ANAgrams - April 2009

www. AnAnews.coM

ApriL 2009

Gabrielson and Giblin earn Pulitzer for Arpaio series Terry Tang Associated Press As it prepares to further decrease its publication days in a declining economy, the East Valley Tribune celebrated a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for its reporting on the Maricopa County sheriff’s immigration enforcement operations.

The five-part series earned an honor for the Mesa-based newspaper in the local reporting category for reporter Ryan Gabrielson and former Tribune reporter Paul Giblin.

Giblin was sitting in on a U.S. Senate committee hearing on border violence in Phoenix with Sens.

John McCain and Joe Lieberman when he heard about the award.

“All of a sudden my phone started exploding,” Giblin said.

“Joe Lieberman was giving me the evil eye. Finally I said I better answer that. People were telling me, and I didn’t believe them. I said, ‘Shut up, shut up.’ “ Gabrielson happened to check the Pulitzers Web site Monday morning to see if he knew any of the winners. When he saw the Tribune, he felt lightheaded.

“I’m very proud of the investigation we did, and it was worth going through the work to enter it, but I didn’t realistically expect to win,” Gabrielson said.

The accolade comes at a time of transition for the Tribune.

The newspaper, which went to a

Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin toast the occasion with champagne at a celebration at the East Valley Tribune office in Mesa.

free-circulation, four-day-a-week model in January, will eliminate its Saturday print edition effective May 16. The restructuring also resulted in the loss of about 140 workers, including Giblin.

“It is kind of sad. I wish I was still at the Tribune. I’d have a party with them right now,” said Giblin, who, along with three other journalists laid off from the newspaper, started The Arizona Guardian, a news Web site that focuses on politics and the Arizona Legislature.

Despite getting laid off, Giblin said the win was still sweet.

“The people down there at the Trib are great people,” Giblin read the award-winning series online:

said. “It wasn’t quite as painful for them as it was for me when I got laid off. But I know it was painful for them. I don’t harbor any ill feelings.”

In 2007, Giblin and Gabrielson began examining Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s efforts to focus on illegal immigration and their cost to taxpayers and to public safety.

They spent six months compiling a database on illegal-immigration arrests based on public records.

The articles exposed slow emergency-response times and less criminal enforcement as the sheriff dedicated more of his office’s resources to seeking out and arresting illegal immigrants.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/page/reasonable_doubt

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Excellence in Advertising awards approaching

Save the date for May 22, 2009, when the winners of the 2009 Excellence in Advertising Awards will be announced at a happy hour reception. Join us at 2 p.m. for “Selling in a Recession”, an informative session presented by veteran newspaper sales trainer John Lindsey, of Lindsey & Associates. Come learn ways to generate more advertising, explore what is - or isn’t - working in your market, find out how to maintain a positive attitude and discover new ways to build relationships. Then stick around because at 5 p.m. the drinks will start flowing, the plaques will be handed out and the presentation will begin!

Register online now at http://virtualroot.com/ana/09Seminar.html or call 602.261.7655, ext. 110.

May 22, 2009 First Amendment Forum ~ Walter Cronkite School of Journalism ~ Arizona State University 555 N. Central Ave. ~ Phoenix, Arizona

High time we set the record straight on newspaper ‘myths’

Donna Barrett President and CEO Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. Enough already. Partial facts and misinformation about newspapers are distorting the view for everyone, including readers and advertisers.

Let’s set the record straight: Newspapers still enjoy considerable readership and deliver strong results for advertisers. More Americans read printed newspapers than watch the Super Bowl.

More Americans read printed newspapers than own dogs.

Newspapers and their Web sites reach a larger audience than ever before.

The crisis facing newspapers is not an audience problem. It is a revenue problem.

Newspapers deliver vital information to communities, as they have since this country was settled. But something has to pay for all of that news. Advertising has traditionally supported the valuable content provided by newspapers. Two developments have devastated that revenue.

The first is the recession.

Newspapers are no different than television, radio, Internet, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and all businesses that rely on other businesses for money from advertising and promotion. The recession has led to a significant decrease in ad spending. Everyone is hurting. Newspapers just talk about it more.

Free sites such as Craigslist are the other factor. These sites siphon off considerable classified advertising.

It is tough to compete against free, and free doesn’t pay for journalists.

There is no shortage of other theories on why newspapers are hurting. Most come from those without direct responsibility for

the financial health of a newspaper. Some popular explanations: 1.) Newspapers are too liberal and drive off readers as a result.

2.) Newspaper publishers are slow to embrace new technology.

3.) Newspapers are losing readers to the Internet.

As my father used to say, they don’t know what they don’t know.

In reality, none of these theories is responsible for newspapers’ woes.

