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A Section
Features
Departments
SAFETY FIRST
A Firm Foundation
CRITICAL THINKING
Salama provides a free risk assessment for journalists and media organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 8
With roots in their communities, local newspaper owners find ways to flourish and prosper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 32
By blocking individuals on Twitter, is President Trump violating the First Amendment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 15
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Lifting the Veil
DATA PAGE
LancasterOnline launches new project to give readers more control over the stories it covers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 9
To avoid media bias, news organizations are responding to old criticism in new ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 38
SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE
10 Problems, 10 Solutions
Podcast advertising revenue, growth of social media platforms, likelihood of paying for online news in the future, weekly news reach of selected digitalborn and traditional brands . . . . . . p. 18
Southern California News Group expands Excélsior brand. . . . . . . . . p. 10
From advertising to production, newspapers share how they overcame some of their toughest challenges . . . . . . . . .p. 44
FRONT AND CENTER Fillmore County Journal places photos of local residents on newspaper racks p. 11
Cover illustration by Tony O. Champagne
PRODUCTION How to establish accurate receiving logs and tracking procedures in your preprint production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 26
NEWSPEOPLE
DOCUMENTING HISTORY
New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 51
‘Inside Stories’ chronicles the legacy of North Dakota newspapers . . . . . . . p. 14
SHOPTALK
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
The true value in news is commanding an audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 58
Loren Holmes/Alaska Dispatch News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 16
Columns INDUSTRY INSIGHT
BUSINESS OF NEWS
DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Want to build trust? Start with a good corrections policy . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 20
Newspapers should be transparent about their financial challenges . . . . . . . . p. 22
Digital tools available now to simplify every journalist’s job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 24
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editorial
Coming Together
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n June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media network had reached an important milestone: 2 billion users. Me being one of them. When I was putting together this editorial, I decided to check when I first joined Facebook. It was 10 years ago in 2007 (back when I was just one of 50 million users). I vaguely remember it was because a friend had just returned from a trip to Iceland and the only way I could view her pictures was on her Facebook. At the time, that’s what Facebook was primarily used for: to connect with friends and family, share cute baby pictures, and laugh over funny pet photos. And you can still do that on Facebook, you just now have to scroll through ads, videos, and news stories. Over the years, Facebook’s role has gone through some scrutiny. Is it a social media platform? Is it a media organization? Is it a technology company? And the answer is yes, all of the above. No matter how you categorize Facebook, you can’t get away from it. With 2 billion users now, Zuckerberg said Facebook is “making progress connecting the world” and bringing “the world closer together.” But what does “closer together” mean when we have to make connections through a computer or phone screen? Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a think piece about how smartphones and technology today is actually creating more of a disconnect among humans (there are already enough of those articles out there), but when you have 2 billion people in the world interacting on one platform, you have to wonder how we’re going to reach and communicate with each other in the future. And where will newspapers fit in? I believe they still have a place among those 2 billion users. Facebook also believes so. They created the Facebook Journalism Project this year and they’re chasing after publishers to join their Instant Articles program. To me, “closer together” means coming together. When I created my Facebook account 10 years ago, it was to connect with one friend. Now, I can connect with the 4 |
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New York Times, Target, and Madonna. In the same way, newspapers can connect with readers everywhere. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post said if Facebook was a religion, it would be the second largest in the world. And for many people, Facebook is their religion. Even if it’s through a screen, we’re “closer together” than ever. “There are more Facebook users than speakers of any of the world’s languages, according to Ethnologue, a long-running catalogue of the world’s languages…” Ingraham wrote. “Likes, shares, comments and friend requests are becoming the closest thing humanity has to a universal tongue.” Ingraham also reported that Facebook reached its first billion in 2012, eight years after it launched, and it only took five to reach its second. If that trend continues, it probably won’t take long until Facebook reaches its next billion.
If Facebook was a religion, it would be the second largest in the world.
CORPORATE OFFICES (949) 660-6150 FAX (949) 660-6172 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jeff Fleming jeff@editorandpublisher.com MANAGING EDITOR Nu Yang nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com GRAPHIC DESIGN Meredith Ewell ASSISTANT EDITOR Sean Stroh sean@editorandpublisher.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Rob Tornoe, Tim Gallagher Matt DeRienzo SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT Wendy MacDonald, ext. 231 wendy@editorandpublisher.com CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SALES Jon Sorenson (800) 887-1615 FAX (866) 605-2323 classifieds@editorandpublisher.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES (888) 732-7323 MANAGER OF FULFILLMENT Rick Avila rick@editorandpublisher.com CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Emily Wells Horneff PRODUCTION Mary Monge TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR David Kelsen DIGITAL DIRECTOR Bryan Sheehy DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING/OPERATIONS Janette Hood, ext. 201 janette@editorandpublisher.com
Strangely enough, the friend who went to Iceland and the reason behind me creating my Facebook, has since deleted her account. We live in different states now and choose to keep in touch through texts, phone calls, and even the occasional letter in the mail. So I guess it shows if you want to stay in touch with someone, you do so, no matter what the form is. In this month’s issue, we have other examples of “coming together:” the strength of small newspapers, many of them still familyowned, and how they cover their communities; newspaper departments in different markets working with various vendors and suppliers to meet their needs and find solutions; and why newspapers are becoming more accountable and transparent with their reporting.—NY
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comments ))) added, schools can and should let go of the step. We have seen a steady dumbing down of educations as a strategy for schools to attract students. Degrees mean less and cost more. The field of journalism has reordered itself in the last 10 years, Ethical standards, critical thinking, razor sharp research skills and savvy tech skills now make up the tool box. The days of schools providing permission to work are long gone. BARB LUNDY
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Definition of Sponsored Content Needs to Be Broadened
illustration by tony o. champagne
Accreditation Means Nothing Without Skills I care much less about whether a journalist has a journalism degree from an accredited school. I care about whether they know how to research not both sides of an issue but ALL sides. (“Critical Thinking: Does a Lack of Accreditation Change the Legitimacy of a Journalism School?” July 2017) I care about whether they can write clearly, interestingly and without bias (except in marked opinion pieces) while keeping the reader’s interest. I care about whether they have knowledge about subjects beyond just journalism—especially history, political science, the law and Constitution, the basics of the sciences, the tenets of the world’s major religions. I don’t care that they are perfectly trained to makeup a page using InDesign or some other program—by the time they get their degree, the training will be out of date. I do care that they understand that journalism is a team effort which means major stories require the ability to collaborate between writer, editor, graphics specialists and, unfortunately, shrinking space in which to tell the story. I do care that they truly understand the impact unethical, sloppy, unprofessional, inaccurate practices can cause. Show me a journalism accreditation program that makes certain those are the students its accreditation guarantees and 6 |
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then come see me. I speak from 47 awardwinning years in the profession, including more than 33 as the state’s most honored community weekly’s publisher, and my degrees are in history and political science with the really valuable training coming in quality newsrooms. An excellent journalism school can be a key part of that, but its accreditation is just a piece of paper if it doesn’t produce results. JOHN WYLIE
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
J-Schools Have Changed in Last 10 Years When I read the headline I thought the question ought to read “Does School Change the Legitimacy of Journalism?” (“Critical Thinking: Does a Lack of Accreditation Change the Legitimacy of a Journalism School?” July 2017) Accreditation used to fit into a larger end-product picture, producing students who could function effectively beyond the academic setting. Business now tells schools, including the Ivy Leagues, graduates lack essential skills. The deficits revolve around analysis and relationship building abilities (business soft skills). Accreditation has never assessed these areas as primary measures. When skill sets can be measured and catalogued, accreditation makes sense. When the process fails to provide significant value
Ahead of the curve as always, Matt. (“Industry Insight: New Products, New Roles,” July 2017) Your point on sponsored content especially caught my attention. We receive local PRs from companies and organizations that have declined to advertise with us in print or digital for years. For example, we recently published a PR from a hardware company with stores in communities for three of our papers/websites. The PR was reasonably newsworthy, but the purpose was of course to promote the interests of the hardware company. All too often our editorial department just shuffles those items through the edit/layout/post process. Even though our editor will let our sales department know the article is going through, and a sales rep will contact the company for an accompanying ad, the response is typically, “No, thanks. We’ll just go with the press release.” Perhaps what we need to do is broaden the definition of sponsored/native content to include commercial-based user generated content. Should we filter the commercial-based PRs we receive to favor companies that not only want to use our medium but dedicate resources to maintain that channel to their customers? ANDREW BIRDEN
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Send us your comments nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com “Comments,” Editor & Publisher, 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 Please include your name, title, city and state, and email address. Letters may be edited for all the usual reasons.
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IMAGING
the A section VOLUME 150
FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2017
ISSUE 9
> Look Ahead
About 1,000 journalists have used Salama in countries such as the U.S., Mexico and Colombia.
Safety First Salama provides a free risk assessment for journalists and media organizations By Sean Stroh
I
n today’s world, reporters have more than just stressful deadlines and less than cooperative sources to deal with. As the threats toward journalists continue to rise throughout the world, so does the need for them to stay safe on the job. With Salama (salama.io), journalists can receive free risk assessments, advice and training resources to ensure their safety. The way it works is simple. Users are given about 30 questions related to topics such as the issues they report on and their digital security knowledge in order to produce a risk score and customized tips to help make themselves safer. The process typically takes about 10 minutes for individuals. Media organizations can also use the app to improve staff training and evaluate what resources they should allocate to strengthen the overall safety of their operations. Additionally, Salama maintains a security library, which provides up-to-date advice on encryption, secure passwords and other digital security topics. The web application was created by International Center for Journalists Knight Fellow Jorge Luis Sierra, who several years ago noticed a particular need among small to medium size media or-
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ganizations. While major news outlets such as the New York Times hired security staffers or paid the services of consultants and private companies to conduct risk assessments, other media organizations didn’t have a financially viable option available. “I started to think of a way for journalists to measure their level of risk by answering questions about how often they were involved in dangerous assignments, developed sensitive sources, got confidential documents or visited risk zones rife with gangs and organized crime,” Sierra said. “I also included questions about how often the journalists use strong verification methods and ethical frameworks to produce stories.” The word “Salama” derives from a popular Arabic word used to express best wishes to a person who is leaving home or the workplace. “It’s also a word to say ‘take care’ when a colleague journalist leaves the newsroom to cover a dangerous assignment,” Sierra said. “I heard that word many times when I visited Iraq in 2003 and 2013.” According to Sierra, about 1,000 journalists have used Salama in countries such as the U.S., Mexico and Colombia. So far, he said the feedback from journalists has been positive, and often the results prove to be a surprise for many of its first time users. “Some of them didn’t expect to hear that they were at a high risk,” Sierra said. “That first impression is strong as many journalists tend to ignore their own vulnerabilities and don’t have an accurate assessment of the risks they } Jorge Luis Sierra displays Salama on his phone. face.” editorandpublisher.com
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the A section
Power to the People LancasterOnline launches new project to give readers more control over the stories it covers
W
hile it’s common for newspapers to field reader comments and questions on a regular basis, LNP in Lancaster, Penn. has decided to take it one step further by launching “We the People,” a project that gives the public more control over the stories it covers. LNP currently maintains a single copy and home delivery print circulation of 66,000. Readers can submit their questions they want to see answered about Lancaster County through a special LNP website (LancasterOnline.com/ WeThePeople). A team then selects the best questions and puts them up for a public vote, with the most popular topic serving as a foundation for a story. “We try to implement polls and voting assets on our website as much as possible, so incorporating that into our story planning seemed like a nobrainer,” said digital editor Dustin Leed. “It gives the audience power to have a say in the stories they want to read about—that’s what it’s all about after all isn’t it? Start with the audience.” In order to ensure “We the People” ran smoothly, LancasterOnline partnered with Hearken, which provides media organizations with a platform and a series of tools for public-powered journalism projects. “It seemed to me like they had the implementation process down to a sci Dustin Leed, LancasterOnline digital editor ence,” Leed said. “Hearken sent us a ton
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of awesome material and had feedback for each step along the way.” Instead of rolling out the project to the entire LNP staff, Leed said the team will consist of a community engagement specialist, a social media editor and two reporters. Through the first few weeks, the website received 106 questions and 635 votes in its first round of voting. “I think the feedback has been good. Obviously there are some trolls within the comments section, but that’s something we’re used to. The numbers speak for themselves,” Leed said. “We’ve received so many great questions that we will be using some of them in our daily reporting.” The topics of questions submitted so far range from inquiries over immigration policies in Lancaster to why so many trees in the downtown area were being chopped down. The initial plan is to produce a pair of “We the People” powered stories a month. With each story, the team intends to devote one week to question gathering and voting, and another to the actual reporting of the piece. “Even though we have low cross-over readership in our print product and on our website, we really value cross-promotion,” Leed said. “We’ve been promoting the questions and voting rounds online and in print, and it’s safe to say each story will appear in both products.”—SS
> Did You Hear? “We ignore, at our peril, that we are brands too. Companies like Apple spend time telling people why they should choose their products, and we also need to get much better at telling our own story: Why should a reader lean forward to consume your journalism?” Lydia Polgreen, HuffPost editor-in-chief
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the A section
Speaking the Same Language Southern California News Group expands ExcĂŠlsior brand “Orange Countyâ€? in its masthead alongside a special 25th anniversary seal. The original La Prensa name will remain in the masthead with “a publication of ExcĂŠlsiorâ€? designation to connect the Inland Empire edition to the ExcĂŠlsior brand. Additionally, the free papers have added several new features based on current events and Inmigrantes detenidos en el Centro de DetenciĂłn de Adelanto readers’ interests such as “What presentan denuncia y continuarĂĄn con su huelga de hambre Legisladores hispanos en el “Estado Doradoâ€? protegen el derecho de inmigrantes La Ordenanza de restricciones a camiones de comida aĂşn no a soĂąar con un mejor futuro y buscan garantizar una seguridad mĂnima ha sido aprobada pero la medida va al Concejo este 5 de julio to do?â€? which includes information on immigration, education Estados Unidos Adal Ramones: Arena Estados Unidos Adal Ramones: La importancia de la marca Bruce a la Copa de Oro ‘Ahora nos and pathways to citizenship. Anprescinde de a la Copa de Oro ‘Ahora nos sin sus estrellas va de la fregada’ estrellas, prueba sin sus estrellas va de la fregada’ a los novatos other new weekly section, “Ask a Lawyer,â€? lets readers send in questions and receive guidance El sueĂąo californiano El sueĂąo californiano from legal experts. As part of the rebranding CONCIERTO Y FUEGOS ARTIFICIALES GRATIS! Ramones: llegĂł el PUERTAS ABREN A LAS 4 PM! azote de los cursis effort, each paper’s website will be redesigned and merged into a single, centralized site (Excelsi} Earlier this year, Southern California News Group revealed the updated mastheads and redesigned pages of its three orCalifornia.com) tying all three Spanish-language newspapers as part of the expansion of the ExcĂŠlsior brand. brands together. The new and improved website is expected to be launched later this year. In the meantime, SCNG will continue to or more than two decades, ExcĂŠlsior has estabshare content through its existing sites and on social media. lished itself as the leading Spanish-language newspaper in Aviles said the print editions also received an upgraded design Orange County, Calif. To coincide with its 25th anniversa“to have a more visual and sophisticated feelâ€? modeled after popular ry, Southern California News Group (SCNG) has expanded newspapers in Mexico and South America. the ExcĂŠlsior brand into Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino “Our newspapers are now quicker reads with larger pictures and counties, where it publishes a pair of Spanish-language weeklies. more infographics,â€? he said. “We have been evaluating all aspects of our Spanish-language The ExcĂŠlsior newspapers maintain a combined circulation of media during the past several months, and determining how and nearly 400,000, and are distributed through a mix of home delivery where we could grow audience and advertising participation,â€? said and racks in retails stores in high-density Hispanic neighborhoods. Hispanic publications editor Carlos Aviles. “When Freedom ComTypically, the page count can vary from anywhere between eight to munications merged with Los Angeles 20 pages. News Group to become SCNG last Aviles attributed the success of their Spanish-language publicayear, we had three autonomous and tions to the strong mix of local, national and international news distinctly local brands with little to no coverage. connection to one another.â€? “There’s tremendous value in receiving relevant content from a Impacto USA, which debuted in trusted source that impacts the quality of our lives,â€? he said. “A large 2005, has been renamed ExceĚ lsior Los part of our success is making sure we are in touch with our commuAngeles, while ExcĂŠlsior now includes nity, on the streets, attending their events, covering their community soccer leagues, and giving readers a voice that no one else does } Carlos Aviles, Hispanic publications editor of ExcĂŠlsior newspapers in the media.â€?–SS Semana del 1 de julio de 2017
ExcĂŠlsior Los Angeles
Semana del 30 de junio de 2017
TERAPIA DE INSULINA
Uno de los tratamientos mĂĄs importantes para los diabĂŠticos es el de la insulina. EntĂŠrate sobre esto y mĂĄs con nuestra grĂĄfica. Pagina 5
La Prensa ExcĂŠlsior un publicacion dede ExcĂŠlsior Condado Orange
ocexcelsior.com
ÂĄ A RENOVAR EL ITIN !
