NAA sent me a letter with this month’s Presstime magazine letting me know that this is the last print edition I will be receiving.  They are moving online only.  Truth be told, it was probably the last print edition I would be getting anyway you see I graduated from NYU in January and NAA wants proof that I still qualify for their student rate. I do, but you know what NAA, I’m not wasting my time to send you the appropriate paperwork. 

Why is NAA, the NEWSPAPER Association of America, eliminating their print publication and moving online only?  The reason they cite in the letter is “to adapt our organization to the realities of today’s newspaper business”.  I’m calling bullshit on their reasoning.  The real reason I suspect is because NAA is too big a coward to try something innovative and instead is hoping to just hang in there a little longer like everyone else and hope for the best.

According to NAA’s website, here is the association’s purpose:

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.

Did you read the first and last bullet points?  What an awful message eliminating print sends to NAA’s advertisers, NAA’s members, and to the advertisers who spent roughly 34 Billion dollars in PRINT advertising last year.  We are adapting “to realities of today’s newspaper business”… by getting out of paper and everything that entails.   http://www.naa.org/TrendsandNumbers/Advertising-Expenditures.aspx   This doesn’t sound like adapting to me, it sounds like abandonment and surrender to the whims of whatever may come to newspapers.

Here is what NAA should have done:

Leverage the Newspaper Industry’s greatest asset and that is – the invitation to deliver a print product to people’s homes.     

Figure out how to deliver Presstime to readers using existing distribution channels of member newspapers and 3^rd party distributors like PCF.  

Show newspapers and advertisers how much money NAA is saving by distributing PressTime this way versus the US Post Office.  Show Newspapers and Advertisers how their existing distribution infrastructure can be used to deliver products to homes across the nation.  What kinds of things?  Things like magazines, catalogs, coupons, flyers, samples, and probably many other things an ad or marketing executive would jump at the chance to drop on a subscriber’s doorstep. 

For example, I get the Wall Street Journal delivered to my doorstep 6 days a week. Why aren’t my magazines and fishing catalogs delivered this way or anything else for that matter?    I can imagine a time in the future when I end my print subscription of WSJ but if I were getting other things via this home delivery service, I would continue to welcome my magazines and catalogs on my front step.  It’s a win-win situation.

If NAA thinks that a newsPAPER’s greatest asset is delivering news via websites then they and their members should expect ad revenue to plummet while competition rises everywhere. There is NO WAY to differentiate a newspaper online. 

If NAA thinks newspapers are unique media entities, as the association’s mere presence implies, then NAA must push the newspaper industry’s greatest asset – the invitation to deliver a print product to people’s homes.  This will open new revenue streams to newspapers and offer advertisers new and less expensive ways of advertising.       

RELATED:

Big Job Cuts at NAA — And No Longer Will Print ‘Presstime’ – Editor & Publisher

The fundamental problem of newspapers on the internet – The Krugman Paradox – Metaprinter

Metaprinter Offers a New, Innovative, Digital Newspaper Business Model – Infinite Zoning

News Media Innovation, Convergence and Sustainability – Interview with Don Carli

Steven Colbert is an influencer watched by millions and he just pronounced the floundering newspaper industry dead.  It’s impossible for Strum to come up with a single retort to “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” and “if you’re serious about competing on the internet, why don’t newspapers have a huge porn section?”

If you work at a big city newspaper, you can see that there’s no light at the end of that career-choice tunnel. Circulation is dropping, and it’s going to drop ever faster. Most papers have little chance of replacing their traditional business with an online alternative.  As a result, every day at most papers is going to be just a little bit worse than the day before. Every day you stay is a bad strategic decision for your career because every day you get better at something that isn’t that useful-and you are another day behind others who are learning something more useful. The only reason to stay is the short-term pain associated with quitting.  Winners understand that taking that pain now prevents a lot more pain later.

I was reminded of the above passage while flying home after covering NAA’s mediaXchange in Las Vegas.  I won’t be back.  There were maybe 4 good speakers at the event.  Perhaps worse though was the crowd, a listless mob staring into a dark tunnel hoping to see the light at the end (but was there even a light to see?).  People weren’t asking good, tough questions, they were just kind of.. there.  The annual convention used to be a place where equipment manufacturers showcased their new products and where newspaper execs. came to make sweet deals.  That pretty much fell apart in 2008 because of cost cutting in the industry (and finally a realization that equipment doesn’t manufacture customers) and so this year the name was changed to something more EXTREME! like mediaXchange and a more digital spin was put on the entire proceedings.  They should have served Brawndo.

