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Reminder: BNC deadline is one week away; Enter now! The deadline to enter the ANA 2011 Better Newspaper Contest is July 6. Are you uploading your entries? Are you looking for an entry packet with all the rules and instructions? Find out how to login, how to upload entries and how ANA determines the winners by going online to http://ananews.com/contest. Remember, the Better Newspapers Contest is the second half of the Newspaper of the Year awards. Every year, ANA totals the points to find the winner, and every year, the space between the winner and runner-up narrows. Will this be the year that records are broken? Attend the awards reception and find out! The awards reception will be held Oct. John Gibson, The Fountain Hills Times, Duke Kirkendoll, The Fountain Hills Times 15 at Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, at the and Vic Porto, The Wickenburg Sun, enjoying a break from the morning’s advertisconclusion of the ANA 2011 Annual Meeting ing training session, which was presented by Bob McInnis. and Fall Convention. ANA has a great lineup of speakers this year, so get ready to learn and celebrate. Questions? Contact Perri Collins at (602) In back: Leigh T. Jimmie. Front row: reporters Noel Smith and Marley Shebala, along with publisher Tom Arviso, Jr. Last year the Navajo Times took home more than a 261-7655 ext. 110. dozen awards.
Will you be attending the SNA conference in Phoenix? What were once ‘newspapers companies’ are now evolving into full-fledged media companies and this conference is designed to help accelerate that evolution, especially with an eye to capitolizing on the many new and significant revuenue opportunities. Suburban Newspapers of America is coming to Arizonawill hold their 2011 conference Sept. 13-16 at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix. This year the focus is on helping local media executives harness the powerful tools and ideology to support the seismic transformation in progress throughout our industry. The agenda inclides tactical strategies to help sales, marketing and operational areas. One day prior to the conference, registrants are invited to participate in one-on-one meetings with several prominent media buyers. This conference offers several general sessions, as well as a two-track approach for breakout sessions for Publishers or Ad Directors. ANA newspapers are invited to attend at the SNA member rate of $595 for the first attendee and $495 for and each additional attendee from the same company. The hotel room rate is $109 per night plus tax and resort fees. More information can be found online at http://www.suburban-news.org.
GangPlank Jr. begins journalism program for kids
Perri Collins, Communications Manager
Children have a natural curiosity, which makes them excellent journalists. As any parent can tell you, they are always questioning and snooping into things. “The Gangplank Jr. Journalism Program seeks to build upon this natural curiosity, teaching kids to use their powers of observation to inform others. Participants will learn the importance of the first amendment, how to write different types of stories such as news and feature, podcasting, video as well as create a working news site as the final product,” according to the GangPlank Jr. website. “Civic engagement and criticism is not taught enough in school,” said Katie Charland, director of Operations at GangPlank. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” she said. Charland has an M.A. in journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Prior to that, Charland did a two-year stint at Teach for America, which fueled her passion for public service and writing. While teaching at a low-income middle school on the Texas border, Charland had the opportunity to start a newsletter with her students, and thought it was a great way to encourage kids to connect with their community and surroundings. She’s taken that idea to GangPlank Jr. and teamed up with former teacher Melissa Conrey, radio host and political podcaster Dani Cutler and marketing consultant Greg Head, along with several parents and volunteers. The initial part of the journalism program begins July 9. Students will train every Saturday for 9 weeks, 2-4 p.m. Each week, a different element is explored, such as feature writing, news writing, sports reporting, video, photography and podcasting. Students must attend at least half of the Saturday sessions in order to write for the program. “We want to teach the kids about being committed and seeing a project through,” said Cutler. The very first sessions will be teaching Page 2 | June 2011 ■ ANAgrams
students about the first amendment and why it’s critical to our democracy. The children will begin by writing for the GangPlank Jr. blog, and then move on to reporting about topics that personally interest them, which they will be able to post on a dedicated website. “We want the kids to run the show,” said Cutler. “We want to get them to look around at their community and ask ‘why’. We want to make their world blossom,” she said. There will be three levels of participants: Level 1 for children ages 12 and under, Level 2 for ages 13 and older and Level 3 for exceptional students, who will be trained for editorial leadership. The program needs a minimum of five participants in order to proceed, but they are hoping to get close to 15 students. By keeping the group small, they hope to give each child more personal and individualized instruction.
“We want to let them write about whatever they deem important. That’s the cool thing,” said Melissa. “It’s awesome to watch them discover the world,” she said. If all goes well, the first issue’s workshop will be Sep. 9 and continue indefinitely. “We’d love to be able to have this project grow with the kids over time,” said Conrey. GangPlank Jr. started in 2009 as a way for the GangPlank adults to give back by providing unique and nontraditional educational programs to youth in the community, such as mentoring robotic teams and teaching code workshops. Their motto is “Releasing creativity through exploration.” For more information about the GangPlank Jr. Journalism Program or to get your child involved, contact Katie Charland at katie@gangplankhq.com.
