environments build sustainable businesses around professional, responsible, quality journalism. More than 32 million people on four continents get their news from MDLF's current clients. Prior to joining MDLF in 1998, Mandel served as Deputy General Counsel of the Open Society Institute, after practicing law in the New York and Los Angeles offices of Morrison & Foerster.

Andrew Martin is a senior associate with Borrell Associates. Based in Toronto, Andrew has worked for more than 25 years in the media sector. He managed the B2C and B2B online operations for CanWest Global, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada. Before that he ran the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency for seven years. His early career was with LexisNexis, where he was director of textbook publishing for the UK division, before moving to Canada in 1987 to head up their operations in Toronto. He was closely involved in developing CanWest's web strategies and the expansion of their online aggregation businesses. He also contributed to drafting the newspaper industry positions on copyright law reform in Canada. Andrew's current consulting work divides between business and strategic planning, licensing and copyright. Clients include media businesses, government departments, trade associations and libraries in Canada, the US and UK. Andrew has a law degree from the University of Cambridge, and qualified as an UK attorney.

Mike Volpe is vice president of inbound marketing at HubSpot, an Internet marketing software startup, where he leads the company's lead generation and branding strategy through inbound marketing, including blogging, search engine optimization, video marketing, and social media. Since Mike joined HubSpot, the company has grown from about a dozen beta customers to over 1,200 customers, from five employees to 75 employees, and raised $17 million of venture capital in two rounds of financing. Mike is a cutting-edge B2B inbound marketer who ranks in the top 0.1% of all users on Twitter (@mvolpe) with over 7,500 followers. He also hosts a weekly live marketing video podcast HubSpot TV and blogs frequently. Before HubSpot, Mike worked as director, marketing operations at SolidWorks where he launched a number of inbound marketing initiatives such as SEO, PPC, blogging and podcasting. He is an MBA graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and received his B.A. in Economics and Government, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College.

Bradley Zeve founded Monterey County Weekly in 1988. He served on the board of AAN in the mid-1990s (Secretary) and rejoined as Free Speech Chair in 2012. He also served as the president of CAL-AAN. Zeve originally became a member of AAN in 1986 while working at Santa Cruz Sun newspaper. He launched the Monterey County Weekly Community Fund in 2000, which has raised and contributed over $2,850,000 from Weekly readers and local foundations, all to support local nonprofits in Monterey County.

Hal Brody was the owner/publisher of the Pitch in Kansas City from its inception in 1980 until 1999. With some partners he purchased the East Bay Express in 2007. Their first Give! Guide is scheduled for publication this fall.

Richard Meeker has been publisher of Portland's Pulitzer Prize-winning Willamette Week since 1983. Along with co-owner Mark Zusman, his City of Roses Newspaper Company also owns and operates the Santa Fe Reporter and INDY Week.

John Weiss is Publisher of the Colorado Springs Independent and Co-Chair of Indy Give!

Ron Reason     Chicago-based design consultant Ron Reason is advising Creative Loafing Media on rethinking editorial and advertising strategies in its various markets. He has worked with an odd array of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines in places like Dubai, London, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Nairobi, Orlando, New Delhi, Santa Fe, Sao Paulo, Reykjavik, Lisbon (Ohio), Venice (Fla.) and Walla Walla (Wash.) He is a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute, where he previously served as fulltime Director of Visual Journalism for five years. His email is ron@ronreason.com, and his websites are www.ronreason.com and www.artwithinreason.com

Jan van der Hoop spent more than fifteen years in senior human resources positions with a number of leading corporations, including Hilton International Hotels, PepsiCo and Office Depot. Through his work, Jan developed a clear understanding of the issues and challenges people face in the corporate trenches, along with some insights into how he could help organizations work smarter. As a result in 1998, Jan founded The People Factor -- a training and coaching organization that worked with companies to build their organizational capacity, grow their people and improve their bottom line performance. In eight years, he built an impressive client roster across North America, including Nissan Canada, Procter & Gamble, State Farm and Sleep Country Canada. In 2006, Jan partnered with Tim Brennan to launch HiringSmart in response to a demand from his clients to improve their bottom line results by changing the way they hire.

Simon Owens is a 26-year-old social media consultant and online journalist. Over the years, Simon has secured hundreds of placements on top blogs and social news sites for clients. He has conducted digital PR for both major and small brands and has driven millions of page views for clients, getting them on the front pages of Technorati Top 100 blogs and major social news sites like Digg and Reddit. Simon has been interviewed by reporters from numerous newspapers, television and radio programs about his expertise in new media. His blog, Bloggasm, was launched in late 2005 and focuses on the intersection of new and old media. It often includes in-depth feature articles on a variety of media subjects. The site was named in 2008 as one of PC Magazine's favorite blogs. In that same year it was also nominated for a Weblog Award in the "best large blogs" category. Simon was named the second best Twitter user in DC in 2009 in Washington City Paper's "Best of" issue.

