20 Under 40 - 2005 Profile: Lelani L. Bluner

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2005

Freedom Orange County Information Inc., Santa Ana, Calif. | Vice President of Marketing

At age 36, Lelani L. Bluner has enjoyed a level of professional success that few people ever realize over a lifetime.

In just seven years working for Freedom Communications Inc. in Irvine, Calif., Bluner has directed all marketing and promotions for the company's entire portfolio of products, including The Orange County (Calif.) Register, 24 community weeklies, OCRegister.com, SqueezeOC, SqueezeOC.com, myOC.com, excélsior, OCExcelsior.com, and Orange County Home and Coast magazines.

In October, she was promoted to vice president of marketing for Freedom Orange County Information Inc. in Santa Ana, Calif.

Bluner considers The Orange County Register's "Take Back the Morning" brand advertising campaign, which kicked off in May 2004 and for which she produced three TV commercials, to be one of her most successful marketing promotions. Through partnerships with local coffee shops, McDonald's restaurants and other community vendors, her team spent a morning at each business handing out free newspapers, coffee, pastries—and featured shoeshiners and massage therapists—to show readers how they could take back their mornings with The Orange County Register.

"If you think about it, this was a really great branding campaign," she says. "It just needed to be activated, and we did that."

In addition to working hard, Bluner makes sure to play harder. She drives racecars, rides motorcycles and plays water sports. She also studies hard, as a student in an executive leadership program at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

No matter the obstacle, Bluner says, success often requires taking bold action. "It's tough with newspaper readership declining," she says, "but sometimes you have to push those big ideas and take the risks."