Club membership steady, revenue on the rise

Business has been good at the National Press Club so far in 2017 with revenue on the rise and applications for membership flooding in, Club leadership said at the May 12 biannual general meeting.

While there are many challenges that exist in the journalism world today, "there may never have been a better time for journalism," said Club President Jeff Ballou. "Students of tomorrow may look back on this as the golden age of journalism."

He pointed to strong reporting seen at the start of a new presidential administration that has challenged the role of the media.

"We have some shining moments happening here," Ballou said, adding that broadcast audience rates are sky high and subscriptions to newspapers are rising.

Journalism is not a "failing business" and neither is the Club, which remains the world's leading organization for journalists, Ballou said.

And the Club is showing strong signs that journalism is alive and well.

"We are doing very well," Club Treasurer Ferdous Al-Faruque said at the meeting. "We have have kind of pulled our finances up and we are in a positive trajectory instead of the losses we were making a while back."

In the first quarter of this year, compared to 2016, the Club is doing "a lot better," Al-Faruque added. The Club's revenue this year was $3.3 million compared to last year's $2.5 million, a substantial jump of about $700,000, according to Al-Faruque.

Although costs are up slightly this year, the Club is seeing more profit in 2017.

Last year at this time, the Club had seen a loss of $231,000, but this year it made a profit of $209,000. Al-Faruque noted that last year, due to a large amount of bad weather, there were many cancellations and postponements of events, which had an effect.

The Club's business revenues in particular are up related to events and restaurants. The Reliable Source bar has done particularly well this year, Al-Faruque said.

The Club is also starting to see returns on its investment of funds from selling its Norman Rockwell painting in 2015 for $10.7 million, according to Al-Faruque. The Club decided to invest funds that did not go to the Club's Journalism Institute or toward taxes, with Brown Capital -- essentially creating a 401K for the Club with enough funds to protect it from financial hardship down the road. The money was invested in February and already the Club has seen a $200,000 boost by the end of March.

Membership is holding steady, up slightly from last year, Ballou said. The Club has a total of 3,159 members this year, compared to last year's 3,142. The Club has received 569 membership applications this year and have sent 316 to the membership committee for review. A total of 195 memberships have been sent to the Club's Board of Governors for approval so far this year, compared to 160 sent last year at the same time.

Journalist membership has increased slightly from 1,429 members in 2016 to 1,448 in 2017. Communicator members are drastically on the rise with 1,305 members this year versus last year's 1,223 members. Young member numbers are also climbing from 272 in 2016 to 331 this year.

Efforts in advocating for press freedom continue on from the last two previous Club administrations. There has been no shortage of statements, tweets, letters and interviews where the Club has spoken out to protect the First Amendment and its principles, Ballou said.

The Club has also embraced the sign of the times by adding security gates to the 13th floor lobby. The process has gone smoothly and has not affected attendance or business at the Club, Ballou said.

At the same time, the Club has made an effort to update the clubhouse in several ways, such as updating furniture in places like the Reliable Source and adding extra amenities to the members level bathrooms.