How the hell does NAA get away with scheduling Lee Abrams to talk about redesigns for the closing session?  And how the hell does no one in the audience ask him a tough question, like “why is a redesign so good if your papers are still failing”?  or “is it any bellwether that your only growing print product is the FREE METRO TABLOID, Redeye”? or “do you see a fundamental problem with the newspaper industry operating in an internet paradigm”?   Lee Abrams by the way is a retired old man/ radio executive who helped drive XM Radio into the ground and is now the Chief Innovation Officer for the Tribune Company.  Are you kidding me Tribune?  Employees and stakeholders in that company should be livid at his appointment.  Are you kidding me newspaper industry?  This is what you “gathered” everyone up for?  I wish I had the ability to print out Clay Shirky’s latest blog post Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkableand stuff it in everyone’s free tote bag.  WTF?!

For all the time and money I spent on attending mediaXchange, I leaned a minimum amount of good, new information.  I hoped to see sessions on paradigm shifts and accepting new realities, but instead heard mostly product pitches.  Hell, I should have been there TALKING to these people.  I wanted to bum rush the stage at the closing session and say, “WAKE UP.  NEWSPAPER REDESIGNS ARE DEAD.  LETS TALK ABOUT NEW MEDIA”.  But the problem was that the audience seemed fine and even INTERESTED!!!! in hearing about redesigns from Lee Abrams.  Jeez!!!   As social media session speaker Kurt Greenbaum (one of the good speakers) followed up on his blog, “5.8% of NAA attendees cared about social media“.

I should have skipped mediaXchange, I should have quit, I should have went to SXSW.  That’s where the innovation is happening, and that’s where you’ll find me next year.  I hope to find news media execs. there too but I doubt it.  Godin says quit a loser, well I just quit mediaXchange.

RI: what is “a single media newsroom”?
TDP: The ability to produce content for all mediums from one location. We can be described as a content management system for newspapers, Solely for Newspapers.

RI: why are newspapers coming to you?
TDP: they are seeking to consolidate into a single newsroom. Financial pressures have forced the issue.

RI: What is the main product?
TDP: GN3 is the main product.

RI: With all the consolidation, is the business is booming?
TDP: Yes, we are doing well. Big jump in foreign interest especially in Latin American companies.

RI: do you deal with large chains like gannett or advance
TDP: Not so much as our foreign sales, but it’s changing.

RI: How do you sell?
TDP: Through resellers mostly.

RI: Who are your biggest competitors?
TDP: We like to think we are in a league of our own, but Saxotech is a competitor.
RI: innovation at Tera ?
TDP: GNportal (good news)
RI: What’s that?
TDP: Laura our project manager will tell you about that.

Laura Koval: GNportal is a central content store for getting content from remote places so it’s publish ready. It’s a direct user interface and works on any platform, any browser (regular contributors, connect upload enhance the metadata and then publish. There is also an “upload and publish mode”.

You can also connect via email (parses out attachments and performs validation on the pictures for example) or the website. Content in the form of stories, videos, pictures, etc… reside on the portal and remains there till someone chooses to publish it.

The portal archives are full text searchable and also return other related info like “how many are videos and stories, location, who the author is, related articles, etc…

RI: View this image to get a visual representation of how the portal works.  Click to see a larger version:

RI: Where can people find out more?
Laura: Visit our website to learn more about GNportal and our other products and services.  Or contact us directly for a demo. Thanks!

About Tera digital publishing:

Tera is a leading provider of integrated multi-media editorial solutions for the newspaper publishing. Dominant in many of our worldwide markets, we are best known for the quality of our engineering, our products’ ease-of-use and very low cost of ownership.

Tera’s product line includes multi-media editorial, archiving, advertising and prepress solutions. All our products deliver the highest performance, maximum reliability and low operating costs. Our solutions are installed quickly and easily, with the smallest impact on the organization.

In the US, we publish over 100 titles and are the dominant vendor to Spanish-language newspapers. We are the dominant vendor in Brazil and Croatia.

The high quality of our engineering contributes to the low cost of ownership of a Tera system. Tera has never released an upgrade that invalidated any customer’s data nor required the risk and expense of a so-called major upgrade. And yet our software is an engineering leader. Our installation times are measured in weeks, not months or years. The addition of new titles is a routine matter.