El Servicio de Rentas Internas (IRS) urge a los contribuyentes cuyos NĂşmeros de IdentificaciĂłn Personal del Contribuyente (ITIN) expiran este aĂąo, a renovarlos a la mayor brevedad para evitar complicaciones con sus declaraciones de impuestos. PĂĄgina 2
Semana del 30 de junio de 2017
La Prensa Una publicaciĂłn de ExcĂŠlsior
DETENIDOS EN PIE DE LUCHA
laprensaca.com
ÂĄ A RENOVAR EL ITIN !
El Servicio de Rentas Internas (IRS) urge a los contribuyentes cuyos NĂşmeros de IdentificaciĂłn Personal del Contribuyente (ITIN) expiran este aĂąo, a renovarlos a la mayor brevedad para evitar complicaciones con sus declaraciones de impuestos. PĂĄgina 2
INMIGRACIĂ“N
SIGUE INTACTO EL LIDERAZGO LATINO CALIFORNIA
Cristina Felipe cuenta su historia de cómo llego aquà hace 30 aùos y se convirtió en ciudadana frente al Ayuntamiento de Pasadena el 27 de febrero, mientras residentes, clÊrigos y concejales marchan exigiendo que el Ayuntamiento de Pasadena haga de Pasadena una ciudad santuario. SARAH REINGEWIRTZ — SCNG
El nuevo liderazgo en los mandos de gobierno en el estado de California ha reavivado la confianza de los inmigrantes, quienes se han visto hostigados por la actual tendencia de esta administraciĂłn. El “Estado Doradoâ€? se encuentra inmerso en la propuesta de declararse “Estado Santuarioâ€? si el anteproyecto SB 54, llamado “Ley de Valores de Californiaâ€? del lĂder del senado estatal, Kevin de LeĂłn, es aprobado en la Asamblea estatal y promulgado en ley por el gobernador, Jerry Brown. PĂĄgina 3 COPA DE ORO
COMENTARIO
Impacto USA da paso al rebautizo de “ExcĂŠlsiorâ€? JosĂŠ Fuentes-Salinas Jfuentes@scng.com
Su ceguera era evidente. Las cuencas de sus ojos estaban vacĂas y en aquellos tiempos los ciegos no ocultaban su condiciĂłn con gafas oscuras. Pero en Zacapu, MichoacĂĄn, ese hombre que caminaba despacio por las calles con su montĂłn de periĂłdicos era responsable de la lectura de ese pueblo que en los aĂąos 60’s tenĂa unos 40,000 habitantes. El ciego del pueblo enseĂąaba a leer a los zacapenses. El dueĂąo del Ăşnico puesto de periĂłdicos, revistas y dos o tres libros, pasaba por la calle Eduardo Ruiz, frente a la sastrerĂa de mi padre vendiendo “ExcĂŠlsiorâ€?, “La Voz de MichoacĂĄnâ€?, “Estoâ€? y otros periĂłdicos. Fue asĂ como leĂ por primera vez un periĂłdico. No eran muchos los que se vendĂan en mi “hometownâ€?, si acaso unos veinte o cincuenta. ExcĂŠlsior y el Esto se iban quedando en peluquerĂas, talleres de reparaciĂłn de zapatos y sastrerĂas. Manuel Paz, un sastre discĂpulo de Don Fausto Fuentes, se quedaba con un ejemplar de ExcĂŠlsior y me dejaba hojearlo. Con Manuel, incluso nos reĂamos de las frases de los polĂticos que escribĂan en el ExcĂŠlsior, como aquella de Luis EcheverrĂa Alvarez: “cuando he
SCNG
Impacto USA se convierte en Excelsior y estrena nueva imagen.
hablado de revolucioooon‌ me de semana, nos esforzamos por referà a la revolución mexicana�. ofrecerle tambiÊn algo especial: Pero el segundo periódico información y entretenimiento mås antiguo de la Ciudad de para vivir mejor. MÊxico, fundado por Rafael AlRematando el comercial,
Excelsior Los Angeles, es el resultado de unir la experiencia y los recursos de Impacto USA, con el Excelsior de Santa Ana y La Prensa del Inland Empire.
ducĂn en 1917, no es el mismo que ahora tiene usted en sus manos. Excelsior Los Angeles, es el resultado de unir la experiencia y los recursos de Impacto USA, con Excelsior de Santa Ana y La Prensa del Inland Empire. En una ĂŠpoca en que el placer por la lectura reposada, sin la intervenciĂłn de pantallas, es algo especial para los fines
habremos de decirle: sabemos que usted tiene varias formas de estar informado, pero quisiĂŠramos que esta es una forma especial. En el periodismo clĂĄsico, las compaĂąĂas editoriales ofrecĂan diarios y semanarios. En el caso de Excelsior, tambiĂŠn tenĂan su “Jueves de Excelsiorâ€?, que en mi casa, el profe Fuentes mandaba encuadernar. La diferencia era,
y es, que el diario vendĂa lo que ahora llaman las “hard newsâ€? o “breaking newsâ€?, mientras que los semanarios publicaban los “featuresâ€? o artĂculos especiales y resĂşmenes informativos. En nuestro caso, nos ampara un paraguas de 11 periĂłdicos locales en inglĂŠs del Southern Salifornia News Group, de los cuales, posiblemente usted es suscriptor de alguno de ellos (Los Angeles Daily News, San Gabriel Tribune, Register, Presstelegram‌). Con los recursos de ellos, y los de los tres semanarios, Excelsior busca captar su atenciĂłn y decirle dos o tres cosas que acaso mejorarĂĄn su criterio, su forma de mirar los asuntos de la polĂtica, el deporte, el arte, la comunidad. Por Impacto USA y Excelsior han pasado buenos amigos y colegas con quienes hemos coincidido en el propĂłsito de hacer que nuestra comunidad hispanohablante cuente con un buen material de reflexiĂłn. TambiĂŠn, en estos Ăşltimos aĂąos se ha hecho evidente el “boomâ€? de las herramientas digitales, con su diversidad de aplicaciones y portales. www.excelsiorcalifornia. com tambiĂŠn podrĂĄ colaborar en breve a travĂŠs de esa ruta, y como todo portal en el ciberespacio, esto presupone una resonancia mĂĄs allĂĄ de las fronteras condales y estatales. Pero, esencialmente, sabemos que en los condados de Los Angeles, Orange y el Inland Empire hay suficientes historias como para ocuparnos con lo mejor de nuestras capacidades. Gracias por convertirnos en parte de su lectura semanal.
El seleccionador de Estados Unidos descarta a Clint Dempsey y Christian Pulisic
‘LONCHEROS’ EN INCERTIDUMBRE SANTA ANA
El concejal JosĂŠ Solorio observa un camiĂłn de ventas ambulantes en un vecindario de la ciudad de Santa Ana. El Concejo analiza nuevas regulaciones para este tipo de negocios ambulantes, conocidos comĂşnmente como ‘Loncheras’. Miembros de la comunidad han pedido controles mĂĄs estrictos. FOTO BILL ALKOFER
El proyecto municipal pretende limitar la venta de estos camiones cerca de escuelas, parques o centros comunitarios, asĂ como prohibir el uso de instrumentos de amplificaciĂłn de sonido, letreros de luces de neĂłn y la venta en calles de alta velocidad. “AquĂ es donde la gente compra, y estamos para servirlesâ€?, asegurĂł Alma, una comerciante que lleva mĂĄs de 20 aĂąos vendiendo sus productos en las calles de Santa Ana y quien teme por la posible resoluciĂłn. PĂĄg. 4 VIVA LA VIDA
DEPORTES
El comediante mexicano estarĂĄ este fin de semana en el Sur de California y conversĂł con ExcĂŠlsior de lo que trae en su nuevo espectĂĄculo. PĂĄgina B6
Bruce Arena, prescindiĂł de los estelares Clint Dempsey y Christian Pulisic pero incluyĂł a los novatos Dom Dwyer y Kenny Saief. PĂĄgina B1
Esta foto de archivo muestra a un agente escolantado a varios detenidos en el Centro de DeteniciĂłn de Adelanto en el condado de San Bernardino. Varios detenidos en huelga de hambre denuncian presuntos abusos. Unas 33 mujeres que estĂĄn en el mismo reclusorio en Adelanto, cerca de la ciudad de Victorville, se sumaron a la causa en apoyo de los huelgistas. (Foto: Stan Lim)
Alegan que fueron agredidos por autoridades del centro de detenciĂłn, con aerosol de pimienta y forzados a ducharse con agua caliente mientras se les insultaba. Sin embargo, Virginia Kice, vocera de InmigraciĂłn dijo que las autoridades se vieron obligadas a utilizar tales procedimientos para controlar al grupo de presos que reusaba a entrar a sus celdas y que ninguno habĂa sufrido heridas durante la confrontaciĂłn. PĂĄgina 6 VIVA LA VIDA
DEPORTES
El comediante mexicano estarĂĄ este fin de semana en el Sur de California y conversĂł con ExcĂŠlsior de lo que trae en su nuevo espectĂĄculo. PĂĄgina B6
Bruce Arena, prescindiĂł de los estelares Clint Dempsey y Christian Pulisic pero incluyĂł a los novatos Dom Dwyer y Kenny Saief. PĂĄgina B1
INMIGRACIĂ“N
INMIGRACIĂ“N
El “Estado Doradoâ€? se encuentra inmerso en la aventura de declararse “Estado Santuarioâ€? si el anteproyecto SB 54, llamado “Ley de Valores de Californiaâ€? del lĂder del senado estatal, Kevin de LeĂłn, es aprobado en la Asamblea estatal y promulgado en ley por el gobernador, Jerry Brown. PĂĄgina 2
El “Estado Doradoâ€? se encuentra inmerso en la aventura de declararse “Estado Santuarioâ€? si el anteproyecto SB 54, llamado “Ley de Valores de Californiaâ€? del lĂder del senado estatal, Kevin de LeĂłn, es aprobado en la Asamblea estatal y promulgado en ley por el gobernador, Jerry Brown. PĂĄgina 2
COMEDIA
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Entrevista:
El comediante cree que ademĂĄs de sus beneficios, las redes sociales trivializaron la vida personal
Un 56 por ciento de los residentes de California temen que alguien en su familia pierda la cobertura con la propuesta que discutirĂĄ el Senado despuĂŠs del receso por el 4 de Julio. PĂ G. 2
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David ValentĂn ocuparĂĄ el puesto de jefe del Departamento de PolicĂa de Santa Ana de forma interina. El cargo lo tuvo tambiĂŠn temporalmente Jim Schnabl desde abril de este aĂąo. PĂ G. 3
MĂĄs de 29 millones de estadounidenses viven con diabetes y 86 millones son prediabĂŠticos. Los diabĂŠticos de tipo 1 deben tomar insulina para sobrevivir. Si no se controla, los niveles altos de glucosa pueden conducir a complicaciones graves de salud, incluso la muerte. PĂ G. 4
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Front and Center Fillmore County Journal places photos of local residents on newspaper racks
I
n an effort to further connect with readers and provide more accessibility to its publication, the Fillmore County (Minn.) Journal has begun placing newspaper racks featuring pictures of local residents on them in various communities it covers. So far, the Journal has placed eight brand new vinyl photo wrapped racks in the towns of Preston, Lanesboro, Fountain, Chatfield, Rushford, Harmony, Wykoff and Spring Valley. Each rack has three full color photos on display and can hold about 100 copies. While the free newspaper is already distributed to every household in the county, publisher Jason Sethre said people regularly drive upwards of 50 miles to pick up additional copies at the Journal’s office in Preston. The paper currently maintains a total distribution of 13,500. “We figured this was a great way to not only make our product more readily available but also turn members of the community into local celebrities,” Sethre said. “After all, they are the reason our newspaper exists.” To identify what images would be displayed on the racks, Sethre and his staff communicated with local Chamber of Commerce organizations, city halls and community leaders. The paper laid out two important requirements for all potential photos: they had to include local people, and they needed to portray the assets of the community. “We explained what we wanted to accomplish and asked them for their input. Everyone loved the idea,” Sethre said. “In most cases, we were told who specifi} Jason Sethre, Fillmore cally should be County Journal publisher editorandpublisher.com
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} The Fillmore County Journal’s new racks feature multiple photos of local residents on them.
