API to provide benchmark study of online revenue initiatives, including charging fees for content

Study will assist publishers in setting successful new courses by providing industrywide comparison of the impact of various strategies on total online revenues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 4, 2009
PRESS CONTACT: Mark Mulholland, 703-715-3300

RESTON, Va. -- The American Press Institute (API) announces a partnership with ITZ Publishing and Belden Interactive, operating as ITZBelden, to monitor media companies' online revenue initiatives, including pay for content.

API will work with ITZBelden to produce surveys of local media enterprises' ongoing and new revenue initiatives and provide publishers with timely data as they chart new courses of revenue generation. API will e-mail the surveys to news industry executives and elicit their participation.

The partnership and survey are central to API's mission to be a key resource and means of providing up-to-date information at a time when the publishing industry is responding to a significantly evolving media landscape. "News organizations are addressing the reality that new solutions are required," says Greg Harmon, CEO of Belden Interactive, "as the Internet impacts their audience size and composition, patterns of news consumption, advertising pricing, and competition."

As publishers strategize to meet these challenges, the analysis and benchmarks produced by ITZBelden will make apparent the effectiveness of different initiatives being tested by their peers, including charging for content, and the impact of each approach on total online revenue.

"Media industry leaders need good information to guide them as they determine new business models," says Drew Davis, API president and executive director. "These studies will enable them to see and evaluate the initiatives being implemented, the relative success of each and the impact on the whole."

An overview of results from the first ITZBelden survey will be presented at API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference, Sept.13-15, 2009, at the Institute's headquarters in Reston, Va. The conference is an invitation-only event where executives from API's corporate member newspapers will explore a range of online revenue models that take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Web.

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About The American Press Institute
The American Press Institute, (703) 620-3611, is an independent educational center based in Reston, Va. API provides skills-based training and leadership development in the newsmedia industry, offering seminars, onsite programs and consulting for newspaper professionals and organizations.

About Belden Interactive
Belden Interactive, (415) 566-4348, based in San Francisco, specializes in audience research for Internet companies, with a focus on the news and information industry.

About ITZ Publishing
ITZ Publishing, (503) 241-3650 or (800) 647-6917, is based in Portland, Ore., and provides a leading voice nationwide in Internet revenue development for media companies. ITZ has also been retained by Journalism Online LLC to provide benchmarking studies to affiliates and help maximize online revenue opportunities.

About API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference
The conference will address one of the most critical issues facing the news industry: generating revenue from online content. The program -- which is based on the institute's integrated five-point plan to guide the news industry through the current disruptions and position itself for the future -- will provide a recommended agenda for action, including research and case studies of the most promising paid content plans.

Facilitators will include Merrill Brown, founder and principal of MMB Media LLC; Bill Densmore, one of four principals of CircLabs Inc.; Greg Harmon, CEO and managing director of Belden Interactive; Jim Kennedy, The Associated Press's vice president and director of strategic planning; Caroline Little, chief executive for North America, Guardian News & Media; Dale Peskin, founder and managing director of iFOCOS; Jim Pitkow, CEO and co-founder of Attributor Corp.; and Greg Swanson, CEO of ITZ Publishing.

For more information on the Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference, please email Carol Ann Riordan or call (703) 715-3315.

For more information about the surveys, please email Greg Swanson or call (503) 241-3650. Publications interested in participating in the surveys may email Greg Harmon or call (415) 566-4348.