It’s Official: 2009 Was Worst Year for the Newspaper Business in Decades

New York Times' Richard Pérez-Peña reports in his Media Decoder blog:

"It’s no surprise that 2009 was the worst year the newspaper business has had in decades, but the scale of the damage, shown in figures released Wednesday by the Newspaper Association of America, is stunning. Advertising revenue fell 27.2 percent, or more than $10 billion, from 2008 – which was, at the time, the industry’s worst year since the Depression."

Local government and newspapers are in the same boat -- there's little money coming in.

Hudson attends NACO meeting in Washington

As reported in the Texarkana (Texas) Gazette:

Miller County Justice of the Peace Haze Hudson participated in the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., to improve relations between local and federal officials. “Being on the national community and economic development steering committee for the past two years has helped bring new ideas to Miller County, such as conservation grants for our county buildings and rural water for Miller County. I have learned from experts how to apply for available funds,” Hudson said.

Thanks Justice Hudson for helping to shape national policies affecting counties.

Commissioner on 'green' leadership team

Congratulations to Catawba County, N.C. Commission Chair Kitty Barnes for being appointed to NACo's Green Government Initiative Advisory Board!

County Officials Report Conference Productive

Super article in the Madison County (N.Y.) Courier about the county officials who participated in the 2010 NACo Legislative Conference. It's a terrific example of effectively communicating the value of getting involved with NACo to help shape national issues affecting local government.

NACo leadership meets with USA Today Editorial Board

NACo President Valerie Brown, President-elect Glen Whitley, and Executive Director Larry Naake met with the Editorial Board of USA Today this morning in their Tyson's Corner (McLean, Va.) offices. The meeting occurred on the last day - Capitol Hill Day - of our 2010 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.

Brian Gallagher, Editor of the Editorial Board, was a gracious host for us and we had a terrific meeting about county governments' essential role in American society. They talked about health care reform, federal stimulus spending, how partisanship at the state and federal level too often gets in the way of serving the public, and other issues.

President Brown and President-elect Whitley's main point to the editorial page of the second largest newspaper in America: Counties matter for so many reasons.

One of those days

Today was one of those days when you're on the phone with CBS News telling you YES they are coming to the conference in the morning while your cell phone is ringing from C-SPAN telling you they are NOT coming. House Speaker Pelosi is speaking at our General Session Tuesday morning followed immediately by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. When the smoke cleared tonight, the following national broadcast giants say they are covering the session: NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, Fox News Channel and CNN. I feel sorry for the guy who has to manage that in the morning. Oh, that's me.

Day 1 in the bag

Day 1 of NACo's Legislative Conference is history. Mostly a day of subcommittee and affiliate meetings. Sunday, more full committee meetings and hundreds more members will arrive. I had the pleasure to speak a few moments to a gathering of first-time conference attendees. I advised them how their active participation in NACo not only makes NACo such an effective voice of counties in Washington, but how we can assist them in communicating their efforts to the folks back home to help shape national policies affecting local government. Met some wonderful county officials already.

NACo meets GOVERNING

NACo leadership had a great meeting this morning with the new publisher and editor of GOVERNING magazine - Fred Kuhn and Tod Newcombe - at their Connecticut Avenue, N.W. offices.

President Valerie Brown, President-elect Glen Whitley and Immediate Past President Don Stapley discussed the NACo Legislative Conference (which begins tomorrow), NACo's efforts to Restore the Partnership with the federal government, some of NACo's advocacy efforts to secure provisions in the "jobs bill," as well as NACo programs that benefit NACo-member counties and the people who live in member counties.

GOVERNING magazine covers state and local government management, policy and politics. The publication was recently purchased by eRepublic, so today's meeting was the first time NACo leadership had met with the new GOVERNING staff.

Ready or not, here they come

My bosses, about 2,000 of them, begin arriving in D.C. over the next few days for our Legislative Conference. Meeting with Governing magazine on Friday, NACo Technology Summit and subcommittee meetings on Saturday; full policy committee meetings and media/communications roundtable discussions on Sunday, general session and workshops on Monday, more of those on Tuesday, and Capitol Hill Day on Wednesday. Oh, and a meeting with the USA Today Editorial Board on Wednesday. Keep checking in here for the latest info throughout the conference.

Network News at a Crossroads

The future of network TV news looks bleak, as reported in this New York Times article by Brian Stelter and Bill Carter. The news is that ABC News is closing all of it's news bureaus worldwide, except Washington, D.C. and trimming staff.

The money quote: “I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin, the president of ABC News, as he explained the decision last week to jettison up to 400 staff members, a quarter of the news staff, in the coming months.

These are harsh and alarming cuts. Much like county revenues, the money from advertising, ratings and other revenue sources is just not coming in as in the past.

The fact is that news consumption has shifted from being an appointment part of our day (watch the evening news at 6:30, local news at 6 and 11) to getting news when it's convenient for us (Internet, our cell phone, e-mail alerts, etc.). We go get the news when we want it. I know for me, thanks to TiVo, I record the news programs I like (and some I don't like) and watch them at my convenience.

Also, Americans seem to care much less about international and important national issues and the big media tries to give the folks what they want to hang onto their readers and viewers. This results in bureau closings. Very unfortunate, but it's the reality.