recognized on the racks. The ideas were flowing and these boxes could only come to life with the vested interest of the communities we serve.” In Preston, the rack displays images of the town’s firefighters, a young boy fishing along the Root River and a widow being presented a flag by the National Honor Guard at the Southeast Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery. Meanwhile, in the town of Harmony, the rack features pictures of the Miss Harmony pageant winner, a little girl dressed in red, white and blue, and members of the fire department in the annual July 4th celebration. The most challenging aspect of the entire process, Sethre said, was gathering
photos that best represented the people they had in mind. Although the newsroom managed to find many images in the paper’s archives, there were some instances where they had to stage a photo shoot to obtain the right shot. According to Sethre, the paper invested $400 in each rack and will maintain the current images on them for a number of years. “The feedback has been tremendously positive and those represented on the outdoor displays have thanked us at the newspaper,” Sethre said. “Each person showcases how fortunate we are to live in this area among great people and surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty.” –SS SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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the A section Tornoe’s Corner
> Wise Advice
Rachael Raney
“What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?” I still remember the sage business advice offered me by the late Fred Paxton as I started down the road of my newspaper career. Mr. Paxton was about to introduce me to the team in our publishing division at Paxton Media. As we walked, Fred graced me with these pearls of wisdom. He said, “Rachael, business is easy and can be taught.” He also said, “Be good to your people and when a news employee accepts an offer to come work for you, they always start with every intention of doing the very best job possible. No one ever starts out to fail. And what happens from the time they walk through the front door until the day they leave is up to you, it’s your responsibility.” What Fred was telling me was that I needed to serve as the conduit in the employee’s success, and that success depended upon my action and decisions. To do this effectively, I believe it helps to stay focused on the things that matter. The things that count, the fundamentals of grace, honesty and integrity stand out. I have found that if you can get an employee or client to believe in these values and take ownership of their position, it will up your quality of business and bring real value to all involved. A concentrated light can have tremendous power. Rachael Raney is publisher and advertising director for The Sanford Herald in North Carolina. She has been with Paxton Media Group for 28 years. 12 |
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S-E&P-
LEGAL BRIEFS Sarah Palin Sues New York Times
As reported in the New York Times, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has sued the newspaper for defamation. In her lawsuit, Palin claims the Times “violated the law and its own policies” by linking her in an editorial to a mass shooting that wounded Representative Gabby Giffords in 2011. The editorial, which was published June 14, said that Palin’s “political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.”Although the paper later issued a correction, noting that the map had depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, her lawsuit said the response “did not approach the degree of the retraction and apology necessary and warranted by the Times’ false assertion that Mrs. Palin incited murder.”
Judge Dismisses Former Reporter’s Lawsuit Against Los Angeles Times According to the Los Angeles Times, a judge has ruled against a former Los Angeles Times reporter who claimed he was forced to quit his job as a result of unfair treatment after he helped the paper win a Pulitzer Prize. In her ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rita Miller found that Jeff Gottlieb failed to prove he was subject to working conditions “so intolerable or aggravated” that “a reasonable person in the employee’s position would be compelled to resign.” Gottlieb alleged age discrimination, harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress in his lawsuit filed last August. He also accused management of retaliating against him following his complaints about the distribution of award money the paper had received for its 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
editorandpublisher.com
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the A section
SAY WHAT? New Vocabulary for
From the Archive
the Modern Era
Hangry (adjective): feeling irritable or irrationally angry as a result of being hungry “What I’m referring to is afternoon tea, that convivial tradition of scones, sandwiches and pastries that bridges the hangry gap between lunch and dinner.” —Becky Krystal, The Washington Post
San Diego Union and Evening Tribune staff photographer Jerry Windle (left) checks his camera mounted on the helmet of Mike Neil, a sky diver, who holds the mouth trigger device. Windle mounts motorized cameras on the wings of gliders and onto the helmets of sky divers, enabling them to shoot bird’s eye views of terra firma. This photo originally appeared in the March 21, 1970 issue of E&P.
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the A section
Documenting History photos by Dave Wallis/ The Forum
‘Inside Stories’ chronicles the legacy of North Dakota newspapers
} (From left) Lea Konczal, Teri Finneman, Jane Brandt, Bob Lind, Marilyn Hagerty, Bill Marcil Sr., Richard Peterson, Mike Jacobs, Roger Bailey, John Andrist and Ryan Babb, stand outside the Fargo Theatre before the premiere of “Inside Stories.”
A
very different type of summer blockbuster made its premiere in Fargo, N.D. in front of an eager crowd of 175 people this past June. For the stars of “Inside Stories,” walking a red carpet and gracing the big screen at the Fargo Theatre, marked a significant departure from what they know best—print newspapers. The documentary, which was produced for the North Dakota Newspaper Association’s Education Foundation, chronicles the history of the state’s newspapers and the key people behind them. Teri Finneman, assistant professor of journalism at South Dakota State University, conducted extensive oral history interviews with each subject. The film was then put together by documentary students at the University of Missouri, where she received her master’s degree and doctorate in journalism. “I wanted people to actually hear these stories and not let them just sit in a dusty archive,” Finneman said. “It ended up being a coincidence that the film came out at a time when our industry is under attack. I think something like this really humanizes journalists and helps educate the public about what our job really entails.” The eight newspaper people featured in the film include Jane Brandt, publisher of the Hebron Herald; Bill Marcil Sr., former publisher of The Forum; Marilyn Hagerty, Grand Forks Herald columnist; and John Andrist, retired publisher of The Journal in Crosby. Since the premiere in June, “Inside Stories” has been shown a number of times in various towns across North Dakota. Finneman said she also plans on submitting the film to the Fargo Film Festival. A large portion of the interviews were conducted at the Forum office in Fargo, where Finneman previously worked as a reporter. Ryan Babb, multimedia developer for Forum Communications Co., oversaw the filming of the project. In some instances, the pair traveled directly to the journalists
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} (From left to right) Roger Bailey, John Andrist, Marilyn Hagerty and Bill Marcil Sr. take part in a question and answer session at the Fargo Theatre after the premiere.
} Sitting in the audience, Bob Lind, long time columnist for The Forum, and John Andrist, retired publisher of The Journal in Crosby, wait for the start of “Inside Stories.” The men are two of eight people featured in the documentary.
unable to leave their newsrooms. Such was the case for Jane Brandt, who not only serves as publisher of the Hebron Herald, but also writes, edits and sells ads for the weekly paper. “It was an interesting experience, and I learned quite a bit by watching the film at the premiere,” Brandt said. “We showed it several times right here in Hebron, and the people all told me they thoroughly enjoyed it as well.” Student director Lea Konczal said the most challenging aspect of creating the documentary was determining how to organize all the raw material into a cohesive structure. “I drew a diagram of how all the subjects related to one another in an attempt to figure out a way we could weave their stories into a bigger narrative,” Konczal said. “My favorite part of the film is the credits, because it’s such a great feeling to see the names of everyone who came together to make it possible.”—SS editorandpublisher.com
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critical thinking
If you have a question you would like to see addressed, please send it to sean@editorandpublisher.com.
J-school students and industry vets tackle the tough questions
“The Knight First Amendment Institute has called for President Trump to unblock people from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, or face legal action. By excluding individuals on this public forum, is the president violating the First Amendment?”
A:
The primary argument made by The Knight First Amendment Institute against President Donald Trump revolves around the idea that his @realDonaldTrump account qualifies as a public forum which should be accessible to all individuals. The official White House Twitter account, established at the same time he assumed the presidency, seems to support Shea Blake, 19 this idea by claiming to update users of sophomore, Villanova University (Villanova, Pa.) “the latest from @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and his Administration.” ForBlake is the opinion editor mer press secretary Sean Spicer even said for the student-run newspaper, The Villanovan. She that Trump’s tweets are in fact considered has written for the paper official statements by the President of the since 2016. United States. However, the president’s @realDonaldTrump handle had been a personal Twitter account for nearly eight years prior to his inauguration. Although he may now be posting about politically relevant topics, it should still hold that this specific account concerns Trump as a person, not the President. There is an official White House account that can be used for professional means. In addition, both accounts fall under the auspices of Twitter, which was not created as a means of conversation between the president and his citizens. Deeming the @realDonaldTrump account to be personal, Trump falls under the same rules as any other Twitter user. Twitter, being a private company and therefore having the ability to set their own rules, allows for users to block others. The institute also said that users who are blocked have no ability to either access what the president has posted or offer up their opinions directly to him, which they believe is a clear violation of the First Amendment. This is not necessarily true as users who are blocked from the @realDonaldTrump account still have access to the information in question through not only other Twitter accounts, but other social and media platforms as well. Additionally, users who are blocked can continue to voice their opinion using these same methods, including their own Twitter account. While they may not be directly tweeting at Trump, they remain capable of freely expressing their opinions. Perhaps we should also consider whether we are violating the First Amendment rights of Donald Trump by asking him to unblock users. Our country guarantees the right to free speech. It does not guarantee that others will listen. We must remember that with each right there is responsibility. In this case, we are responsible for a fair and equitable examination of the question in terms of both parties. editorandpublisher.com
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A:
The decision by President Donald Trump and/or his communications team to block certain individuals from the president’s Twitter account is not a constitutional violation—but it’s a mistake that the president should voluntarily undo. According to Poynter, the Knight Gary Abernathy, 61 First Amendment Institute claims, publisher and editor, The “Since blocking people from the TwitTimes-Gazette (Hillsboro, Ohio) ter account prevents them from Abernathy started his career reading Trump’s tweets, responding in 1983, serving in various directly or engaging in discussion editorial roles at three Ohio threads, it violates users’ constitutional newspapers. He has written several columns this year free speech rights—as well as their published in The Washington right to petition the government for a Post. redress of grievances...” In fact, Twitter does not operate in a vacuum, especially when it comes to the president of the United States. President Trump’s tweets are widely circulated and reported well beyond Twitter’s own platform. Our own newspaper’s website carries the president’s Twitter feed, available to all whether or not they are Twitter users. The Knight Institute argues that Trump’s Twitter feed has been “sanitized of dissent.” Even if true, the move does not prohibit anyone from voicing their opinions, pro and con, to the entire world through other social media platforms, including their own websites, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. No one’s right to petition the government for a redress of grievances has been abridged. But while the president’s control of his Twitter account is likely not a constitutional problem, it does represent an unfortunate decision by the leader of the free world. Donald Trump, as president, should foster an atmosphere that encourages the free exchange of ideas, even those that aggressively or even rudely challenge his own. More than any other nation on earth, the United States supports diversity of opinion. We pride ourselves on defending everyone’s right to give voice to their point of view. In my own columns, both for our local paper and for The Washington Post, I have defended the president’s First Amendment right to criticize the media for its coverage of him. Donald Trump is probably the most outspoken president we’ve ever had. His penchant for blunt talk endears him to some Americans, while outraging others. In turn, he should use the same standard he applies to himself when it comes to welcoming dissent on his own Twitter feed, even if he can legally do otherwise. SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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photo of the month
Send us your photos! E&P welcomes reader submissions for our Photo of the Month. sean@editorandpublisher.com.
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RACE TO THE TOP Loren Holmes/Alaska Dispatch News Finishing with the second fastest women’s time ever, 20-year-old Allie Ostrander won the 2017 Mount Marathon race in Seward, Alaska on July 4.
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data page Podcast Advertising Revenue Based on a survey of the 20 largest podcast advertising companies
$119
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$69 million
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Growth in Social Media Platforms In June, Facebook reached 2 billion users. How do other social media platforms compare?
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(June 2 017)
1. bil 5 lion
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1.2
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700
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Likelihood Of Paying For Online News In The Future Based on a survey of 1,816 U.S. adults who said they had not paid for online digital content in the last year
RESPONDENTS WERE ASKED “HOW LIKELY OR UNLIKELY WOULD YOU BE TO PAY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS FOR ONLINE NEWS FROM PARTICULAR SOURCES THAT YOU LIKE?” 62%
Very unlikely
17%
Somewhat unlikely Somewhat likely Very likely Don’t know
5%
11%
6%
When asked why they do not currently pay for online news (across all markets) 54% said because so much online news is freely available; 18% said because they can’t afford it; 11% said they don’t like using their bank details online; and 6% worried it might be difficult to cancel an ongoing payment. 17 20 ort p e R ews tal N i g i D tute Source: Reuters Insti
Weekly News Reach Of Selected Digital-Born And Traditional Brands Based on a weighted percentage calculated using population data from Internet World States and the World Bank; U.S. respondents were asked “Which of the following brands have you used to access news online in the last week? Select all that apply.”
Huffington Post 24%
New York Times 18% BBC 12%
25% Yahoo 22% CNN 17% BuzzFeed
Vice 4% Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017
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industry insight
‘We Regret the Error’ Want to build trust? Start with a good corrections policy By Matt DeRienzo
T
he more corrections a news organization runs, the more likely I am to trust it. In the still-insular culture of today’s newsrooms, the number of corrections doesn’t necessarily correlate to the number of mistakes made. But those that regularly run corrections, and in a manner that’s prominent and transparent to readers, show a commitment to addressing mistakes and accountability. “If all you ever heard about the (New York Times) or AP or CNN or Fox were the corrections, you’d think they were terrible,” CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter wrote on Twitter recently. “They’re not.” His comments came in the wake of CNN retracting a story about a Trump supporter’s ties to Russia and announcing the departure of several staff members (veteran journalists) who were involved in writing and editing it. Trump-supporting websites seized on the 20 |
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admission to paint mainstream media coverage in general as “fake news” that is biased and unfair to the president. Elad Nehorai, a Brooklyn writer who has contributed to the Guardian and HuffPost and blogs at PopChassid.com, took the opposite lesson. “The fact that they issue corrections is what makes them quality media!” he wrote in response to Stelter’s point. “I’m looking forward to the day an extreme right site does the same.” That’s an obvious starting point for news organizations who want to combat the president’s attempts to undermine trust in the press with a “fake news” mantra, and those who hope or expect to rely on direct financial support from readers. The first step in building community trust is to have an awesome corrections policy, and to follow it religiously. Craig Silverman, who used to publish the site Regret the Error and now leads BuzzFeed’s coverage of
the media, has been preaching this for years. Silverman has been a leading voice about how to handle corrections as journalism has moved online and newsrooms have faced a whole set of new issues around the speed of coverage and the temptation to quietly make changes in an online story that was wrong without acknowledging that you made the mistake. The first step is to get over the notion that corrections are some kind of black mark and embrace them as an essential part of the process of good, accurate and accountable journalism. A friend working as a daily newspaper reporter about 10 years ago asked my advice about a clear factual mistake that she had made in a story, and whether it was serious enough to bring to the attention of her editors to run a correction. Her newsroom counted the number of corrections attached to each reporter’s work, and put them into a mathematical formula that was used on editorandpublisher.com
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performance reviews. Rather than scare reporters into not making as many mistakes, it led to the newspaper almost never running corrections. Transparency should guide corrections policies. If you’ve changed anything more than a typo or grammar error in an online story, make a note at the top or bottom of the story (or in line if possible) explaining what was changed. Banish the old school notion that you “shouldn’t repeat the mistake” when making a correction. Note what you originally wrote and what you changed it to. In addition to noting a correction in the individual story, maintain a separate running list of corrections on your site with links to those stories, and make it easy to find from your home page. Depending on the severity of the mistake, make sure that the correction is made or noted in every place that the mistake was delivered. If the error was blasted out to
your Twitter and Facebook followers, send out the correction there as well. If it was sent out in a push notification to mobile phones, as painful as it might be to admit the mistake in this way, send out another push notification correcting your error. Make sure you are listening to readers and sources in the first place so that you know when you’ve made an error. Answer the phone, read the story comments, read and interact with comments you get on your own social media platforms, and search for mentions of your story on readers’ social media feeds. Explicitly ask your readers to point out errors—in columns and comments by editors and reporters, and/or a tagline or widget on every story. It might seem obvious, but the average reader might not assume that you are even willing to hear that kind of feedback. Thank sharp-eyed readers by name, if possible, when you correct an error they pointed out.
