The merger of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and...

got off the ground, there wasn’t much competition in the young industry, and “all of us thought that would last forever -- woe to us, the technology changed,” Brady said. Last spring, with its membership and revenue declining, the SIPA board started looking for merger opportunities with “nine or 10 different players,” settling on three that seemed “viable,” including one option that would leave SIPA independent, he said. The board two weeks ago approved a merger with SIIA, the “most interesting” of the candidates, Brady said: There are still a “couple of legal contractual things” holding up the merger now. SIPA will be its own division in SIIA with its own members, due structure and programs, but the “back office functions that really have become onerous for volunteers in the past couple years” will be handled by SIIA, he said. Benefits of SIIA include its antipiracy program and webinars, Brady said: There’s “not a lot of difference” between the groups’ missions, except SIIA has more publishers of consumer services. Brady is right that organizations in the “information business” are like a “country club” in that they have similar missions but members tend to stick with one or the other association, said SIIA CEO Ken Wasch on the call. With members like Reed Elsevier, McGraw Hill and Intuit, SIIA has seen a “significant blending between software and content in enabling technologies to deliver content anywhere, anytime,” Wasch said. The old distinctions -- ad-supported controlled circulation publishers, subscription models and “aggregation and delivery of large volumes” of information -- “don’t make sense today,” Wasch said. SIPA is most similar to SIIA’s content division but the groups decided merging it into that division was “a bridge too far” since their missions are different, Wasch said. The groups nonetheless have “cross-fertilization” between member companies, and that will be reflected in board composition, with three members each of the SIPA and content-division boards sitting on the other, and SIPA controlling one slot on the full SIIA board, he said. All SIIA divisions care about intellectual property protection, data security and cross-border data flows, and SIIA and SIPA are already partners on antipiracy litigation, Wasch said. The SIPA board will continue to have “autonomy” to pursue its own interests and all benefits will be continued. The main change will be SIPA dues, rising to $495 minimum from the current $295, Wasch said: “It has been a point of careful consideration” and SIPA as an SIIA division will have its budget determined by how successful its events and programs are. Even before the merger closes SIPA members can take advantage of SIIA benefits, Wasch said. Brady told a questioner on the call that SIPA would put together accounting documents for members to review: “It’s been difficult frankly with volunteers” that SIPA relies on for much of its functions. SIPA staff will be absorbed into SIIA’s, as well as moving into the latter’s office, and SIPA will keep its annual conference, Brady said. SIPA as a division will keep 70 percent of its dues and 30 percent will go to “absorb overhead services” like finance and renewals, he said. Warren Communications News, publisher of Communications Daily, is a SIPA member.