NAA brings new mega-conference to member newspapers
By Andrew McGlothlen
In reviewing its offerings to member newspapers along with the feedback it got from the Marketing Conference and NEXPO attendees, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) critically evaluated its conference offerings. As a result, the organization will be discontinuing both the Marketing Conference and NEXPO show and instead focusing its attention on mediaXchange, a conference that NAA Advertising and Exhibit Sales Vice President Kevin McCourt feels brings together all of the elements that newspaper members and conference attendees have been requesting.
“NAA has made some dramatic changes in the past month in response to changes in our member newspaper companies. We have worked very hard to look at the 3,000 people who have been engaged with the two events separately, the exhibitors that have been engaged with the two events and the direction that NAA has in its mission going forward and create the most successful single event to serve audiences that are responsible for revenue, audience, emerging digital platforms and what we’re calling ‘infrastructure’ – the traditional things a newspaper needs to produce the core product and operate as a stand-alone business,” McCourt explained.
He asserted that all the best elements of the two discontinued conferences would be included in the new conference. He added that mediaXchange was not intended to be a merger of two conferences but rather a means to address the issues of today’s newspapers in the most effective and efficient way possible for all involved.
“Our members are looking to us for stories of success and examples of how they can innovate in ways that drive their bottom line and drive more audience for them. This new marketplace of ideas, products and services will be the large event that services the North American newspaper industry,” McCourt said.
For those accustomed to the Marketing Conference, McCourt emphasized that mediaXchange would include expanded capabilities for meeting with advertisers on-site, networking with peers both in sessions and niche social events, and upgrading the Web 2.0 options in the form of myXchange, which allows attendees, exhibitors, speakers and NAA staff to digitally access the conversation the conference invites as well as program and session information. Marketing Conference attendees will benefit from a larger lineup of exhibitors with space for more thorough presentations in the exhibition hall.
NEXPO attendees will get the trade show environment at mediaXchange but have significantly more networking opportunities added to the continuation of programming regarding strategic business development and fundamental evaluation of how and why to executive various initiatives.
In terms of the conference program, attendees will see more breaking down of “silos” with information packaged for cross-functional initiatives.
“At newspaper companies, decision-making has become more collaborative. They’re teaming at a level that is unprecedented, the way people are working cross-functionally between the business side and the production/operations side, and we have taken that to heart. Our programming will reflect that with more broad interests than it ever has in the past,” McCourt explained.
The programming and execution of the conference are being handled in part by the program-planning committees from the Marketing Conference and NEXPO, each of whom is ensuring that the best of that respective conference is represented in the new offering. The conference will continue the tradition of offering an open call for presentations from anyone who wishes to present ideas, whether they’re within the industry, partnered to it or completely outside of it.
“In a changing time in the industry, NAA has determined — with insight from our members — that a single event that addresses these business issues is the best way to create a marketplace or exchange of ideas and best practices as well as to create a marketplace that can serve as an exchange of resources, from suppliers to newspapers and from newspapers to customers. We are stepping back and saying, ‘In 2009, what does the industry need in terms of a face-to-face gathering and the ancillary print and electronic tools to support it?,’ and we’re trying to make it as good as we can the first time out,” McCourt concluded.
Kevin McCourt
Newspaper Association of America, Arlington, Va.
571-366-1055
kevin.mccourt@naa.org
www.naa.org, mediaxchange.naa.org
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