And finally, put your policy in writing, make it easy for readers to find on your site, and draw their attention to it periodically. While you’re at it, do the same for policies on the use of anonymous sources, on unpublishing crime stories, and on identifying victims. As a wise person once said about newsroom transparency, readers might “believe you less” if you are open about your mistakes, “but they will trust you more.”
Matt DeRienzo is executive director of LION Publishers, an organization that supports local independent online news publishers from across the country. He is a longtime former newspaper reporter, editor, publisher and corporate director of news.
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business of news
Be Honest with Readers Newspapers should be transparent about their financial challenges By Tim Gallagher
I
n my first summer as a copy desk intern (electric typewriters were in use), I heard the managing editor engaged in a lively but frustrating telephone conversation with a reader that ended in an unsatisfied sigh. Trying to save money and newsprint, the managing editor had recently dropped the daytime TV listings. An elderly reader was upset because he could no longer see in the TV grid that “The Andy Griffith Show” was on every weekday at 3 p.m. “But it’s the same schedule every day,” the managing editor told him. “The schedule never changes.” “Doesn’t matter,” Pete, our ancient rim man on the copy desk, observed. “He thinks you took something away from him and you can’t explain that away.” Today we are taking a lot more than TV 22 |
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listings away from readers. We remove reporters, photographers and copy editors. We take away local content. We shrink the size of the paper. And we try to explain it away. I read letters from editors to readers filled with sophistry and vague promises to “preserve what’s most important to you—the reader.” This goes on from my local newspaper (which just moved up its final deadline to about 8 p.m. so baseball box scores are regularly one day behind) to the New York Times where the editor explains that losing copy editors will not affect the quality of the newspaper to a Phoenix-area weekly that just laid off reporters. I call bullshit. Readers know when they are being shortchanged. And we damage our credibility when we are not honest with them. We
should tell them that these are painfully difficult times for our industry and we want to keep bringing them a local paper. This means we cut expenses, just to stay in business. Yet we tend to cover our own business with the finest in kid gloves and pink clouds. Job cuts and layoffs are reported piecemeal and rarely put into perspective. We don’t report the profitability of the parent company or its corporate tax rate. We cover the challenges facing our local non-profit community, but never mention how the newspaper’s support for those nonprofits has been drastically cut. And we have the nerve to demand transparency from the government agencies and businesses we cover. If our currency is credibility, we cannot create a climate of trust with our readers editorandpublisher.com
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•Dart N
when we are dishonest about our business’s troubles. We want readers to respect our mission; to reject the president’s claim that the media is dishonest. But when it comes to reporting our own financial challenges, we are dishonest. The rarely reported truth of the news industry is that our owners and corporate leaders took their companies public in the late 20th century and put those profits in their pockets. Stock options became de riguer in our compensation packages. (I was one of those given lucrative stock options.) Instead of spending those enormous profits on research and development, we allowed our industry to be disrupted by innovators such as Craig Newmark and Jeff Bezos. They understood the secular change to the advertising model that too many of us dismissed as another cycle or passing fancy. While other companies routinely sought millions from angel investors and spent it developing the websites and later the apps
that took away the newspaper market for readers and advertisers, we spent less than half a percentage point on research and development. Now we are scrambling to catch up, but we are like lumberjack staying atop a rolling log that is moving downriver fast. Our credibility and our future depend on honest reporting about ourselves, so if you want to re-establish credibility with your readership, here are four things I would do:
B
Pay a local retired journalist to write a quarterly report to your readers and advertisers that details your circulation, profitability, advertising sales and employment numbers.
C
Convince Poynter or one of the other large newspaper organizations to do the same report for largest corporate owners.
D
Give a regular report on the amount of local news you are producing.
E
Give an annual state of your business report and invite the public to tell you what they want to know. Shape the report around their questions and not just the numbers that make you look good.
Tim Gallagher is president of The 20/20 Network, a public relations and strategic communications firm. He is a former Pulitzer Prizewinning editor and publisher at The Albuquerque Tribune and the Ventura County Star newspapers. Reach him at tim@the2020network.com.
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digital publishing
Adding More Power Digital tools available now to simplify every journalist’s job By Rob Tornoe
T
echnology has done a lot to harm newspapers in recent years, but in its wake of disruption it has left behind a host of powerful tools that journalists 15 years ago couldn’t even have imagined using. The sheer amount of tech-sounding names and promising new ventures can easily make it overwhelming for the average newsroom employee to dive in, especially considering the high rate of failure when it comes to digital news innovation. I mean, do your bosses even care about Tumblr anymore? Among the most popular columns I’ve written for Editor & Publisher was a simple overview of five digital tools that I use often that aren’t called Facebook or Tweetdeck. I’m constantly getting notes from reporters and producers at organizations across the country tipping me off to cool apps and interesting tools that I never would have come across otherwise. So, think of this month’s column as my attempt to “pay it forward.” In fact, I still use two tools I gave a spotlight to in my previ24 |
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ous column on nearly a daily basis, and they are worth touting again. The first is Call Recorder, a simple paid app for the Mac (sorry PC users) that allows incoming calls via Skype to be recorded with a click of the button. It also allows you to easily convert the audio of the calls to MP3 and convert them to internet-ready movies, allowing reporters to include an engaging bit of multimedia in their stories very easily. The second is oTranscribe. So far, I’ve been unwilling to spring for a paid program that transcribes audio for me, but oTranscribe is the next best thing. Basically it’s a free website where you upload your sound file and can use easy shortcut keys to pause, rewind or slow down the audio while you transcribe on a single web tab. Here are four other tools (well, three tools and a hack) that have been recommended to me by journalists over the past year that I now use regularly when reporting. I hope they make your job a tad bit easier.
CrowdTangle Tools like Parse.ly and Chartbeat are
great, but at the moment, I am completely addicted to CrowdTangle. It’s an analytics platform that tracks the performance of articles in your market across the most popular social media websites, including often-overlooked venues like LinkedIn and Pinterest. Not only can you see how your stories are performing in real time, CrowdTangle also allows you to see what content is trending in your market that was created by someone else, including your competitors. Told you it was cool. To get CrowdTangle’s beefier newsroom analytics, you have to sign up through your newsroom (don’t worry—it’s free, thanks to Facebook’s purchase last November). But their Link Checker is available to anyone and remarkably easy to use, provided you use Chrome. Basically you just download and install the Chrome plugin, and it will show up as an icon in the top right of your browser until you’re ready to use it. Once you open your story, click on the plugin’s icon and an overlay will appear that shows how many social interactions, referrals and sources shared your story. It even editorandpublisher.com
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Make
displays how many Facebook timelines the story ended up in. I’ve even found a source or two for my own reporting by being able to see when an influencer shared one of my stories (or if I’m being completely honest, a competitor’s story on my beat).
self using is “filter,” which you can use to display only results from verified accounts (filter:verified), show only tweets with third party links (filter:links), and feature tweets only coming from news organizations (filter:news).
Screencastify
Grammarly
This is another free Chrome plugin (sorry, Firefox users) that I’ve become addicted to over the past six months. Screencastify is a simple, lightweight tool that allows you to record anything that’s happening on your desktop, whether it’s a live feed from a local sports game, a webcam interview or footage from last night’s local news cast. You can pay a premium to unlock more features, but ScreenCastify does offer a powerful array of tools for free. You can adjust the size, crop and clip the duration and export it to just about any file format you need. You can toggle between audio that’s coming from the tab or being capture by a microphone (helpful if you’re attempting to film a demonstration of something you’re doing). Once you’re ready to export, you can save it just about everywhere in various formats, including a direct upload to YouTube.
This is another Chrome plugin suggested to me that I think I wouldn’t be able to survive without. Finally some good news for all you non-Chrome users—Grammarly also has a desktop application you can download and use, though I haven’t had the need to test it out. Grammarly’s plugin runs in the background and lets you know when your spelling and grammar has run afoul of the rules no matter where you’re typing (except Google Docs, where it’s oddly restricted), including Facebook posts, tweets and most importantly, emails. When you’ve made a mistake, it simply throws the same red line you might see in Word underneath the text in question, but in my limited experience playing around with the app, it appears a lot more accurate than most native spelling and grammar programs. Just like Word, it has a library where you can teach it new words and certain grammar ticks you don’t want to keep being reminded about in your work. It also saved me several times from making simple but embarrassing mistakes (it’s pique, not peak). But the coolest function of all is Grammarly sends you a weekly report giving you a score, warning you of potential plagiarism and offering details on some of the mistakes you make over and over again.
Twitter Search Hack Every journalist uses Twitter, and if you’re not, I’m not sure what I can tell you at this point to convince you to sign up. For the rest of us, there’s a way to quickly get a lot more out of Twitter by using simple but often-overlooked commands when using the search field to find content. These commands are entered as modifiers following whatever it is you’re searching for. For instance, I work in Philadelphia, so if I want to broadly search for Tweets about President Trump in and around town, I would enter this into the search field: “Trump” near:Philadelphia. I can even drill down even more and make the radius smaller or larger by typing : “Trump” near:Philadelphia within:5mi. If you want to search for tweets by date, you can use date operators like “since” or “until,” which would look like: “Trump” since:2017-01-20 or “Trump” until:2017-01-20. One of the commands I often find myeditorandpublisher.com
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Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor for Philly.com. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.
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sales@greenshootmedia.com SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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production BY JERRY SIMPKINS
Keeping docks well-lit and clean can help to facilitate receiving preprints and their quick and orderly entry into the system.
TAKING PREVENTATIVE MEASURES How to establish accurate receiving logs and tracking procedures in your preprint production
M
ost newspapers receive preprints and/or self-adhesive sticky notes on a regular basis. But what are the recommended and acceptable measures you should take when accepting preprints? Does the receiver verify the amount of product; if so, how? Do you log receivables in by hand or with an electronic tool? What makes up your tracking processes? Do you monitor date and time received, who takes in the insert, the stated quantity verses actual quantity received, number of skids or boxes
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and date on the pallets? Internally, are the inserts scheduled and does the order match the product received? Once received and entered into your system are pallets relocated to a racking system establishing a tracking process for final placement and positioning on the floor? The process involved in receiving preprints isn’t as simple as one might believe. I’ve worked shops where someone in the mailroom pulls preprints off the truck and they sit outside for half the day, get dragged inside and end up mixed with other pre-
prints scattered around the mailroom area. As you might imagine, this is a recipe for disaster and usually leads to general dysfunction, inaccurate insertions; i.e. inserts going into the wrong product, on the wrong day, shortages, missing insertion dates and ongoing problems with advertisers. I believe we’ve all noticed a decline in preprints and the subsequent revenues that we once enjoyed. With digital versions of preprints becoming more and more popular, it’s just one more thing that keeps us awake at night concerned about the overall
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Photos courtesy of Jerry Simpkins
health of the printed product. I firmly believe that one small thing we can do to slow this decline is show advertisers and readers alike that we can maintain accurate processes that ensure advertisements end up in the right place on the right day and in the requested amount. Newspapers are in the fight of their lives and anything we can do to maintain our relevance and preserve the advertising dollar should be done now and done right. Our sales department and advertisers are depending on us to get it right and operationally, we need to establish the processes that allow that to happen.
Receiving the Preprints Let’s start with the basic process of receiving. Truckers move product around the country and are the backbone of our national delivery system. Their goal is to move product (preprints in this case) from point A to point B in the most efficient and economical manner possible. They’re jamming skids inside the truck, moving skids around at every stop, and many drivers may not be overly concerned what a preprint looks like when it arrives on your dock. When you receive a damaged skid, do you have standard procedures in place? If you so much as indicate that you’re okay with a damaged skid (a nod or a smile can often be enough encouragement), the delivery driver will move as fast as they can back into their truck and out of your parking lot before you have any time to reconsider—don’t allow it. First thing you need to do is examine the load; don’t sign the delivery receipt until you’re ready to. Most truckers will try to get in and out as quickly as possible and while I don’t blame them, you’re the one who could be stuck with a pallet full of inserts with turned up edges, crushed product, or inserts that have to be rejogged before use. Obviously this can result in preprints that cannot be machined and results in a shortage. The advertiser doesn’t really understand or care that it’s the trucker’s fault. In the end, it’s your responsibility to monitor the delivery process and it is your fault if you accept an
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} Keeping preprint storage areas well-organized can help to locate the correct insert in the shortest amount of time to ensure accuracy and maximize productivity.
inferior product. On top of the issues with spoiled product, you could have hours of labor rejogging inserts adding to costs. Let me repeat: Do not accept damaged product. Have your advertising department call the agency or you can call the dispatcher to see what they would like to do to solve the issue. First thing they’ll propose is to leave the problem on your dock; it’s easier for them. Don’t let this happen. If you have to rejog the product, make it clear that the cost of rejogging will be billed to them and get all the relevant information on how to follow through on that; i.e. the name of the dispatcher, driver, bill of lading, etc. If the dispatcher has an issue with this, make sure to involve the agency. Either way there is no gain by accepting a product that you know on the front end will end up causing issues on the back end. Take pictures, indicate the issue on the receiver before signing off. Do whatever you need to in order to protect both the company, your reputation and your advertisers interest. To be fair to the trucking companies, it isn’t always their fault. Commercial print-
ers that provide us with preprints often don’t take enough care preparing skids for shipment. Improper jogging off their presses can spell trouble for you when you receive a skid that self-destructed in the back of the truck. Regardless of what happened on the front end, don’t let others transfer their problem into your shop.
