Late this afternoon I opened the latest "Growing Audience" alert from the Newspaper Association of America. I got excited when I saw the title to a posting on the NAA blog: "E-alert: Innovation Highlights from the Poynter McCormick Big Ideas Conference"

Any time there is something that mentions newspapers, magazines and a big idea, I have high hopes. Here at Mediabids, we believe that the time is perfect for big ideas which address some of the difficulties being faced by newspapers and magazines around the country. We constantly speak to publications and advertisers about our big idea - how to sell more print ads using an online marketplace -  so we are big idea people. We embrace big ideas.

I suppose calling a conference the "Poynter McCormick somewhat interesting and marginally relevant idea conference" isn't really that compelling but it would have been more accurate.

There are a few clever ideas but I expected more (a lot more) given the current state of the print industry and the projections for the future.

Here are a few of the allegedly "big ideas:"

7 to 7 Breaking News Blog -- The Providence Journal hosts a breaking news blog Monday through Friday with ads and creates a blog stylebook, best practices for linking, and a sets protocol for fast breaking news.

Reader Interactivity in Exactly Six Words -- The Times Union asked readers to submit what they thought was best about their region in exactly six words.

Today in Brevard -- Florida Today created a half-hour, live streamed daily newscast broadcast on floridatoday.com.

Buzz Style -- The Sun/Inland Valley Daily Tribune creates a no-nonsense news presentation for need-to-know news consumers.

Monday, Monday* -- How the Anniston Star set about to create a more lively Monday paper, jumpStart, and the lessons learned along the way.

Here is the only one I could find that had anything to do with sales:

Sales Force of the Future -- Morris Communications is mobilizing around strategic innovation with one focus around creating a best-in-class multimedia sales force.

This can't be the sum total of big ideas in the print industry, can it? Maybe it is just because we are focused on sales but isn't that what matters most right now? Wouldn't you think that innovative approaches to selling print inventory would be the most important thing to all the smart people in the print industry who were at this conference? I was disappointed at the almost complete lack of attention to the revenue stream. Isn't that what an organization like the NAA should be most worried about right now? Do you think that at some point one of the attendees at this conference said to another attendee: "these sure are some neat ideas, hope we can stay in business long enough to try them out."

Here are a couple good (non-revenue generating) ideas: 

The Reporter's Notebook* -- The Twin Cities Daily Planet encourages the audience to participate in the news gathering process by posting upcoming story outlines to their online Reporter's Notebook inciting readers to comment, upload documents and contribute to the process before publishing.

Curate Your Community -- The St.Louis Post-Dispatch created more than 300 microlocal news sites.

Interesting development for newspapers and magazines: take a look at this story from Bloomberg.com on who has taken the place of auto manufacturers in television advertising:

Across the U.S., the price of an average 30-second local TV commercial tumbled as much as 20 percent last year from 2007, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, a New York- based trade organization. Auto ad revenue at local stations, down a fifth in 2008 from the year before, plunged another 52 percent in the first quarter, the TV Bureau said.

“A lot of local retailers, like the portrait shop or the pet store, haven’t advertised on TV before because they think they can’t afford it,” said Robert Prather, president of Atlanta-based Gray. “We’re out just beating bushes that we should have been doing a long time ago.”

The price of an average 30-second ad placed on a local TV station last year ranged from $6.66 per 1,000 viewer homes in the early morning to $27.29 in prime time, according to the TV Bureau. Prime hours, when stations usually have their largest audience, are generally 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. In 2007, the same rates were $8.09 and $34.12, the bureau said.

But don't worry, they got someone from the NAA to say that lower costs from TV stations, isn't impacting print publications.

“I haven’t seen anyone who says they’re losing local advertisers to local television,” Mort Goldstrom, the vice president of advertising for the Newspaper Association of America, said in an interview. “Our losses have come in other areas,” such as classified real estate and job ads, he said.

Somehow, I don't think that Mort spends much time trying to sell ads. 

A study by the Inland Press Association shows what you would expect in the largest papers - the last five years were tough. However, revenue increased in daily newspapers with under 15,000 circulation. 

"A triple whammy of declining circulation, advertising and classified revenue has been eroding the profits at U.S. dailies over the past five years, according to a report by the Inland Press Association. The sole circulation group showing a hopeful sign was the under 15,000-circulation category, which actually showed a 2.5 percent growth in gross revenues during the five-year period ending in 2008."

The study shows that, although the trends are not good, most newspapers are still profitable.

"The Trend Analysis average overall shows newspaper operating profits still ranged from more than 8.5 percent to 13.6 percent of gross revenue in all circulation groups except 25,001-50,000."

Our friends at Discover Magazine brought this to our attention - Silicon Valley Insider reports on 28 magazines who grew in the first quarter of 2009, despite an industry-wide decrease of more than 20%. Despite the increase, the number one magazine on the list Hallmark - went out of business. Discover made the list and appears to be doing fine.