NAA: Change for an Industry

It's 2PM and the phone is ringing at NAA.... the phone is answered by an unfimilar voice. After months of staffers heading for the door, NAA's employee "buy-out" last week had 15 senior managers and staffers packing their boxes. But it's the calm before this week's storm, when an unknown number of staff will abruptly have to pack their boxes and head for the door. NAA is feeling their member's pain this month as the association reorganizes.

While the headlines about the health of the newspaper industry are polarized, the facts are clear. From some perspectives, the newspaper industry is on the rocks; shedding jobs like a Husky in July, newsprint consumption is falling by double-digits, major newspaper corporations facing substantial reductions in revenue and soft advertising volume. But take a long hard look at the desire for news today; electronic gadgets, Internet and digital printing are driving the public's desire for news to record heights. People want to be informed 24/7, not just over a cup of morning coffee. Newspapers are not longer a one trick pony, they are a multi-media. So where does that leave the newspaper association?

In most crisis, the association leads the change and rallies the members to the new pinnacle of their industry with leadership and tools to directly assist members thought the tough business environment. And I'm sure the leaner, more focused newspaper association will take that charge.

The newspaper industry is in survival mode today.

Tactics that the newspaper association developed to garner advertising and assisted members to build revenue in the past, have lost their effectiveness. The weird space characters that manned the industry ads are now just awkward icons. The newspaper industry is in an identity crisis as they develop a multi-media strategy. The reorganized NAA should develop tools and strategies to position the newspaper as the central source for information in the community, using technology to create tools that enable members to build the multi-media platforms (or at least understand the parameters), and understanding how to capitalize on digital technology.

The future vision of the newspaper industry must be about building a multi-media industry; with a full compliment of print and on-demand information and targeted advertising, marketing capabilities and enabling communication for advertisers. Newspapers are by nature a local product, so the newspaper association must assist in position the newspaper as the new multi-media source in the community.