API Invests $2 Million To Test New Business Models

Reston, VA--The American Press Institute today announced an ambitious year-long project to conceive and test new business models to help newspapers thrive in the next decade.

"Newspaper Next: The Transformation Project" will explore the trends disrupting the newspaper industry and develop practical business initiatives newspapers can adopt. API is investing $2 million into this project, which is the centerpiece of the Institute's 60th anniversary.

Stephen T. Gray, former managing publisher of The Christian Science Monitor and former chief executive officer and editor of The Monroe (Mich.) Evening News, has been named managing director of the project.

Gray and API will work with Innosight LLC, a consulting firm founded by Harvard Business School professor and innovation strategist Clayton Christensen. Innosight, www.innosight.com, has helped dozens of major companies develop innovative products and services and build the capabilities to create growth through innovation. Innosight managing partner Scott Anthony will head the Innosight team, with input from Harvard Business School Professor Clark Gilbert and Dr. Christensen.

API also has recruited a task force of 25 industry innovators and thought-leaders to collaborate with Gray and the Innosight team.

"As the newspaper industry's executive leadership schoolhouse and research center, API is uniquely suited to undertake a project of this importance," said Andrew B. Davis, API's president and executive director. "At stake is no less than the viability of newsgathering and dissemination today and into the next decade."

The project has the following goals:

Assess the threat to newspapers in the next decade, including emerging competition

Determine opportunities for newspapers, including implementation of available new technology

Suggest executable new business initiatives -- products, services and strategies -- with detailed rationales

Provide implementation guides for these business plans, addressing the management of change and risk.

"I've been very impressed with Innosight's keen understanding of how successful industries lose ground to new competitors, and with their unique approach to finding solutions," Gray said. "Those strengths, combined with the experience of the innovators on our task force, are sure to take this project in exciting new directions for the industry."

Final task force recommendations are expected in late 2006 and will be tested in an operating daily newspaper beginning in late 2006 or early 2007.

Task force members are:

• Stephen T. Gray, managing director, Newspaper Next

• Decker Anstrom, president and chief operating officer, Landmark Communications
• Reid Ashe, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Media General Inc.
• Donna Barrett, chief operating officer, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
• Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The Oregonian, Portland
• Jennifer Carroll, director of news development, Gannett Co. Inc.
• Rob Curley, new media director, Naples (Fla.) Daily News
• Luis Alberto Ferre, editor, El Nuevo Dia, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Laura Gordon, senior vice president of marketing, Dallas Morning News
• Christian Hendricks, vice president of interactive media, The McClatchy Co.
• Jennie Lambert, publisher, The Shelby (N.C.) Star
• Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor, The New York Times
• Caroline Little, chief executive officer and publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
• Stacy Lynch, director of innovation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Joycelyn Marek, vice president of marketing and public affairs, Houston Chronicle
• Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president and director of digital media, Hearst Newspapers
• Andrew Nachison, director, The Media Center
• Hilary Schneider, senior vice president, Knight Ridder
• Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer, MediaNews Group
• Rich Skrenta, chief executive officer, Topix.net
• Sreenath Sreenivasan, dean of students, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Gary Watson, retired, former president of Gannett Newspaper Division, Gannett Co. Inc.
• John Wilcox, president and chief operating officer, Ottaway Newspapers Inc.
• Bob Wyman, co-founder and chief technology officer, PubSub.com
• Steve Yelvington, digital strategist, Morris DigitalWorks
• Owen Youngman, vice president of development, Chicago Tribune Co.