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2015 ANA fall convention — training, networking, new officers and award ceremonies ANA News ANA’s new president: newspapers keep commitment to readers, move forward in modern media Donovan Kramer Jr. has been the Senior News Executive at the Casa Grande Dispatch for nearly 40 years and currently is co-publisher and managing editor. He and his family publish the Dispatch, five area non-daily newspapers, the White Mountain Independent and affiliated specialty publications with related websites. Donovan He is a journalKramer Jr. ism graduate of the ANA President, University of AriCasa Grande zona and has lived Dispatch, in Casa Grande for co-publisher most of his life. He has been active in community organizations and is completing a two-year term as president of Access Arizona, a private-public foundation supporting economic development in western and central Pinal County. He also is a longtime member of the Casa Grande Rotary Club, a member of Signal Peak Toastmasters and has served on various community boards. President’s address to the ANA Membership I am honored to serve in this position, one my father held back in 1980. I have had the pleasure of meeting or knowing many of the ANA presidents ANA executive director SPJ’s Sunshine Award recipient ������������������������������� page
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over the years. Of course many have passed on. If I look back far enough, way back near the beginning, I see the names of some people I actually didn’t know. Some of the names in the 1930s were Kelly, Mitten and Giragi. These were men who were president of ANA for multiple years during the 1930s. I’m sure those were not the best of times, and I dare say their optimism was not as great as our own. Of course we are very committed to our traditional print products. Print is a very effective way of reaching our readers with news and advertising, at least the ones who want to receive it that way. We’re also doing some new things: firing out news reports as we get them — preprint — and also using social media and the huge potential of video. I believe we just need to try new things, retain what works, reject what doesn’t and move on to something else. We have a relationship with our customers that no one else has. We need to leverage that and serve them in new ways. As Don (Rowley) said, ANA has tightened our belts a bit, as all of you have, and avoided a dues increase. We are gearing up to once again do our annual big job of representing you at the Legislature. And we need your help to reach out to your legislators. Each year we face powerful interests and legislators, and there is plenty of lobbying on the other side. ANA is a great organization — Paula and the staff do a great job. They — Convention pictures and General Excellence winners ���������������������� page
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and all of you — are what make ANA the organization that it is.
2015-2016 ANA board The new 2015-2016 Officers for the ANA board were nominated and selected during the kick-off to the afternoon ceremonies Saturday, September 26. These individuals will be filling the following positions: President Donovan Kramer Jr., Co-Publisher – Casa Grande Dispatch 1st Vice President, Kit Atwell, Executive VP – Western News&Info, Inc. 2nd Vice President, Manuel Coppola, Publisher & Editor – The Nogales Interactional Secretary / Treasurer, Rebecca Bradner, Publisher – Green Valley News and Sun, Sahuarita Sun Steve Pope, General Manager – AZ Local Media Marc Marin, Publisher – Arizona Silver Belt and Copper Country News Charlene Bisson, Publisher – Independent News Media Chris Stegman, Arizona Republic / Republic Media (Phoenix) Kyle Larson, General Manager – Larson Newspapers Past President, Don Rowley, Publisher – The Arizona Daily Sun Open Seat – Arizona Daily Star NAA names new President/CEO, Chavern, effective Oct. 14 �������������� page
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