John Kimball , chief marketing officer of the Newspaper Association of America, might have the hardest sell in town. He’s the guy who media reporters call when they need someone to stick up for the newspaper business every time some negative news surfaces about the state of the business.

Does the barrage of badness ever beat him down? When he and Randy Bennett , the group’s vp of new business development, came to visit, I asked:

How frustrating is it?

Kimball: I think sometimes it’s frustrating, but I take a very long view of this business. First, I’ve been in it my whole career. I’ve worked at newspapers and I know what that process is like. … I’m never discouraged, and I’m never pessimistic. I really am extremely confident that the newspaper brand is an extremely viable, healthy long-term play.

But are the best days behind it, money-wise?

Kimball: Wall Street was very used to an industry that literally printed money in the basement. Profit margins were 28, 30, 32, 35, some newspapers were 50 percent. I would challenge anybody today to look at a copy of the newspaper in any market and tell me a business that’s advertising in a newspaper that has a higher profit than the newspaper. It’s still a healthy business, it’s not the profit margins we’ve been accustomed to.

So what would you really like to say to the Wall Street analysts?

Kimball: If I could have my way, what I’d really like to do is say is, ‘give us credit for the fact that we’re managing a business that’s in transition.’ … Come on, it’s three months! Give us a shot here! Let’s take a long view here, as you would other businesses.

Randy Bennett answered more viscerally. As soon as Kimball said “what I’d really like to do is…,” he popped in with “shake them.”

Now we’re getting somewhere.