Dani Cutler, Melissa Conrey and Katie Charland meet at the GangPlank co-working space in Chandler.
Pulitzer-winning journalist joins ASU to lead CarnegieKnight News21 program William K. Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who has been a top editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, National Public Radio and The Baltimore Sun, will join Arizona State University to lead the CarnegieKnight News21 in-depth digital journalism program. Marimow will join the faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as professor of practice and executive editor of News21, the highly acclaimed program that brings top journalism students from around the country together to produce investigative journalism that is deep, impactful and innovative. “Bill Marimow is one of the great investigative journalists of our time, one of the best investigative team leaders and a wonderful mentor to smart young journalists,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “Working with an all-star team of digital media leaders, data analysts and former Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., Bill and the News21 students will be producing journalism that truly makes a difference and is presented in bold, innovative ways.” Downie, the school’s Weil Family Professor of Journalism and a key member of the News21 team who has led recent News21 investigations on food safety and transportation safety, applauded the announcement. “I’m very excited to have Bill as a Cronkite colleague and to work closely with him on News21,” Downie said. “While a friendly rival during our years as editors of newspapers with national impact, I had great respect for Bill as an outstanding investigative journalist and inspirational leader.” The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York recently announced a package of $2.32 million in new grants to support News21 into the next decade. The foundations launched News21 in 2005 as a cornerstone of the CarnegieKnight Initiative on the Future of Journalism with five universities: University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, Harvard University, Northwestern
University and the University of Southern California. Three years later, seven other schools – including Arizona State – were added to the initiative and the News21 program was moved to the Cronkite School. For the past three years, eight News21 newsrooms at Carnegie-Knight schools around the country have produced a wide array of award-winning projects. Under the new News21, there will be a single newsroom – at Cronkite – with top journalism students from universities across the country. And for the first time, the program will be extended beyond the dozen Carnegie-Knight schools, taking applicants from journalism programs nationally. The new version of News21 will modeled after the highly successful multi-university investigative project on transportation safety in America conducted at ASU last year and led by Downie and Cronkite Associate Dean Kristin Gilger. That project, conducted in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity and distributed by MSNBC.com and The Washington Post, received more than 5.2 million page views in its first 18 days – the largest distribution of universityproduced journalism content in history. A similar project this summer, focusing on food safety, is led by Downie and Sharon Rosenhause, the former managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Marimow joins the Cronkite School following an extraordinary career in accountability journalism. He and a partner wrote the stories for which The Philadelphia Inquirer received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1978. Their investigation uncovered how Philadelphia police homicide detectives beat statements out of suspects and witnesses and led to the conviction of six detectives. In 1985, Marimow won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for uncovering abuse by Philadelphia police whose dogs attacked and mauled innocent, unarmed citizens. The following year, Marimow was the lead reporter on stories about the MOVE bombing for which The Inquirer was chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in general
reporting. Those stories revealed how city officials decided to drop a bomb on a Philadelphia row house, triggering a fire that killed 11 members of the radical group MOVE and destroyed a city block. Marrimow’s work at the Inquirer also won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Scripps Howard Public Service Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. A graduate of Trinity College, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees, he also has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and served as a Pulitzer juror eight times. In the new News21, students from around the country will participate via videoconference in a graduate issues seminar led by Downie in the spring semester, gathering expertise in the topic to be explored by the News21 team. Fellows also will have the option of participating in an accountability journalism class taught by Downie. In the summer, the paid News21 fellows will work closely with a full team of journalists led by Marimow that will include former BET Vice President Retha Hill, the school’s New Media Innovation Lab director who will serve as the newsroom’s digital leader, collaborating with students on how to best tell their stories in digitally innovative ways; Downie, who will provide regular consulting from Phoenix and Washington; Steve Doig, a Pulitzer-winning computer-assisted reporting expert and the school’s Knight Chair in Journalism, who will provide data analysis expertise and support; Mark Ng, the New Media Innovation Lab’s Web developer, who will help students operationalize their multimedia visions and innovations; Cronkite Washington Director Steve Crane, a longtime Washington editor, who will serve as copy editor; and Associate Dean Kristin Gilger, a former Arizona Republic deputy managing editor, who will provide project oversight.
