WWW. ANANEWS.COM
DIFFERENT APPROACH TO SUBSCRIPTION REVENUE
It’s time for newspaper subscriptions to move beyond online and offline SUBSCRIPTION, PAGE 4
PERRI COLLINS HAS CREATED ANA’S FIRST BLOG, FILLED WITH ‘GREAT IDEAS’ FOR NEWSPAPERS ANA, PAGE 4
ANA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEET, TIGHTEN STRATEGY FOR FUTURE The board met in Payson last month to discuss the direction the association will take. Get the details. 2008, PAGE 2
GET A TASTE OF ANA’S 2008 FALL CONVENTION You want to know when, where and who’s speaking? We’ve got your back. The schedule and pricing for the convention is all in this issue. Register now for an early-bird discount! 2008 ANA FALL, PAGE 12
SEPTEMBER 2008
Countdown to the convention The 69th annual ANA convention will be filled with innovative ideas and hands-on sessions to help your newspaper transition into the 21st century. The convention will be held Oct. 10-11 at the downtown Phoenix campus of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. For newsroom participants, ANA will feature a day-long ethics session lead by long-time American Press Institute trainer Steve Buttry and a hands-on video and editing lab with ASU professor Serena Carpenter, as well as a keynote address by multimedia guru Dan Gillmor and a panel dicussion on the “Nuts and Bolts of the Wired Journalist”. For advertising staff members, ANA has brought in Mike Blinder for a day-long session in “Multimedia Streetfighting”. Blinder will be training traditional sales people on how to embrace new media sales. Novices and seasoned sales staff can learn the skills and systems to help close the deal! Attendees will learn techniques in building better customer rapport, uncovering customer needs, establishing improved relationships, identifying new prospects, closing more effectively and establishing time management skills. And don’t miss ANA’s special events, including the Freedom of
Mike Blinder, President of the Blinder Group, is coming to Arizona on Oct. 10 to present his training course ‘Multimedia Streetfighting’, which focuses on advertising and sales in the digital age.
Information luncheon, the Hall of Fame dinner and the Better Newspapers Contest awards reception. Early birds: Register and pay for both days of the convention by Sep. 26 and receive a $25 discount. Register online at www.ananews.com. Throughout the convention, we’ll also raffle off items (including The Flip video camera) to raise money for Foundation scholarships, provide tours of the new, cutting-
edge journalism facility and present the Newspaper of the Year award to one daily and one non-daily newspaper. For those needing hotel rooms, we highly recommend the newly-built Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, which is walking-distance from the university. Other hotel options are available on our Web site. You can see the full schedule of events on page 8.
SNA names Arizona Daily Star newspaper of the year The Arizona Daily Star has been named Newspaper of the Year in its circulation category by the trade group Suburban Newspapers of America. The Star took the top spot for general excellence among daily papers larger than 30,000 circulation. Judges, from the American Press Institute, called the Star “an absolutely first-class newspaper that is a pure pleasure to read. The content is rich, offering readers a full complement of news, features and other information. “ “The Daily Star walks the talk: It is invested in its readers and its community.” Judges praised the paper’s “sophisticated typography, design and layout that invites the reader into each page. It’s obvious that time is spent on planning photo, graphics
and artwork so that they tell their own stories.” Online, judges said, “the Daily Star does a great job of leveraging its Web site by alerting readers about stories, slide shows and multi-media offerings. It’s a new era, and The Daily Star has jumped on board.” Suburban Newspapers of AmerANAgrams Arizona Newspapers Association 1001 N. Central Avenue, Suite 670 Phoenix, AZ 85004 - 1947
ica is a trade association representing nearly 2,400 daily and weekly newspapers in the United States and Canada. Winners in this year’s contest will be recognized at the SNA Fall Publishers’ and Advertising Directors’ Conference, to be held in October in Minneapolis. “PRSRT STD” U.S. POSTAGE PAID PHOENIX ARIZONA PERMIT NO. 3429
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
2
September 2008 ■ ANAgrams
ANA/Ad Services Board of Directors President John Wolfe, One-Year Director/Non-Daily Independent Newspapers Inc. jsw11@aol.com
Directors Ginger Lamb, Two-Year Director/Non-Daily Arizona Capitol Times ginger.lamb@azcapitoltimes.com
First Vice President Dick Larson, Two-Year Director/Daily Western Newspapers Inc. dlarson@westernnews.com
Rick Schneider, One-Year Dir/Non-Daily Eastern Arizona Courier schneider@eacourier.com
Second Vice President Position Open Third Vice President Tom Arviso, Two-Year Director/Non-Daily Navajo Times tomarviso@navajotimes.com Secretary/Treasurer Teri Hayt, Two-Year Director/At-large Arizona Daily Star terihayt@tucson.com
