Leading newsletter and online veterans found association for financial publishers.

The Financial Publishers Association was officially launched two years ago, January 2005, building on earlier efforts by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D., president of Weiss Research Inc. and publisher of the Safe Money Report. FPA now boasts a grand total of 9 members--annual dues are $10,000--and a serious website and serious ambitions. FPA looks to expand its base and encourage best practices in these areas of financial publishing: marketing, personal securities transactions, conflicts of interest, risk disclosure, and privacy.

FPA executive director Joy Howell has extensive experience in journalism, public relations, public affairs, and lobbying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress. She told NL/NL that FPA's objectives are to increase subscriber trust in its members' publications and services and to maximize the effectiveness of members' e-mail and online marketing efforts, among loftier goals (see FPA Mission Statement).

Interested in joining FPA?

Asked why there was no obvious way on the FPA website for people to join the association, Martin Weiss told us, "We cannot provide a facility for prospective members to sign up without first contacting our executive director or one of our members, via either e-mail or phone. One reason is related to the fact that we feel prospective members should abide by certain ethical standards before they can join."

Weiss then quoted paragraph 4 of the Mission Statement and continued, "Until now, we have relied heavily on word-of-mouth. But we certainly welcome the opportunity to do more! And we would be very grateful if you could include our contact information in your article, http://www.financialpublishers.org/contact.asp."

Of the $10,000 annual dues, Weiss said that it's "a sum I and others pay gladly for business-building ideas we share with each other that can help create many times that amount in revenues or cost savings."

A variety of business models

Joy Howell pointed out that, while publishers primarily, FPA members display a wide variety of business models. For example, Bill Bonner's Agora is also in real estate, Martin Edelston's Boardroom Reports aggressively uses infomercials, and Chris Ruddy's NewsMax is a conservative political platform and magazine.

Other members include Don Dion of Fidelity Independent Adviser, TheStreet.com, Zacks Investment Research Inc., and The Motley Fool.

Brian Kurtz, executive vice president of Boardroom Inc., publishers of Bottom Line/Personal, and a founding member of FPA, said,

  When I first heard about the formation of FPA, there was no way that
  we could not be a charter member. While the Direct Marketing
  Association (DMA) and the Newsletter & Electronic Publishers
  Association (NEPA) cover a lot of bases for us, there was no
  organization that has the specific interests of the financial
  publishing community in mind ... as a priority. The FPA can add much
  more focus on issues regarding the SEC, the FTC and other government
  agencies and also on e-mail delivery issues. This powerful group of
  marketers and publishers has never had this much focus before and we
  are proud to be part of the groundbreaking work FPA will do in the
  years ahead.

Financial Publishers Association, 1050 Connecticut Ave., 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20036, 202-828-7838, fax [phone], [e-mail]