Overall readership is growing. Most publishers embrace technological advances to serve their audience, but they face a real world problem that these advances usually provide much less revenue than their core business.

Finally, newspaper companies are losing classified revenue, not readers, to the Internet. In one of life’s ironies, newspapers are growing audience through the very outlet that takes away so much revenue.

Newspaper publishers face many challenges in a changing world. They must answer some important revenue questions if their newspapers are to continue serving our communities as effectively as they have for more than 300 years.

The least we can do is make sure the issues are not distorted and misinterpreted.

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Kramers celebrate 60th anniversary Ruth and Donovan M. Kramer Sr. marked their 60th wedding anniversary April 3.

The couple met at a softball game and married at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church near Chenoa, Ill. They have lived in Casa Grande for 46 years.

Don is president and publisher of Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. and the former Ruth Heins is vice president of the company, which publishes the Casa Grande Dispatch, the last family-owned and -operated daily newspaper in Arizona, five weekly newspapers, two shoppers and specialty publications as well as commercial printing. Don is also managing partner of White Mountain Publishing Co. and a former chairman of the State Transportation Board. He was president of the Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce and spearheaded the building committee for its new facility. He founded the Casa Grande Industrial Development Authority and Greater Casa Grande Valley Economic Development Foundation. He was president of the local Indian celebration, O’Odham Tash, for two years. Don also served a term as president of the Arizona Newspapers Association.

His father was a weekly newspaper publisher in downstate Illinois.

Donovan M. Kramer Sr. and Ruth Kramer celebrate 60 years of marriage.

Don was a publications management graduate of the University of Illinois. During World War II, he served two years in the Army Air Forces in the South Pacific, Philippines and Japan.

The couple were partners in Illinois in the Fairbury Blade and Gibson City Courier, and later the Forrest News, beginning in the late

1940s through the early 1960s.

They have four children, Donovan Jr. and Kara Cooper of Casa Grande, Diana of Seattle and Eric of Pinetop-Lakeside, and four grandchildren, Katie, Meaghan and Brian Kramer and Zoe Cooper.

The couple celebrated their anniversary on April 4 with family and friends.

How can newsrooms do better collaborating with their communities to produce higher quality journalism?

Chris O’Brien Knight Digital Media Center Since launching last year, news start-up Publish2 has been trying to be a catalyst for getting more journalists to embrace the practice of linking to other peoples’ content.

That’s a big enough challenge, especially since, as we’ve seen recently, “aggregator” remains a dirty word in some corners of the newsroom.

But even as Publish2 has been making progress in selling the value of link journalism, co-founder Scott Karp said the company is about to tackle another fundamental problem: How can newsrooms do a better job collaborating with their communities to produce higher quality journalism and conversations?

In February, Publish2 announced that it’s trying to solve this puzzle by developing a new set of

tools called “Digital Sunlight.”

“We’re taking Publish2 beyond links, and into what we call ‘collaborative journalism,’” Karp said.

“We wanted to continue to expand our usefulness to journalists in the editorial realm to do things that help produce more reporting.”

To understand how that might work, let’s first look at what Publish2 does today.

The first thing to note is that continued on page 4

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Collaborating with communities using Publish2 Publish2 is designed specifically to serve journalists, one of several things that sets it apart from Yahoo’s Delicious.com social bookmarking service. That will obviously be expanding, to include non-newsroom contributors when Digital Sunlight rolls out.

Today, a journalist signs up for a free account. When they’re reading a story on the Web that they want to share, they can paste the link into their Publish2 account and add as much or as little information as they want.

As you build lists of links, you have several options as to how to use them. You can embed a Publish2 widget on your Web site or blog. Or you can select a few links and export them as a blog post. This is where I have come to really appreciate Publish2, because it offers me more control over creating the headline for the link-post, where Delicious just creates a generic header that says “Links” and the date, something not very SEO friendly.

The other main feature Publish2 offers is the ability to follow other journalists in the Publish2 network, and create groups around various topics or publications, and invite other journalists to contribute. So journalists help other journalists build lists of links.

Here’s what I like about Publish2, and aggregation in general.

Even with all the search and social tools for finding news and information, the Web still presents a fundamental challenge to consumers that hasn’t been completely solved: How do I find the best stuff? Aggregating and curating links is an opportunity for newsrooms to help their community solve that problem

and serve them in a different way.

Next, local news organizations should be trying to become the main source of news and information online about their communities. So pulling together all the best links about your area can only help build that reputation as the go-to place for local information.

Here’s the other important piece.

The Publish2 model recognizes that most journalists are already operating at full capacity. The last thing most people in a newsroom want to hear is that there’s some other new thing for them to work into their daily routines.

