ANAgrams - January 2010

WWW. ANANEWS.COM

JANUARY 2010

Rain did not stop legislators from attending ANA annual luncheon On Jan. 21, Arizona Newspapers Association members had the chance to tell local legislators what’s on their minds. That’s because they were part of ANA’s annual Legislative Luncheon.

The event was a success, with a steady stream of Arizona Senate and House of Representatives members showing up to chow down and talk shop with reporters, editors and publishers.

The informal affair allowed legislators and members of the media to connect on a more personable level and discuss important local issues and what is happening in 2010.

Hot topics include upcoming elections, possible public notice bills and the budget crisis.

The event, which was held at the Arizona Capitol Times building, was catered by Alexi’s.

We appreciate everyone who took the time to come out and let their voice be heard. We look forward to seeing everyone join us at this engaging event next year.

Above: Arizona State Representative Carl Seel (R-6) talks with Wick Communications group manager and publisher Tom Lee. Below left: An unidentified person followed by Reps. Steve Montenegro (red tie), Tom Boone, Frank Pratt and Rich Crandall pass by some tempting dessert options. Below center: Rep. Lucy Mason chats with other guests during the ANA/Arizona Capitol Times legislative luncheon on Jan. 21. Below right: Lobbyist Michael Preston Green of Fennemore Craig shares a laugh with Speaker of the House Kirk Adams and Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

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2010 off to a running start Thank you to all the newspaper representatives who attended our annual ANA legislative luncheon last week. Special thanks to Ginger Lamb and her staff at the Arizona Capitol Times for being our hosts. Despite the weather (a deluge of rain), we had great conversation and consumed great food! We distributed copies Paula Casey of the newly published 2010 Executive Director Directory of Arizona Newspapers as well as copies of our 2010 Legislative Poster which was sponsored by ANA and www.PublicNoticesAds.com. We felt that with the start of a new legislative session, this would be an appropriate time to promote the public notice website to our friends at the capitol.

At the start of the new session, ANA is once again looking at legislation regarding the publication of public notices. Our lobbyist, John Moody, and the 2010 legislative committee are working hard regarding to these issues. HB2302 (publication of notices; committee) has been reintroduced this session and would create a two-year legislative study committee to examine issues surrounding the publication of public notices. ANA will continue to monitor this bill closely, in particular any effects occurring due to a possible announcement of resignation by Rep. Crump (bill sponsor and Chairman).

HB 2244 (posting of notices; website) introduced

by Rep. Biggs would allow website posting of public notices in lieu of newspaper publication. This bill,

January 2010 ■ ANAgrams

while similar to the bill Rep. Biggs introduced last year, is more encompassing and would allow a city, town, county, or boards or commissions of a city, town or city, to fulfill publication requirements by posting notices on an official website “if there is a publication in the newspaper including the website address and the subject matter of the notice.” The bill is currently awaiting committee assignment. Moving forward, ANA will continue to work to defeat this bill.

Our legislative committee meets for a one hour conference call every Friday at 9 a.m. during the legislative session. If you wish to participate in these calls, contact me at p.casey@ananews.com.

ANA communications manager, Perri Collins, recently sent a request for our members to fill out a short survey regarding your newspaper’s training needs. I would encourage all of you to answer this as we will be tailoring our 2010 training schedule from this information. You can find the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9B6PPHV? The ANA marketing committee has scheduled their first meeting for 2010 next week on Feb. 2 at 10 a.m.

This will be done via conference call. We are always looking for new committee members who wish to become involved in exploring new revenue streams for the association and our member newspapers. If you would like to participate, contact Sharon Schwartz at s.schwartz@ananews.com.

The 2010 Excellence in Advertising Competition entry packets were mailed last week. This will be our second year utilizing the online entry system. Contact Perri Collins if you have questions or need a new password at p.collins@ananews.com.

It’s going to be a busy year. Looking for it to be a prosperous year for all of us.

Look for the 2010 ANA directory Keep your eyes peeled because the 2010 Directory of Arizona Newspapers was mailed to you this week. Each year, these directories are mailed to over 300 advertising agencies in Arizona and in the U.S. We also send them to libraries, legislators, schools and other businesses statewide and nationwide.

