Attendance Lagging, NAA Cancels Wall Street Presentations

By: Mark Fitzgerald With investors getting out of rather than snapping up newspaper stocks that are almost uniformly trading near 52-week lows, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) has quietly scrubbed its annual Mid-Year Media Review presentation to Wall Street analysts.

Instead, newspaper companies will be part of the Deutsche Bank Media & Telecommunications Conference in New York City, scheduled for June 9-10.

NAA spokesperson Sheila Owens said Wednesday night that the group, the nation?a largest newspaper publishers association, was approached by Deutsche Bank to participate in its analyst show. ?They offered all the companies a platform, so we talked to the membership, and decided this is the way to go,? she said.

Last year?s Mid-Year Review attendance, not counting journalists, was 254 people -- a drop of 24% since 2005.

There are no plans to schedule a Mid-Year Media Review in 2009, Owens added. ?We?ll see how this goes and then talk to the membership,? she said.