In September of last year I stepped into the leadership role of the FCPNY presidency with enthusiasm for our industry and the opportunity in our membership. Yes, we were in a recession and the newspaper industry was changing; but I counted the resilience and stick-to-itiveness of our publishers and concluded that time would yield the energy and effort necessary to the changes ahead. I was optimistic, but perhaps for the wrong reasons.

The changes that have beset the free community newspaper industry are clearly upon us, and their effects are substantial. We have fewer classified ads and revenues from these sources, in all of their forms; our base is shrinking as digital alternatives to print and simple online transfer models out maneuver and out perform them, Internet giants are targeting Main Street, and the cost of doing business is rising more rapidly for small businesses which carry the majority of jobs and growth, by increased taxes and controls. If that weren’t enough the new healthcare bill will likely put upward pressure on healthcare costs to small businesses.

The halcyon days of “over-the-transom” orders for ads and services may be near an end. Everything about our business is likely to change as Peter Drucker warned us in his dictum: …every organization must be prepared for the abandonment of everything it does.

Is there hope for the future, and on what platform is it riding? The answer is a resounding “Yes”, and the foundation is the bedrock of Internet and print products alike; namely behavioral modeling. What has not changed, nor will it, is the desire on the part of both buyer and seller to merge. How that occurs has changed and will continue to do so. For our part, we must be creative and flexible in our efforts to grow value in our products and services, outperform alternative methodologies in reaching Main Street, where we live and dominate, see opportunity where others see only what’s in front of them—Spanish speaking products, new distribution models, and any digital products that we can deliver to Main street better than the Internet giants can do it. This means text messaging, search engine marketing and optimizations for web customers, and magnet sites that draw people together in social networks, to name a few.

Ours is a world in rapid transition; so too our businesses. To succeed requires the same will that founded our businesses, most many years ago. But it also requires that we grow into the changed state of affairs we see around us. Uncertainty fuels fear, so we must come together and support each other in the learning process that delivers us to a marketplace that is less familiar each passing day. Our association (FCPNY) will continue to help with speakers and programs that do more than deliver information.

Simply, we will do what is necessary or what is necessary will undo us. In our efforts to remake ourselves for the future we must secure the value in our print products, and create new products for a changing behavioral model. We must not join an easy crowd; we won't grow. Rather, we must go where the expectations and the opportunity to perform are greatest. Above all, we must accept that our thoughts and values are apparent to all by a single thing—the results in them!

Wishing you the best of 2010,

Carla Chase, FCPNY President