The front cover features an award-winning photograph of a parasailor getting a bird’s view of the wildflowers at the Lost Dutchman State Park, taken by Payson Roundup editor Tom Brossart.

You can request additional copies, either bound or electronic copies, by contacting Perri Collins at (602) 261-7655 ext. 110.

2010 Directory of

ARIZONA NEWSPAPERS SERVING ARIZONA SINCE 1930

1001 N. Central Ave., Suite 670 Phoenix, AZ 85004-1947 (602) 261-7655 www.ananews.com $25

ANAgrams ■ January 2010

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Recent UA Journalism School graduate published in ‘The New York Times’ John Dedios Tucson Weekly At the beginning of the year, The New York Times hosted their Student Journalism Insitute at the University of Arizona School of Journalism. Of 23 students selected to participate from all over the country, seven of them were current, recent grads and grad students at the UA School of Journalism.

One of those is Stephen Ceasar. A 2009 alumnus of the School of Journalism, Ceasar has had his work published by several publications in Tucson including Borderbeat.net, Arizona News

Service, Tucson Lifestyle Magazine, the now-defunct Tucson Citizen, and the Arizona Daily Star. For the majority of his young journalism career, Ceasar, originally from El Centro, Calif., covered border news and the police beat.

The New York Times picked up and ran one of his stories from the Institute about Chinese nationals immigrating illegally to the United States through the U.S.-Mexico Border, paying smugglers as much as $40,000 to travel from Beijing, China, all the way to Tucson.

Read the story online at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/ us/23smuggle.html.

Independent Newspapers hires publisher for expansion in the East Valley Renie Scibona, former publisher of Ahwatukee Foothills News has been hired to lead and expand operations for INI’s East Valley operations.

Scibona most recently served as publisher of the Ahwatukee Foothills News, a Freedom Communications publication, for more than four years. Scibona is returning to Independent Newspapers after being employed with Freedom for over 14 years.

She served Independent Newspapers in several capacities including General Manager of three of its publication in the Northeast Valley. Her last position was the National/ Major Accounts Ad Director.

“I am pleased to be employed by a progressive organization that is modifying its business model to sustain the challenging environment the industry is facing. I believe community newspapers will survive and prevail because of the hyper-local niche content it provides that cannot be obtained anywhere else. Readers will still find their neighborhood news useful and advertisers will have a powerful medium that will provide strong advertising results” said Scibona.

Independent Newspapers has been serving the Valley for over 40 years. The company plans to re-launch its Chandler Independent and Gilbert Independent on Feb. 3. The company will also launch the monthly Arrowhead Ranch Independent in Glendale on Jan. 27.

“We’re extremely happy to welcome Renie back to the Independent Newspapers family,” said Bret McKeand, vice president of operations for Independent Newspapers, Inc. “Her values and background are a perfect match for our company and will help us in our efforts to become the valley’s number one community newspaper group.”

In addition, said McKeand, Scibona brings to the position excellent leadership skills, a strong belief in community service and a long history of publishing successful community newspapers.

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

www.ananews.com/calendar

January 2010 ■ ANAgrams

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Cronkite students earn top honors at national competition Two Arizona State University students took first and third places in the nation’s most prestigious intercollegiate journalism competition for editorial writing, while six others were recognized for their featurewriting work in television, newspaper and radio.

Megan Ann Martin, who graduated in May from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, finished first in the editorial writing category of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program, often called the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism.

Martin, from Peoria, Ariz., won for a column published in the CronkiteZine, the school’s online student magazine, that explored her experiences with a group of volunteers who were picking up garbage left behind

by Mexicans trying to cross the U.S. border.

“I thought (the story) had an interesting environmental spin on the immigration issue, but it turned into something so much bigger,” Martin said. “It really brought home the real issue of immigration – the human element. It is so easy to talk numbers, money, jobs, arrests and deportations. They are figures that can roll off of your tongue without a second thought, but when you are confronted with the reality of the issue, it becomes a real struggle to come to grips with.”

She wrote the column as part of an in-depth reporting class taught by Rick Rodriguez, the school’s Carnegie Professor and the former executive editor of the Sacramento Bee.