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Endowed UA journalism scholarship will honor longtime Tucson journalist Steve Emerine media relations and it is a great tribute school. Several students have received A 1994 graduate of the University to all Steve did for the profession.” awards, but those funds would have of Arizona journalism program has In the course of his career, Emerine been exhausted in the next two to three endowed a scholarship in the name of held posts at the Tucson Citizen, the years, since the scholarship was not Steve Emerine, a mentor and friend Arizona Daily Star, in county endowed. who had a long career in jourgovernment, and at the Kayler’s $10,000 nalism and politics in Tucson University of Arizona. At the gift enables the and taught UA journalism time of his death, he operatschool to endow students over the course of ed a private consulting busithe scholarship, four decades. Emerine died ness, wrote a weekly column meaning the Feb. 13 2009, at age 73. for Inside Tucson Business, interest it accrues Kimberly Kayler, who now and was a regular guest on will be awarded owns a public relations firm KUAT-TV’s “Friday Roundto students in in the Columbus, Ohio, area, table” and on the “John C. perpetuity. Kayler said Emerine served as a Scott Show” on KVOI-AM. said the scholarmentor to her during her Emerine started as a ship will support student years, early career Kimberly Kayler Steve Emerine night police reporter for the journalism majors and especially when she was Tucson Citizen. After he left with an interest launching her business -the Citizen, he was elected Pima County in public affairs reporting and/or media Constructive Communication, Inc., -- in assessor, but returned to journalism to relations. 2001. Kayler also is the co-author of a hold posts ranging from interim sports “Steve recognized the contributions handbook for marketing and business PR professionals play in the news indus- editor to managing editor at the Arizona development professionals. Daily Star. Emerine also was co-owner try and he believed they should be held Friends of Emerine’s raised about of the Green Valley News and in the late to the same journalistic standard and $5,000 shortly after his death to start 1980s and early 90s he was the associethics as reporters,” Kayler said. “This a scholarship in his name at the School scholarship will help students interested ate director of news services at the UA. of Journalism, according to Kate Harrison, senior program coordinator in the in pursuing a career in public affairs or
NAA names new president / CEO NAA today announced that its board of directors has appointed Caroline H. Little – a seasoned newspaper executive who has led innovative digital publishing companies –to serve as the association’s president and CEO, effective Sept. 6, 2011. Little succeeds John F. Sturm who led the association for 16 years and previously announced his retirement. NAA Chairman Michael Reed, president and CEO, GateHouse Media, Inc., said Little’s combined experience in digital publishing, legal affairs and association operations, as well as her strong executive and personal qualities,were prime factors in the board’s selection. “Caroline brings an exceptional and highly relevant range of experience to NAA and our industry,” said Reed. “Her impressive executive track record in digital publishing for major newspaper companies, and her leadership in organizations like the Online Publishers Page 4 | June 2011 ■ ANAgrams
Association and the Internet Advertising Bureau were exactly what the NAA Board was seeking .Equally important, she shares our members’ passion for journalism and their commitment to succeeding in the digital media landscape. We are very fortunate to have Caroline at the helm and look forward to the manycontributions she will make in the years to come.” Little, 51, draws upon more than 25 years of executive and legal experience, serving most recently as CEO, North America of Guardian News and Media Ltd., where she oversaw all U.S. operations, including the digital news media properties guardian.co.uk and ContentNext Media Inc.(operators of paidContent.org) from 2008 to 2011. Prior to that, Little was with Washington Post Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). During her last four years there she served as publisher and CEO, leading
the division to its first year of profitability and playing a key role in integrating WPNI with other units of The Washington Post Company. From 2000 through 2004 she had served as COO, managing all WPNI product development ,technology, sales and marketing activities. Little started at The WashingtonPost Company in 1997 as vice president and general counsel of WPNI, representing the company’s Internet division and advising clients on corporate,financial, editorial and intellectual property matters. “I am very excited to be joining NAA, and look forward to working with an amazing group of publishers, small and large, to further integrate newspapers in all forms – including digital, print, and mobile—intothe ever-changing media landscape,” said Little. “Newspapers playan incredibly vital role in our society, and I look forward to leading NAA at this critical juncture.”
Business Journal hires Vix in sales, Johnson in editorial Yvonne Gonzalez, Phoenix Business Journal
Cathy Vix
Jennifer Johnson
Cathy Vix and Jennifer Johnson are the two newest members of the Phoenix Business Journal’s team. Vix is a sales representative in charge of banks, credit unions, financial planners, investment advisers and residential real estate businesses. A communications graduate from the University of North Dakota, Vix worked in television advertising sales before moving to Arizona seven years ago. She worked with West Valley newspapers and magazines, as well as a business-to-business publication, before joining the Business Journal. “I’m passionate about advertising and marketing and making a difference on my client’s bottom line,” she said. Vix has been a Toastmaster for more than 20 years. She enjoys public speaking, and is a recent graduate of Leadership West. “We’re very excited that Cathy has joined the sales team. Her energy and enthusiasm, along with her experience in advertising, make her the perfect fit to this wonderful group,” said Advertising Director Mike Mall. Jennifer Johnson is joining the Business Jour-
nal’s news department, covering the banking and finance industries. The Missouri native received her undergraduate degree in mass communications from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, and received her master’s degree in mass communications in December from Arizona State UniversitybizWatch ’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Jennifer will do an outstanding job covering the financial sector for us. She has a ton of energy and a passion for numbers, so we are excited to have her join our news team,” said Editor Ilana Lowery. Many of the business stories Johnson wrote for the Cronkite News Service, a wire service out of ASU, were picked up by The Arizona Republic, the East Valley Tribune, the Arizona Daily Star and the Arizona Capitol Times. Johnson has completed internships with Bloomberg News in Chicago and New York. She also has worked for the European Union Parliament in Belgium as an assistant to one of its members. Before that, she was a student journalist in Denmark at the Danish School of Journalism.