Final day at NAA mediaXchange 2009.  I’m liveblogging the Redefining Classified session  on twitter.com/metaprinter

UPDATE:

As an aside: Sesame Workshop cuts staff by 20% ‘Sesame Street’ producer announces layoffs

metaprinterI want someone to ask Lee, “how have you aligned these newspapers for success in in the internet paradigm” @NAA_Community #naamxc09
OK, I asked him after the session.  He says that he is making the newspaper sites more interactive, and linking out to news blogs and other credible sources more.  He’s also making the news sites become aggregators (through niche sites)  for all info in their area so someone searching for info about chicago x will wind up on a tribune site.

metaprinterLee says get away from the “electronic arm of the newspaper”  #naamxc09 it’s a totally different product.  What about “the medium is the message”?

metaprinter Barbara and Lee Abrams muddling through a discussion on “getting things done”.  #naamxc09

As an aside: ING Postpones 2009 Conference

metaprinterNo way in hell is a paper redesign going to save this industry. come on Barbara ask a tough question. #naamxc09

Final Session is EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY.  This picture was taken at 3:30 the start of the session.  by 3:50 more people have shown up.

The Tribune Company over the past 12 months has moved aggressively to transform their product strategies and remake the traditional newspapers, including re-designs, shifting the editorial/advertising ratio, re-thinking content focus/presentation, launching companion tabloid products, breaking news sites and other innovations. Lee Abrams, Tribune’s chief innovation officer, has been the provocateur for many of the changes. This “conversation with Lee” will provide a first-hand appraisal of the strategies to date and explore what’s on his mind for future innovations in print, online and broadcast.

Name Lee Abrams
Title SVP/Chief Innovation Officer
Company Name Tribune Company

Name Barbara G. Cohen
Title President
Company Name Kannon Consulting Inc.

What is the classified advertising outlook for 2009 and beyond? What are novel and innovative changes needed to evolve and meet today’s consumer demands? Attend this session to get these answers and more. You’ll hear directly from industry thought leaders as they share specific print and online classified redesign case studies, as well as new classified vertical strategies.

Name Chelle Bize
Title Recruitment Advertising Manager
Company Name Las Vegas Review- Journal

Name Tony Lee
Title Chief Alliance Officer & Publisher of CareerCast.com
Company Name Adicio

Name Bill Ostendorf
Title President
Company Name Creative Circle Media Consulting

Name Larry Shaw
Title Director of Client Research
Company Name Borrell Associates

I’ll do the same for the closing session at 3:30pm as well.

Crazy day for metaprinter dot com.  At 11am I interviewed Matt Coen and Doug Villhard with Second Street, then I interviewed John Juliano and Laura Koval with Terra digital printing.  Both these interviews will be up soon.

Got sidetracked by the Reel Centric display on my way to a session.  Look at this thing.  They market their product as  “smart video advertising solutions”  so they are raffling off a Smart Car.  Did I enter the raffle?  They said I could, So I did.   All I had to do was watch a 5minute demo.  The person manning the booth said they have already made the money they spent on purchasing the Smart car 5x over.  So I am naming Reel Centric’s booth, best booth at mediaXchange 2009.

Hit the 2:45 session Link, Search, Play to learn mostly about contests and their revenue potential.  Especially as a follow up to my interview with SecondStreet. So there you have it.  Day two is in the books.

Above is a short video of the convention room floor on day one. Monday March 9, 2009. What’s the problem? Is it the economy? Is it the state of the media? A combination of both?

Monday Day One

UPDATE: 2:30pm

Monetizing All Things Digital Session

Pubmatic CEO Rajeev Goel speaking
Monetizing ideas

. Shift from high price, high volume direct ad sales to high volume low price indirect sales.
. Demographic Data & Behavioral Data sold to ad networks, data exchanges, and agency buying systems.
. He has lots of supporting data of current and past trends.
. Thinks the display ad price drop is leveling off.

Reel Centric Denise Berry director/media developement
Video advertising opportunities

. 67% of all internet users are viewing video ads at least once a month.
. Video ad spending will run counter to overall economic developments rising 45% in 2009 to $850million
. newspapers need to engage people already using television advertising like car dealerships.
. virtual home improvement project on Arizona Republic’s site (i can’t find it)

Cox Ohio Publishing Ray Marcano, internet general manager
Dayton Daily News Hot Topics box on front page of site being passed off as content, but really direct click ads.  The box itself is making almost $100,000 in year one.

That’s it.  Q&A is cut short, ran over time.  Too many powerpoints at the sessions.  Thank goodness Ray’s ppt. failed and he winged it for 6minutes.  Because of that it was short and to the point.  One of the better presentations so far.   The others spoke too long. I really heard nothing innovative being said about how to generate value based on filling community needs.  This statement from  audience, “what I’m not seeing is newspapers attempting to create rich media content for long term growth” #naamxc09 summed it up.

UPDATE:  2pm

Gearing up for an interview with Serra Media CEO Mark Briggs.  Here is a slideshow showcasing their premier product Newsgarden.  More on this when I get the interview.  Stay tuned.  It will be on the site as a new post ASAP.

