Newspaper execs make their case

The pundits and cynics who believe that newspapers are dead are dead wrong.

So says a small group of newspaper executives who this month organized an ad hoc group to alter perceptions and get the facts out - for example, more Americans will pick up a newspaper Monday morning (100 million) than watch the Super Bowl tomorrow night.

Dubbed the Newspaper Project, the grassroots effort includes the CEO and publisher of Philadelphia Media Holdings, Brian P. Tierney.

Beginning Monday, print and online ads will appear in Advertising Age, The Inquirer, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and more than 100 other newspapers.

A new Web site - www.newspaperproject.org - will aim to offer insightful articles, commentary and research on what newspaper companies can do to thrive.

"A lot of people, both in our business as well as media decision-makers, are frustrated with the lack of perspective and the inability to get the full story out," Tierney said.

The audience for what journalists produce is larger than ever, as a result of online readership, Tierney added.

Currently, all media companies - new and old - are struggling to innovate and grow. "This is an era when broadcast television news [viewership] is way down, and yet newspapers in this competitive environment are doing fairly well," Tierney said.

The grassroots effort is led by Randy Siegel, president and publisher of Parade Publications; Donna Barrett, president and CEO of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.; Jay Smith, former president of Cox Newspapers; and Tierney.

Acknowledging that the newspaper industry faces challenges, the group roundly rejects the notion that newspapers have no future.

The group decided "because journalism is so essential for a democracy, we really need to tell this story ourselves in a more aggressive way," Tierney said. "Rather than wait for everybody to get together, an insurgent group of folks decided to do it on our own."