Small papers lead the way on paywalls D.M. Levine, AdWeek The New York Times paywall may have grabbed all the headlines over the past month, but the real story in online journalism appears to have been buried beneath the fold: It turns out small newspapers are taking the lead in charging for online content. The University of Missouri School of Journalism recently interviewed hundreds of daily newspaper publishers and found that 46 percent of papers with a circulation under 25,000 per week say they charge for at least some of their online content. By contrast, only a quarter (24 percent) of newspapers with a circulation of more than 25,000 charge for any content. If one of those is your hometown rag, don’t get complacent just yet. A third (35 percent) of the papers that don’t currently charge say they have plans to do so, and another 50 percent “may begin
charging at some point.” (Fifteen percent of those polled say that they had no plans to put up any sort of paywall.) “Usually, you think the big boys will lead the way,” says the j-school’s Michael Jenner. “There was so much build-up to The New York Times’ pay model and when they finally rolled it out a lot of people in the industry were watching that. But it wasn’t like the smaller newspapers were waiting for the Times to get its act together ... Small papers are more nimble.” Nimble or no, the survey also found that smaller papers are less likely to jump on the mobile bandwagon. Only 25 percent of those small newspapers surveyed have a phone app (compared to 62 percent of big newspapers), and only 9 percent of small papers have a tablet app (compared to 39 percent of large dailies).
Interestingly, 60 percent of publishers expect digital revenue to represent more than 15 percent of their papers’ total revenue stream in three years. The vast majority of those papers polled—77 percent—had circulations under 25,000, meaning that the survey was skewed in that direction, according to Ken Fleming at the Universality of Missouri. (Fleming also said that this was because the research team had much more luck getting small paper publishers on the phone.) But Jenner pointed out that nationally, there are many more small papers than large papers, and that the survey results still gave an accurate depiction of the market. As for whether the pay-walls will help stanch the bleeding, Jenner said “It’s not going to offset their print revenue losses. It may be a trickle, but at least it’s a stream of something.” June 2011 ■ ANAgrams | Page 5
Seven steps to a successful aggregation strategy for your news organization Jeff Sonderman, Poynter Media have changed in ways that now make aggregation essential to the mission of almost any news organization. Readers face an abundant and growing volume of news and news sources. Most cities now have independent news websites, forums and blogs covering neighborhoods and particular topics. Other professional news outlets are stepping up their output. Someone has to make sense of it. Someone has to look beyond his own newsroom and give readers a comprehensive digest. The news organization that gets that right will become readers’ first and most frequent stop. This does not diminish the great value of your own original journalism. Aggregation is not a replacement for contributing your own reporting on the issues most important to your audience. Adding aggregation can deliver more information in more depth and draw a larger audience to your original pieces. Here are the seven things you’ll need to decide in order to design a smart aggregation strategy and make your website a central hub of community information and discussion. 1. Automated or human-driven? The easiest way to get into aggregation may simply be to create an automated feed of the latest headlines from other news sources. That brings new information to your site and doesn’t add any workload. But it’s far more useful to involve human editors if you can. You create the greatest value not simply by aggregating other sources of information, but by aggregating the right information for your audience. It’s very difficult to do that well without human editorial judgment.