Accepting and Logging the Preprints Once the preprint is accepted, how do you ensure you have received the correct amount of skids and the appropriate quantity of inserts? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a mailroom manager boast about how fine-tuned their system is only to hear them a week later arranging a pick-up of an insert that didn’t belong to us and was dropped at the wrong newspaper. So much for attention to detail. First, cross reference the receiver/B.O.L. with the actual skid(s) and confirm the amount of skids is correct. In this process, review each skid to confirm that it’s in fact yours. If you can, neatly remove, count
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out and weigh 50 inserts on a small scale. Multiply out that weight and weigh the skid to confirm that the amount is what it should be. Not all of us have the equipment or the time to do this. If you do, I highly recommend it, if you don’t about all you can do is check and double check each skid for damage, ensure that the correct amount of pallets are received, and use common sense the rest of the way. If you receive one small pallet a foot high of a 24 page tab and you’re supposed to have 30,000 copies, there could be an issue. So let’s assume that your insert arrives in acceptable condition, what’s next? Many newspapers have a log and a pen hanging on the dock and log-in preprints as they arrive. The information on this log varies by location from very basic to well-detailed. If that’s working for you and you’re not having challenges in this area, great, keep up the good work. In my opinion, keeping logs in a paper form has only one advantage verses an electronic log. With a written log,
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} Setting up electronic receiving records in a community folder on a common drive can provide users with essential preprint information, useful search functions and offer a daily accounting of incoming activity.
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3 QUESTIONS WITH… Fred Stanton, production director & commercial print sales, Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.)
What has been your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it? In the last 42 years, there have been many challenges: Offset conversions, early vintage TKS and manroland installations, and in-house web reductions just to name a few. When I was hired at the Times Herald Record in 1999, a major challenge included building the commercial print program. Step one was to get the mindset of the team to focus on customer service— internal and external. Our sales approach is not just to be a printer, but a business partner with our customers—assisting with sales ideas, format changes, TMC programs, and delivering a quality product. Today, we print more than 100 different publications and are endorsed by the New York and New Jersey Press Associations.
Where do you see the future of print production? Newspapers continue to be an excellent venue for news and advertising, especially at the local level and with niche publications, which have been our fastest growing segment in commercial print. “Newsprint” does not always mean “newspaper” as I can see TMC and direct mail products growing and expanding. Advertisers know that many sales are impulsive, so the visual on newsprint should be around for a while because it works. Many production facilities have closed through consolidation and many are busier than ever.
What printing technologies are you most excited about? In the past 10 years, we have invested in computerized press controls, digital inkers, and violet CTP. These purchases have certainly justified themselves with savings in consumables and staffing. Now it’s a matter of refining that technology along with improvements in consumables. We purchased a four color 23-inch offset sheet fed press in 2006. This offers the advertiser diversity and sales are gained over the turnaround time. Today, I would reevaluate the digital technology in that area since there has been improvements. Digital already plays a major role in direct mail and already exists for web, so it’s definitely a technology to follow. We mail more than 3 million products a month, so we are utilizing digital in conjunction with print. Fred Stanton began his newspaper career in 1975 at the Union Gazette of Port Jervis, N.Y. He served as pressroom manager at the Times Herald-Record in 1981 and in 1999. In 2001, he was promoted to production director. He has also worked in the Bergen (N.J.) Record pressroom.
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you can simply walk up to the log and review what’s arrived without going to the computer; that’s a rather small advantage. When you want to look for a particular insert or a specific delivery or run date, a written log doesn’t have a useful search function other than sifting through mountains of paper. I don’t believe there is any good reason not to develop an electronic entry log for your receiving area. I’m big on spreadsheets and the sorting flexibility and search functions they offer. You don’t need to be a spreadsheet expert to put together a simple log that tracks all the relevant information. What you do need to be is an expert on what information is critical to your internal tracking of preprints. First on your sheet set up a column to enter what the product is. We all receive both preprints and self-adhesive notes (call them what you want: sticky notes, post-it notes, news notes, etc.). Indicate what product has arrived. This will help later if you need to search for a particular piece. Next, enter the name of the preprint/customer. The need for this should be obvious. Now simply set up additional columns with all the information necessary to track the preprint (or note) from the point it arrives at your facility to the point that it is staged on your floor for insertion or application. Time Received: When the trucker actually drops the insert and you accept it. Received By: We usually have more than one person who will pull inserts off the truck. It’s important to know who accepted things in case there are questions that come up later. If there is an issue, knowing who accepts the insert allows you to take necessary measures to control future challenges. Quantity Received: This is one of the most important entries on your sheet. Whatever process you are able to use to confirm the amount received it needs to be absolutely accurate. When you run short on the floor a week later, is it due to excessive waste or because you never received enough in the first place? Number of Skids Received: Simple as this may seem, I’ve seen times when skids are misplaced and a mailroom runs short of completing the job, blames it on waste, and then finds a stray skid a week later sandwiched between other pallets in the warehouse. Believe me, just when you think it can’t happen to you, it will. Date on the Skid: Another one of those things that may seem simple but can get you in serious trouble. Confirm the date on every skid and match it up against the receiving paperwork to ensure you have received the right amount for the right date. This will also help later in the process when staging in a specific rack location. Is It Scheduled?: I like to indicate with a simple yes or no, if the arriving preprint is on the preprint schedule advertising should be providing to you on a regular basis. If your advertising cohorts are scheduling insertion dates as they should and providing this information, chances are that the insert you’re receiving will be on a schedule. If it’s not, now is the time to be a team player and make advertising aware you’ve received a preprint that you don’t see
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scheduled. It could be an oversight on the customers or agencies part to notify advertising or could simply be an oversight on the salespersons part to schedule it. Either way a heads-up can save face with an advertiser and keep the revenues flowing. Internal Location: If you store pending inserts in a multi-level rack, on the floor in a warehouse or in an open area of your mailroom, it’s important to know where the right insert is when you need it. Labeling/categorizing rack locations or marking specific areas for lay down can save time and promotes accuracy in the long-run. Indicating on the receiving sheet where you’ve filed the pallet(s) make it much easier to track throughout the process and can help to ensure that the correct preprint eventually ends up being staged in the right area of the floor for final insertion. Comments: Last but not least, provide an area on the spreadsheet for additional comments. In this area the receiver can indicate what product the preprint goes in (cross referencing with the insert order from advertising), indicate any issues with the product when delivered, detail any changes i.e. “insert killed,” run out overruns into TMC, etc. Of course what you do for your preprint tracking procedure can differ greatly depending on the size of your newspaper, staffing, the space available within your facility plus the volume of inserts you receive. Putting together a process to account for receiving and
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tracking preprints isn’t a one size fits all project; it can and will differ greatly depending on your specific property. Most newspapers have some process to track incoming preprints currently in place, yet at many properties I’ve evaluated improvements are needed and fairly easy to implement. Often we get mired down in doing things our way, certain it is the best way. I cringe when I ask why we do something and the answer is “Because we’ve always done it that way.” Look things over with an open mind and don’t get stuck on your way being the best way. I don’t care how smart any of us think we are, there is always someone who has a better way and processes can be constantly improved. You owe it to your employer and yourself to find the best way to ensure accuracy in your preprint operation. Don’t stop searching and finetuning until you have your department running like a well-oiled machine—and when you do let me know so that I can continue to grow right along with you. As always, I’m happy to share any spreadsheets or provide helpful information on production-related subjects to anyone in our industry. Jerry Simpkins is vice president of the West Texas Printing Center with Morris Printing Services, LLC in Lubbock, Texas. Contact him on LinkedIn.com or at simpkins@tds.net.
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With roots in their communities, local newspaper owners find ways to flourish and prosper By Sean Stroh
illustration by tony o. champagne
s consolidation of newspapers become more commonplace, another reality begins to emerge—a decline in local ownership. This year has been particularly hard for many longtime newspaper families, with a number of them selling to larger regional chains and corporations. In March, the Randall family announced the sale of the Frederick (Md.) NewsPost to Ogden Newspapers, headquartered in West Virginia. The family had owned the paper since 1883. A few months later, the Antelope Valley Press in Palmdale, Calif. was sold to a new entity called Antelope Valley Press Inc., led by Canadian newspaper executive Steven Malkowich. In that case, the paper had been family-owned for more than 100 years. William Markham, former publisher and co-owner of the Valley Press, said in a statement that “now is the time for our family to make way for others with greater resources than ours.” And just last month, the family-owned Morris Publishing Group sold 11 of its daily and non-daily newspaper holdings to GateHouse Media. Despite these changes, Dirks, Van Essen & Murray recently reported that 82 daily newspapers that have been owned for more than 100 years still remain in business, the majority of which are family-owned. editorandpublisher.com
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} Jim and Lisa Rule, publishers of The Acorn newspapers
E&P spoke to a few community newspaper leaders to get their perspective (for some of them, newspapers continue to be a family affair). While undoubtedly operating with fewer resources than a large media corporation, these publications are critically important in today’s world and serve as the backbone for the industry as a whole.
Community Matters When it comes to the town of East Hampton, N.Y., David Rattray considers himself an expert. As editor of The East Hampton Star, which has been owned by his family since 1935, he also understands the importance of locally owned newspapers quite well. “We have no plan to call it quits or consolidate with others. I think it’s really unfortunate because for community newspapers family ownership is critical,” Rattray said. “It gives people the sense that their paper is by and for members of the community.” The small quirks of a paper like the Star, Rattray said, can help cut through the sameness displayed through corporately 34 |
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} Robert M. Williams, Jr. and Cheryl S. Williams, publishers of The Blackshear Times
owned publications. “For example, we try to let our writers have a voice, and don’t necessarily expect them to conform to a certain sort of style,” he said. “Ultimately, we are selling a product that readers have to identify with, and if it feels corporate or dialed in, then I think there’s going to be a degree of rejection.” The Star, a paid weekly, currently maintains a circulation between 7,500 and 9,000, depending on the season. Its reporting team consists of about a dozen or so full-time and contributing writers. “I could use twice that if I had the money,” Rattray said. “It’s fascinating, in some cases, the smaller the story is, the greater the interest and engagement is from readers.” Whether it is a public safety concern, school board meeting, or a fire down the street, residents regularly look to the Star for information pertaining to their own neighborhood. It’s a need, Rattray said, that’s not limited to East Hampton. “That desire for communities to know themselves I think is universal, and consequently, what fuels micro-sized news
gathering organizations like ours,” he said. “We can step into that niche and provide that service.” Admittedly, Rattray said his paper bears the unique distinction of maintaining a considerable amount of print real estate advertising from various national and regional companies. With its large, broadsheet pages, big real estate brokers still find the Star as an attractive marketing tool for houses in the area, that in some cases, can sell as high as $30 million. The real estate advertising category is their largest revenue source, ahead of other forms of display advertising, circulation and the classified section. “It has allowed us to have a news operation that would probably be out of scale for a community of this size in 2017,” Rattray said. “We are a broadsheet newspaper, and if you want to flex your muscle, that’s one of the few avenues where you can do so.” However, even with the dire circumstances many local papers are going through, Rattray acknowledged the surge in both the quantity and quality of resumes they’ve received over the last year. editorandpublisher.com
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} Mark Rhoades, Enterprise Publishing Co. publisher
} Chris Rhoades, Enterprise Publishing Co. associate publisher
} Members of the Enterprise Publishing team pose before embarking on the Blair Gateway Days parade, an annual tradition for the staff.
“Once Trump became the (presidential) nominee, the number of quality applications we received started to spike. People wanted to be a part of what we were doing,” he said. “I didn’t feel that for a couple of years, but I’m feeling it again. It’s amazing.” While the Star coexists with two free weekly papers in town, Rattray noted that there are still areas that can be considered “news deserts” in East Hampton. With a staff about half the size it once was, the newsroom was forced to leave some parts of town without coverage. “I think it’s a huge problem,” Rattray said. “Without local journalists, you are essentially leaving politicians and government officials to their own devices to do whatever they want. The watchdog function of the local press just goes away.”
Knowing Their Job For The Acorn weekly newspapers in Southern California, understanding their role in their region is crucial. Despite operating in the same space as the Los Angeles Times, Daily News and Ventura County Star, co-owner and publisher Lisa Rule said editorandpublisher.com
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they “remain faithful to the print product.” “A lot of them want to be a multimedia company. It’s not that we don’t embrace the social media side of things, because we certainly do, but print is still king for us,” Rule said. “I think that’s where we differ.” Since purchasing The Acorn in 1996, Rule and her husband, Jim, have launched four additional free distribution community papers. Their circulations range from 11,800 to nearly 40,000. Each paper maintains its own team of reporters. “It’s different now because in the very beginning we understood that our place was a training ground for the larger papers. You wouldn’t expect younger people to stay more than a few years,” Rule said. “As the dailies have continued to downsize, we’ve seen more people remain with us for longer periods of time. We also have reporters who don’t want the rigors of a daily and decide to end their careers here as well.” Over the last two decades, the newspapers have won multiple reporting, writing and photography awards under the California Newspaper Publishers Association. “I think we’ve been able to weather the
storm because we faithfully serve our readership,” Rule said. “Each paper is devoted to the community it serves and there is very little overlap in content.” Additionally, Rule attributed accessibility as an important factor to their ability to thrive in a somewhat crowded market. “We don’t have to jump through hoops for anybody. We can look across the room, discuss something we may want to do and then act on it,” she said. “Anyone in the community who wants to reach us can do so very easily as there isn’t much of a buffer system to get to Jim or I.” Although both the Acorn newspapers and the East Hampton Star co-exist in areas with multiple publications, residents in cities like Blackshear, Ga. have to rely on a single newspaper source. Robert Williams Jr., has owned and published the Blackshear Times for more than 40 years, and said that if not for his paper, the town would lack local news coverage. “As time goes by, the consequences of people not having local news sources is going to start showing up more and more,” he said. “It takes guts to write without fear SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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} Donovan Kramer, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. co-publisher and managing editor
} Inside the Casa Grande Dispatch newsroom (Photo by Oscar Perez/Dispatch)
or favor when you may be sitting with the person you’re writing about in church on Sunday or across from them at the Rotary club meeting on Tuesday.” For Williams, newspapering at the local level equates to holding a mirror up to the community it serves. Just like the New York Times is a reflection of the size and scope of its vast coverage areas, so is the Blackshear Times, albeit on a much smaller scale. With a print circulation of 3,600, the paper focuses on the intimate details unique to Blackshear. “On the rare occasion where something happens that brings outside media here, the first place they always come is to the local newspaper,” Williams said. “They want us to point them in the right direction, tell them where to go and who to talk to because we know everybody.” While print still remains the number one focus, Williams said Facebook serves as a useful tool to help promote their content. Through the end of July, the paper’s Face36 |
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book page had more than 9,000 likes. “Everybody talks about digital and pays attention to it, which can be very helpful but it doesn’t pay the bills,” Williams said. “Print continues to do that, and the vast majority of our folks still want it.” The changing landscape of the newspaper industry, particularly at the local level, is somewhat indicative of what’s going on across various industries throughout the country, Williams said. “The local mom and pop businesses that have been customers of ours for decades are retiring or selling to larger corporations. Advertising decisions are now being made by someone we’ll never actually talk to,” Williams said. “They go by numbers, not the community.” This issue is one of the biggest concerns for Mark Rhoades, whose family has owned the Enterprise Publishing Co. based in Blair, Neb. since 1880. The company publishes a dozen community newspapers in Nebraska and Iowa.
