News Media Alliance President and CEO David Chavern discusses the new name and product suite being introduced. To hear more about the upcoming changes, tune into his Facebook Live September 7th at 2 p.m. EST.
1. What brought you to the News Media Alliance?
Good luck and a passion for the news business. I was at a point in my career where I wanted to be able to help build something that was important and meaningful, and this position just happened to open at the right time. I am a big believer in “serendipity”, which is a combination of luck and being willing and able to benefit from luck – and my job at the Alliance was deeply serendipitous.
2. What is your vision for the next year? The next five?
We are on a journey. My immediate goal for next year is to begin to build on the existing membership to include digital-first and digital-only content providers – and my five year goal is for the Alliance to be a massively creative and energetic association that makes an important and real difference in the daily financial and journalistic success of our members.
3. What change are you most excited for with the new suite of Xchange products?
I think the potential for metricsXchange to attract – and keep – new members is potentially huge. The new tool will be hugely beneficial to exisiting and new members alike. The dashboard will allow comparisons across markets and track trends that we can report on.
4. Where do you see the future of news?
Better than ever, actually. While technology has been a business threat to-date, I think that we have only just begun to explore the incredible upside of new tools in telling compelling news stories. What if we could not only tell people about Syria but also put them there (virtually) to experience some aspects for themselves?
5. When you’re not at work, what do you enjoy doing?
Reading, running, watching the Steelers and – every now and then – slowly smoking a wonderful cigar.
Contributing writer
