Robert Brady, current president of the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) announced this morning that the association is in the process of merging with the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), presumably within its Content Division.SIPA, originally an association of print subscription newsletter publishers founded in the 1980s, has seen falling membership over recent years, despite changing its name (twice) to reflect the industry’s change from 100% print to largely digital content.  We suspect that a large part of the problem was reflective of the traditional print media’s fumbling of the Internet opportunity as a whole.  Although specialist (niche) paid content is still very much a growing multi-billion dollar industry, company founders who were largely trained in the print arena, are unsure of the direction the future may be taking. It’s tough to fall from being an expert in your field to a remedial student all in the course of a decade, when by rights your career should be taking its last lap in a blaze of glory.Although SIIA, which began as a trade association for large software companies, has had an “information business” division for many years, to our minds it hadn’t been a truly significant player in this niche until the association brought on Kathy Greenler Sexton as Content Division VP and General Manager earlier this year.Greenler Sexton was an Internet content pioneer, with positions at ZoomInfo.com, BLR, Individual.com, Office.com and HighBeam Research where she led marketing for the visionary Patrick Spain. SIIA hired her with the brief to aggressively expand its content industry operations.  One of her first moves was to acquire the 20-year-old, annual Data Content conference from Infocommerce Group.We’re excited to see how both new acquisitions will play out.  The niche content world needs industry-wide leadership and continued education to see its way forward.