Don Rowley, One-Year Director/Daily Arizona Daily Sun drowley@pulitzer.net Elvira Espinoza, Two-Year Dir/At-large La Voz elvira.ortiz@lavozpublishing.com Pam Mox, Past President Green Valley News and Sun pmox@gvnews.com OPEN POSITION Two-Year Director/Daily
Arizona Newspapers Foundation Board of Directors The foundation is an educational, charitable 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. Chairman of the Board Josie Cantu-Weber Tucson Citizen jweber@tucsoncitizen.com Vice Chairman Joann Carranza carranza57@cox.net Treasurer Lee Knapp The Sun (Yuma) lknapp@yumasun.com Secretary Pam Mox Green Valley News & Sun pmox@gvnews.com
Directors L. Alan Cruikshank Fountain Hills Times alan@fhtimes.com John F. Fearing Arizona Newspapers Association j.fearing@ananews.com Steve Doig Arizona State University steve.doig@asu.edu Bret McKeand Independent Newspapers, Inc. SCIbret@aol.com John Wolfe Independent Newspapers Inc. jsw11@aol.com Jeff Weigand The Arizona Republic Jeffrey.Weigand@pni.com
ANA Committees Join one of our committees and make a difference in your association! Marketing/Member Revenue Chairman Dick Larson Western Newspapers dlarson@westernnews.com First Amendment Coalition President Mary Jo Pitzl The Arizona Republic maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com Educational Task Force Chairman Pam Mox Green Valley News and Sun pmox@gvnews.com
Government and Public Policy Chairman Teri Hayt Arizona Daily Star terihayt@tucson.com Awards Committee Chairman Don Rowley Arizona Daily Sun drowley@pulitzer.net Finance Committee Chairman Position Open
Contact ANA Staff Executive Director Paula Casey............................... Ext. 102 p.casey@ananews.com
Network Sales Representative Don Ullmann............................. Ext. 111 d.ullmann@ananews.com
Deputy Executive Director of Government Affairs John F. Fearing.............. (602) 793-5040 j.fearing@ananews.com
Advertising Services Assistant Kay Wilmoth.............................. Ext. 103 k.wilmoth@ananews.com
Accounting Assistant Liisa Straub................................ Ext. 105 l.straub@ananews.com Media Buyer Cindy Meaux............................. Ext. 112 c.meaux@ananews.com Network Advertising Manager Sharon Schwartz....................... Ext. 108 s.schwartz@ananews.com
Communications Manager Perri Collins............................... Ext. 110 p.collins@ananews.com arizona State NIE Coordinator Pat Oso...................................... Ext. 109 beartracks@cox.net Receptionist/Tearsheets Lorraine Bergquist......................... Ext. 0 l.bergquist@ananews.com
2008 ANA Board Retreat to Payson revenue using online The Arizona order entry. Another Newspapers Association conducts a Verican product, E-Edition, gives Board Retreat (at newspapers an easy least) every two years to continue to define/ way to communirefine the goals and cate with readers via strategic plans for email, essentially the association. It is allowing weekly only by looking at papers to email the where we have been news and special feathat we can truly tures to readers on define where we need a regular (i.e. daily) to be going. These ANA Executive Director Paula Casey basis. Having the retreats have become ability to sell ads an invaluable tool for in these emails also staff to plan for the coming year(s) gives newspapers revenue source. and bring focus to a demanding The marketing Committee will conworkload. The ANA staff is thankful tinue to work with Verican on the for the board’s time and leadership development of an online Yellow during this retreat and we hope to Pages, another stream of revenue for make good use of the ideas generated newspapers. there, in the coming months. The Ad Placement department will continue pursuing new or addiFinance Committee tional business from agencies and Trends in the association large advertisers with multiple locafinances seem to suggest that the tions around Arizona. Staff should association will need to look at trim- continue to inform sales personnel ming expenses. The Finance Com- that ANA’s placement service can mittee relayed that while revenues assist in placing ads in newspapers at peaked in 2006, they have been on a no cost to the advertiser, especially downturn in 2007 and 2008, although if the advertiser is looking to expand still in the black. Trends suggest that into nearby markets. If a newspaper the classified and scan networks will has an “at-risk” advertiser, ANA have lower revenues going forward. might be able to help them maintain The 2009 budget will need to project the relationship by offering more these problem revenue areas. services. It is the goal of the association ANA continues to investigate to have a one-time rebate to mem- building an online ad network. In bers, which will show up on the 2009 addition to developing a list of dues statements. The actual percent- member newspaper Web sites that age of the rebate will be decided use IAB sizes and can provide by the Board of Directors later this impression and click through reports, year. We will also be cutting back the ANA staff will encourage all on the number of printed editions of newspapers to use the IAB standards ANAgrams. Going forward, we will and provide reports to advertisers. mail ANAgrams four times a year, ANA will develop an online network, prior to select association