NAA Plans Advertising Clearinghouse
NAA's Board of Directors has approved plans to create a clearinghouse to aid newspaper advertisers, advertising agencies and other parties involved in newspaper-ad transactions.The Newspaper Industry Com munications Center’s stated goal is to serve as a central resource to simplify the planning, placement and execution of newspaper advertising. By managing advertising-campaign workflow and facilitating transactions, NICC will handle processes such as routing tasks to the correct person at each organization and allow users to track the campaign’s status.
It will also enable advertisers and newspapers to exchange information through a user-friendly World Wide Web interface, providing a standard data interface and ensuring data security. It will have a modular structure so that solutions can be upgraded and new functionality added.
"This is a great opportunity for NAA to expand its role as a catalyst for national and multi-market advertising sales and to add value for our customers," explains John F. Sturm, NAA president and CEO. "[It] will streamline the existing ad-buying process and tie together a number of solutions.
"As important as understanding what the NICC is, is the understanding of what it is not," Sturm adds. "NICC will not replace existing service providers, and it will not negotiate rates."
NICC will take at least a year to develop at a cost of approximately $5 million. Like the Newspaper National Network, it will operate as a for-profit subsidiary of NAA.