} David Rattray, East Hampton Star editor
In one town in particular, Rhoades said Walgreens came in and bought out several local pharmacies, all of whom had been longtime advertising clients. A similar problem took place when four farm implement dealers were also purchased and merged together under one corporate owner. “They have an ad agency that tells them this is what we’re going to do and why we’re doing it,” Rhoades said. “You can no longer have a conversation with someone at the local level which is incredibly frustrating.”
Room to Grow To address the growing problems related to local advertising and diversify its revenue sources, Enterprise Publishing Co. offers printing, marketing and digital services to customers. In 2015, the family decided to make a big push into digital marketing by forming Courtside Marketing, overseen by Mark Rhoades’ son, Chris. “We had a lot of customers wanting to editorandpublisher.com
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increase their presence online and would regularly field questions about it,” Chris said. “We knew that if we could not help them, then competitors would surely move in to the market and offer the digital services that we do now.” Less than a year later, the family purchased CiShirts, a screen printing shop that focuses primarily on printing apparel and promotional products. Though not a significant source of revenue quite yet, the services have seen interest from small businesses steadily grow. In one case, Chris said a local company spent six times the amount of money in clothing and apparel than they did in print advertising over the course of a seven month period. “We’ll always put a majority of our effort and emphasis into our core products, but we also will be starting to place even more focus on this agency concept,” Chris said. “By being in position to offer a wide variety
of marketing solutions, we can truly sell in a more advisory role, instead of always just pushing promotions in the newspaper.” Expansion for the Kramer family, based in Pinal County, Ariz., has taken shape in the form of a new weekly print publication, the San Tan Valley Sentinel. Donovan Kramer Jr., co-publisher and managing editor of the family’s company, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc., said that while the new publication remains in its early stages, he is optimistic about the future of their latest print product. “The thing that made it natural for us to do this is the fact that we were already covering a lot of the news there. Most of that area is part of the Florence School District, which we do some great reporting on,” he said. “We’ve also seen our online readership in the San Tan Valley grow quite a bit over the last year.” About 1,000 copies of the debut edition of the Sentinel were printed and distributed
for sale on July 21 through various stores in the community. The size of the paid publication moving forward will ultimately be determined by how many papers they sell, Kramer said. Their flagship paper, the Casa Grande Dispatch, currently serves as Pinal County’s only daily newspaper. Kramer said his family plans to continue their hands-on approach to management of the Dispatch and its sister publications. “I think it’s great that members of the family have taken on roles at our different community papers. While the work can be pretty demanding, all of us are very committed to it,” Kramer said. “Corporate ownership has brought many innovations to newspapers, but lately it sometimes has resulted in too-severe cuts that have damaged the product and industry. There’s nothing like local ownership for being close to the customers and responding to their needs.”
SOLD: Daily Newspaper, weekly cluster The Sun Journal Lewiston, Maine
Cribb, Greene & Cope is pleased to have represented the Costello family in their sale to SJ Acquisition.
John Cribb
Gary Greene
Randy Cope
JCribb@Cribb.com 406.579.2925
GGreene@Cribb.com 434.227.0952
RCope@Cribb.com 214.356.3227
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LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL To avoid media bias, news organizations are responding to old criticism in new ways By Gretchen A. Peck
T
ake note of conversations about policy, politics or politicians. Often, they will devolve into a smearing of sources and the news organizations that provided the information; they’re perceived as being for one ideology and against another. It would be disingenuous to suggest that there are not news organizations that have a definitive perspective when it comes to controversial topics such as these. The same might be said for journalists and pundits, too, and the public has become hip to it. In fact, when you consider how most consumers of news choose their sources of information, which often align with their own perspectives and beliefs, it’s easy to see how the lines in the sand have been drawn. Part of the daily mission for many conservative news outlets is to seed distrust among fans, making them leery of all other sources of information from “the liberal media,” including local, regional and national newspapers. Meanwhile, representing the Left, there are organizations like Media Matters for America, which spend resources on correcting or exposing misinformation perpetuated by conservative news sources. And on social media, “fake news” lives on. The public is rightfully confused and unnecessarily agitated, and newspaper brands have suffered because of it.
Objectivity as a Guidepost Perhaps the greatest misconception that the public has about journalists and the business of newsgathering is that pure objectivity is not just possible, but that it’s the whole job. editorandpublisher.com
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What they may not realize is that sticking to “just the facts,” or merely the “who, what, when, where, and why,” makes for an interminably hollow story, like a naked skeleton. It lacks context, flavor, understanding based on research and knowledge. A “just the facts” story is both boring to read and a dereliction of a journalist’s duty to go beyond the “5 Ws,” with insight, perspectives, and things that become known during the newsgathering that should not be unknown for the sake of appearing purely objective. “We saw ‘objectivity’ held up as a goal during the post-WWII heyday of journalism. At the same time, it wasn’t always a goal in this country, and it certainly isn’t seen as a standard in other countries,” said Pete Vernon, a Delacorte fellow at Columbia Journalism Review. “Being fair, seeking facts, those things are important,” he continued. “But embracing objectivity for its own sake seems misguided… We all come to stories with our assumptions and worldviews. It’s important to journalists to acknowledge those underlying assumptions, and to seek out information that challenges them, but ultimately, the best antidote for any bias we bring to our subjects is thorough reporting.” Distrust in journalists and news organizations is a tale at least as old as Yellow Journalism itself, probably older. In contemporary context, that distrust has been broadcast and amplified by politics and social media. Read most any Twitter or Facebook thread and the accusations fly about how the news source cannot be trusted, how every story is “slanted,” and so on. It need not matter the subject matter, the sources of the information or anything at all about the quality of the reporting. “MSM,” “liberal media,” SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL
David Corn, Mother Jones Washington bureau chief
Pete Vernon, Columbia Journalism Review Delacorte fellow
“fake, faux news,”—and far worse—fill up the comments spaces below. David Corn, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, covers politics and politicians. It has afforded him some historical perspective on the anti-media climate, which has been, without question, fueled by the politics of today. “The charge of ‘fake news’ and ‘bias’ comes mostly from the Right,” he said. “It’s a continuation of a conservative agenda that goes back to the 1970s and 1980s, when Jessie Helms led a campaign against Dan Rather at CBS for being ‘liberal media.’ It has long been part of the conservative playbook to position the major media outlets as arrayed against them, and seeds this feeling of cultural resentment that exists far more on the Right than on the Left. “When you ask if publishers and journalists should be concerned about it, my first inclination is to say, you have to understand the historical context, so that you don’t overreact to these accusations.” Corn also suggested that journalism should not be confused with dictation. While it may appear objective to simply write what sources say, minus any context or perspective wrapped around it, that is not journalism, he said, offering journalists covering the current president as an example. “All politicians and all presidents, both on the Left and Right, say things that are false, spin, and occasionally lie to serve their political agenda,” Corn explained. “If you look at any fact-checking outlet… Donald Trump has set a record—by order of magnitudes greater—in terms of putting out false statements. I think the mainstream media—and I don’t use that in a pejorative way—has long been loathe to evaluate assertions.” Corn suggested that it’s a disservice to the public when known inaccuracies aren’t challenged, or are but meagerly so. “I’ve always argued that if a president says something false or wrong, the news is not what the president said, but the fact that he said something false or wrong,” he said. “But that’s not the prevailing cultural norm for a media business. Trump has forced media outlets to contextualize his remarks, because often they’re so far from reality. 40 |
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Robin Fields, ProPublica managing editor
So now you have the New York Times and others begin to use the word ‘lie.’ I think that’s justifiable and important, but what that does is compel Trump to attack with even more fierceness, calling them ‘fake news’ outlets for daring to challenge his accuracy. “And when that happens, I think journalists have to stand by their guns and not let his attacks cause them to modify or pull back, but it does create a much harsher dynamic than Washington reporters for major news outlets have tended to be comfortable with…There has been a revulsion to ‘taking sides,’ or more importantly, to be seen as taking sides. But sometimes reporting the truth entails taking sides. Objectivity is not the goal; accuracy is. You don’t serve the truth by only objectively reporting what someone says.” So what’s the takeaway for newspapers covering politics or controversial news? “While social media certainly provides a platform for claims of media bias to be amplified, it’s not like people who aren’t on Twitter or Facebook hold some sanguine view of an ‘objective’ media,” Vernon said. “Roger Ailes cast his network as ‘fair and balanced’ way back in 1996, in an implicit criticism of other ‘biased’ outlets.” As this article was coming together, news broke that Fox News was forsaking its long-time tagline, its vow to be “fair and balanced.” Pundits speculated that the old branding was dated and carried the negative connotations of the network’s Roger Ailes era and the scandals that led to his and Bill O’Reilly’s ousting. “While plenty of people both on the Left and Right see ‘bias’ when whey they really mean ‘I just don’t like this reporting,’ it is important for journalists to listen to valid critiques and to be as transparent as possible about their story choices and reporting methods. That won’t be enough to convince everyone, but it’s worth the attempt,” Vernon said.
Atoning for Mistakes There may be another misconception that the public has about news people: that they are not infallible. An unattributed quotation, a editorandpublisher.com
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shady source, or just plain bad information can sometimes be careerending for a journalist—even one who has decades of good work in the portfolio. Journalists are keenly aware of this, and no one feels more pain when a mistake is introduced than the writer, editor or broadcast reporter. “I think most people understand that journalists are humans who make mistakes,” Vernon said. “As in politics, the cover-up is often worse than the crime. If a journalist or editor makes a mistake, owning up to it quickly, explaining exactly how he or she got it wrong, and being clear about how he or she will change practice going forward is the best we can do. In the past, the press atoned for the sins of getting a story wrong with retraction or correction. Is that enough of a mea culpa for today’s news consumers? “I think there is an obligation to (correct our mistakes) more than ever,” Corn said. “I’ve always thought that the willingness to correct a mistake is an indicator of trustworthiness. If you own up to your mistakes, people will trust you more, because it shows you care about truth and accuracy. In the age of social media, with everyone watching and able to point out your mistakes, it’s even more important to do that as much as you can yourself, proactively.” Robin Fields is the managing editor of independent, non-profit ProPublica, an investigative journalism-focused news outlet. Unlike traditional newspapers and broadcast news, ProPublica isn’t as frequently subjected to angry accusations of being fake or biased, perhaps because of the non-profit status or that it has no editorial page or corporate purse-string holders. Nonetheless, Fields empathizes with her colleagues in mainstream news media, particularly when it comes to repairing any damage caused by a reporting error. The reaction or response to an error should be dependent on the scope and scale of the mistake, Fields suggested. A misspelled name or an incorrect location may be simply corrected, but more substantive, considerable errors require a more deliberate action. “When you have a problem with the premise of a story, or if something is centrally wrong, it’s important to engage fully and spell out as clearly as you can and not try to shove it in a dark corner,” she said. “Most of all, I think it’s critical not to be defensive. There can be a tendency to have that kind of a tone run through those exchanges, where you can almost sense that the journalism organization resents having to deal with it, like, ‘Here’s your damn correction; now, go away.’ I think that kind of posture comes across, and we have to resist the impulse to be in a protective crouch and convey that we are listening and open.” Fields also pointed out that having a dialogue with readers is exciting and new. “The conversation used to be one way,” she explained. “The journalism organization issued things at the public and said, ‘Here’s the story.’ There was nothing really coming back except a few letters to the editor. That’s not normal anymore. Everybody is a kind of publisher today, and because of that, you have to have a bona fide conversation.” Who better to have those conversations than journalists, who are accustomed to defending their work to editors, day in and day out? editorandpublisher.com
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Becoming Transparent The best response to critics who decry media bias is simply to continue doing good journalism and telling the stories that need to be told. But it may not hurt to lift the veil on the process a little, to show readers from time to time what it’s like to “make the sausage.” “With trust in ‘the media’ being what it is, transparency is more important than ever,” Vernon said. The vast majority of reporters are scrupulous professionals who are doing everything they can to get the story right. “I think we’re starting to see some positive movement in that direction,” he added. “Whether it’s making clear within a story just how many sources were drawn upon—lines like, ‘This story is based on interviews with X current and former White House officials,’ or features like the (New York Times) Insider, or reporters engaging more with critics on social media, there’s an awareness that the audience wants to know more about how the sausage gets made. At the same time, especially in political coverage, there’s a reliance on anonymous sources that readers rightly question, but that reporters have to use in order to get officials to talk. I don’t know how to reconcile that.” The New York Times Insider is an excellent example of a newspaper welcoming readers behind the scenes, to learn how noteworthy
Social Media
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Submit Your Publisher of the Year Nomination Today Official nomination form available online: e d i to ra n d p u b l i s h e r.co m /p oy The accelerating pace of change in today’s information age requires a greater need for effective leadership. A successful newspaper leader must not only strategize from the trenches with practicality and realism, but also think with foresight and imagination. We are looking to honor a publisher who has risen above the rest and accomplished what seems like the
impossible, outmaneuvering the competition, outthinking the future and maintaining profitability. We are seeking your assistance in recognizing a leader with business acumen, technical savvy, and a deep understanding of what needs to be done to stay successful — along with the fortitude and tenacity to implement change.
Submission Information:
• Submission time period: Now through Sept. 22, 2017.
Please complete the online form and include a short synopsis of why the nominee should receive recognition. Include specific leadership successes, innovative program development, obstacles and challenges overcome.
• All entries will be treated with the strictest confidence. But the selected publisher should be prepared to be interviewed by Editor & Publisher for the special “Publisher of the Year” issue.
Eligibility: • “Publisher of the Year” recognition is open to all newspaper publishers worldwide, from papers large and small.