But journalists are reading stuff all day online, so with basically one click they can share the best stuff and create new value without a lot of extra heavy lifting.

For one example of this in action, check out the Chicago Tribune’s Col. Tribune Recommends box on the right of their breaking news blog.

The Digital Sunlight tools will build on this collaborative linking model.

Karp said the idea grew out of an e-mail exchange he had with Howard Weaver, who is an advisor to Publish2.

They were discussing how the stimulus bill would be one of the largest “follow the money” stories for investigative journalists. But was there some way to turn this into a widespread collaborative journalism projects? The money will be flowing into thousands of communities, far too many for just newsrooms to track. ”The general lament is that newsrooms are shrinking and there will be less journalism. But there’s still a feeling that we want to do it all ourselves.

Those things are going to going to collide here,” Karp said.

At the same time, newsrooms have struggled to really develop models that have produced meaningful contributions from communities on a regular basis. Digital Sunlight will be designed to allow newsrooms to create a structured way to work with members of

the community to gather news and information that would be then be open and shared.

“There’s a really small number of people who are motivated to do the work outside the newsroom,” Karp said. “But what a larger number of people may be able to do is contribute information. Think of it as a tip line. What if we could get information flowing in that the newsrooms wanted to report on, in a highly structured way?”

Publish2 is currently building a Web form that newsrooms can customize to fit different topics. The form would be attached to various stories or topic pages in the same way comments and forums are now.

The form would lay out different questions or categories of information that newsroom is seeking.

Those forms would then feed into a database journalists could then access, verify information, and build it into stories.

The database wouldn’t be published, but rather it would become a set of information and leads for people in the newsroom to verify, or to guide their reporting. Ideally, that database will also be shared across newsrooms. Karp acknowledges that this will be a “radical idea.”

Karp hopes that this will improve reporting, but also the conversations happening on news sites. “There’s the endless debate about the value of comments on the story,” Karp said. “The problem is whether you ask the wrong questions. Rather than asking people to just sound off, let’s try asking, ‘What do you know?’”

As for timing, the Publish2 team is still developing the tools.

Karp’s blog post announcing the project said, “...we are baking as fast as we can and will have an update shortly.”

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‘$20 on the 20th’ promotion makes an impact Michael Gibbons Aiken Standard The Aiken Standard is a daily in South Carolina with a circulation of 17,000. While we all battle an economic and industry crisis, we are looking for new ways to position ourselves.

This project allowed us to bring in ad revenue, report on the economy and be community leaders, all at once. What we did was simple: We asked every reader in Aiken County to spend $20 on April 20th. We asked economists and store owners what would happen if they did. (The most interesting part we found was that each dollar spent translated into much more than that from an economic impact.)

Economists and business leaders alike agreed that it could have a snowballing psychological impact. Just as negative consumer confidence held markets back, positive consumer confidence could help them surge forward.

Our ad staff sold ads for $20 each to run in the Sunday paper. For an additional $10, the ad ran Monday (the day of the event), too.

More than 50 businesses advertised. We ran 1A news promotion on Saturday, and stories on Sunday and Monday.

The results were pretty amazing. We found that it was definitely THE topic in stores, from both customers and store staff. Many of the retailers had posted a cut-out of the Sunday front and were greeting customers with, “Are you here to spend your $20?” It was a popular chatter point on Facebook. Several TV stations have called asking about the initiative. The mood of the shoppers was definitely a positive one that hasn’t been seen in a while.

The project has been so successful we are going to have a second 20 on 20 in May. The ad department is going to distribute “I spent $20 on the 20th” stickers for merchants to pass out (a la “I Voted” stickers).

From a news angle, we will address the impact of the previous 20 on 20, real and perceived, and talk to business owners on the changing climate of the economy.

While this is certainly a different union of news and advertising, it is without a doubt a positive one, one that is beneficial at all angles. News can report on the economy.

Advertising can sell ads. Advertisers can come back to the printed page at nominal costs. And the community can get a sense of taking back control of the local economy. It wins all around. And it shows the power of the local newspaper, and that our relevance should not be written about in the past tense. We do still make a difference, and we need to remind ourselves and our readers of that.

Can newspapers still increase sales during the recession?

They did.

MediaNews Group set a goal for 37 newspapers during the last four months of 2008: Increase co-op driven revenue $2 million over last year’s 4-month figure.

They beat this goal by $540,000.

Want more details? Visit www.recas.com/recession.

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Student journalists invade downtown Phoenix Perri Collins Communications Manager The Journalism Education Association, in partnership with the National Scholastic Press Association, held their national high school convention in Arizona this year. From April 16 to April 19, more than 2,700 students from all over the country flooded downtown Phoenix Students soaked up sun and hundreds of learning sessions, from high-profile keynotes to problem-solving breakouts, workshops and discussion groups.

