ANA Announces New Publication

Georgia Nursing, May-Jul 2006

ANA has signed an agreement to partner with HealthCom Media (HCM) to produce a new periodical, American Nurse Today. American Nurse Today will be the official journal of the ANA. Members will receive the new periodical as a benefit and non-members and institutions will have the opportunity to buy subscriptions.

Launching in October of this year, American Nurse Today will be the official journal of the ANA. It will have a contemporary feel and will offer a mix of news, clinical updates, business consults and continuing education. It also will have an online component available to members only through its own Web site. In addition, each issue will feature peer-reviewed, scholarly content. The periodical will feature five pages of ANA content each issue, with the remainder to be developed by HCM with the input of ANA. ANA and HCM will work together to appoint the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial advisory board to shape a compelling editorial product that will appeal to members and attract both paid subscribers and advertisers.

The current publishing contract between ANA and Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins (LWW), which publishes the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), ends in September 2006. Between July and November 2003, ANA engaged in exclusive discussions with LWW about the future of the partnership after the current agreement ends. The key issue was how ANA would continue to finance AJN subscriptions once the designated fund from the 1996 sale of AJN is depleted. Membership dues have never paid for subscriptions to AJN. Those discussions, as well as subsequent discussions in the summer of 2005, did not identify a financial solution. Therefore, ANA issued a Request for Proposals to major publishers in August 2005. A key criterion of the RFP was a favorable financial proposal with the goal of achieving budget neutrality for ANA.

This collaboration with HealthCom Media will allow ANA to provide members with a publication that is fresh and innovative, while meeting its financial goals. Members will receive a cutting-edge periodical every month as a benefit of membership, and ANA will gain a partner that will help it reach the larger nursing community with important information about ANA's advocacy on behalf of the profession. American Nurse Today will address-in depth-the many business, practical, clinical, career management, policy and legislative issues that nurses need to keep up to date.

ANA realizes the importance of a professional journal to the association and its members and believes that American Nurse Today is that exciting new journal. For more information on American Nurse Today, please visit www.nursingworld.org.