NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $47 billion newspaper industry and more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. NAA members include daily newspapers, as well as non-dailies, other print publications and on-line products. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the Association focuses on the major issues that affect today’s newspaper industry: public policy/legal matters, advertising revenue growth and audience development across the medium’s broad portfolio of products and digital platforms.
NAA was formed on June 1, 1992, by the merger of seven associations serving the newspaper industry.
The associations included the American Newspaper Publishers Association (founded in 1887), the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, the Association of Newspaper Classified Advertising Managers, the International Circulation Managers Association, the International Newspapers Advertising and Marketing Executives, the Newspaper Advertising Co-op Network, and the Newspaper Research Council.
Today, NAA serves the newspaper industry in strategic efforts to:
- Serve as a catalyst for industry growth
- Identify and disseminate examples of industry innovation
- Provide tools to exchange information and ideas
- Advocate and communicate industry views and interests to the Federal Government and to third-party standards and measurement bodies
- Communicate the vitality of newspaper media to external constituencies including the advertising community, Wall Street and the news media.
NAA maintains close, cooperative relations with other newspaper and journalism organizations, and is a member of the World Association of Newspapers, the World Press Freedom Committee and the International Press Telecommunications Council.
Leading NAA and the newspaper industry is 2009-2010 Chairman George B. Irish, vice president and eastern director of the Hearst Foundations.