events. We even if there are only four or five will issue an electronic version in newspapers participating. The Board the months that our printed version of Directors is eager to see this sales is not sent out to members. The total opportunity expanded. amount of the savings could save the The Marketing Committee is association up to $15,000 per year. also considering preparing a “Pay On another note, while it is Ad It Forward” program or a similar Services current policy to pay news- program to present to members in papers as soon as Ad Services is paid, the spring, as a revenue-generating some of Ad Services clients routinely project. The committee also disrun 60-90 days. It was suggested that cussed joining the Association of Ad Services could help its member Free Community Papers (AFCP) newspapers by instituting a policy and other associations/organizato pay member newspapers on Ad tions for networking and workshop Placement payables when they reach opportunities. 60 days. This change has already been implemented. Awards/Recognition Commit-
Marketing Committee ANAgrams is an official publication of the Arizona Newspapers Association 1001 N. Central Ave., Suite 670 Phoenix, AZ 85004
The marketing committee will continue to target non-participants to join the classified ad aggregation program and impress upon members the opportunity for increased
tee and Education Task Force The committee has granted its approval to remake the older Hall of Fame plaques and move them all into the new ASU Cronkite School Continued on page 6
3 Challenge to public notices in newspapers is ahead ANAgrams ■ September 2008
National Newspaper Week October 5-11,2008 is National Newspaper Week. You can access materials for this year’s National Newspaper Week by going to www. kypress.com/nnwkit. Fees for materials have been paid for by ANA. The theme for this year ’s National Newspaper Week is “Public Notices in Newspapers. Because Good Government Depends on It.” Protecting the public’s right to know through publication of public
notices in newspapers is an issue of importance nationwide. That right to know is under attack in many states and it is important to remind our readers about the value of government public notices. Besides the materials on the NNW site, think of ways you can promote public notices during National Newspaper Week. Promote more awareness and readability of public notices in your newspaper.
Reminder: File your USPS statement of ownership form before Oct. 1 Oct. 1 is the deadline for filing your periodical class Statement of Ownership Form 3526 with the post office. Publications must publish either a reproduction of the form or publish the information in a legal notice. The form must also be published in the newspaper based on the following timetable: • Publications issued more often than weekly should publish the form no later than Oct. 10. This applies to daily, semi and tri-weekly newspapers. • Publications issued once weekly should publish the form no later than Oct. 31. You can download this exact form on the USPS Web site at http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps3526.pdf or pick up a form at your local post office.
The one. The only.
September 24, 2008 Wyndham Phoenix azcapitoltimes.com • 602.889.7125
Cities want choice: online posting or printing in newspapers The Arizona League of Cities and Towns will ask the 2009 state Legislature to give cities the option to continue printing their public notices in newspapers, or post them on the city’s website. This may be the toughest battle in a decade, since the Arizona Newspapers Association began its Public Notice Preservation project in 1997. With the cities in short supply of money, John Fearing, ANA’s Deputy Executive Director for Public Policy, said he is concerned a “perfect budget storm” may work to help the cities pass a bill like this. The legislature, which sets the state budget, also is short of money and may be sympathetic to the cause. Fearing also said he believes about 30 seconds after this bill is filed, the counties and school superintendents associations will seek amendments to be included. Therefore, Fearing told the ANA board of directors at its retreat on August 20, he thinks all government notices may be in peril. John Moody, Phoenix attorney and ANA lobbyist, met a week ago with Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Cities. He said the public notice effort was approved at the August general meeting of the League. He asked if ANA and the League could talk further to see if there was a compromise that could
be reached. The ANA board’s charge is to: • Kill the Bill • Pull out all the stops • Member newspapers must be actively involved
Member Newspaper’s role defined in Public Notice Preservation Project Your newspaper has two roles in the ANA’s Public Notice Preservation project. You should be energized to help in the legislative battle ahead. Your readers and your business is at stake. • Know and talk with your state senator and state representatives about the importance of Public notices to the public, to the newspaper, and actually to government. • Gather financial information from your city, school board and county about where it spends its money.