Other convention activities included vendors showcasing journalism-related products and services, NSPA’s Best of Show contest, JEA’s Write-off contests, awards convocations, on-site critiques, Break with a Pro and Media Swap Shops, student dances and adviser receptions. Whether it was ethics, law, technology, design, advertising, business operations, photography, video or the basics of journalistic writing and reporting, this convention covered all bases.

Keynote speakers included Aaron Brown, the inaugural Walter

Students gather around The Arizona Republic’s Nick Oza as he tells them about life at a major metro daily and what it’s like being a photographer during the Break With a Pro session at the Hyatt.

Cronkite Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University, and Mary Beth Tinker, of the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, an advocate for peace and the rights of young people.

Students were also able to partake of some local sightseeing activities, including a tour of the Desert Botanical Gardens, the Heard Museum and The Arizona Republic.

Ten student journalists from

Freelancing and finances

Arcadia High School created The Phoenix Post, frequently updating stories, images and videos online at http://stardust.jmc.asu.edu/ phxpost/The_Phoenix_Post.

The Phoenix Post had coverage of all major convention activities from the very beginning until the last journalist went home. If you are wondering what the next generation of journalists are bringing to the table, check out The Phoenix Post Web site.

If you’re an independent contractor in journalism, public relations or any other field, you could be losing money. The Valley of the Sun chapter of Society of Professional Journalists and the Phoenix chapter of the Public Relations Society of America are partnering to bring you a panel discussion on making smarter decisions with your business and your finances.

Three accountants and three financial planners will guide you logically through the alphabet soup of LLCs, S Corps and SEP IRAS. They’ll discuss legal write-offs and how to maximize your retirement investments and savings. Afterward, attendees can meet briefly one-on-one with panelists to ask questions and get information on following up with them, if desired. Sandwiches, deli salads, iced tea and lemonade will be served.

Payment in advance is required via PayPal or check; no refunds will be issued. Visit www.spjchapters.org/ arizona to register, or mail a check (please write your name on the comments line if using a business check) to: Valley of the Sun Chapter of SPJ, P.O. Box 1488, Phoenix, AZ 85001.

Anyone arriving after 7 p.m. will not be admitted.

“Freelancing and Finances” will take place at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in downtown Phoenix, Monday, June 8, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The cost is $20 for SPJ and PRSA members, $30 for all others.

Contact Stephanie Jarnagan, Stephanie@thinkcommaz.com, 480-201-7572 (PRSA), or Geri Koeppel, gerikoeppel@me.com (SPJ) for more information.

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West Valley View settles into brand new digs Rich Ott West Valley View Gone are the days of “temporary buildings” for the staff of the West Valley View. The paper now has its own 35,000-square-foot facility that houses a $1 million printing press.

“It has been my desire to have a press [for a long time],” View founder and publisher Elliott Freireich said, especially after he came to the “realization that it would make a significant difference to the bottom line.”

So, the publisher set off on what he originally thought would be a two-year quest to build his own facility. More than 12 years later, he finally has his press and building.

He can’t believe how long the journey took, Freireich said. He wasn’t the only one.

The View’s longest-tenured employee, Advertising Director Stephanie Hillebrand, who just celebrated her 21st anniversary with the newspaper, said, “I always thought it would happen, I just didn’t know when.”

When was Jan. 29, as the View’s 32 full-time employees and 34 part-timers began moving in at 1050 E. Riley Drive in Avondale.

The View published its first edition on April 16, 1986, from a little office building on the southeast corner of Dysart Road and Riley Drive in Avondale.

In 1990, the paper moved across the street to the southwest corner of Dysart and Riley, which the View called home until it moved into a converted gas station/tire shop in Litchfield Park in 1998.

The Litchfield Park building, 200 W. Wigwam Blvd., was supposed to be a two-year temporary base while he built a newspaper facility in Goodyear, Freireich recalled.

However, the 4 acres he owned on the southeast

corner of Virginia Avenue and Pebble Creek Parkway became too valuable for a newspaper building, so Freireich sold it and purchased 10 acres in Avondale.

Next came more waiting as architectural plans were submitted and resubmitted to the city of Avondale many times before ground was finally broken in October 2007.

Meanwhile, the city of Litchfield Park had plans to expand its City Hall complex on the same lot where the View’s building sat, so the paper’s staff had to move to another temporary home base in August.

Freireich found another temporary building - 1585 N. 113th Ave. in Avondale, just south of McDowell Road - and this stay proved to be much shorter than the 10 years in Litchfield Park.

The new building sits on about 4½ acres, and the 35,000 square feet was built with 10 years of growth in mind, Freireich said. In comparison, the Litchfield Park building and the most recent temporary offices in Avondale were both about 5,000 square feet.

