Best of friends, PANPA and TNW move in together

They've both proved the common good of the newspaper industry is more important than inter-group rivalries: now they're moving in together, writes Peter Coleman. PANPA - the 40-year-old which changed its name last week to Newspaper Publishers Association, but will retail the popular brand - is to share offices with The Newspaper Works, a relative newcomer which aims to show newspapers are an effective advertising medium. The two have a lot in common: Board representation from all of Australia's major newspaper publishing groups - with Joe Talcott and Liam Roche sitting on both bodies - and a common interest in promoting newspapers against a growing host of rival new media businesses. Competition has always been robust between rival metropolitan publishers News Limited and Fairfax Media. But now top management from both sit together on the two organisations. At The Newspaper Works, APN News & Media chief executive Brendan Hopkins chairs a board which includes Brian McCarthy and John Hartigan, who hold similar positions at Fairfax and News respectively. News group marketing director Joe Talcott - who last week succeeded Fairfax's Robert Whitehead as president of PANPA - West Australian Newspapers' general manager group operations and IT Liam Roche, and Fairfax strategic insights and trade marketing director Elizabeth Ross make up the balance, with News company secretary Peter Jourdain as its secretary. PANPA's website says it is "owned" by the region's top publishers - APN and APN New Zealand, Fairfax Media, Fairfax New Zealand, News Limited and West Australian Newspapers - with each having two seats on the board. The reality is slightly different, with Talcott as incoming president, Roche stepping up as vice president, and two new board members voted in last Thursday, bringing the board to its full complement for the first time for a while. New are Ken Nichols, general manager of the Fairfax-owned 'Canberra Times' (replacing Allen Williams who has resigned) and - ironically at a time when the group has opted to drop the 'Pacific Area' tag from its title - Anne Fussell from the (News-owned) 'Fiji Times'. Continuing members are Campbell Reid (News), Ross McPherson (Shepparton News), and Martin Simons and Mark Jamieson (both of APN). Key board members have made it clear that they want the two groups - and others in Australia representing parts of the newspaper industry - to work more closely together. That objective has been somewhat obscured by debate and sensitivity about the change of name. An item on the gxpress.net website discussing the moves brought a near-instantaneous response from then president Robert Whitehead when it was included in our email newsletter. At last week's PANPA meeting, Whitehead explained the name change proposal more fully than it had been in the agenda paper, and the proposal was unanimously accepted. The group was trimming the "unwieldy" and confusing Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association title in order to get traction in the local market. The name change was vital for the message of publishers to be better understood in the public domain. "Greater work" was required in Australia, which had no specific representation, unlike countries such as New Zealand and Fiji. But the was "no question" of the NPA or PANPA stepping back from support of colleagues in Fiji, "which currently operates under a regime of government censorship". Chief executive Mark Hollands told me this week that PANPA will stay as the brand for members and the annual awards "will definitely not change". The annual conference and Editors Forum will also be PANPA-branded. But when the organisation is mentioned in international circles such as WAN-Ifra (of which it is an affiliate) the NPA tag is likely to be used. Without being 'NPA Australia' that may bring confusion with the UK national newspapers' group of the same name ... but they'll tackle that if it happens in what has been dubbed a 'soft launch'. "We do want to be part of the Pacific area, but the reality is that the interests of members, the money, is in Australia," says Hollands. He says that but for the strong relationships already forged with the present government, the 'Pacific' tag left PANPA's position confused. It didn't speak for New Zealand publishers (who have their own group) and it wasn't clear that it spoke for Australia either. The name change will fix that. In a report in the 'PANPA Bulletin News Now' e-newsletter, Hollands says the PANPA brand and its history is "much loved, especially by the production fratenity. "You don't throw away 40 years of work," he says, "and we won't be doing that. "Where PANPA's history has been very much in the production environment, the need to change focus and improve the image and value of newspapers in society has become more important - not just in terms of copy sales but in terms of attracting and retaining the best people. "Consequently, a more Australian focus is needed as other countries have their own bodies. "This is the key reason for the change but the PANPA name in the region will live on through those activities - conferences and awards - that members value. "We are in a better position to work together with the other national bodies, such as NZ NPA, for the good of the industry."