Peak newspaper body to represent all the industry

Falling circulations and growing threats from electronic media prod newspapers to consolidate four industry organisations into one – The Newspaper Works.

The Newspaper Publishers’ Association and the industry advertising trade group, The Newspaper Works, are getting together to present a single voice for the beleaguered industry. The move spells the end of PANPA (Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association) as a separate organisation. PANPA was already incorporated into the NPA. It also sees the last of the Publishers’ National Environment Bureau and the advertising compliance body, the Publishers’ Advertising Advisory Bureau.

From now on they will all be part of The Newspaper Works under current boss, Tony Hale as CEO with Greg Hywood, CEO of Fairfax as chairman. The Newspaper Works is owned by News Ltd, Fairfax Media, Seven West Media and APN News & Media.

The new peak organisation will be responsible for newspaper industry advocacy, marketing and advertising, government lobbying, regulation, the environment and sustainability.
Its role is to aggressively promote newspapers across all print and digital platforms to audiences including advertisers, consumers, governments, shareholders, and the newspaper industry.

“Our industry needs one peak organisation with a strong voice to represent newspapers in the many forms they now take – print, web, mobile and tablet,” said Greg Hywood, chairman of The Newspaper Works.
“The newspaper industry is undergoing fundamental change, and as it does so, we are seeing our audiences expand faster than ever before. This initiative will enable us to do a more effective job of communicating the extraordinary transformation we are experiencing and the many advantages these historic changes are presenting us,” he said.

The Newspaper Works will represent all newspapers including regional, suburban and community as well as taking over the annual conferences and the Newspaper of the Year Awards, previously run by NPA and PANPA. It will start operations in January.