The size of the View’s new complex isn’t the only thing that grabs your attention - so does the design.

Architect Dan Filuk of Phoenix incorporated many of the publisher’s ideas into the design, including lots of energy-efficient measures, steel and windows.

Even the small, box-shaped windows that can be seen on the building’s exterior are arranged in a particular way for a reason - they carry a message.

The arrangement of windows on the south side of the building spell out a phrase, while the other six groupings of box-shaped windows all spell out names, two of which are the nicknames for the publisher’s daughters. Freireich is tight-lipped on the code needed to continued on page 8

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The View’s new home decipher the windows, though.

The building is positioned to save energy by shading itself in the afternoon. Other energy-saving measures are a rigid foam roof, which blocks heat from entering the attic space; multiple air conditioners; and skylights to reduce the need for indoor lighting. A small, open-air courtyard is built in the center of the building.

“It’s a gorgeous building,” said Hillebrand, an Arizona native who graduated from Buckeye Union High School and lives in Goodyear. “He [Freireich] did a wonderful job with it.”

Freireich is most excited about the $1 million press. The View has always been printed off-site in its 23-year history. Now that the new press is up and running, the View will have the capability to print an edition with 24 pages of process color, or 16 pages of process color and 16 pages of spot color.

Freireich said he envisions the View becoming more colorful.

Once Freireich is satisfied with the way his press is running, he will seek other print jobs for it, as it will take only about five hours total - preparation, running and clean up - to print the nearly 80,000 copies of one issue of the paper.

West Valley View publisher Elliott Freireich stands in front of his new press.

Arizona Press Women annual conference May 9

Five top local professionals will speak on aspects of “Staying in the Media Game” for the 2009 Arizona Press Women conference. Three presentations, all open to the public, are designed to assist the goals of journalists, writers, editors and representatives of community organizations - - anyone competing for attention in today’s public marketplace.

A social networking workshop titled “Blogs, Twitter, Facebook…Oh, My!” will be led by expert Dave Barnhart from 9 to 10 a.m. A panel on “Surviving the Media Industry Crisis” will be presented from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. by three media and education professionals. The noon luncheon will feature Steve Elliott, director of Arizona State University’s Cronkite News Service, speaking on “All of the Above: ‘Journalist’ Means Much More Now.’ ” The conference is Saturday, May 9, at the Gateway Doubletree Inn, 320 N. 44th St., Phoenix, with registration starting at 7:45 a.m. The cost is $85 for two workshops, lunch and dinner; $45 for two workshops and lunch; $25 for two workshops. Prepaid reservations are needed by Tuesday, May 5. For more information, contact Cheryl.Kohout@tmcaz.com, 520-324-2109 or 520-722-1273.

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Cronkite school lands business journalism nonprofit Chris Casacchia Phoenix Business Journal Arizona State University will be the new home for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, which has resided at the University of Missouri for the past 25 years.

In a close vote, the SABEW board on Monday gave ASU the nod 33-29 during its annual meeting, edging out the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SABEW president Bernie Kohn said both universities offered outstanding plans for the program, but potential partnerships with the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, also housed at ASU, may have sealed the deal.

“I think we can do some real power educational things,” said

Kohn.

“SABEW is the world’s leading association of business journalists, and the SABEW leadership was attracted by the idea of being headquartered in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “The addition of SA-

BEW — along with our Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, our new Reynolds Chair in Business Journalism and our new specializations in business journalism — makes the Cronkite School the global hub of business journalism education and training.”

Editor, have you ever needed training more than now?

The Associated Press Managing Editors is bringing its popular two-day NewsTrain training workshop to Phoenix May 1-2. NewsTrain brings the best trainers in journalism to sites across the country, and thanks to our underwriters, participants pay just $50.

When: Friday, 12:30 to 5 p.m.: Business models for journalism that work. Ethics in an era of greater contacts between the news and business departments. Reporting business news (including your own).

Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Re-Inventing Yourself. Becoming a News Innovator. Leading in a Time of Change.

Alternative Distribution: Putting Feeds, Aggregation and Social Networking to Work.

Where: The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The school is at 555 N. Central Avenue on the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Fillmore.

Registration and Payment: 1. Register online using a credit card at http://www.tucson.com/store/newstrain or 2. Send an email to rvyoung@azstarnet.com with name, title, email address, news organization mailing address and office phone number for each participant. At the same time, mail a check, payable to the Arizona Daily Star, to Roberta Young, executive assistant, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726. Or bring the check with you on the first day of the workshop.