“I still recall how emotional she was when she came back from collecting trash left behind by illegal immigrants crossing the desert,” Rodriguez said.

“I had her tell me what she saw, what she felt. She couldn’t stop talking about finding a child’s little blue pants, wondering about his journey and where he was.

And then I gave her a very short deadline because I wanted to capture her passion. It worked. She wrote a terrific piece.”

Martin will receive $2,000 from the Hearst Foundation, which will give the Cronkite School a matching grant for the winning entry.

Meanwhile, Allison Gatlin won third place in the editorial writing competition for her article “Playing His Twisted Game,” published in The Blue Guitar, a Web magazine of the Arizona Consortium for the Arts.

Gatlin wrote about how she was stalked by a former boyfriend and the psychological impact years later.

The Cronkite senior and Glendale native will receive a $1,000 scholarship from Hearst.

The program was established by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1960 to provide support, encouragement and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level. The program distributes more than $550,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

Career Services Director Mike Wong and Assistant Dean Kristin Gilger coordinate the Hearst Journalism Awards for the Cronkite School.

API, Poynter to offer new joint program The American Press Institute and The Poynter Institute will collaborate on a new seminar for newsroom executives.

The joint effort is “Beyond the Newsroom,” a 2.5day seminar at the API facility in Reston, Va., March 22-24. The seminar will feature Poynter Managing Director Butch Ward and API Associate Director Mary Glick.

They will be joined by a number of industry experts addressing the challenges of providing quality news and information despite newsroom budget and staffing cuts. Among them: Jeff Jarvis, author, blogger, consultant and journalism professor who advises journalists to “do what you do best and link to the rest”; Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop and a pioneer in nonprofit watchdog jour-

nalism who has crafted successful partnerships with numerous news organizations; and John Wilpers, editor and consultant who works with newspapers to integrate high-quality bloggers into their print and online products to increase their reach, relevance, and revenue.

Seminar participants also will visit the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and participate in an interactive session on the First Amendment.

The workshop is intended for executive editors, managing editors and newsroom leaders from newspaper organizations of all sizes.

Registrations for the program are being accepted online at http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/10/ NewsroomReston/,or by contacting The American Press Institute directly, at (703) 620-3307.

ANAgrams ■ January 2010

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Get over it!

It’s a new year and we’ve got a new attitude!

Here’s three ways to get your new attitude: Start today!

Sell a new* AzCAN - earn $25/week Sell a new* Zoning

in Arizona - earn $10/week Sell a new* 2by2 / 2by4 Network - earn $50-$100/week For every ad that earns a bonus, $10 will be added to a “bonus pot” - the sales person who sells the highest number of bonus ads will receive the money accumulated in the pot.

This promotion ends 4:00 p.m. March 30, 2010 Ads must originate with a member newspaper to qualify for bonus earnings. *a new ad is one that has not run in a network during the past eight weeks. New ad copy does not qualify as a new ad.

Questions? Contact Sharon Schwartz at 602-261-7655 ext. 108 or s.schwartz@ananews.com

January 2010 ■ ANAgrams

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Newspapers produce most of the news

Marc Wilson TownNews.com

“If we’re not careful, government press releases will become the prime source of news.”

Newspaper reporters are the root source for most news. Veterans of the news business know that, but the public doesn’t necessarily understand where news comes from – nor are members of the public aware that the source of news is quickly eroding away.

Recent research by the Suburban Newspaper Association found that consumers thought of the Internet as their No. 1 source of news – but didn’t think that online newspapers were very important.

They simply didn’t link news back to the source, the local newspapers. Instead, they attributed the source to Google, Yahoo and other Internet search engines and aggregators.

In fact, newspaper reporters have long been the prime source of on-the-scene news, whether the content comes from city councils, legislatures, courts, police news, business news, sports, or general-interest features.

The Associated Press (my former employer) historically relied heavily on its member newspapers to supply a large volume of the AP news report. Radio and television stations – while contributing some original content – have long simply re-used newspaper stories, either from the AP or simply by subscribing to the local newspaper.

Some think the Internet is taking over the news business – and it is certainly taking over the revenue associated with news and other content.