Nomination Deadline Sept. 22, 2017
LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL LIFTING THE VEIL reporting or photojournalism came about: get insights from reporters and editors on topics of interest, even to better understand how the physical newspaper is made. In 2015, the film “Spotlight” offered a sometimes nail-biting depiction of the Boston Globe’s reporters’ relentless, arduous, and Pulitzer-winning investigative coverage of local priests and sex crimes. Though a dramatic rendition of the Boston journalists’ work, it demonstrated for the masses the tenacity, eternal curiosity and persistence of journalists, their sincerity in believing that this work matters and is essential. It showed the necessary resources and pavement pounding and editorial judgment that it takes to understand, adjudicate and retell the story. In less grandiose ways, journalists and media outlets, including newspapers, are seeing value in telling the stories behind the stories. Journalists author books that provide comprehensive story lines on topics they’ve extensively covered. Reporters leverage social media and tools like Facebook Live to field questions from readers, justify their findings and explain how news articles came to be. At ProPublica, Fields credits transparency and data for instilling trust and confidence in its readers. “So much of what we do is based on quantifiable things, such as data, and I think between that and our tendency to relentlessly show our work, we’ve tended to not get a huge amount of criticism,” she
said. Fields also cited the Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold as an inspiring example of how journalists need not wait until the reporting is done and the story has been published to show the work. In Fahrenthold’s case, throughout his research on Trump’s businesses and charitable donations (or, more precisely, a lack thereof), he kept the public apprised of his progress, and even enlisted readers’ help to find information he was seeking out. “This can make our process much less scary and much less suspect,” Fields said. “What we found is that it’s really important, when people challenge your work, that you engage. I think there’s a tendency to put those comments in the circular file, where they can be ignored. Certainly, there are a proportion of those criticisms that are outlandish and you don’t engage, but if there’s a legitimate response, even if critical, you should engage and say, ‘Hey, thanks. We thought about that, too, and here’s why we did what we did,’ or something like that. Take that kind of exchange seriously, and see it as part of your journalism and not just a distraction from your work.” Gretchen A. Peck is an independent journalist who has reported on publishing and printing for more than two decades. She has contributed to Editor & Publisher since 2010 and can be reached at gretchenapeck@ gmail.com.
DV &M SMALL NEWSPAPER GROUP HAS SOLD
MOLINE (IL) DISPATCH-ARGUS 21,000 daily circulation 23,000 Sunday circulation
TO
LEE ENTERPRISES We are pleased to have represented Small Newspaper Group in this transaction.
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray Santa Fe, NM
editorandpublisher.com
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t: 505.820.2700 www.dirksvanessen.com
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From advertising to production, newspapers share how they overcame some of their toughest challenges By Gretchen A. Peck
or centuries, newspaper organizations did it all. They reported and crafted the columns. They laid out the pages and applied the ink to newsprint. They sold the ads and fostered relationships with businesses that bought them. And still, they somehow managed to deliver them to the merchants and doorsteps of subscribers. Many of them did all of it on a daily basis. It was easier to be a “jack of all trades” when print was all that mattered, but the arrival of social media, digital, and mobile has complicated the process. With that in mind, E&P reached out to professionals from across different newspapers to find out about challenges they’ve faced and overcome—in many cases, with a little help from their vendor partners.
EXTENDING THE BRAND News publishers have been yearning for ways to diversify and add value to their publications in order to strengthen and broaden the publishing brand rather than dilute it. At the Austin AmericanStatesman in Texas, that quest led to the launch of Austin360, a brand-extension publication focused on Austin’s rich entertainment scene and hyperlocal news. Steve Dorsey, vice president of innovation and planning, said, “Much like Hookem.com is our (University of Texas) sport subbrand for the Statesman, and Ahora Si is our Hispanic news title, Austin360 focuses on the entertainment, culture and lifestyle, food and dining, and things to do in Austin. The brand manifests as a daily and weekly print section, a vibrant website and social media source.” Last summer, Austin360 also launched a live (video and streaming) concert series called “Studio Sessions.” Musicians are invited to an in-house studio to perform 30-minute mini-concerts, which are broadcast on both the Austin360.com and on Facebook Live. “We wanted to take advantage of our shiny new rebuilt on-site video studio,” Dorsey said, “including green rooms and a full functioning multi-camera video crew, coupled with our prime location in downtown Austin, to invite local and touring musicians to perform a live set in front of a studio audience to promote local appearances— think radio station drop-ins, but on live video. “We also used the project to build up collaboration among sales, new and marketing staff on a new shared project, taken to a new scale. This effort required us all to work together on every episode, like never before.” According to Dorsey, the concert series sold annual sponsorships from $60,000 to $90,000. The program also directly resulted in a spike in social media traffic thanks to the Facebook Live broadcast, editorandpublisher.com
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where they saw tens of thousands views, hundreds of shares and measurably more activity in the comment threads. “While this has not really been about generating subscriptions, the project has definitely been about connecting happy sponsors with happy viewers through the creation of fun experiences and great music,” Dorsey said.
CREATING EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNS As GateHouse Media’s executive director of promotions, Rebecca Capparelli is always looking for ways to grow their audience. She discovered that by working with Second Street’s engagement technologies, she could leverage promotional messaging, interactive content and email. The developer’s platform also enables publishers to obtain, parse and understand audience insight data. One of the features of Second Street’s solution that she most appreciates is that it acts like “a real-time dashboard, giving (them) the opportunity to measure and optimize results for each campaign.” With the help of Second Street, they were able to launch six company-wide promotions a year; programs like “Cutest Baby” and “Pro Football Pickems” found great success. Another example was a “Back-To-School Sweeps” promotion for local advertiser Belden Village Mall. The goal was to help the advertiser compel readers of The Canton Repository in Ohio to opt in to the mall’s mobile-based rewards program. The prize was a $500 shopping spree. The publisher was able to deliver 2,675 contest entrants and a 67 percent mobile opt-in rate for the advertiser. Another campaign—this one for a regional airport and published by the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton—sought to encourage readers to attend a special event to debut new non-stop flights. It was built around a sweepstakes with a prize of free airfare. It attracted 8,284 content entries, a 68 percent email opt-in rate for the airport and more than 500 attendees at the event. GateHouse Media’s advertisers are taking note of the results in co-branding promotions of this kind. “In our first year, we increased revenue five times and our email database 100 percent,” Capparelli said.
PROTECTING SENSITIVE SOURCES “Leaks” and “whistleblower” have become household terms, but many in the U.S., including journalists, may not have heard about Wire, a new digital app that allows users to communicate discreetly and securely. Though it’s intuitive and designed with journalists and sensitive sources in mind, anyone can download and use it. The app was created by a Swiss developer, and most of the users are based in Europe. Siim Teller, Wire’s head of marketing, SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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10 PROBLEMS, 10 SOLUTIONS estimated that only 10 percent of the app’s users are based in North America, but that number is growing. But you will not find user testimonials on the developer’s site or in advertising; that’s part of the assurance of anonymity. “Wire does not profile its users, so we only know about the journalists who advertise themselves as using Wire,” Teller said. “In countries where press freedom is an issue, the journalists might be incentivized to keep the knowledge of their app usage a secret. “All user communication on Wire is secured with end-to-end encryption, which means that only the sender and the receiver can read what is being sent, or hear what is being said in calls. Wire does not have the encryption keys to decrypt the conversations. Wire also allows people to register with their email address at app.wire.com, and then log in with that account on their phone, without having to give up their phone number.” The app is easy to use, and anyone who has used a mobile messaging app will pick it up immediately. “Journalists should use Wire, as it’s set up in one of the best jurisdictions in the world when it comes to protecting privacy—Switzerland,” Teller said. “All requests for user data have to go through the Swiss court system. We periodically publish a transparency report that shows that, so far, there have been zero lawful requests for user data in the last three years.”
REVITALIZING STAGNANT AD MARKETS One of the challenges that the ad team at the Tupelo (Miss.) Daily Journal faced was that at least two categories of advertising had “plateaued,” said general manager Danny Smith. They were employment and automotive advertising. “We’ve always had consistent advertisers who are seeing results, but we had not been able to bring in the volume of new business we desired,” he said. “Needless to say, we need those ‘plus dollars,’ and our print and digital products need the added volume.” To bring life back to those ad markets, Smith enlisted the help of Janet DeGeorge of Classified Executive Training. 46 |
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} Christian Priskos, City Weekly digital director
} City Weekly in Salt Lake City found success after it implemented the Friends2Follow app, which allows advertising partners to share their own social media posts directly to the newspaper’s site.
“Janet is very knowledgeable about the employment and automotive industries, and the tendencies of employment and automotive advertisers,” Smith said. “But the one thing that stood out to us is her level of preparation specific to our market and our products. She does her homework.” To help the paper, DeGeorge designed advertising programs and messaging with the sales team. “Packages are the key to the program,” Smith said. “Advertisers purchase print and digital packages that provide maximum reach. That’s something that we all talk about, but Janet’s program is a practical, nuts-and-bolts step-by-step process that’s easy for the sales team to adapt to and easy for the advertiser to grasp.” The newspaper’s sales team rolled out the new program to their employment ad clients three months ago, so it may be premature to estimate the full impact. “But revenue num-
} Siim Teller, Wire head of marketing
} Thomas Shaw, general manager, Subur-
ban Group, Shaw Media
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bers are trending upward, particularly over the last two months,” Smith said. “We’re still rolling out the automotive initiative.”
WORKING WITH A DIGITAL AGENCY Shaw Media needed some extra support that would enable its sales teams to focus on customer relationships and selling, according to Thomas Shaw, general manager, Suburban Group, Shaw Media. The company has more than 550 employees working at publications across Illinois and Iowa. “Technology and digital solutions change so quickly that we decided to rely on external partners for most of our fulfillment needs. We focus our resources on selling,” Shaw said. One of those partners is Guarantee Digital, a digital marketing agency based in Hartland, Wis. “Guarantee Digital is one of our valued fulfillment partners for our marketing services efforts,” Shaw said. “We sell solutions, such as reputation management, social media management, listing maintenance, which (Guarantee Digital’s) team fulfills on our behalf.” The company has also provided training and seminars for the publisher, according to Shaw, who measures the return on investment by the company’s digital marketing revenue growth.
PAYWALL COMES DOWN, AD INTEREST GOES UP At the Warsaw Times-Union in Indiana, sales manager Paul Smith and his team is
responsible for outside sales, walk-ins and classified customers. The team is largely tasked with keeping the newspaper filled with print display ads, but has also had some notable success with selling ads on the companion website, which had a paywall in place for almost a decade. But that paywall came down this month, primarily at the behest of advertisers. “We’ve got a large advertiser that has a policy in place that prohibits them from advertising on any site with a paywall, and that’s just one of many advertisers who have said they’ll advertise (digitally) once the paywall comes down,” Smith said. He also noted that the ad team is filled with print experts who have a wealth of expertise in sales, the local market and in their advertisers’ businesses and marketing needs, but what they lacked was experience on how to sell digital advertising to their customers. For that, Smith turned to Spark Digital Sales Group, based in Minneapolis, Minn. Kim Evans of Spark Digital visited the newspaper in November 2016 to train the team on extended-reach selling and create on a revenue-sharing relationship. “The training didn’t involve sitting in a classroom,” Smith said. “This is in-the-field training, where we meet with the customers together for a 15-minute presentation. And that’s all it is, 15 minutes or less, so the customers really appreciate that. Using her tablet, (Evans) demonstrates the impact of extended-reach advertising and search engine optimization. She shows them what it means to leverage Google Ads and to ensure that their ads appear in the top-five
positions when people search for a topic that applies to them…Every customer she helped us sign last year plans to renew this year.” Evans will be returning to the newspaper this month, and Smith sees the partnership as blossoming to a semi-annual event, where they meet with new clients each time. “We’ve been doing a good job selling ads on the website, but working with Spark Digital gave us a shot in the arm, especially when it comes to extended reach advertising and Google Ads. That’s where we really needed the help,” he said.
DISTRIBUTION HELP When it comes to distribution, Pilot Media, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., relies on the expertise of Nevada-based Global Ad Distribution. While much of the distribution is still managed internally, the publisher is able to offload some of the logistical burden of delivering “free-audience products,” including opt-in publications delivered mid-week and on Sundays. This year, Pilot Media also turned to Global Ad Distribution for delivering what circulation director Mark Quan referred to as “niche, free, wrapped print products.” It’s a hands-off relationship, he said, noting that the circulation operations manager is in contact with Global Ad Distribution a few times a week and when a question arises; otherwise, the circulation department is able to focus its resources and attention to the delivery of paid products. “The free audience products that they manage tend to be very labor intensive, so
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10 PROBLEMS, 10 SOLUTIONS
Global Ad Distribution delivers more than 20 publications for Pilot Media, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot. The titles include mid-week and Sunday opt-in publications, as well as at least one TMC (Total Market Coverage) title.
The Wire app was created for secure messaging, phone and video calls, especially in the case of communicating with sensitive sources.
having Global Ad Distribution managed those for us allows us to focus our resources and much of our day-to-day management on our other products,” Quan said.
WINNING SOCIAL MEDIA In some ways, fates aligned in Salt Lake City, Utah, where local businesses were increasingly using social media presences to market their goods and services. At the same time, the City Weekly was seeking ways to distinguish its web presence from competitors’ vying for those same ad dollars. Digital director Christian Priskos knew they had to add value to the digital advertising proposition. That mission led them to an app called Friends2Follow, which allows publishers to sell social media driven advertising that’s controlled by the advertiser. For example, a local restaurant may purchase an ad package that includes a print component and this social media upsell. In the restaurant sections of the newspaper’s website, the advertiser’s social media posts are published on the fly on that section’s page. It allows the advertiser to extend the reach of social media messages beyond their own Facebook or Instagram audiences to the newspaper’s digital audience too. Priskos said advertising packages that combine print, digital and these social media components have been popular with a number of categories of advertisers at City Weekly, such as arts and entertainment, dining, and—an entirely new market of advertisers for them— tattoo parlors. “Historically, for us, they did not advertise with the newspaper,” he said. “Their product is very visual, and they post pictures to their Instagram pages quite frequently. In the case of those clients, we have been able to build packages around print advertising and a social media ad in our ‘Inked’ section on the website, where they share their posts. We got 15 new advertisers right there.”
CREATIVE CONSULTATIONS Scott Brown, director of operations for Alabama-based Tennes48 |
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see Valley Media, is perpetually looking for new ways to streamline workflow and capitalize on efficiencies. So when word came down that GateHouse Media had launched the Center for News and Design in 2014, he was intrigued, especially since it had become increasingly difficult to hire and retain talented creative and production staff. Brown said they signed on as commercial clients in 2016, approximately the same time they began to work with More Content Now as a third-party editorial content provider. “We gained efficiencies through the process that we could not achieve on our own,” he said. Those efficiencies became even more pronounced when the dailies were able to share pages with common content, such as weekly pages devoted to topics like health and food. Today, Brown estimates that the Center produces as many as 13,000 pages per year for them. “We’re very pleased with how it’s worked out,” he said. “Since we’d been having a hard time finding and retaining highly skilled design staff, the transition solved that problem immediately. On the financial side, we figured we saved on (internal) staffing, at least the cost of nine-and-a-half full-time employees. It certainly provided significant savings.”