Education is at your fingertips! See a list of all webinars and events on our Web site:

www.ananews.com/calendar

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Google plans ‘high-quality news’ passive search, expands Twitter presence Will Sullivan Poynter.org Earlier this week, Google began using Twitter to distribute headlines from Google News. And that’s not all Google has planned for helping readers find the news they want.

The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman spoke with Google CEO Eric Schmidt last week at a party held by Arianna Huffington of the HuffingtonPost.com.

Waxman reports Schmidt detailed an interesting plan to help struggling newspapers: “In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it.

“Under this latest iteration of advanced search, users will be automatically served the kind of news that interests them just by calling up Google’s page. The latest algorithms apply ever more sophisticated filtering –- based on search words, user choices, purchases, a whole host of cues -– to determine what the reader is looking for without knowing they’re looking for it.

“And on this basis, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content.

“The first two news organizations to get this treatment, Schmidt said, will be The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“Does The New York Times make more money from this arrangement, I asked? No, Schmidt confirmed, it won’t. But by targeting the stories that readers will want to read, it will get more hits out of the stories it has, which will drive its traffic and ultimately support higher advertising rates beside the stories.”

Schmidt, who address the Newspaper Association of America earlier this month, gave little indication of such plans and advised newspapers to “...encourage everybody when they think about -- in all the rhetoric, all the concern about this or that -- think in terms of what your reader wants. Try to figure out how to solve their problem. These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more, right? Or, if you make them happy, you will grow them quickly. And so we try really hard to think that way.”

WSJ recognizes strength of community newspapers The loyalty and buying power of community newspaper readers are among the attributes that continue to be recognized by advertisers and investors, and most recently by a story in the April 28, 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

The story confirmed many facts about smaller market papers that industry insiders have long recognized. Specifically, that one of the many attractions of smaller papers is their intense local focus and community connections, which continue to generate solid returns for advertisers and smaller market newspaper owners.

Newspaper industry leaders echoed the findings in the financial publication’s story.

“Newspapers are too often painted with a broad brush, and it’s nice to see The Wall Street Journal acknowledge the realities and diversification of our industry,” said Gareth Charter, publisher of six weekly newspapers in Massachusetts. “Of course, we are affected by the economy, but community publishing has a very bright future. We purchased a 21-year-old weekly in May 2007 and grew its revenue 30 percent the first year.”

The Wall Street Journal article focused on three newspaper executives who recently purchased or are in the process of purchasing community newspapers.

Advertising revenue has remained relatively consistent for many smaller papers, a significant and noteworthy explanation for why community newspapers are continuing to draw advertiser and investor interest.

“Community papers, with their hyper-local coverage and ‘news you can’t get anywhere else’ advantage, remain the bright spot in the industry,” said Nancy Lane, president of Suburban Newspapers of America.

“While community papers are also impacted by the economy, it is often to a much lesser degree than our larger counterparts. And even though the effects of the economy have carried over into the first quarter of 2009, community papers and their related Web sites are in a better position to take advantage of new and bold opportunities, many of which involve shifting dollars from major and national advertisers.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, purchasers of the local newspapers also cited greater consistency of classified ad revenue and a loyal, local advertising base as reasons for investing in community newspapers.

From ipping pages to computer purchases, Kevin answers questions Kevin Slimp Institute of Newspaper Technology kevin@kevinslimp.com Wow. My email is full of questions from readers these days.

Some days I just can’t respond to all of them, so let me take a crack at a few of them here.

From Sandy in Tennessee: Hey Kevin, I’ve got a question for you, as usual. I am looking at purchasing two Mac Pros for the office, plus a Mac Pro laptop. I noticed there is about $500 difference between a Mac Pro 2.8 GHz quad core Xeon processor and a Mac Pro 2.8 GHz 2-quad core Xeon processor. Is it worth paying the extra money for the two quad core processor for laying out pages?

Sandy, Let me make your day. You don’t need either of the Mac Pro desktop computers. Mac Pros are awfully nice, but they’re probably overkill for designing pages. Your designers will be just as happy with iMacs (go ahead and get the larger monitor version, since you’ll have money to spare) and you’ll save about $1,500 on each computer.

Oh, feel free to send any leftover cash as a donation to the Institute of Newspaper Technology.

From Lisa in South Dakota: Hi Kevin, We are trying to build a Web site for our community guides. What program do I need to create Web documents with pages that flip?

There are lots of services available online to accomplish this task, Lisa. I’ve found them ranging in cost from $5 (US) per page up to $10,000 (US) for an application that creates this effect for you. However, if all you’re looking for is a way to create an online document with pages that fl ip, you can do that in InDesign CS4.

It’s as easy as opening the InDesign document and exporting it as a Flash (SWF) fi le.

