The Newspaper Association of America is ending Nexpo and its Marketing Conference in favor of a single meeting that will cover a broader spectrum of newspaper operations (see Dateline, June 30, 2008).

The new conference, dubbed NAA mediaXchange, will make its debut March 9-11, 2009, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, said Kevin McCourt, the NAA’s vice president of advertising and exhibition sales.

“The message we received from our membership is that they want us to provide a marketplace that discusses best practices and disseminates information” about areas that span production and marketing, said McCourt.

“The industry’s needs have changed and we believe a single event should be held to support those needs.”

McCourt said NAA has received booth reservations from 116 companies that will exhibit at mediaXchange, a group that encompasses both new media and more traditional newspaper suppliers.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that the number of companies exhibiting next year will be at or above last year’s shows,” he said. The 2007 Marketing conference drew some 150 companies while last year’s Nexpo attracted more than 200. Some 40 companies exhibited at both shows.

McCourt said mediaXchange will continue to include information and seminars aimed at production operations, but that the meeting will be broadened to focus on new media and other multiplatform operations.

“What members now believe is a priority includes finding new revenues, new audiences and investing in a digital infrastructure that combines traditional production with technologies such as enterprise resource planning,” he said. “They also want to learn about innovation and success stories. The content will be broader than was traditionally covered at each show. Now, we’re focused on cross-discipline operations.”

The 2010 mediaXchange will take place in April in Orlando, Fla., while the 2011 show will occur in late February or early March in Dallas, McCourt said. He said the NAA is “keeping its options open” for 2012 and beyond.

More information on the conference can be found at http://mediaxchange.naa.org.