Jody Colley is the publisher of the East Bay Express and an at-large board member of AAN. Jody has served on the AAN marketing and classified sales committees and was an executive committee member of the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN). Over the past decade, Jody has been actively involved with local and national organizations that promote sustainable economies and independent business alliances, as well as serving on the boards of merchant associations and business groups.

Patricia Martin is an author and noted expert on commerce and culture. She is CEO and founder of LitLamp Communications, an award-winning marketing boutique acclaimed for using culture as a medium to connect brands with communities of consumers. Author of the book "Renaissance Generation: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer and What it Means to Your Business," she pioneered the point of view that the convergence of art, technology and entertainment is remaking the American consumer. A keynote speaker in demand, Patricia brings C-level executives to their feet when she casts the American consumer in a new light and sets the stage for marketing in the 21st Century. Before founding her firm in 1995, Patricia created the first-of-its-kind sponsorship marketing division for the American Library Association. While there, she partnered with some of the world's most recognized brands, including Microsoft, where she built the blueprint for what is now the Gates Library Foundation. Patricia has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Reporter, Market Watch, Harvard Business Review, and Advertising Age. She is a frequent contributor to Advertising Age and Huffington Post and lives near Chicago with her daughter, Grace.

Raven Zachary is president of Small Society, working with big brands, established companies, investors, and startups on iPhone strategy and product development. Raven directed the Obama '08 for iPhone application for the Obama Campaign, and has worked with companies such as Whole Foods Market®, Zipcar℠, CLIF BAR®, and Air New Zealand℠ on iPhone application initiatives. He is the founder of iPhoneDevCamp, a not-for-profit iPhone developer conference. Raven is also a Contributing Analyst with The 451 Group, an IT industry analyst firm and works closely with O'Reilly® Media on iPhone and mobile technology related events and coverage. He is regularly quoted by the press about the iPhone market and is a frequent conference speaker on the topic.

David Carr writes the Media Equation column for the Monday Business section of The New York Times that focuses on media issues including print, digital, film, radio and television. He also works as a general assignment reporter in the Culture section of The Times covering all aspects of popular culture. For the past 25 years, David has been writing about media as it intersects with business, culture and government.He began working at The Times in 2002 covering the magazine publishing industry for the Business section. Prior to joining The Times, David was a contributing writer for The Atlantic Monthly and New York Magazine. In 2000, he was the media writer for Inside.com, a web news site focusing on the business of entertainment and publishing. Before coming to New York, David served as editor of the Washington City Paper for five years. From 1993 to 1995, he was editor of the Twin Cities Reader and wrote a media column there as well. On August 5, 2008, David's book, "The Night of the Gun," came out on Simon and Schuster. The book is a memoir of addiction and recovery that used reporting to fact check the past. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey with Jill Rooney Carr and has three children. By the way, David will talk about anything, except the hardy AAN perennial, 'What is alternative?' He has no idea.

Henry Scott is an experienced journalist and media business executive who currently is vice president/chief marketing officer for Creative Loafing Inc. Before joining CL Media in January 2010, he was managing director of Gansevoort Media, a strategic planning and product development firm focused on the internet, magazines, and the newspaper industry; managing director of Metro New York and group publisher for Metro US; president of Out Publishing; and was with The New York Times Company in a number of positions. Henry, who lives in Atlanta, is a member of the International Newspaper Marketing Association, among other organizations. He is the founder of the North American Free Daily Newspaper Association.

Alice Klein is co-founder and editor/CEO of Toronto's fiercely independent weekly, NOW Magazine and its daily multimedia website nowtoronto.com. Klein's passion for environmental transformation has helped shape NOW's editorial and business leadership in this important area. She also writes regularly about the Canadian and global economy and politics, often from an ecological perspective. She is also a documentary filmmaker (Call of the Hummingbird), on the board of the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), one of the co-creators of VoteforEnvironment.ca, a founding member of Green Enterprise Ontario (GEO), and on the boards of the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE).

Nicole Rycroft is the founder and executive director of Canopy, a North American non-profit that safeguards forests, species and the climate by harnessing the power of the marketplace and changing business practices. Best known for the greening of Harry Potter, Canopy brokers innovative solutions and works closely with the North American newspaper, print, book and magazine industries. Canopy was one of the lead organizations responsible for securing the world's largest conservation agreement alongide eight other environmental organizations and 21 forestry companies. Covering a massive 70 million hectares, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement was largely driven by green shifts in the marketplace created by the work of Canopy and its market allies with large corporate paper consumers. Nicole leads the strategic direction of Canopy. A firm believer that we could be doing things in a better way, Nicole is committed to ensuring that the power and influence the North American market leverages tangible eco-solutions and on the ground conservation gains for the world's forests, species and climate. Nicole is the recipient of an Ashoka Fellowship, a Canadian Environment Award Gold Medal and numerous print and publishing industry awards. Named one of Canada's 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communication for the past four years, Nicole sits on numerous boards.

Susan Percy is the founder of Toronto-based MacGrercy Consultants, providing business-skills training and meeting facilitation. Susan helps teams and individuals to become more productive, creative and effective at work. When facilitating group sessions, Susan helps to create a fun atmosphere that encourages collaboration to quickly generate ideas and make plans.