In fact, the Internet is hugely efficient at distributing news – but the World Wide Web produces very little content. A new Pew Research Center study confirms this.

A Pew study of news generation in Baltimore showed that 61 percent of original reporting came from newspapers or their websites, 28 percent from local TV stations and their websites, 7 percent from radio stations, and just 4 percent from online-only publications.

“This study does suggest that if newspapers were to disappear, what would be left to aggregate?” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew study.

The study notes: “The expanding universe of new media, including blogs,

Twitter and local websites … played only a limited role: mainly an alert system and a way to disseminate stories from other places.”

Because of massive staff cuts, the Baltimore Sun’s news staff produced 72 percent fewer original stories in the first 11 months of 2009 than in the same period in 2008. “The addition of new media has not come close to making up the difference,” the Pew study said.

The Pew researchers found that an increasing numbers of press releases – often from government agencies and not vetted by reporters – were being used as the prime source of news. The study also found that many stories in both “old media” and “new media” were simply repeats or re-hashes of previous stories.

Changing technology and the current recession have combined to damage newspaper revenues – and news coverage.

Print ad sales, the main source of newspaper income, have plunged by more than 40 percent since 2005. Print ad sales, the main source of newspaper income, have plunged by more than 40 percent siphoning more than $20 billion in annual revenue. Big city newspapers have been hit far harder than those in smaller markets.

Those financial pressures triggered layoffs that have collectively reduced the size of U.S. newspaper staffs by about 25 per cent since 2001, based on estimates from the American Society of News Editors. That translates into the loss of at least 14,000 newspaper reporters, editors and photographers (and as many as 20,000) in eight years.

Newspapers in recent months have attempted to better control their original news content to protect their businesses (and their news staffs). Some newspapers have reduced the amount of original news posted on their websites, and some have allowed subscriber-only access to their news content. Legal efforts have been undertaken to enforce copyright laws and prevent Internet aggregators from improperly using original content produced by newspapers. continued on page 8

ANAgrams ■ January 2010

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The challenges of small newsrooms and mobile communication Doug Fisher University of South Carolina Small, family-owned news organizations may have the best opportunity to take advantage of the digital pathway to reach their communities, but they also may be the most endangered by it and find it the most challenging.

I’ve come to that conclusion after working last summer in the newsroom of an 18,000-circulation community daily newspaper and after years of working with other editors and publishers at individual papers or small family-owned chains.

The health of these newsrooms is important to their communities. In many instances, as case studies at the Newspapers and Community-Building symposia have shown, they are among the few institutions willing and able to stand up to the power structure. Also, as has been widely noted, they generally are suffering less economically than their big-city counterpar ts.

Studies, some presented at Community Journalism Interest Group research sessions, have shown that a significant number have a limited or no online presence. Rather than scoff at that, we should consider that it also has allowed them to bypass many of the online mistakes made by their big-city brethren.

But there also is a stark reality: Those are not newspapers hanging from the belts and in the purses of their readers. They are cell phones that are rapidly turning into complete mobile communication platforms. And they promise to forever change the communication landscape, even in the smallest of communities.

This is a fertile area for research that we hope to see more of at COMJIG: How are mobile devices being used and are they changing communication patterns in small communities as much as they appear to be in larger ones?

So why do I suggest that smaller newsrooms, especially those with local ownership, may have the best opportunity to take advantage of the emerging mobile space? First, it’s exactly because many don’t have the extensive online investment – and concurrent baggage – that many larger organizations do. Second, it comes from the short nature of the command structure that lends flexibility to most such operations. However, the flip side is that management traditions, especially informal ones, may be so ingrained that adjusting to the new discipline digital requires could be difficult.

I’d like to focus on that second point. My observation, and another area for further research we would welcome at COMJIG, is that much of the communication in smaller newsrooms is informal and sometimes

even unspoken. People who work so closely together, and who often have done so for a long time, understand each other’s roles so well that they can function without much of the more formal structure needed for larger groups. They probably perform multiple functions or have had to fill in on one or more of those other roles at some time.

In the digital world, which values multitasking, that short management chain and fungibility can be a strength. The digital world also puts a premium on building community, not just pushing eyeballs, and these smaller newsrooms often have community loyalty that larger publishers can only dream of.