Report city spending In the League of Cities resolution, it claimed public notice spending amounts for several cities. We need to know if they are correct. Ask your city, school board and Continued on page 5
Five Freedoms project launches Web site More so than any other part of the U.S. Consitution or Bill of rights, the five freedoms of the First Amendment embody what is most sacred about America’s historic commitment to create a free and responsible society. Yet, according to a recent study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, our schools are leaving the First Amendment behind. With the support of the Knight Foundation, the Five Freedoms Project has launched two new resources – an official web site (www.fivefreedoms. org), and an online network (http://network.fivefreedoms.org). The sites will support the work of educators, students and citizens who share a commitment to First Amendment freedoms, democratic schools and the idea that children should be seen and heard. Visitors will find resources that stretch across the Five Freedoms Project's four primary areas of concentration: Individual Rights (“The Five Freedoms”): Legal quizzes, lesson plans, resources and discussion topics that will help people develop a fuller understanding of the First Amendment's five freedoms – and their role in a democratic society. Leadership (“The Five Foundations”): An actionable five-part framework for leadership that identifies the essential skills society must cultivate in order to create more equitable, democratic learning communities. Voice (“The Five Features”): A five-stage map of the learning cycle that must be experienced by students in order to discover the power and uniqueness of their own voice – and how to utilize it effectively and with integrity. Impact (“The Five Factors”): A set of five essential categories school leaders and school communities must understand and monitor to promote safe and civil schools that intentionally work to promote students' social, emotional, ethical and civic – as well as intellectual – learning.
4
September 2008 ■ ANAgrams
Papers saved with $400K grant BY Luke Davis Tucson Citizen The National Endowment for the Humanities gave the state a $400,000 grant to digitally catalog historic state newspapers and make them available online. “We have more than 100 titles and 100,000 pages from almost every paper to ever exist in this state,” said Ted Hale, a State Library, Archives and Public Records department spokesman for the project, Arizona Newspapers: 1880-1912. Arizona is one of six states to receive such a grant in 2008. It was announced Tuesday. “The Library of Congress has a lack of Western newspapers in its archives, and the federal government thought it was important to help,” Hale said Wednesday. The historical value of many articles is immense, he said. “We have the 1881 Tombstone Epitaph issue covering the OK Corral gunfight,” Hale said. “Instead of relying on Hollywood for information, you can read about the shootout from the guy who reported it the next day,” he said. Mining boomtown newspapers such as the Bisbee Evening Miner
show the way many early Arizonans lived. “Ads show all sorts of ‘snake oils’ to cure illness, with substances long since banned by the (Food and Drug Administration),” Hale said. Most newspapers were cataloged on microfilm in the 1940s and 1950s, but the form of storage is fallible, Hale said. “They start to deteriorate, literally disappearing before your eyes,” Hale said. The microfilm will be shipped to the Library of Congress for digitizing, then displayed on its National Digital Newspapers Project Web site before being sent back to Arizona. Upon its return, the digital collection will be available on the library’s Arizona Memory Project Web site. According to the Web site, the Memory Project is an effort to provide access to primary sources of information in Arizona libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions. The initiative provides the opportunity to view some of the best examples of government documents, photographs, maps, and objects that chronicle Arizona’s past and present.
What is a subscription? by Jason Preston EatSleepPublish.com I‘ve tossed around the idea of using freemium services and mulled over the difference between a subscriber and a reader, and I think these are very important concepts to the future of newspapers. I think this because I’m beginning to realize how securely the concept of a “subscription” is tied to the physical paper delivery. People are not going to pay to look at a newspaper Web site. And while American newspapers might only get about 20% of their revenue from subscriptions, that’s an important source of cash to maintain. Going forward, I think subscription revenue is going to be even more important to newspapers as new measurement metrics and a proliferation of online media channels give advertisers more places to spend their money (and consequently, bring ad prices down). Not to mention, have a significant chunk of subscription revenue would ease some of the inherent tensions between good editorial and business practices.
So what’s to be done? There aren’t any good digital parallels to the offline subscription. Signing up to an RSS feed isn’t really the same thing as getting a daily on your doorstep. Paying for a peek behind the walls at the Wall Street Journal is a step closer, but it’s still not really the same thing. I think subscriptions need to move beyond “offline” and “online.” I think that many newspapers are resigned to the fact that, sooner or later, it’s going to become economically unfeasible to continue paper delivery. So it makes sense to be thinking about that switch now, and preparing for it. What’s the best thing a newspaper can do to mitigate the impact of that switch? Expand the idea of a subscription. Let’s think of it as a membership.
Member benefits The paper delivery should be one of many ways that a member can get at a range of services that a newspaper provides. Newspapers Continued on page 7
ANA launches ‘Best Ideas’ blog Visit http://www.ananews.com/blog and give us feedback Newspapers must innovate to survive, but after years of formulaic changes, the time has come to really think outside of the box. Perri Collins, communications manager for the Arizona Newspapers Association, has launched the “Best Ideas Exchange”, a blog featuring new concepts from emerging and established media companies. The blog can be found at http://www.ananews.com/blog. We welcome your ideas and
comments on- and offline. In addition, each week one featured idea will be presented in the weekly email bulletin, “This Week @ ANA”. During this time of industry-defining change, the Arizona Newspapers Association wants to encourage its newspapers to experiment and move beyond the status quo. Perri Collins can be reached by email at p.collins@ananews.com. Join us and share your ideas!
