Do you have the most up-to-date ISSN numbers for your newspaper and website? If not, now is the time to apply for them!
It’s important that all newspapers ensure they have the proper ISSN numbers for their products. It’s possible that proposed legislation, such as the JCPA and other efforts, will define eligible participants as those with valid ISSN numbers.
To claim your ISSN number, visit https://nna.formstack.com/forms/nna_issn_project. You’ll need to provide PDFs of your print products and URLs of your digital sites. Each product will require a different ISSN number. The cost is $50 per newspaper.
About ISSN numbers:
The ISSN is an international standard and is issued by 93 national ISSN centers worldwide. ISSNs are issued to “continuing resources” such as newspapers, but also magazines, scholarly journals, blogs, some database and websites, and other kinds of publications.
ISSN numbers are required for each product you operate. And, if you have changed a title of a publication — even some changes that do not seem significant — it most likely will require a new ISSN.
You can use your new ISSN right away. It should be displayed in a place where information about the publication such as frequency, publisher, etc. is displayed. The Postal Service has specific information about ISSN in the publishing statement. NNA and the Library of Congress staff will communicate the new ISSN to the USPS along with the USPS number so USPS can update its records.
The ISSN should be displayed on the paper and on the website. If you have a periodicals rate permit, the ISSN should be added to the USPS identification statement. If you do not have a periodicals permit, the ISSN should be displayed in your publication statement.
ISSNs that end in “X”: These are perfectly valid. The last digit of the ISSN is a check digit that is based on an algorithm that helps guard against mis-transcriptions.
For more information visit https://nna.formstack.com/forms/nna_issn_project
For those publishers who would like assistance with the process, America’s Newspapers is partnering with the National Newspaper Association to help members obtain their ISSN numbers for print and digital products. NNA has experience in working with the Library of Congress to obtain these numbers. The cost is $50 per newspaper.
