Lessiter Media Open House Draws in More Than 100 Guests

View Complete Open House Photo Gallery

Attendees got a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing process as they toured the company’s newly renovated headquarters.

In celebration of its rebranding campaign and new headquarters, Lessiter Media hosted an Open House on Nov. 5 at its newly renovated office space to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into running a media company.

Guests got a tour of the seven departments — editorial, sales, digital media, marketing, finance, art and circulation — to learn how each played a role in producing and executing the company’s eight print products, seven websites, one online newscast and five conferences.

Highlights of the tour included:

  • Opportunity to be on one of the company’s magazine covers, which attendees could take home
  • Demo videos of the digital media department’s capabilities
  • Photo opportunity with the Frank Lessiter cutout
  • Watching in-house printing capabilities
  • Demonstration of a drone in action
  • An Open House inspired Mad Lib
  • Opportunity to record a broadcast segment in the green room

Throughout the tour, guests also saw the Lessiter Media artwork, mostly taken by employees, and created in-house on the company’s 256-pound printer, capable of printing everything from standard gloss sheets to canvas art prints, poster boards and banners. The grand-prize winner of the open house drawing had the choice of one of the 68 in-house photographs, which was awarded to Gwen Sauer.

Four other guests also won door prizes:

  • Sharon Green, Accredited Wealth Management — $50 Best Buy gift card
  • Rebecca Heidepriem, Action Coach — $25 Target gift card
  • Violet Wang, student at University of Wisconsin-Madison — Lessiter Media fleece
  • Shannon Fitch — Lessiter Media t-shirt

All attendees were treated to their choice of homebrewed beer — LessWeiss, a lighter wheat beer with a hint of citrus, and the LPA, a ‘Lessiter’ pale ale with a slightly more hoppy flavor — wine, soda, water, coffee or tea, and a wide variety of hors d’oeuvres, including meatballs, orange chicken, shrimp, cold cuts, fresh fruit and vegetables, mini desserts and nachos.

With Mayor of Brookfield Steve Ponto in attendance, Frank, Pam and Mike Lessiter conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially mark the opening of the company’s new location.


After filling out the Open House Mad Lib given out at the beginning of their Lessiter Media tour, guests were invited to step in front of the green screen and into the shoes of our On The Record newscast editors. Below is a video of a couple of brave individuals who let out their inner broadcaster.