From Alyse in Pennsylvania: Hello Kevin, I have a problem that I’m sure you can help me solve. I need to convert publisher fi les to PDF. Is there any software out there that can do this on a Mac? Your wealth of knowledge on this subject is most appreciated.

I like that “wealth of knowledge” bit, Alyse. Thanks. The easiest way to accomplish this task would be to use PdfOnline.com.

Institute of Newspaper Technology Announces October Lineup Many of you know that Kevin directs a training program for newspaper designers, publishers and I.T. related staff called the Institute of Newspaper Technology. The schedule for the October 15-17, 2009 session is complete and includes classes in InDesign, scripting, photo editing, video production for Web sites, Flash, Illustrator, InCopy, Adobe Bridge, digital photography, audio slideshow creation, fonts, editing photos in camera raw, Photoshop, font management and more. Basic and advanced classes are offered.

Instructors include Lisa Griffin, Russell Viers, Lesa Snider, Jay Nelson, Rob Heller and Kevin Slimp. Guest speakers will also be on hand. For more information, visit newspaperinstitute.com.

Web site documents with “ipping” pages are easy to create in InDesign CS4.

This is a free service which allows you to upload your Publisher file and receive the corresponding PDF in your email within a few minutes.

From Terry in Oklahoma: Hi Kevin, Thanks for the great advice you’ve given me in the past. I need your advice again. I’m having a difficult time finding a free or cheap image compressor that I can use to reduce the size of images that I have already compressed in Photoshop. Can you point me in the right direction?

A company called iRedsoft used to sell a shareware program called MacImageResizer that was a nifty tool for reducing the size of JPEG images significantly. A free version was available at the time, which allowed you to resize images after looking at a pop-up ad for the paid version. iRedsoft no longer sells this utility, but I found the free version still available for download at http://www. tucows.com/preview/206512 . It works like a charm to reduce the size of JPEG images.

From Debbie in Arkansas: Hi Kevin, I desperately need some help.

My computer is really slow. I’m afraid I’m going to lose it and throw it out the window one day! I’m using a PowerBook G4 and running Leopard (OS X.5). It takes around 7-8 minutes for Quark to open. The print dialog box takes around 2 minutes to open when I’m printing for the first time. Everything is so slow.

Do you have any suggestions?

I’d go with your first instinct,

Debbie, and throw the PowerBook out the window. I could ask you how much RAM you have on the computer and suggest that you could add more, but I’m guessing this PowerBook has served its purpose. The alternative would be to remove the Leopard operating system and reinstall an earlier OS.

From Lis in Indiana: Hey Kevin, Using CS3 InDesign, we seem to be having a lot of trouble with drop shadows in our ads. The background colors are blocked out or boxes appear around elements with special effects. Any idea what is causing this? We use AdTracker which converts EPS files into PDF. Could this be the problem or is it a setting in InDesign? Thanks for your help.

Try this, Debbie. Create your ad in InDesign as you have been.

When you’re finished, select the entire page and copy it (Edit>Copy).

Next, go to Photoshop and create a new document. You wont have to be concerned with the size. Photoshop will create a document with the same specifications as the page you copied in InDesign. Set the resolution to 200 in Photoshop when creating the new file. With the blank file open in Photoshop, select Edit>Paste. You’ll see your InDesign ad, drop shadows and all, pasted onto the Photoshop document as a “smart object.” It will look like it has an “x” going through it. Double click on the smart object and save the fi le as an EPS file. Finally, run the EPS file through Acrobat Distiller and you’ll have an ad with special effects, but no unwanted lines.

April 2009 ■ ANAgrams

Page 12

Jumping on the Twitter bandwagon?

3. Update daily. At least. The Arizona Department of Health Services is on Twitter and hasn’t updated in four days. With the swine flu pandemic, you would think they’d want to inform their followers of what’s really going on in Arizona, instead of allowing them to rely on misinformation and rumor.

4. Don’t get carried away, though. Too many updates become annoying. When updating @ananewsflash, I tend to keep it Perri Collins around 10 updates per day.

5. Include links. Why is anyone going Communications Manager to follow you if you don’t deliver pertinent This morning, while I was listen- information? You can’t squeeze much into ing to the radio on the way to work, 140 characters, but you can send a headline I learned that my favorite valley DJ, and a link.

Chuck Powell, now has a Twitter ac6. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, ancount. It seems like everyone is eager swer questions or strike up a conversation. to be where the action is. Twitter is a Twitter is a two-way communication street. great tool for reaching out and mak- Use it to gather ideas, spread news or coning connections to your customers. nect with your readers on a personal level.

But first, you’ve got to get set up the 7. And last but not least, promote it! Put right way. a link on the landing page of your Web site 1. Choose a name that reflects and on you contact page. Include it in your your brand. Add a profile pic, bio and email signature. Let people know you’re on page background that do the same.

