NewsBeat

2 NewsBeat October/November 2016 PA NY NewsBeat A NEWSLETTER FOR NEW YORK'S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS Published by the New York Press Association 621 Columbia Street Ext., Suite 100, Cohoes, NY 12047 518.464.6483 • 518.464.6489 fax • www.nynewspapers.com Executive Editor — Michelle K. Rea Layout & Design — Rich Hotaling C L I P & S A V E Mark your calendar Friday, November 11, 2016 NYPA/NYPS Board of Directors Meetings NYPA Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Straus News, 333 Seventh Ave. (6th flr.), NYC Tuesday, January 10, 2017 NYPA Better Newspaper Contest Deadline Thursday, April 6, 2017 NYPA/NYPS Boards of Directors Meetings NYPA Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Gideon Putnam Hotel, Saratoga Springs, NY Friday & Saturday, April 7 & 8, 2017 NYPA Spring Convention and Tradeshow Gideon Putnam Hotel, Saratoga Springs, NY Friday, June 9, 2017 NYPA/NYPS Board of Directors Meetings NYC Thursday, September 14, 2017 NYPA/NYPS Boards of Directors Meetings NYPA Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Buffalo, NY Friday & Saturday, September 15 & 16, 2017 NYPA Fall Conference Buffalo, NY By MICHELLE REA — Executive Director, NYPA Good afternoon. On behalf of the board of directors and the staff at NYPA, thank you for joining us this weekend. We know how precious your time is, and we're grateful that you decided to spend the weekend with us. I'd like to share some of the highlights of the last year and then some thoughts on the state of our industry. Last year NYPS generated $16.5M in ad sales. We paid $13.5 million to the newspapers for running displays ads placed by NYPS and distributed more than $200,000 to those newspapers participating in NYPS' statewide classified advertising network. Through the end of August this year, NYPS has generated $9.1M in ad sales - we're approximately $1M ahead of where we were at the same time last year, so with the four largest months of the year ahead of us, NYPS is tracking well. NYPA accepted five new members in the past year. NYPA currently represents 731 newspapers — 404 paid; 327 free; 72 dailies; 531 weekly newspapers; 143 ethnic newspapers; and 370 news websites in New York. In June, 2015 NYPS partnered with Adforce, a digital advertising placement firm based in Dublin, Ireland, to help NYPS develop our own digital advertising placement service. Last year, NYPS placed $12K in digital advertising. To date this year, NYPS has placed $164K in digital advertising, so we're hoping we're onto something. NYPA is working with Adforce to develop digital advertising placement services in state press associations throughout North America. The goal is to create the only ubiquitous, single point of contact, premium news network in North America. We have signed agreements with several states, but most importantly for NYPS, New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are in the process of ramping up, which gives the NYPS sales team a huge digital footprint in the Northeast. NYPA and Adforce have entered into a free trial agreement with Lemonwhale, a video player platform based in Sweden. We hope to sign up 50 publishers to test the platform free for six months. If the trial is successful and publishers like the platform – which also includes a video content sharing component — NYPA will enter into a universal licensing agreement with Lemonwhale and then relicense the software to newspapers at a deeply discounted rate. The goal is not only to provide newspapers with a high quality video player at a low price, but also, to improve the user experience for those viewing videos on our news sites. Lemonwhale will present a demonstration of the platform during the Adforce workshop this afternoon. NYPA is continuing its work with RPI, and Bryan Boyhan, Joe Shaw, Garry Pierre Pierre and I plan to write a Community 360 Playbook this fall, to provide a blueprint for publishers to help you implement the recommendations from the Community 360 study. Our recurring problem with news racks reared its ugly head again this summer, but with the tremendous support of almost a dozen NYC-based publishers, and the testimony they delivered before the NYC Council's Transportation Committee, we've held our critics in check again, for the time being. NYPA is developing a business plan for a new member service to be called the National Institute for Audience and Circulation Development. The goal is to provide a broad range of services to help news organizations to attract and keep new readers and NYPA Fall Publishers' and Editors' Conference Editor's Note: NYPA's 163rd Fall Publishers' Conference and Annual Meeting was held at the Omni Parker House, Boston, Massachusetts, September 15th and 16th. The Parker House is a legendary landmark in Boston, famous for inventing the Parker House Roll, Boston Crème Pie, and the Toll House Cookie. Other notable trivia: Malcolm X worked there as a busboy; Ho Chi Minh worked there as a baker, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy announced his candidacy for US Senate and President of the United States there. The Red Sox swept the NY Yankees in a four game series the weekend of the conference, and many of us were at Fenway Park for the Friday night game. On the two inside back pages of this newsletter you will find pictures and contact information for the new officers and directors of the boards of directors for NYPA, NYPS and the Foundation, who were elected in their districts, or at the annual meeting. Following, is the executive director's address to attendees at the Annual Meeting and Election of Officers. (Continued on Page 3)

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