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The popular technology news aggregator Techmeme originally was operated by a computer algorithm that determined the most popular tech stories. But in 2008 human editors were hired to help. “Automation does indeed bring a lot to the table — humans can’t possibly discover and organize news as fast as computers can. But too often the lack of real intelligence leads to really unintelligent results,” Gabe Rivera, founder of the site, wrote. 2. When and where will you post aggregated items? There are two ways to approach this: Mix individual aggregated items in with your other news reports, or create a separate blog or other space dedicated to external content. You won’t find aggregated content throughout nytimes.com, but The New York Times has created a space for it. The Lede blog “remixes national and international news, adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting to … draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.” A Lede post on Monday about the Amtrak train crash in Nevada rounds up information from the Associated Press, an ABC Nightline YouTube video, the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Contra Costa Times, along with its own reporting, in a comprehensive narrative. This is probably the easiest way for a news organization to begin aggregating. An integrated approach turns your website into a portal, with all of your original and aggregated content side-byside, organized by topics and locations but not discriminating by source. This was the approach we took at the Washington, D.C.-area news site TBD.com (my
previous job), where headlines on any given page linked to our stories and to aggregated news. The advantage: It’s a more comprehensive package of all available news. The disadvantage: Your own unique content loses some prominence, and this approach may require tweaking your content management system. 3. Choose what to aggregate. Valuable aggregation does two things well: It discovers relevant news stories and highlights the most relevant parts of those stories. The most valuable sources to aggregate are ones your audience may not otherwise read. Think of news sources that may be smaller or less widely read than yours, or that cover a different topic or geography. Try to identify sources whose coverage is tangential to yours — close enough to be relevant once in a while, but not so similar that your readers probably read it already. How can you do this? The best tools are to subscribe to RSS feeds for key sites and then cast a wider net by subscribing to Google News Alerts for important keywords. It’s also wise to train your whole newsroom on what you want to aggregate, because your reporters and editors will come across good news items in the course of their work. 4. Should you simply link or summarize? This may be the most debated aspect of aggregation strategy. Aggregation that sends readers directly to the original piece is fairly uncontroversial. This is the style of Google News, Techmeme and BreakingNews.com. (Some people do criticize these services for showing headlines and teasers, which may convey enough information for some Continued on page 7
Con’t: Seven steps aggregation strategy Continued FROM page 6
readers.) Some news organizations now actually try to get these types of sites to link to their stories. More controversial is the style of The Huffington Post, which is often criticized for summarizing aggregated stories to the point where there’s little reason to read the original version. If you take this approach, the business advantage is that more readers spend more time previewing, sharing and discussing the content on your site instead of the original site. I believe there is a way to do summary-style aggregation in a way that serves readers and the content sources. (We at Poynter.org try to follow these principles in our own aggregation for the Romenesko blog.) The key is to link prominently to the original source and to add value, not just copy from the original. Put the spotlight on the news that’s most relevant to your audience. Pull out the information that your audience will find most interesting, and state it directly. Quote or summarize only what is necessary to describe the news. Leave details to the original story. This helps keep you within the bounds of fair use and gives readers a reason to visit the original post. Use your own knowledge to include more context or link to related stories. 5. How do you decide among multiple sources? For some stories, there will be several sources you could choose to aggregate. You should think through in advance how to handle this. Go with the first story? Go with the most complete story? If each contains some unique information, the best option would be to link to all of them from one place. It’s best to link within the story text in a way that the reader knows what each source is contributing. 6. How can you empower your aggregation sources? Sites you aggregate from will start to notice that you’re sending them traffic. Some of those sites may start to tip you off when they have a story that could interest your audience. You can enable this by designating an email address or a staff person to receive tips. Or you can use a more technical system. BreakingNews. com, a leading Web and Twitter aggregator of breaking news, just launched a new collaboration with more than 70 news websites that enables the sites to alert the BreakingNews staff to their stories by including #breakingnews or @breakingnews in their tweets. Cory Bergman, director of BreakingNews, said news orgs complained that they would break a story only to see @BreakingNews send a link to a wire story to its 2.7 million Twitter followers. “I come from the local news world. … I remember the frustrations of breaking a big story and then getting zero national distribution for it,” Bergman told me. “That’s a common frustration across local news today.” They decided to build a system to let local news organizations “put a social stake in the ground that they broke that story.”
When you start aggregating, your news organization can reach out to other sources and turn them into collaborators. 7. How can you empower your users? Once you begin a good aggregation strategy, your site will attract loyal users who appreciate it. Some of them will want to help. If you have the development resources to customize your site, you can add features to enable users to suggest stories to aggregate or vote for which ones should be featured prominently. This is a good point to end on because the users are what aggregation strategy is all about. Successful aggregation casts aside newsrooms’ competitive instincts and gives readers the best possible news to read from any source. This makes sense for your news company because the major economic value in the news business is not in the content itself; it’s in the reader relationship. Newspapers always published their own local news, of course, but they also published wire news, obituaries, coupons, sports scores and crossword puzzles — features that helped to build reader relationships. Relationships create opportunities for advertising and new revenue-generating services. By aggregating the work of others alongside your own, you place the readers’ interests ahead of your own competitive pride. You build a stronger reader relationship than other sites, and you earn loyalty and trust that can pay off in real dollars.
