Industry news from the NNA Board meeting held on June 6, 2013
Andrew Johnson, NNA Region 6 Representative
By Andrew Johnson, NNA Region 6 Representative
Your National Newspaper Association is doing a good job of advocating the interests of community newspapers throughout our country in many different ways. Many things have been changing since the association’s June 6 board meeting. Issues and topics (updated through early July) included:
Adobe Cloud Issue
The issue of Adobe requiring users of their software to pay a monthly user fee instead of one-time purchase and upgrading by far was the item on the agenda that caused the most discussion. Normally NNA and other state press association usually do not talk about other private vendors. However, in this case, I thought it was important to bring this to our board’s attention since many of our members depend on Adobe products like InDesign or Photoshop to publish their newspapers. Kevin Slimp, director of Institute of Newspaper Technology has written very informative columns on the subject in both the June and July editions of Pub Aux. It is definitely a big change.
I attended a seminar last week that was led by an Adobe certified trainer and he informed the group that a few particular changes to the Cloud edition were being made. It appears that the smaller newspaper members will be most impacted since they don’t fully utilize all of the Adobe Products included in the Cloud edition. The situation is complicated by Adobe’s requirement for their software to be on latest computer operating systems. Going forward, members will have to carefully consider their software options for their particular circumstances. Slimp will continue to update members monthly in Pub Aux.
Postal Update
NNA’s Tonda Rush briefed the board on postal issues. The USPS continues to post record losses. However the Postmaster General has reported that the Post Office will have sufficient cash flow to get through this fiscal year. Without a crisis, Congress will unlikely take any action. It appears that the six-day delivery will remain for now. On Jan. 26, 2014, when the next postal rate increases are to happen, there is a new requirement for periodical publishers who utilize the “full-Service” Intelligent Mail Barcode to submit their post reports electronically. There are two electronic options. Max Heath, NNA Postal Chair, strongly encourages publishers to use software that uses Mail.XML to send their mailing information instead of the laborious manual entry into the Postal Wizard (post office software). Mail.XML connects directly to the PostalOne system and is the best way. Publishers not utilizing intelligent barcodes, which includes most small publishers, can still submit their postal report in paper form.
Shield Law
The NNA board has endorsed — as it has in the past — support for a Federal Shield Law following the disclosure that the Justice Department had subpoenaed some 200 telephone records of the Associated Press in an attempt to track down a new leak within the administration. NNA Board also condemned the Justice Department’s review of all the Verizon phone records in the U.S. without a subpoena.
Other
The NNA board unanimously passed the NNA 2013-14 budget. I am happy to report that NNA is in the black and in stable financial condition. Membership is also stable. The board invited Berkshire Hathaway to have a representative on the NNA Board since they have been investing in both community weekly and daily newspapers. NNA is gearing up to the annual convention that will be held Sept 12-15 in Phoenix. Currently there are more vendors signed up for this year’s convention than were at last year’s convention. In addition to being an excellent place to meet up with other community newspaper folks, the convention is packed with seminars and hands on information our industry leaders will share. I look forward to visiting with you in Phoenix.
Andrew Johnson, NNA Region 6 Representative, is the publisher of two small Wisconsin weekly newspapers. He is past president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. He can be contacted at the Dodge County Pionier: johnson@dodgecountypionier.com or 920-387-2211.