We are pleased to announce that ICMA has switched to a new vendor to provide what is now the daily ICMA News Briefing. The new publication, ICMA SmartBrief, will be compiled, produced, and disseminated by the SmartBrief Corporation, a leading provider of aggregated news briefings that works in partnership with more than 100 organizations in 25 key industries. The new ICMA SmartBrief launched on Monday, September 10.

What Will Change

Subscribers to the ICMA SmartBrief will notice an increase in the visibility of advertising in the new daily briefing, which will reflect the use of a more aggressive business model to support production and dissemination of the publication as well as a number of benefits to ICMA members and subscribers. These include:

• Improved content and stricter editorial oversight. SmartBrief employs a team of editorial staff who have demonstrated the ability to compose succinct summaries that capture the essence of each selected news article and catch typographical errors before they are distributed to subscribers.
• Availability of a mobile application. Subscribers to the new ICMA SmartBrief will have immediate access to a branded mobile application that would facilitate easy reading of each day’s issue from subscribers’ smart phones or tablets while enabling the association to better connect with the growing audience of next generation local government employees. This functionality is not available for the current ICMA News Briefing.

• Increased association revenues. To support its mission of aggregating news and information that is relevant to partner audiences, SmartBrief secures advertising sponsorships to support each association newsletter and shares a percentage of the publication's revenue with the association partner. 

• Positioning of ICMA as a leader in the collection and dissemination of local government-focused content. While the situation could change with the future partnering of SmartBrief with other related public interest groups, ICMA currently represents the first local-government-related association in SmartBrief’s roster of industry leaders. This will position the organization as the exclusive channel for news and information about local government

• Broader reach within the entire network of national and international local government management professionals. Subscriptions to the ICMA SmartBrief will be open to all interested local government employees, thus significantly increasing the awareness and visibility of the local government profession, the ICMA brand and our activities, and local government news and information in general.

In preparing to make this change, ICMA engaged a group of members to participate in a pre-launch test of the product and provide feedback to us.

Current subscribers to the daily ICMA News Briefing will automatically be opted in to receive the new ICMA SmartBrief.  If you do not currently receive the ICMA News Briefing but would like to sign up to receive a complimentary subscription to the new ICMA Smartbrief, visit smartbrief.com/icma and register.

Contact Michele Frisby at ICMA, mfrisby@icma.org with comments or questions.