From the President: Change Ahead for Industry and NAA

By John F. Sturm, NAA President and Chief Executive Officer

First Published: May 2008

Everyone knows that change is in the wind for the newspaper industry. The same is true for NAA. As I told attendees at the recent Capital Conference in Washington, D.C., we’ve never seen change like we’re seeing in this industry today.

We’ve managed to weather tough times in the past and advertising has rebounded. But a realistic look at our business shows very clearly that this time the issues are both cyclical and secular. Even a strong economic rebound isn’t going to make these secular issues go away.

Our industry must rebuild its business model through creative thinking, hard work and painful choices.

Just as many of you have streamlined operations and reduced costs, NAA also must rethink, realign and reorganize around the priorities that will carry newspapers and their new ways of reaching their audience into the future.

After months of surveying members, working with the Board of Directors and conducting internal discussions, the NAA staff will concentrate resources on these strategic issues: growing audience, growing revenue and emerging digital technologies. We’ll also strengthen our traditional roles in shaping favorable public policy in Washington and communicating the industry’s story to media, Wall Street and advertisers.

Just before the Conference, the NAA Board approved a strategic realignment of the Association, along with a 2009 budget plan that will reduce NAA’s operating budget by 25 percent. The plan to tightly focus our resources around your priorities will result in dues decreases for many of our members.

Look for more details about our new mission in the coming months.

Meanwhile, on the heels of our productive conference in the nation’s capital, it’s appropriate to recap some of our Washington success stories.

In January—thanks in large part to the Sunshine in Government Coalition, in which NAA, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and The Associated Press are founding members—President Bush signed the Open Government Reform Act of 2007, which brought badly needed reforms that add greater information access and accountability under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Federal Communications Commission also relaxed the cross-ownership ban and we are lobbying against pointless legislative maneuvering that would nullify the new rules.

While the House overwhelmingly approved the federal shield bill, the action has moved to the Senate. We will continue to coordinate a 50-member media coalition that supports a shield law.

On the postal front, the NAA-backed policy against unfair competition became part of new postal rate-setting rules. We will continue to fight new postal distribution processing rules that would drive up newspaper production and transportation costs.

That’s just a snapshot of what’s happening on your behalf in this challenging chapter of our history.

Change is simply part of being in the business of media. But the scale and speed of change we’re seeing today is something new. Our commitment is to help this industry not only adapt but get ahead of the curve, and not only survive-—but win.

Thanks for reading.