Club continues comeback from pandemic
Although membership has dipped and a profit is not forecast for the foreseeable future, the National Press Club is holding up well despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Club leaders said Friday, Oct. 15.
“Our business is making progress, and our membership is solid,” Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews told the Club’s virtual General Membership Meeting. “I’ve seen the Club come back. We’re not all the way there yet, but we will get there together.”
When the pandemic was declared in March 2020, the Club shut down in-person activities for a couple months. It began a process of re-establishing in-person activities in the summer of 2020 that slowed again late in the year.
But the reopening process has been gaining momentum this year, highlighted by the June resumption of Taco Night on Fridays. The Reliable Source, the Club bar and grill, is open for lunch every weekday, and the Club gym is operating.
The Club suffered a multi-million-dollar loss in 2020 and is projected to experience another one – although smaller – this year.
Over the last year-and-a-half, the Club has used Paycheck Protection Program loans and tapped lines of credit while implementing cost-savings steps, such as staff furloughs and temporary benefits cuts, and keeping long-term financial assets invested.
The second half of this year has seen slow but steady financial progress, Club Treasurer Eileen O’Reilly said. The Club achieved its strongest operating revenue in September, and October is expected to be better.
For 2022, the Club is projecting it will break even or record a small loss, as it continues to grapple with the pandemic.
“We will get through this with smart planning, a judicious use of our resources and through the strong community at the National Press Club,” O’Reilly said. “I feel cautiously optimistic about next year.”
Total Club membership was 2,660 as of August – a decrease of 182 since May, Membership Secretary Emily Wilkins said. The number of dues-paying members was 2,465, consisting of 1,380 journalist members and 1,070 communicator members. Young members – those under 35 – totaled 296 as of August, compared with 239 last year.
The fact that the membership level dipped rather than cratered during the pandemic was an achievement, Matthews said.
“It’s really not that much,” Matthews said of the membership loss. It’s “an amazing, amazing thing that folks have really stood by the Club and have kept their membership. We just really want to thank you for your continued support of the Club.”
Club Newsmaker and luncheon events have been thriving online throughout the pandemic. In recent months, more of them have taken place in a hybrid format – with both in-person and online access.
Matthews said Club programming has been robust and praised the work of the Headliners Team, highlighting recent events that featured new AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Matthews also lifted up the Press Freedom Team and cited the Club’s ongoing effort to free Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who has been detained for more than eight years in Syria.
The high point of the Club year, the Fourth Estate Award Gala, is Wednesday evening. A fundraiser for the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the gala will be a hybrid event, with both an in-person and an online audience honoring this year’s winner, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.