However, while the people in smaller organizations may be physically fungible, I have observed that they may be more susceptible to a form of groupthink and can become more set in their ways. This is another avenue for more research, but if my observation is correct, this “we don’t do it that way” orientation makes it harder to function in the digital space.

(One might observe that there often is a form of corporate groupthink at larger organizations. Granted, but the very nature of those organizations, with more people interacting and doing specialized jobs, seems to at least increase the chance of some different ideas surfacing.)

It may seem counterintuitive, but the wide-open continued on page 8

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January 2010 ■ ANAgrams

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Con’t: Small newsrooms and mobile communication

continued from page 7 digital realm also requires more disciplined thinking. Something as simple as blogging, for instance, raises procedural and management questions. Among them: What is the goal? Who will monitor postings and traffic to determine whether the goal is being met? How will you handle comments, and who will have the responsibility?

It’s as though someone moved a printing press into the newsroom and you had to adopt the kind of formal structure needed to keep “big iron” running smoothly. In fact, for many small news organizations, digital is the new printing press, moving that function into the newsroom just as pagination moved many of the backshop functions into the newsroom two decades ago. In that light, it may be time to reprise some of the research done on pagination reframed for the digital age.

Mobile ups the ante. Unlike the Web, where news organizations have often been able to just shovel content from print to digital, mobile is a different space requiring a far different approach. It values speed, interactivity and utility, and community news organizations that do not meet those values run the risk of losing an increasingly mobile-centric audience.

But mobile also poses very real resource challenges. It is not unusual for larger organizations to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on an iPhone “app.” How does a small newsroom effectively compete in that space? This is yet another fertile area for research that we hope to see more of at COMJIG sessions.

Con’t: Newspapers produce most of the news continued from page 6 Innovators have learned to treat their newspaper website as a completely different product than the print product. They feature content – such as video, audio, and secondary stories/photos and press releases – that couldn’t be published in print. All advertising is carried in the online edition without pay barriers. Frequent news updates posted on their websites compete with local radio and TV stations – and promote readership of the print publication.

Industry leaders, such as News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, the AP’s Tom Curley and others, are taking steps to prevent the unauthorized use of news produced

by newspaper reporters. European news associations have successfully sued to prevent Google from re-cycling news without some control or remuneration.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote: “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

If we’re not careful, government press releases will become the prime source of news – and the search engines and blogs can duplicate them across the Internet.

www.PublicNoticeAds.com Remind your readers!

Together, Arizona’s newspapers and the free Web site www.PublicNoticeAds.com offer our state’s citizens the widest possible access to public notices.

In print and online, Arizonans have access to the important community information they need.

Looking for house ads to help promote PublicNoticeAds.com?

Find them online at http://ananews.com/pubnot/pubads.html

ANAgrams ■ January 2010

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Will the Apple iPad save newspapers?

Robert Quigley Old Media New Tricks It’s a little early to say any one gadget will save anything, but Apple’s new gadget, the iPad, at least makes that a serious question. The publishing industry has to be cautiously optimistic. Here’s why: * It is built for displaying publishers’ content in an attractive way. The New York Times got a star demo at Steve Jobs’ big announcement, and the newspaper actually looks like an easy-to-read digital copy of a print newspaper. Based on the demo of the Times, it feels more like a print edition than any previous digital attempt at reproducing a newspaper. It has a nearly 10-inch screen, allows for intuitive navigation between newspaper sections and yet still takes advantage of the bells and whistles of the Web such as video, resizing and changing fonts, digital breaking news alerts, etc. * It will start at $499, not the $999 many were predicting. For people who want a 3G wireless experience, Apple did make it unlocked, which means you won’t have to only use AT&T the way iPhone users do. This gadget will be in a lot of hands quickly, and I think it will be an Amazon Kindle-killer. * The iPad is compatible with all the apps already in the iTunes store, including any iPhone apps that publishers already built. The experience is good enough to charge for subscriptions (like e-editions on the Kindle) yet high-quality enough to display more traditional print display advertisements.