Silver Belt welcomes new publisher The Arizona Silver Belt and San Carlos Apache Moccasin has a new publisher, as Marc Marin officially took the position last month. Marin comes to Globe/Miami from Rochelle. Ill., where he was a sports editor and news reporter for the Rochelle News-Leader for two and a half years. The News-Leader is owned by News Media Corporation, which bought the Silver Belt in May. “This is an exciting time for the Silver Belt and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Marin said. “The Silver Belt has a long, rich history and I’ll make sure that the paper regains the prominence it once had.” Marin graduated from Northern Illinois University in the winter of 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He spent three and a half years with the Northern Star, the university’s student newspaper. Marin held a variety of titles there, including sports reporter, assistant sports editor,
copy desk chief and managing editor. He also covered high school sports in 2000 for the Daily Herald, Chicagoland’s largest suburban newspaper. Marin spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve as a journalist/ public affairs specialist. He served two overseas deployments, one to Bosnia in 2000-2001 and the other to Baghdad, Iraq in 2003.
WMI’s Sally Moreno is big winner Sally Moreno of the White Mountain Independent won ANA’s “Network $500” race. She will receive a check for $825! Sally really made a last minute push to the finish line and overtook Rebecca McClanahan of the West Valley View. During the “Network $500” Becky won two $100 gas cards as well as earning $300 in cash. Sixteen sales people, representing nine newspapers, entered the race and earned bonus dollars for their hard work. We appreciate all participating newspapers and look forward to more bonus programs in the future.
ANAgrams ■ September 2008
Slimp reviews Acrobat 9 Pro OK. Stop what you’re doing. Seriously, stop. What I am about to tell you is worth a few minutes of your time. I get software upgrades constantly. Designers and paginators salivate when they come by my office and see all the software on my desk. Right now there is a glut of products from Adobe, Extensis, Subrosa, Quark Kevin Slimp and a few others lying there. Sometimes I have to force myself to look at another upgrade. But that’s what I do. And I don’t take this duty lightly. So, against all natural tendencies, I keep inserting those disks and installing those new versions. And a day like today makes it all worth it. Could any product be worth this build up? Yes, it could. Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro has impressed me once again! How can it be? Has it really been 15 years since I created my first PDF file? Has it been 14 years since the first full-color PDF, a Frank and Ernest comic strip, was printed in a building behind my office? Has it really been 13 years since the first newspaper printed totally from a PDF file came off the press? I must be getting old. You might remember my review of Acrobat 8 Professional last year. I was blown away by the “fixup” capability added to the preflight function. You may remember that this tool allowed users to fix specific problems
in a PDF file. These included removing OPI information and converting the PDF, among others. A few of the solutions didn’t work as well as I had hoped. One, meant to convert all colors to grayscale, tended to miss color in EPS files. A few others had similar problems. That was OK, though. The ability to find and remove OPI information and convert the PDF version with the click of a button more than made up for any problems. In my review, I mentioned that there were a couple of new features I hoped for in version 9. One was the ability to convert all colors to CMYK or grayscale with a simple click. The other was the ability to convert text to outlines. I’ll take one out of two any day, especially when it comes to features as important as these. OK, we can forget about converting text to outlines in this version. You still need Pitstop for that. But color, that’s another thing altogether. Here’s what happened. First, I tried using the color fixups in the preflight area to see if they worked. You have a lot more control over which colors to convert, but color still snuck through when I chose the “Convert Color to BW” option. There’s good news. As in previous versions, I could still use Ink Manager to convert the spot colors to process. But I was looking for a
This PDF file was purposely filled with RGB images, spot colors and other color issues, but users can correct all these issues with Acrobat 9 Pro
method of converting all colors to process or grayscale with the click of a button. I found it in the updated “Covert Colors” command. First, I instructed Acrobat to convert all colors to gray, with a 25% dot gain. Mission accomplished. Next, I opened an RGB photo in Photoshop and converted it to an RGB PDF file. I opened the PDF in Acrobat, selected “Convert Colors to Output Intent,” and then selected “US Web Uncoated” as my output intent. You guessed it. The photo instantly converted to CMYK. Finally, I created a document in InDesign and purposely included plenty of spot colors, RGB items and a photo saved in RGB. Yep, it worked like a charm. I almost leapt out of my seat when I checked all the items and found they were now in process colors. One other feature that I really grew to appreciate as I tested version 9 is the ability to quickly select single fixups from the Preflight menu. For instance, if I wanted to be sure black text overprinted, I would simply select “Set Black Text to Overprint” from the fixup menu. Do you want to know what I really think about Acrobat 9 Pro? It’s too good. It’s getting too easy to check PDFs for problems and fix them. I’m not sure how I’ll spend all my time now. Thank heavens they haven’t fixed that CID thing yet. That should keep me busy till the next version comes along.