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Assigning value to online content A Los Angeles-based company is attempting to accomplish what online publishers have been chasing for the past 15 years — namely, placing value on a piece of content. JumpTime, founded by a group of former executives from the likes of MTV Networks and Yahoo, this month is taking the wraps off a software service that affixes a price tag to articles in real time. It also helps determine the future value of those articles. Over the past four years, the company has worked with leading publishers such as MSNBC and ESPN. “The value of content is not understood,” said Michele DiLorenzo chief executive and co-founder of JumpTime. Indeed, since the mid-1990s when media first started flocking to the Web, publishers have been trying to accurately figure the economics behind a story. That might take the shape of the number of page views a certain story fetches, or the number of unique users to a site, or the
NewsU offers free online training If you need training but lack funds, The Poynter Institute’s News University may be your one-stop destination. More than 150 free and low-cost courses are offered and accessible from your desktop or laptop. Anyone grappling with product development, facing the challenge of nurturing emerging journalists, trying to reach new audiences or wanting to learn more about media literacy should check out these NAA-sponsored courses: Managing Change: Creating Strategies, Setting Priorities http://goo.gl/cR7k1 Understanding Media: Process and Principles http://goo.gl/OBVOl Targeting New Audiences: Finding Your Niche http://goo.gl/FVlwB Coaching Tomorrow’s Journalists http://goo.gl/nT7RE Page 8 | June 2011 ■ ANAgrams
time spent on site. All of this is mashed together in some form to come up with a rate for an ad placed next to that content. But that doesn’t really tell you the true value, contends JumpTime. Instead, JumpTime is offering tools that assign value to stories incorporating immediate and future outcomes. Not only what happened — like the number of clicks – but if those clicks were valuable and where people went after they read a story. The idea is to better help editors who have to cull through tons of content to figure out what to select and where to place it. Unlike other services that offer analytic software that keeps tabs on the number of page views for each story, JumpTime’s tools help editors follow the pathways forged by readers. In one test case, a publisher was pushing content that didn’t attract advertising. But it turned out that readers who clicked on that stuff moved to pages with valu-
able advertising. The information kept the publisher from scotching the user generated content section that was once in jeopardy. In another example, JumpTime found that a popular story that fetched many page views failed to boost advertising revenue — think of slide shows or salacious headlines that get people to click only to see them dash off the site seconds later. “They are tracking in real time the actual pathways of usage on a particular news site and they are telling the site operators, ‘Here are the pathways people are taking’,” said Ken Doctor and analyst with Outsell Research. JumpTime is trying to determine what pieces of content are more engaging, he said. “Where (readers) are going to a story, in some cases, it’s intuitive,” said Doctor. “In other cases, it’s not.”
InDesign Tools Benet Small Papers New Plug-ins Offer Easy & Inexpensive Way To Manage Websites Kevin Slimp Institute of Newspaper Technology kevin@kevinslimp.com
Over the past few weeks, my mailbox has been filled with new and updated software from several well-known and not so well-know vendors. Products like Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, QuarkXPress 9 and MultiAd Creator Express have been making headlines over the past couple of months. That makes it hard on a guy who does reviews for a living. It’s impossible to learn all of the software quickly enough to make a thorough review in just a few hours. So I create a stack. The stack on my desk is pretty deep right now. With that in mind, here are some thoughts on those big-name products, all of which I’ve used but haven’t taken the time to do full blown reviews: Creative Suite 5.5: If you do a lot of work in Website development, ads, or videos for the Web, get it. QuarkXPress 9: A major upgrade with lots of nice features. I still like InDesign more, but if you’re sticking with XPress, this upgrade is worth the money. Creator Express: It’s only $30. If you’re a Mac user, what do you have to lose? With that out of the way (Don’t worry. I plan to do full-blown reviews of CS5.5 and QuarkXPress 9 in the near future), let’s turn our attention to a new software product that has the potential to be a valuable tool for small newspapers who have yet to create an online presence or who are looking for an easier method to get their news online. Atomic News Tools (ANT) is a set of scripts for InDesign that takes the stories, photos and ads straight from the InDesign page to the newspaper Website with the click of a button. Before getting into the details, understand that this is an easy and affordable solution for small newspapers that have been avoiding creating a Website because of time, expense or staff to get the paper online. Basically, ANT is made up of scripts that allow items from the InDesign page to be uploaded directly to a Website with the click of a button in InDesign CS3 - CS5.5. “Adslinger” allows users to create, schedule, position and upload ads directly from InDesign to the Web page. “NuzBot” makes populating the news area of the Website as simple as clicking a few buttons while you design the print edition of the newspaper in InDesign.