To fully take advantage of the new technology, publishers need to do more than just upsize their iP-

hone apps, but at least there’s an easy way to already be in the space. * Apple also announced the iBooks book store to allow for easy reading (and buying) on an iPad. iBooks is Apple’s answer to the Kindle. People will get in the habit of paying for content they read. That can only be good for the news industry. * It supposedly has a 10-hour battery life, hours better than most laptops. Combine its good battery life with its small size (half-inch thick and 1.5 pounds), and you have something that people will carry with them just about anywhere.

Some of the things I like about the iPad might also hinder it. Is the device too big? It’s certainly not going to fit in anyone’s pocket. Jobs was seen typing on it while it was resting in his lap. That doesn’t seem very ergonomic. Does it do too much? Will people spend their time on the iPad tweeting, watching YouTube videos and playing games, completely ignoring the news industry? Will publishers take advantage of all that can be done on a better processor and bigger screen that iPad offers over the iPhone or be content just letting the iPhone apps be upsized? If so, will those apps be successful or will people want more?

Several other tablets have been released, and more will come. This surely will become the year of the tablet. Having the iTunes apparatus in place - and Apple’s cachet from successes with the iPod and iPhone - could make the iPad the best opportunity since print for a publisher.

Will this save newspapers?

Probably not on its own, but that’s OK - it’s a step in the right direction.

Ontario papers doing much more than surviving Kevin Slimp Institute of Newspaper Technology kevin@kevinslimp.com

I spent a good bit of my afternoon thinking about the current state of newspapers. In a discussion with a trusted friend and colleague, I once again was challenged to rethink the traditional role newspapers have played and consider a world where most of what we read is provided online by other sources.

Then I remembered a group of newspapers based in the small town of Prescott, Ontario.

With a decrease in the number of industry-related conferences, I’ve found myself visiting more places like Prescott of late.

You might call Prescott, located about an hour south of Ottawa, the epicenter of a group of community newspapers that serve the towns in that area.

That’s where I spent two days

Where is Kevin?

Jan 21: Lexington, KY Feb 5: Des Moines, IA Feb 10-12: Nashville, TN Feb 25-26: Indiana Tour Mar 5: Austin, TX Mar 22-23: Syracuse, NY Mar 26-27: Saratoga Springs, NY Apr 08: Chicago, IL Apr 9-10: Des Moines, IA Apr 16-17: Saskatoon, SK To contact Kevin directly, email:

kevin@kevinslimp.com

with Beth Morris and the staffs of the six newspapers that make up the Morris Group. Three of the papers are paid circulation; three are free.

I had dinner with the staff of the Prescott Journal my first night in Ontario. There was electricity in the air as the group talked about the new equipment waiting in the new building we would occupy for training. New computers, new software and a new press all awaited editors and designers from the six pa-

Network wires can be seen as the staffs of newspapers in southern Ontario gather in their new facility for training.

pers the next morning.

When the training was done, I asked Beth Morris if we could discuss her papers. After all, while word on the street is that newspapers are struggling for survival, here’s a group of newspapers that are not only surviving, but adding facilities, staff and soon, two new publications.

Beth shared a very simple vision statement for the Morris Group of newspapers: “A place where people like to work and customers want to support.”

She added that a key to a newspaper’s success is its staff.

“It’s important to keep an eye toward staff. They all work hard.

Kevin Slimp works with Amanda Smith-Millar, Editor of The Winchester Press, at a training event in Prescott, Ontario.

They know they have secure jobs.

There is definitely a team spirit.”

She wasn’t blowing smoke.

The staff I met in Prescott was, in a word, impressive.

We first discussed the three free papers: The Barrhaven Independent, The Packet (serving South Ottawa) and Business News.

I asked about the difference in free and paid newspapers.

She noted that both have their place, but she doesn’t see many new paid newspapers in the future. Her two new papers will be free.

Beth emphasized the importance of customer service, which keeps advertisers returning. She noted this was a deciding factor for many advertisers who had several options when it comes to print.

Eventually, I turned the topic to the Manotick Messenger. The Messenger is a paid weekly with a circulation of 1,100. There are two people on staff, with the layout and production done in the Prescott facility.

