There have been several posts recently comparing associations to newspapers. Maddie Grant reprinted a listserve comment and got a lot of comments on her post and at other blogs. The general gist of the original post is that newspapers are an industry in gut-wrenching turmoil, and so are associations. Somehow the whole thing turned into a discussion of “micropricing” — continued here on the Acronym blog.
First of all — not all associations are in gut-wrenching turmoil.
Second of all — I think micropricing as it was defined in the original listserve comment and most of the subsequent posts/comments (taking stuff you already do and give away, and start charging for it) is not necessarily a good strategy for an association. Most associations have markets too small to make such a strategy worth the effort.
Far, far better to create valuable things (products, programs, services) and charge a hell of a lot for them. Your most valuable asset is your tight market and your knowledge of what it needs; you should not be “micro” pricing anything.
Third of all — there is a real lesson I think associations should derive from newspapers.
Newspapers are failing because they think they are in the newspaper business. They built big infrastructure (printing presses and global personnel) and are being drowned by it. They are desperately trying to prop up their core business through things like, yes, micropricing; witness the NYT and others announcing that they are implementing paywalls.
Will this save newspapers? Does anyone really think it will?
I’ve talked ad nauseam, in too many posts to link to, that associations should never fall into the trap of thinking that they are in the business of doing whatever it is they happen to do now — but we do it anyway. We publish a magazine, so we build up an infrastructure to publish a magazine; we put on a tradeshow, so we build up an infrastructure to put on trade shows; we are a “community” so we build up an infrastructure to support and grow community; we offer certification, so we build up an infrastructure to certify people; etc., etc.
If you want to continually succeed, you should start assuming that everything you are doing right now is going to go away. Instead associations create infrastructure to support whatever it is they’re doing right now, infrastructure that must be fed and sustained, and then they complain about “silos” and watch economic dips and technological changes blow holes in their budgets while they try to cover those holes with Band-Aids and hope.
No, micropricing what you do is not the right lesson to learn from newspapers.
The lesson that newspapers have to teach us is happening right here in the association mecca of Washington, DC. It goes like this:
The poor Washington Post can’t catch a break. As a “national newspaper” it’s failed; it just can’t compete with the NYT or WSJ. As a source of exclusive political coverage, it’s been permanently scooped by the more nimble Politico, which is also getting ready to introduce a sister site for local news coverage. The Post has been the subject of scrutiny, criticism and derision for a while now.
One of the jokes you often hear about the Post is, “The Washington Post is a testing company that happens to own a newspaper.”
But it’s not a joke; it’s true. The Post’s acquisition of Kaplan way back in the ’80s turned out to be the smartest thing it ever did. Today Kaplan is the Post’s fastest growing division and its largest producer of revenue. In fact, more than half of the Post Company’s revenue comes from Kaplan.
So while the Washington Post newspaper fights against lagging market share and declining revenues, its Kaplan arm is going strong.
This doesn’t sound like a joke to me.
I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but if the Washington Post decided to stop publishing media and embrace a future as a testing and educational services company … would you consider it to be a failure?
Because I wouldn’t.
If you would, then maybe you have a similar difficulty divorcing your association from the things that it does. And that mindset is what’s leading some associations into gut-wrenching turmoil.
To sum up:
Newspapers are not in the newspaper business, and neither are you.
You are also not in the association business, because frankly, there isn’t any such thing.
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