This PDF file was converted from color to grayscale using Acrobat 9 Pro’s Convert Color Tool.
Newspaper for sale
Well-established monthly newspaper for sale in the southeast valley. Residents say they love this newspaper. Owner needs to sell due to recent life changes. If interested, contact the Lerrin Co. (602) 953-2090 or e-mail agents@thelerrincompany.com for more information.
5
Challenge to public notices, con’t Continued from page 3 county how much it spent in the last fiscal year on public notices. If your revenue number doesn’t match what the city says it is spending for public notices, it could mean they are charging other items to that budget line.
Report web views Cities also are claiming better reach to their residents with their local city websites, compared to circulation of your newspaper. But they do not include your website. From the League of Cities document: “Yuma has only one local daily newspaper which has an average, county-wide, daily circulation of 21,000-22,000. In contrast with the newspaper, the City of Yuma website has an average of over 10,000 pages downloaded from the City website each week.” Hmm...10,000 page views of something, compared to 20,000+ circulation a day that includes public notices. Interesting comparison.
Use promotion ads to tell readers, legislators Promotion ads about public notices in newspapers play an important role. Your legislators are among your readers, so they need to see the message. The ANA board of directors is asking that you run ads regularly. As your advertisers know, multiple printing of an ad broadens the reach of that ad and increases recall of its message. ANA has prepared some ads for your use and will have even more available in the coming months. You can download these ads from www. ananews.com. Files are in .PDF format and will also be available in InDesign format so you can customize them for your audience. You browse the pages of your newspaper every day and may choose to read a public notice. No one browses through a government website and by chance happens on a public notice.
Readers read them
In 2001, a research firm asked 600 Arizonans questions about Public Notice ads. It debunks the myth that nobody reads them. Our strategy to oppose the League of Cities and Towns includes asking another research company to repeat the study this year. Other states who have done repeat studies found that even more people believe Public Notices should be printed in newspapers.
6
September 2008 ■ ANAgrams
“LEADERBOARD” 728 x 90 pixels
Use IAB sizes How can newspapers best maximize online advertising revenue? The online ads themselves, ad placement, ad sizes and formats, each play important roles in CTR (click-through rate) and earnings for publishers and advertisers. To maximize earnings for these ads, publishers need to optimize ads, part of which is choosing the best ad sizes. The Arizona Newspapers Association has elected to employ the use of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s guidelines for Web ads. These voluntary guidelines provide a framework for advertising inventory. The goal is to reduce and simplify the amount of work for agencies that may be faced with having to create several ads of a similar size for different publishers. Illustrated here are the three basic sizes ANA has adopted for advertising on the Internet. “When national advertisers and agencies call for online rates, these are the sizes they’re looking for,” said Sharon Schwartz, ANA Network Advertising Manager. “Having standardized sizes is good business,” she said. National marketers are beginning to think more like local advertisers when planning their online ad buys. Do your part to take advantage of it!
“MEDIUM RECTANGLE” 300 x 250 pixels
For more online ad guidelines, visit
IAB.net
“WIDE SKYSCRAPER” 160 x 600 pixels
2008 ANA Board Retreat, con’t. Continued from page 2 building for display. Newspapers should be sharing great community-building and revenue-generating ideas. ANA wants to support thinking outside the box. The “Great Ideas” blog can be found at www.ananews.com/blog and each week a new idea will be posted and
discussed online. Your input about these ideas is greatly appreciated. Also discussed was a “train the trainer” approach to various seminars and sessions. ANA is considering sending one person to different conferences and evaluate the event. Knowledge garnered from the session would then be disseminated to members. The committee will research
It’s not print vs. Web anymore
what members want to learn, where we should send him/her and how to decide who to send. In tough economic times, people band together. ANA is no different and has an interest in creating contest partnerships with the AP, AAF and/or the Arizona Press Club. Newspapers could potentially be able to submit their entries one time and have entries count in more than one contest. ANA is also looking to trim costs by moving to digital contest entry and judging. Over the next few months, we will be meeting with potential vendors. Because Newspapers in Educations falls under education, the board also charged this committee with evaluating the relevance of NIE for today’s generation. It was determined that the NIE program needs to be reevaluated program by the Finance and Executive committees.
