Natalie Pruitt will be the new president of Alabama Media Group, succeeding Tom Bates, who has led AMG as president since 2015 and announced his retirement on Thursday. A mid-May transition is planned.

Pruitt is the chief revenue officer for AMG and the head of digital advertising operations for Advance Local. She has spent 12 years working for Advance Local, AMG’s parent company, in various leadership roles.

“I appreciate the opportunity to help the team continue to excel at what we do best at AMG – connecting our communities through award-winning storytelling, growing new audiences and outperforming for our clients,” she said.

As chief revenue officer, Pruitt has doubled AMG’s digital ad revenue and built a client base across the Southeast. She pioneered the company’s video sales strategy with sports sponsorships and funded new brands such as This is Alabama and It’s a Southern Thing.

She spearheaded AMG’s focus on developing new business throughout the Southeast in travel, health care and education, creating the framework for a vertical strategy that prepared AMG for a post-print world.

Pruitt joined Advance Local in 2010 as vice president of sales for The Huntsville Times and in 2012 launched the Alabama Media Group sales operation, bringing together four sales organizations (three newspapers and AL.com) with disparate ad operating systems and driving consistent year-over-year digital revenue. Prior to joining Advance, she was vice president of advertising and interactive media at The Sun News in South Carolina.

Pruitt is on the executive boards for the Better Business Bureau of South and Central Alabama, The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs and The Service Guild of Birmingham. She is also a board member and past president for the Multimedia Newspaper Advertising Executive Association.

Bates joined Advance Local as senior vice president in 2014 and became president of Alabama Media Group in 2015 and regional president in 2017.

“It has been a privilege to do important work for Advance Local, a company I greatly admire,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that together we have made a lasting difference in the communities we have served.”

During his tenure, AMG transformed its legacy media business model, building a regional ad business and significantly growing digital revenue. It also transformed its editorial operation, building a portfolio of high-performing, all-digital brands including Reckon, It’s a Southern Thing, This is Alabama, the Alabama Ed Lab, and the Lede. The news operation has more journalists today than it did five years ago and expanded its investigative team to be one of the largest in the Southeast.

In the last five years, AMG work has won national recognition including two Pulitzer Prizes, the George Polk Award for local reporting, the Hillman Prize for web reporting, 21 Emmys for documentary work, an Edward R. Murrow award for podcasting and a Webby award for short-form comedy.

“Tom is an exceptional leader who has guided AL.com through bold innovation with a singular clarity of vision and deep journalistic passion, maintaining a wit and humor that is unmatched, while cultivating an extremely talented team,” said Caroline Harrison, CEO, Advance Local.

“I am deeply grateful to Tom for his contributions to AL.com and to our Advance Local leadership team. He leaves a lasting legacy that will continue to guide us in the days ahead.”

Most recently, Bates led AMG’s transition to all-digital content delivery, embracing the future of media and adapting to the needs of both readers and clients. AL.com is regularly in the top 10 of local news sites (according to ComScore) and AMG brands have almost 9 million social media followers.

“I am extremely proud of what the Alabama team has accomplished during my time here,” he said. “The state of Alabama is very fortunate to have the most talented and innovative team in local media.”