Twitter.

So many people overlook the obvious.

What could you do with a direct line 2. Download a Twitter client like of communication to your readers? Start a Twhirl (www.twhirl.org) or TweetTwitter account and play around with it. It deck (www.tweetdeck.com), which may be a great way to reach new and loyal allow you to tweet from your deskreaders. top. It makes the Twitter experience Questions? Don’t hesitate to contact me much more functional. at p.collins@ananews.com.

Contact ANA Staff Executive Director Paula Casey............... Ext. 102 p.casey@ananews.com Communications Mgr. Perri Collins............... Ext. 110 p.collins@ananews.com Accounting Assistant Liisa Straub................ Ext. 105 l.straub@ananews.com Media Buyer Cindy Meaux............. Ext. 112 c.meaux@ananews.com Network Ad MGR. Sharon Schwartz....... Ext. 108 s.schwartz@ananews.com Network Sales Rep. Don Ullmann............. Ext. 111 d.ullmann@ananews.com

2008-2009 ANA/Ad Services Board of Directors President Dick Larson, Western News&Info, Inc. One-Year Dir./Daily First Vice President Teri Hayt, Arizona Daily Star Two-Year Dir./At-large Second Vice President Ginger Lamb, Arizona Capitol Times Two-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Directors Tom Arviso, Navajo Times Two-Year Director/Non-Daily Nicole Carroll, The Arizona Republic Two-Year Director/Daily Vacant Two-Year Dir./At-large John Naughton, Payson Roundup One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Third Vice President Don Rowley, Arizona Daily Sun Jody VandenHeuvel, Two-Year Dir./Daily East Valley Tribune One-Year Dir./Daily Secretary/Treasurer Rick Schneider, Eastern Pam Mox, Green Valley News Arizona Courier and Sun One-Year Dir./Non-Daily Past President

ANA Calendar April 30, 2009 • Mississippi Press Association contest judging, Phoenix May 1-2, 2009 • APME NewsTrain May 9, 2009 • Arizona Press Women 2009 Conference May 16, 2009 • Arizona Press Club annual banquet, Phoenix May 22, 2009 • ANA Excellence in Advertising awards reception, Phoenix June 11-14, 2009 • IRE conference, Baltimore October 10, 2009 • ANA 2009 Annual Meeting and Fall Convention November 14-15, 2009 • PodCampAZ

STAY in touch with ANA on the Web! Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php

?gid=30800632683 Flickr: http://www.flickr.com /photos/ananewsflash Myspace: www.myspace.com/ananews Twitter: twitter.com/ananewsflash YouTube: youtube.com/ananewsflash

ANAgrams is an official publication of the Arizona Newspapers Association 1001 N. Central Ave., Suite 670 Phoenix, AZ 85004

Arizona Newspapers Association

presents

With a special seminar

by John K. Lindsey

Selling advertising during tough economic times: How to keep your prospects and accounts positive. Learn ways to generate more advertising, explore what is - and isn’t working in your market, ďŹ nd out how to maintain a positive attitude and discover new ways to build relationships.

ANA Ad Awards & Seminar Registration Form May 22, 2009: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication ¸ 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Advertising in a Recession by John Lindsey  5:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. Awards Reception Contact Information Contact Person __________________________ Newspaper or Company _______________________________________ Address _________________________________________ City, State, Zip ______________________________________ Phone Number ______________________________ Email __________________________________________________

Registration Fees

Name of Attendee

TOTAL

q Advertising in a recession - $20 q Awards reception - $35 q Both - $49 q Advertising in a recession - $20 q Awards reception - $35 q Both - $49 q Advertising in a recession - $20 q Awards reception - $35 q Both - $49 q Advertising in a recession - $20 q Awards reception - $35 q Both - $49

TOTAL Amount Due:

Payment Method q Check Enclosed (Made payable to ANA) q Please invoice me at the address above q Charge to Visa or MasterCard

q Credit Card # __________________________________________ Expiration _______________ q Billing Address _________________________________________________________________ q City, State, Zip __________________________________________________________________

Overnight Accommodations For your convenience, here is a list of nearby hotels Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel 340 N. 3rd Street 602.262.2500 Within walking distance of the Cronkite School

Hotel San Carlos 202 N. Central Ave. 602.253.4121 Historic boutique hotel; Four blocks from Cronkite School

Holiday Inn Express Downtown Phoenix 620 N. 6th Street 602.452.2020 Half-mile from Cronkite School; Ask for the special ANA rate of $109/night

Best Western Central Phoenix Inn 1100 N. Central Avenue 602.252.2100 Located along light rail; Ask for the special ANA rate of $79/night