Legislative and Public Policy Committee
Blurring the lines between print and online, AdBuilder.com is making it easier to increase sales with complete print and Web ad packages. Now offering Flash banner ads that your staff can easily edit—no experience needed. 800.245.9278, ext. 5324 • sales_builder@multiad.com
In an effort to foster a relationship between publishers and legislators, the Legislative Committee is considering preparing flash cards with information about your legislators and preparing talking points on important bills in the legislature, for distribution to our editors and publishers. The Legislative Committee also wants to make certain publishers are in on open legislative committee calls, which can give them insight
into ANA’s strategy. Prior to these call, ANA’s lobbyist, John Moody, will prepare a list of the issue being discussed, with the most important items highlighted. ANA will also continue hosting its annual Legislative Luncheon in January and build newspaper participation for the event. ANA will explore supporting a newsroom tour with the Public Access Counselor and perhaps hold regional meetings with the Public Access Counselor for reporters and editors. The Legislative Committee would also like to actively collect “Real People, Real stories” of government access issues. ANA needs to raise its profile in the legislature. ANA needs to continue to shape legislation beneficial to our members and their readership and stop harmful legislation. ANA will continue the growth of PublicNoticeAds.com as a leader in the aggregation of notices in Arizona. In the coming year, ANA hopes to survey Arizona residents on public notice readership and opinion, a similar research project to the one conducted in the mid-1990s. As you can see, the ANA staff is continually working hard to unite strong newspapers for a better Arizona. We always welcome your comments and suggestions for the ANA staff. Feel free to contact Paula Casey at (602) 261-7655, ext. 102 or at p.casey@ananews.com.
ANAgrams ■ September 2008
A different way to pay for the news you want By SARAH KERSHAW New York Times You think your local water supply is polluted. But you’re getting the runaround from local officials, and you can’t get your local newspaper to look into your concerns. What do you do? A group of journalists say they have an answer. You hire them to investigate and write about what they find. The idea, which they are calling “community-funded journalism,” is now being tested in the San Francisco Bay area, where a new nonprofit, Spot Us, is using its Web site, www.spot.us, to solicit ideas for investigative articles and the money to pay for the reporting. But the experiment has also raised concerns of journalism being bought by the highest bidder. The idea is that anyone can propose a story, though the editors at Spot Us ultimately choose which stories to pursue. Then the burden is put on the citizenry, which is asked to contribute money to pay upfront all of the estimated reporting costs. If the money doesn’t materialize, the idea goes unreported. “Spot Us would give a new sense of editorial power to the public,” said David Cohn, a 26-yearold Web journalist who received a $340,000, two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to test his idea. “I’m not Bill and Melinda Gates, but I can give $10. This is the Obama model. This is the Howard Dean model.” Those campaigns revolutionized politics by using the power of the Web to raise small sums from vast numbers of people, making average citizens feel a part of the process in a way they had not felt before. In the same way, Spot Us hopes to empower citizens to be part of a newsgathering enterprise that, polls show, many mistrust and regard as both biased and elitist. Other enterprises have found success with this approach, which, in the Internet age, has become known as “crowdfunding.” This financing model takes its name from crowdsourcing, a method for using the public, typically via the Internet, to supply what employees and experts once did: information, research and development, T-shirt designs, stock photos, advertising spots. In crowdsourcing, the people supply the content; in crowdfunding, they supply the cash. Charities have used crowdfunding, not necessarily under that name, for years. And one Hollywood studio,
Brave New Worlds, is financing its movies by soliciting people over the Internet to pay for them before they are made. The Spot Us experiment comes, not coincidentally, as newspapers around the country lay off reporters and editors by the hundreds and scale back their coverage to cope with a financial crisis brought about, in no small measure, by the rise of the Internet. Another experimental venture, Pro Publica, a nonprofit group led by Paul Steiger, a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is being bankrolled by several major foundations to pursue investigative projects that it will then offer to newspapers and magazines. Spot Us plans to post its articles on its Web site and give them to newspapers that want to publish them. If a newspaper wants exclusive rights to an article, the paper will have to pay for it. Critics say the idea of using crowdfunding to finance journalism
raises some troubling questions. For example, if a neighborhood with an agenda pays for an article, how is that different from a tobacco company backing an article about smoking? (Spot Us limits the amount any one contributor can give to no more than 20 percent of the cost of the story.) But Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine whose book “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business” is being published this month said: “It’s not like the crowd is killing the newspaper. Lots of things are killing the newspaper. The crowd is at once a threat to newsrooms, but it’s also one of several strategies that could help save the newspapers.” In an early test of its concept, Spot Us solicited ideas on its Web site and raised $250 for an article examining whether California can meet its ethanol demand. That might not pay the weekly phone bill for a lot of reporters. But for its newest project, Spot Us has raised nearly all
7
of the $2,500 it says it will need to fact-check political ads in the coming local elections in San Francisco. “We need 12 more people to donate $25,” the site said on Friday. Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University who is working with Mr. Cohn and who began his own experimental journalism site last year using the public’s collaboration in news gathering, Assignment Zero (zero.newassignment.net), has been a leading critic of the traditional model of reporting. Now, with the industry’s financial troubles, he may have a more receptive audience. “The business model is broken,” he said. “We’re at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. “My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won’t work. You’ll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats.”