Going into detail about ANT would take more than the space I have for this column. But let me share a few snippets: The software is downloaded and placed in the InDesign Scripts folder. That’s all the installation needed. Setup is included in the price. When a customer orders ANT, the layout of the site is done for them. With the customer’s input and approval, of course. Users control everything when populating a Website. Placement, schedule and more is set up right from the InDesign page. Ads can be pointed to different pages. For instance, an ad for a car dealership might be pointed to the Sports and Local News pages. Videos, Flash files and other ads can be placed in various areas at no additional cost. The cost for ANT is $100 per Going from the InDesign page directly to the month. There are no setup fees, Website with Atomic News Tools contracts or hidden costs. Included in this price are templates, plug-ins, hosting, papers resisted spending money on capital and support, video module and more. staff during the past few years due to fears Here’s what I like about ANT. For newspa- about the future and now feel a need to play pers that have yet to create a Website, there’s no catch up” to “We finally realized we (newspalonger an excuse. If you already use Adobe InDe- pers) aren’t dying, so we’d better start preparsign CS3, CS4 or CS5, you can begin using ANT ing for our future.” almost immediately. There is no contract or setup This has been the busiest summer I’ve had fee, so the risk is minimal. The $100 monthly cost with newspapers all over the U.S. and Canada includes hosting. This means you don’t pay an ex- calling for on-site consulting and training. In tra fee for a company to host your site. most instances, these papers are preparing for For newspapers that are looking for an alter- major upgrades and want to get advice and native to the way they’re already creating their training in advance. Websites, ANT is a option worthy of considerWhatever the reason, I’m glad to see that ation. I would estimate that half the newspapers many papers are no longer holding their collecI visit tell me they’re looking for an alternative tive breath and are planning for the future. to the way they’re currently creating their Websites. If you’re one of those, here is an alternative. Catch Kevin This Summer Atomic News Tools isn’t the answer for a large daily newspaper. But if you are a smaller paMorgantown, West Virginia per, this just may be what you’ve been waiting for. Ohio/Pennsylvania 3-Day Tour Learn more about Atomic News Tools by Biloxi, Mississippi visiting atomicnewstools.com. Gatlinburg, Tennessee Small Newspapers Spending Money Birmingham, Alabama Hot Springs, Arkansas and Energy Planning for Future Lebanon, Tennessee I haven’t done any type of serious research Orlando, Florida on the subject, but it occurs to me that smaller daily and weekly newspapers are spending Invite Kevin to your more time and money planning for the future. offi ce or training event! There are many theories ranging from “News-
Upcoming Webinars Good vs. Bad Banner Ads; Creative & Copy
WHEN: Tuesday, July 12 | 1 p.m. Eastern DESCRIPTION: A poorly designed banner ad contributes to why clients cancel their online campaigns. Attendees get step-by-step instructions for developing better copy points, calls to action and graphical layouts, while also managing client expectations about their campaign. We encourage your graphic designers to attend this session as well. PRESENTER: David Fowler, author of Ads That Jump and Ultimate Money Making Newspaper Ads COST: $49 MORE INFO: http://suburban-news.org
How to Take Your Social Media Reporting to the Next Level
WHEN: Wednesday, July 13 | 10:30 a.m. Central DESCRIPTION: New online tools like Storify.com and Storyful.com are adding depth to reporting done on social media. This Inland Webinar will be a hands-on tutorial on the cutting-edge ways your reporting team can gauge and curate reaction to local news while expanding its circle of sources. You’ll learn how to turn the sometimes-incomprehensible stream of information flowing through social media sites into clearly edited and tastefully presented social networksourced stories. Sound complicated? Don’t worry. This Inland Webinar will make learning technology easy, fun and memorable. Beyond understanding new technology, however, you’ll come away knowing why these new tools represent an evolution in reporting and sourcing. Who should attend? Traditional print reporters and editors, along with their digital counterparts, will benefit from this session. PRESENTER: Henry Lopez, professional digital development and projects manager, Santa Fe New Mexican COST: $35 MORE INFO: http://inlandpress.org/
How to Build Audience and Dollars With an Email Marketing Plan
WHEN: Tuesday, July 19 | 2 p.m. Central DESCRIPTION: Email marketing is more than blasting email newsletters. It’s an opportunity to collect deep data, segment and send information that can immediately benefit circulation and sales. This Inland Webinar will reveal the email marketing practices that work at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. You’ll learn how The Post and Courier leveraged its email database to save money and grow revenue. You’ll also hear about other media companies’ success stories, and you’ll come away with solid ideas to start or improve your own email marketing efforts. Email marketing is an exciting and rapidly growing opportunity for your newspaper, so register now for this Inland Webinar and learn how to get out in front of the crowd with innovative products and improved financial results for your community and media company. PRESENTER: Steve Wagenlander, director of audience development, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.; and Ruth Presslaff, president, Presslaff Interactive Revenue COST: $75 MORE INFO: http://inlandpress.org/
Selling to Main Street – Growing more local ad revenue
WHEN: Friday, Aug. 12 | 2 p.m. EDT DESCRIPTION: Opportunity still exists at the local level! Marketplace dynamics are causing a shift towards people opening their own businesses and they are in need of expertise. To earn a relationship with these new businesses, you have to present yourself differently than the competition. So, what is your approach? What we’ll uncover: - Prospecting calls that result in getting appointments - Credibility presentations in under 7 minutes - Many more local selling techniques! PRESENTER: Jim Lobaito, Founder and President of the Performance Group COST: $35 MORE INFO: http://onlinemediacampus.com
Looking for more webinars? Check out the ANA training calendar at:
http://ananews.com/calendar
Capitol Times seeks nominations for public policy awards Arizona Capitol Times/Arizona News Service will be celebrating its fifth anniversary of hosting the Leaders of the Year in Public Policy awards luncheon and presentation this September. The nomination form on the next page is for you, your colleagues and friends to nominate deserving individuals and organizations for these prestigious awards.
