The Arizona Broadcasters Association and Arizona Newspapers Association are combining operations to form a single Arizona Media Association. Our goal is to double-down on futureproofing local media and protect its critical role for community connection.
This transition will help us grow our megaphone, invest more deeply in member services and catch-up to the line blurring that already occurs between media platforms. When the transition is complete this fall, our association will include more than 350 radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, digital-only operations and associate members.
For members of the Arizona Broadcasters Association, our new Arizona Media Association will help expand funding for paid internships, grow our investment in paid marketing to promote local media’s role, keep funding annual research to look at Arizona consumer habits and add to our defense of press freedom in the Arizona courts alongside lobbying at the state legislature. In a nutshell, existing services will grow bigger.
For members of the Arizona Newspapers Association, our new Arizona Media Association has a commitment to keep a laser-like focus on Arizona lobbying under the guidance of John Moody. Membership will also bring with it access to all the above expanding services for internship funding, marketing, research and more.
The next step in our Arizona Media Association transition occurs on Sept. 22. This is when we convene an annual meeting of the new association to formally elect our 2024 board of directors and host our first board meeting as a combined group.
Our current board has approved a slate of 2024 leaders for consideration — and all current members of the Arizona Broadcasters Association and Arizona Newspapers Association are eligible to cast a vote. Please review the slate and cast your proxy vote (only one vote per organization) by September 15: https://forms.office.com/r/uYB2qjyig0
In tandem with our Association moves, we are also launching an Arizona Local News Foundation to connect communities with more local news and information. Our goal is to fund programs that ensure local news is accessible in every Arizona community, and we are just getting started here.
As one final piece of news, we are planning a massive launch event on Friday, Jan. 26, for our Arizona Media Association and Arizona Local News Foundation. Mark your calendars now. We will share more details next month and we hope to see many of you in-person at that celebration of Arizona local media. We’ve never held an event quite like this!
As we move towards full combination, the Arizona Media Association will be supported with the following full-time staff leaders:
As questions come up, please reach out directly to me as helpful. Our newly combined website is also starting to come to life with details on the association and foundation plus the full directory of members: azmedia.org
Thanks to resources already available today and new resources getting added right now, we plan to be an even larger partner to you in the year ahead — and we believe these moves set us up for pretty tremendous opportunity.
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