What is a subscription, con’t Continued from page 4 have to walk a tricky line because it’s best for everyone if their columns are well read, linked, and discussed, so you can’t really hide the new content behind a paid wall. If you go on eBay and search for WoW Gold, you’ll find a lot of offers for a “gold LVL guide.” World of Warcraft is an insanely popular Massively Mutliplayer Online Game where people create and build characters, doing quests in a digital world for digital gold. As it turns out, selling in-game items or currency (like gold) is against the game’s terms of service, and I think it’s against eBay’s as well. So how is it that you can still buy WoW gold on eBay? It’s because people are selling their time as “guides.” If, in the course of this service, they happen to hand over a bunch of gold, so be it. But it’s a nice little way to side-step the issue. Similarly, I think newspapers should give up on trying to charge
for their content and try charging for how it is delivered. In other words, charge for things that are premium services or that offer a large convenience value. If I want to read the news online, that’s free. But if I want the New York Times to track a certain set of keywords and send me a text message whenever news breaks, that’s a member benefit.
Kevorkian. The point, I guess, is to make sure that getting a paper copy on your doorstop every morning is not the singular offering that newspaper subscriptions offer. It should be just one benefit among many.
Removing a leg If newspapers are successful in expanding the idea of a subscription, then when it comes time to start shutting down the old presses, you won’t see reports announcing that subscribers have migrated to another paper, which happened just this year in Seattle. Why not? Because hopefully a paper’s members will be taking advantage of (and paying for) the advanced, digital services being offered, and losing a paper daily— which many members may even have opted out of by then—is more like cutting off a leg than calling Dr.
Eat Sleep Publish is a blog written by Jason Preston, a social media consultant and professional blogger. Jason has worked with clients on shaping blogger engagement strategies, creating blogs and conceptualizing social media.
8
Who: What: When: Where:
September 2008 ■ ANAgrams
ANA 2008 Fall Convention
r u o y Is lbox too dy? rea
OCTOBER 10-11 TODAY’S NEW MEDIA...IS YOUR TOOLBOX READY?
you! ANA 2008 Fall Convention Oct. 10-11, 2008 The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Arizona State University 555 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 8 a.m.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 7:30 a.m.
Registration table opens
Don’t forget to sign up for tours of the new Cronkite School, which will be given throughout the day. 8 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
ANA Annual Meeting and Election of Directors 8:45 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Keynote Opening Session: The Future Digital Media Landscape
Speaker: Dan Gillmor, Arizona State University 9:35 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
Registration table opens
Thinking Entreprenurial Speaker: Dan Gillmor
9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Multimedia Streetfighting 2008 Speaker: Mike Blinder
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Video for Dummies
Instructor: Serena Carpenter
9 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
Upholding and Updating Ethical Standards: Journalism and social networks
10:30 a.m. - Noon
10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Speaker: Steve Buttry, American Press Institute
Speaker: David Bodney, David Cuillier, Elizabeth Hill
Speaker: Steve Buttry, American Press Institute
Ethical dilemmas of user-generated content 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Maintaining standards while generating new revenue streams Speaker: Steve Buttry, American Press Institute 3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Ethical dilemas in the digital age
Speaker: Steve Buttry, American Press Institute 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
ANA & AiPA hAll oF FAme Dinner and Reception
Managing Change
Speaker: Kristin Gilger
Legal issues facing today’s new media Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Foi luNcheoN
Keynote speaker: Rick Rodriguez 1:45 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
What works for the Web?
Speakers: Poli Corella, Rick Wiley 1:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Video Editing for Dummies Instructor: Serena Carpenter 3:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
E V SA
! 5 $2
Nt! u o c dis N d O r oN i y B E $25 trAti d l r eA SAV eGis ceive r Ay nt is re 8) d 0 o e tw paym 26/20 / (If by 9
Panel: Nuts and Bolts of the Wired Journalist 5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Better NewsPAPers coNtest & NewsPAPer oF the yeAr AwArds recePtioN
Register online at:
www.ananews.com and click on “Conventions”