——————————————————————

Metaprinter.com founder and senior writer Robert Ivan will be attending NAA’s mediaXchange this March, live blogging via twitter and updating daily at this blog.  Email robert to set up an interview or to showcase your innovative new product or service.  Readers are also encouraged to send robert questions, comments, and suggestions: robert at metaprinter dot com OR twitter.com/metaprinter.  Use the #NAAmxc09 hash tag to follow us and others at the venue.

NAA expects executives in the business of delivering news and information on multiple platforms primarily located in North American markets, as well as those responsible for revenue, audience, content management and infrastructure to participate in this new annual gathering. The conference will help newspaper media executives make decisions and identify the products and services they need to maintain their newspaper’s position as the dominant local brand, while meeting revenue goals with digital properties, print content, niche products and more. March 9-11, 2009 Las Vegas.

Confirmed Appointments so far:

. Travidia
. Serra Media
. Tera Digital Publishing
. Stock-Trak Group

NAA Previews Inaugural mediaXchange Conference

Premier industry gathering focuses on future business models, multiplatform strategies

Arlington, Va. – Newspaper professionals from across the country will attend the Newspaper Association of America’s first annual mediaXchange Conference March 9-11 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. The conference marks an increased focus on emerging digital infrastructure, and will allow attendees to share audience and revenue development strategies that have generated growth in print and online.

“As newspapers reinvent their business models and focus on monetizing digital content, NAA’s inaugural mediaXchange event will allow attendees to share success stories and revenue-generating ideas that are effective now and well into the future,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “The opportunity for newspaper professionals to share audience and revenue development strategies, network with key newspaper advertising customers and listen to experts both inside and outside our industry will prove invaluable for those in attendance.”

This year’s show floor will feature 220 exhibitors that serve all facets of the industry – from production and digital platforms to advertising solutions. More than 40 of these companies will be exhibiting with NAA for the first time.

Conference Highlights:

March 9: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
Under Tony Hsieh’s leadership, the online show store zappos.com has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6 million in 2000 to $840 million in 2007 by focusing relentlessly on customer service. Hsieh will share his experiences providing a culture that promotes excellence in customer service, a key component to this remarkable success story.

March 10: Future Business Models
In this session, Jim Chisholm, principal at iMedia Advisory Services, will share his findings and recommendations from a comprehensive analysis on newspaper financial models for the future. Afterwards, newspaper executives who are rethinking the traditional publishing model will share the strategies and results from product transformations at their own companies.

March 11: A Conversation with Lee Abrams
The Tribune Company over the past 12 months has moved aggressively to transform their product strategies and remake the traditional newspapers, including re-designs, shifting the editorial/advertising ratio, re-thinking content focus/presentation, launching companion tabloid products, breaking news sites and other innovations. Lee Abrams, Tribune’s chief innovation officer, has been the provocateur for many of the changes.

Full information on the conference, including programming and registration details, is available at mediaXchange.naa.org.

###

I like the idea of NAA joining in the conversation, but how about having a human being at the helm to editorialize the information flow?  As it stands now, they are using twitter as an RSS feed and that just stinks.  I understand they want to use it to cover upcoming events, but what about the other 363 days of the year?

I hope NAA and any newspaper looking to utilize twitter as a social networking tool realizes that it’s the interaction that builds communities, not applications in and of themselves.  The Internet Editor for the Austin American_Statesman has a great blog post about abandoning twitterfeed to gain audience.  Here’s an excerpt:

The way I think about it is a morning news radio show. I say good morning, I say goodbye at the end of my shift. I thank them for contributions, etc. -quigblog

——————————————————————-

Here’s the email:

This Week’s Quick Tip: Follow the NAA Community on Twitter

The NAA Community recently joined Twitter, a social networking tool that provides a simple way for people to connect, exchange information, and even receive breaking news. You can “follow” the NAA Community to get the latest updates on NAA services and product offerings, fellowship application deadlines, upcoming events, the latest Community blog content, as well as news from NAA staff as they travel to newspaper site visits, industry conferences and more!

Sign up to now to ensure you don’t miss our extended coverage of the upcoming NAA mediaXchange conference in Las Vegas! To get started, sign-up for an account or log-in to Twitter, and visit NAA_Community to begin following.

We hope you find this Quick Tip easy and useful, and we’ll be back with another Quick Tip next week!

Need additional help? View our Online Tutorial or have a look through our FAQs for official answers. You may also or peruse the information in our NAA Community Blog — everything from how to get started to tips and tricks designed to help you get the most out of your Community. Just visit: http://community.naa.org/help or call 571-366-1200.

Thanks,
NAA Community Team

UPDATE:

I sent NAA_Community a tweet to see if a human was on the other end, listening and I got a response!  I hope this person, whomever they are, starts posting.