Nominations are due by July 22. In the meantime, please mark your calendar for September 27, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Capitol Times is planning a festive event at the Wyndham Phoenix to celebrate our fifth annual event with a tie to Arizona’s upcoming centennial celebration. If you have any questions, please contact Ginger Lamb at ginger.lamb@azcapitoltimes.com.
Upcoming journalism events July 6, 2011 BNC entry deadline
Aug. 12, 2011 ANA Board Meeting Sept. 13-16, 2011 SNA Fall Conference, Phoenix (ANA members can register at the member rate) September 22-24, 2001 NNA Annual Conference, Albuquerque Oct. 15, 2011 Fall Convention & Annual Meeting + Better Newspapers Contest
From the JobBank: Inside Sales. Republic Media has an opportunity for a dynamic Inside Sales Representative to sell advertising solutions to the small and medium account sector. Our ideal candidate is eager to consistently hit revenue, activity and product goals by fostering long term relationships with clients; They increase their chances for success by making outbound sales calls, up-selling, setting appointments, and identifying opportunities to increase sales and revenue; Working within a designated territory to acquire new business and increase client spend. Required traits include: - A Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum of 1 year sales experience (advertising sales experience is preferred) - Demonstrated ability to grow and maintain market share. - Superior sales skills with a record of success in building customer-based revenue and a demonstrated record of success in a goal oriented, highly accountable environment - Highly-developed written and verbal presentational skills - High-level of computer literacy with fluency in Microsoft Office which includes excellent grammar, PowerPoint and spelling skills (spelling test required). - An understanding of digital media platforms is preferred. Apply online at: http://goo.gl/yVBxG
REPORTER. Immediate opening for experienced news reporter in Maricopa, AZ, for multi-purpose general assignment beat. Maricopa is located in Pinal County, approximately 25 miles northwest of Casa Grande and 25 miles south of Tempe/Chandler. Duties will include coverage of local and county government, breaking news, local features for flagship daily (Casa Grande Dispatch) and community twice weekly (Maricopa Monitor). Photography skills and knowledge of sports writing a plus. Computer knowledge and layout would be desirable. If you’re a real professional or a sincere hard worker with most of the tools of the trade, we have a great opportunity for you. Salary commensurate with experience and knowledge. All finalists must pass a pre-employment drug test. Send resume, references, writing samples and salary requirements to Annette Weaver, Human Resources, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc., aweaver@trivalleycentral. com, Box 15002, Casa Grande, AZ 85130-5002 or fax to (520) 836-2944.
NOMINATION FORM Arizona Capitol Times will recognize individuals and organizations for advancing public policy to positively impact the state and the lives of Arizonans without regard to political affiliation or partisanship. To nominate, fill out the form below. Nominees will be selected by a panel of their peers for their accomplishments, contributions and leadership during the 2010-11 legislative session. Categories are: arts and humanities, business, economic development, education, environment, government, health care, legislative, public safety, social services, technology, transportation, volunteerism, lifetime achievement and unsung hero. Recipients will be announced in a special publication to appear in the Arizona Capitol Times and at a luncheon to be held on September 27, 2011 at the Wyndham Phoenix. Nominee’s Name: __________________________________________________________________________________Title: ________________________________________________ Award Category: � arts and humanities � business � economic development � education � environment � government � health care � legislative � public safety � social services � technology � transportation � volunteerism � lifetime achievement � unsung hero Company or Organization Name: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________City: ______________________________________State: ____________________ Zip: ______________ Phone Number: ______________________________________________ Fax Number: ______________________________________________________________________________ E-mail: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Please include a brief description of why this nominee should be considered and a copy, if possible, of his or her current resumé. If submitting an organization or company, please include supporting collaterals: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Explain nominee’s significant career achievements: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Describe how the nominee has advanced public policy in the state: ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Detail community service or pro bono work the nominee has performed that goes above and beyond the minimum requirement: ____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why is this nominee a leader? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Submitted by: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name: ______________________________________________________________Company or Firm: __________________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________City: ______________________________________State: ____________________ Zip: ______________ Phone Number: ______________________________________________ Fax Number: ______________________________________________________________________________ E-mail: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mail form to: Leaders of the Year in Public Policy c/o Arizona Capitol Times, 1835 W. Adams, Phoenix, AZ 85007 or fax it to 602.253.7636 or e-mail to events@azcapitoltimes.com Call 602.889.7137 for more details or visit www.azcapitoltimes.com and click on Leaders of the Year in Public Policy.
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