Thad McIlroy - The Future of Publishing

1. To my mind, the most fascinating, unbiased and authoritative source of information about what's happening in the newspaper industry is provided by the Pew Research Center and its various cousins.

The report I quote from extensively in the main article in this section, The State of the Newsmedia 2007: An Annual Report On American Journalism, is from the Project for Excellence in Journalism (www.journalism.org), a Pew undertaking.

2. Of course newspapers are well covered by trade associations. I always feel just slightly skeptical of these sites, as obviously they are designed to serve their paying constituents, newspapers and advertisers, rather than an enquiring public that is wondering where the industry is headed. Here's Google's omnibus listing:

http://www.google.com/Top/News/Newspapers/Publishers/Associations/

3. The big U.S. trade group is the NAA, the Newspaper Association of America:

"NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $55 billion newspaper industry. NAA members account for nearly 90 percent of the daily circulation in the United States and a wide range of nondaily U.S. newspapers. NAA also has many Canadian and International members."

The NAA has recently launched a provocative blog, Imagining the Future of Newspapers Blog.

4. The Canadian equivalent is the Canadian Newspaper Association, which offers a range of industry-oriented resources.

5. Ifra

Ifra, based in Darmstadt, Germany, bills itself, I think correctly, as "the world's leading association for newspaper and media publishing. Services - offered primarily to Ifra Members -  include trade exhibitions, international conferences, seminars and training events as well as consulting and various publications."

6. Two fine publications:

Columbia Journalism Review

American Journalism Review

7. A couple of good blogs (there are numerous others):

World Association of Newspapers offers The Editors Weblog

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/