I asked if it was possible to make a profit with a circulation of 1,100. “At best, it’s break even,” said Beth, “but it’s important to the people.”

When pressed she added, “This paper is important to the thousand people who read it.

All you have to do is look in the eyes of a parent when a child is in the paper. Then you’ll know why we do this.”

Playing the devil’s advocate, I pressed even further. I wanted to know why she even cared if there was no profit involved.

“I care,” she said, “because I’m part of a long chain of newspaper people. It’s like a legacy.

I’m not going to be the one to end it.”

If you’ve followed my work very long, you know that I was one of the first voices urging newspapers to resist the temptation to ignore online journalism. And you might know that I speak on topics related to online journalism at schools of journalism and industry-related events on a regular basis. However, it’s people like Beth Morris that give me optimism concerning the future of our business.

Following our earlier conversation this afternoon, my friend sent the following email: “Don’t take my statements earlier today as my saying that newspapers will vanish. I don’t think that’s the case at all. However, I do believe that in order to maintain survival, both the printed paper and the online presence have to find a way to complement each other.”

I think we might have found a point of agreement.

ANAgrams ■ January 2010

Page 11

ANA JobBank

Outside sales consultants. Independent Newspapers seeks outgoing and enthusiastic sales consultants to serve its growing and expanding weekly newspapers in the East Valley. Position pays base salary plus commission.

The Independent has been serving the Valley for over 30 years and presently publishes 11 community newspapers.

Contact Renie Scibona, publisher, at rscibona@newszap.com.

Digital Media/Web Coordinator. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers seeks a new digital/ web coordinator. The job starts at 18 hours per week. The successful candidate will maintain and develop the organization’s Web site and its efforts in social media to promote and showcase SABEW members and activities. Writing and editing skills essential. Knowledge of Wordpress a real plus. The staffer will post content daily and initiate multi-media packages for the 3,200 journalists who are members of SABEW. The staffer will collaborate with others in the Cronkite school on digital activities and opportunities. Please send resume, cover letter and a 100-word statement outlining your philosophy about how digital media can help SABEW grow in the new media environment to Warren Watson, executive director, at watson@sabew.org.

Copy editor/Page Designer. Today’s News-Herald is looking for a temporary page designer/copy editor able to handle page one and assist in putting together a comprehensive news package in a fast-paced operation. This position may last up to three months beginning in early February. Must have excellent copy-editing skills in spelling, grammar and headline writing. Sound news judgment and a flair for design required; should also possess some writing and sports knowledge. Experience with QuarkXPress and Photoshop. Send resume to cwalker@havasunews.com.

Search job listings and resources on our Web site:

www.ananews.com/jobbank Have a job opening? Place your ad with us for free!

Email p.collins@ananews.com.

Contact ANA Staff

2009-2010 ANA/Ad Services Board of Directors

Executive Director Paula Casey............... Ext. 102 p.casey@ananews.com

President Teri Hayt, Arizona Daily Star One-Year Dir./Daily

Directors Tom Arviso, Navajo Times Two-Year Director/Non-Daily

Communications Mgr. Perri Collins............... Ext. 110 p.collins@ananews.com

First Vice President Ginger Lamb, Arizona Capitol Times One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Nicole Carroll, The Arizona Republic Two-Year Director/Daily

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

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Don Rowley, Arizona Daily Sun Two-Year Dir./Daily Third Vice President John Naughton, Payson Roundup One-Year Dir./Non-Daily Secretary/Treasurer Rick Schneider, Eastern Arizona Courier One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Pam Miller, The Verde Independent Two-Year Dir./Non-Daily Joni Weerheim, The Sun (Yuma) One-Year Dir./Daily Greg Tock, White Mountain Independent (Show Low) One-Year Dir./At-large Dick Larson, Western News&Info, Inc. Past President

Events Calendar February 10, 2010 ANA Board of Directors meeting, Conference call March 3-5, 2010 Strategic Revenue Summit, Orlando March 11-14, 2010 IRE/NICAR Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference, Phoenix March 19-21, 2010 Society of American Business Writers and Editors national conference, Phoenix May 21, 2010

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

ANA Excellence in Advertising awards reception, Phoenix