MANAGING A PRODUCTIVE WORKFLOW Right now, multi-title publishers are experiencing some of the frustrations that challenged multi-site print businesses after the arrival of digital workflow and computer-to-plate (CTP) or direct to press imaging. That was the case for the McClatchy Co., where Herman Spencer serves as corporate technology manager at the RaleighDurham location in North Carolina. “McClatchy has 30 different properties, 30 different markets, and every site had its own flavor of output and different methods for generating plates for the printing presses,” he said. “There were different input and output systems, and even some homegrown systems that had been scripted internally. That’s just the software. There was also hardware—some old systems and some new.” The editorial systems across all the McClatchy properties were first consolidated to a single workflow based on CCI Europe’s NewsGate editorandpublisher.com
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The Warsaw Times-Union advertising team includes (left to right): Sue Kaminski, outside sales; Laura Sowers, outside sales and classifieds manager; Paul Smith, advertising manager and outside sales; Jessica Rodriguez, comptroller and outside sales; Deb Swick, composing and graphics manager; and Tamara Roller, preprint coordinator and outside sales.
with the same goal for the publisher’s production system. After adjudicating developers, McClatchy chose NewsWay from New ProImage America, Inc. Led by Spencer and two production colleagues,
McClatchy began implementation in February 2016. Today, the typeset pages coming out of the editorial system are approved and sent to NewsWay, where they are preflighted and normalized. They pass through an ink optimization phase, designed to save ink and money on press. From there, they are sent to the centralized RIP, where the file is separated into four colors output and sent on (via FTP) to local CTP devices. The workflow—from the time files leave the news desk to the time they are sent to plate imaging—is managed at the Fort Worth, Texas production site. The publisher also standardized file naming conventions across the titles and sites, and that simple change has been profoundly positive. Without disclosing the precise investment in NewsWay, Spencer noted that ROI is guaranteed. “We’re seeing a return on our investment in a number of ways, especially waste,” he said. “We now have a standard workflow that we know works, so the amount of mistakes and waste that went into re-plating our presses has gone down considerably.” Gretchen A. Peck is an independent journalist who has reported on publishing and printing for more than two decades. She has contributed to Editor & Publisher since 2010 and can be reached at gretchenapeck@ gmail.com.
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Anthony Conchel has been named editor of The Morrow County Sentinel in Ohio. He has worked in the newspaper industry for nearly four decades, most recently serving as editor of The Delaware (Ohio) Gazette. Conchel began his career with The Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune in 1980 as a sports writer. He succeeds Zach Jones, who left to pursue other career opportunities. Rhett Long has been appointed publisher of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah. Prior to joining the paper, Long was publisher and president of The Spectrum in St. George, Utah. He also oversaw the Daily News in Cedar City and the Desert Valley Times in Mesquite, Nev. Long succeeds Bob Williams, who retired earlier this year. Mark Russell has been named executive editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Since last May, he served as the paper’s interim executive editor. Russell was also head of opinion/engagement for the USA Today Network—Tennessee. He previously held editing positions at the Orlando Sentinel, Boston Globe and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Will Weibert has been named publisher of the Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat. Weibert most recently served as sales manager at the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal. Prior to that, he was sales manager for the Scotts Bluff Star-Herald in Nebraska. In addition, Nicole Cooke has been named editor at the Democrat. Previously, she served as news editor for the last two years. Cooke began her career as an education reporter at the paper in 2013. editorandpublisher.com
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NewsPeople
ACQUISITIONS
The Markham family has sold the Antelope Valley Press in Palmdale, Calif. to Antelope Valley Press Inc., led by publisher Steven Malkowich. The new owners operate newspapers throughout Canada and the United States. The Valley Press had been familyowned since 1915. Appalachian Newspapers Inc. has acquired a group of newspapers in eastern Kentucky from Civitas Media. The newspapers included in the deal are the Prestonsburg Floyd County Times and Hazard Herald. Appalachian Newspapers currently publishes Appalachian News-Express, Floyd County Chronicle, Mingo Messenger and Mountain Bargain Hunter in the same region. The County Times will merge with the County Chronicle to form Floyd County Chronicle and Times. NCWV Media has purchased The Republican in Oakland, Md. from the Sincell family. The newspaper had been family-owned and operated since 1890. NCWV Media publishes The Preston News & Journal, The Exponent Telegram, The State Journal, The Bridgeport News, The Fairmont News, The Weston News, The Blue & Gold News and NCWV Life Magazine in West Virginia. Ken Stern has acquired The La Conner (Wash.) Weekly News from Sandy Stokes and Cindy Vest. The pair had owned the Weekly News for a decade. The paper currently maintains a print circulation of 1,500. Sun Media Group has sold its assets to SJ Acquisition, a company controlled by RFB Holdings. The deal includes 17 publications in Maine such as the Sun Journal, Lakes Region Weekly and Bethel Citizen. The Costello family had owned the company since the 1890s. RFB Holdings currently owns MaineToday Media, Alliance Press and Courier Publications in Maine.
Robert Huschka has resigned as executive editor of the Detroit Free Press, where he has worked since 1999. Prior to that, he worked as a designer and copy editor at the Kansas City Star. Huschka also worked as a copy editor at the Minot Daily News and Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota. Lucas Peerman has been named news director of the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News. He has held various roles at the paper, including copy desk chief, features editor and digital editor. Prior to that, Peerman worked on the copy desk of the Santa Fe New Mexican. Jake Aaron has been promoted to advertising director of the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Ala. For the past four years, Aaron served as a sales consultant. He replaces
Jerry Geddings, who retired after more than 40 years. Dan McDonald has been named publisher of the Minot (N.D.) Daily News. He previously served as publisher of the Daily Press in Escanaba, Mich. McDonald also worked for 21st Century Newspapers in Michigan. Harry Porter has been named general manager of The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, Ark. He previously served as publisher of The Searcy (Ark.) Daily Citizen. Porter began his career in the sales department at The Jonesboro (Ark.) Sun. Jeff Smith has announced he will retire from his position as publisher of the Weatherford (Texas) Democrat in November. He SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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NewsPeople also currently serves as publisher of the Democrat’s two sister publications, the Cleburne Times Review and Mineral Wells Index in Texas. Smith originally joined parent company Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. in 2008 as the automotive specialist on their digital sales team. Brian Bidulka has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of Postmedia. He has held senior roles in the food and beverage, telecommunications and technology industries. Most recently, he served as CFO of George Weston Limited. Terrie Baker has been named general manager of The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent. For the last two years, Baker served as publisher of the North Platte (Neb.) Telegraph. She has also served as publisher of the Lexington (Neb.) Clipper-Herald. Fernanda Santos has joined the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as a southwest borderlands initiative professor. In her new role, Santos will teach short-form and long-form narrative journalism to undergraduate and graduate students. She worked at the New York Times since 2005, most recently serving as Phoenix bureau chief. Prior to that, she was a reporter at the New York Daily News.
Jeanie Johnson has been named publisher of the RegisterPajaronian in Watsonville, Calif. She left the paper four years ago to serve as marketing and membership director at the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce. In 2015, Johnson returned to News Media Corp., parent company of the Register-Pajaronian, as publisher of the Paso Robles (Calif.) Press.
Matthew Barzun has been appointed to the board of directors of Gannett. He has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden, as well as national finance chair for former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. His appointment expands Gannett’s board to 11 members. Kevin Halpern has been named editor of the Cannon Courier in Woodbury, Tenn. Previously, he served as editor of from 2009 to 2012 and before that, worked as a copy editor and page designer for parent company Civitas Media. He succeeds Mike West, who retired earlier this year. Charles Lee has been appointed publisher and advertising director of The Lebanon Reporter and Zionsville Times-Sentinel in Indiana. He previously served as sales manager for the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News. Lee also held various sales positions at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. Adam Symson has assumed the role of
Dana Canedy has been named administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. Most recently, she served as a senior editor at the New York Times, where she led talent acquisition and management training, career development and diversity and inclusion initiatives. Before joining the Times in 1996, Canedy spent eight years reporting and editing at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She succeeds Mike Pride, who retired earlier this year.
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president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Co. Symson held various roles in the television and interactive divisions before being named head of digital operations in 2011. He succeeds Rich Boehne, who will continue serving as chairman of the board of directors. Boehne began his career in the newspaper industry as a reporter for The Cincinnati Post in Ohio. Kate Hessling has been named editor of the Huron Daily Tribune in Bad Axe, Mich. She joined the paper more than a decade ago as a government reporter. Hessling has served as assistant news editor for the past six years. Additionally, Rebecca Watson has been promoted to general manager. She previously served as advertising director, and she also held marketing and sales positions with MLive Media Group and Townsquare Interactive. Steve Ranson has retired as editor of the Lahontan Valley News in Fallon, Nev. During his time as editor, Ranson also served as president of the Nevada Press Association. Prior to that, he was sports editor of the Valley News for four years. Ranson began his career at the paper in 1987. Marisa Kollias has been named tronc vice president of corporate communications. Kollias previously served as spokeswoman editorandpublisher.com
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NewsPeople Matt Leclercq has been named executive editor of The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. He most recently served as managing editor, overseeing digital platforms. Leclercq joined the Observer in 1999 as a reporter intern and worked his way up the ranks to become metro editor in 2007 and deputy editor for audience development five years later. He replaces Michael Adams, who retired after 25 years.
for former Chicago Sun-Times owner Wrapports. She succeeds Dana Meyer, who resigned from the position earlier this year. Madeleine Leroux has been named managing editor of the El Dorado (Ark.) News-Times. Previously, she served as as associate city editor, business editor and lifestyle editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. She has also worked at The Jefferson City (Mo.) News-Tribune, where she covered city hall and local government. Kelly Mirt has been named publisher and vice president of advertising at The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle. He previously served as vice president of advertising at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. Mirt began his newspaper career at the Eagle, where he worked his way up from an advertising representative to assistant retail sales manager. Additionally, Kirk Seminoff has been promoted to community engagement editor. Before that, he was the sports editor for the past 17 years. Derek Simmons has been named chief creative officer of Star Tribune Media Co. In his new role, he will oversee development of print and digital solutions at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. For the past three years, Simmons led the newsroom’s visuals department.
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Greg Sukiennik has been named managing editor of New England Newspaper Inc.’s Vermont newspapers. Sukiennik has served as editor of the Manchester (Vt.) Journal since last October. In his new role, he will also lead the Bennington Banner and Brattleboro Reformer. He has also worked at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass and the Associated Press in Boston. Scot Dalquist has been named vice president of the newspaper relations group at AMG/Parade. He will manage relationships with more than 100 of the company’s newspaper partners in 14 states. Dalquist previously served as manager of printing and publishing sales for the North Pacific Paper Co. in Longview, Wash. Doug Franklin has stepped down as chief executive officer of the Boston Globe. He joined the paper last year after spending nearly four decades at Cox Enterprises. Franklin has also served as publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mike Murphy has been named Gatehouse Media’s vice president of operations in Missouri. Murphy has served as the company’s senior group publisher in north central Missouri since 2014, overseeing newspapers in Hannibal, Mexico, Moberly, Boonville, Chillicothe, Brookfield and Kirksville. In his new role, he will help lead several other newspapers in Missouri, including the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Brian Porter has been named publisher of the Fort Morgan Times and Fort Morgan Weekly in Colorado. He will continue serving as publisher of the Brush (Colo.) News-Tribune, Brush (Colo.) Beet Express and Akron (Colo.) News-Reporter. Porter has worked in the newspaper industry for more than two decades. Matt Murray has been promoted to executive editor of the Wall Street Journal. In his new role, Murray will assume responsibility for news across all of the Journal’s platforms. He previously served as the paper’s deputy editor-in-chief. Wendy Benjaminson has been named national news editor for beats at the Associated Press. In her new role, she will oversee the AP’s teams of journalists who cover state government, environment, immigration, race and ethnicity. Benjaminson will also supervise three national beat reporters who cover social issues, religion and law enforcement. Prior to joining the AP, she held several senior editing roles at the Houston Chronicle. Christopher Kinsler has been named editor of The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. He previously served two stints as editor at The Journal in Martinsburg, W. Va. Kinsler began his career as a reporter at The Post-Journal in Jamestown, N.Y. and was later named sports editor at The Observer in Dunkirk, N.Y. Chadd Cripe has been named sports editor of the Idaho Statesman. He spent 14 seasons as the paper’s Boise State University football reporter. Cripe joined the paper as a copy editing intern in 1996, before transitioning to the sports department the following year. SEPTEMBER 2017 | E & P
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EMPLOYMENT AD SPECIAL! Up to 100 words: $50.00 Additional copy: $20.00 for 35 words
Other qualifications include: • A bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, business administration or other relevant area. Appropriate experience may be considered in lieu of degree. • A minimum of seven years advertising sales leadership experience and previous success as a print and online sales performer. Candidates with relevant newspaper industry experience are strongly preferred. • P&L experience, with knowledge of forecasting and modeling tools. • Outstanding oral and written communication skills. • The ability to learn and use a variety of software programs, including a CRM system. Compensation includes a base salary commensurate with experience and a performancebased bonus opportunity. Owned by GateHouse Media, we offer excellent benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, STD, LTD, 401K and more. The Gainesville Sun is an equal opportunity employer that recognizes the value of diversity in our workforce. The Gainesville Sun is a multi-media news & advertising organization, with a daily circulation of 21,000; Sunday, 28,000. Our online presence can be seen at www.gainesville.com. Gainesville, Fla. is located in north-central Florida, and is home to the University of Florida. If you are interested in joining an award winning newspaper, please submit a cover letter and resume to HR@gvillesun.com. CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: AIM Media Midwest, a publisher of over 30 daily – weekly newspapers in Ohio, is looking for several hands-on circulators with at least three to five years of experience to lead its departments. Candidates should have strong personnel management skills, possess team-building skills and a keen focus on improving customer service. They should also demonstrate a documented background in developing and implementing multifaceted sales and marketing programs that build readership. Competitive salary and benefits are included. Please email resume to dolsson@aimmediamidwest.com.
CIRCULATION MANAGER: The Porterville Recorder, a six-day a week daily newspaper, is seeking a circulation manager. The manager will be responsible for overseeing the operations of the circulation department including route carriers, racks and counter sales. He or she will also oversee our NIE program to get teachers signed up and contributions to continue the program. Manager will also oversee one district manager and two parti-time employees. We will hire a person with at least two years of experience in newspaper circulation who possesses strong management and critical-thinking skills. Must be able to lift at least 60 pounds and operate a forklift. The Porterville Recorder serves print and online readers in the San Joaquin Valley in California. The position is fulltime and benefitted. The Porterville Recorder is an equal opportunity employer. Email cover letter, resume and to publisher/editor Rick Elkins at relkins@portervillerecorder.com.
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EDITOR: The Santa Fe New Mexican, an award-winning daily newspaper in Santa Fe, is seeking an Editor. The successful candidate is a professional journalist with years of reporting, writing and editing experience. This person has strong political insight, an aptitude for investigative reporting, and a nose not only for hard news, but also for community news, and the recognition (or willingness to learn) of the many extraordinary and newsworthy community, social, environmental and political issues that exist in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. The Editor must cultivate and expand the role The New Mexican plays as a community leader. This person will listen and respond to readers, lead subordinate editors, and set the strategy and journalistic standards for the daily newspaper and multiple magazines published by The New Mexican. Selected candidate must be willing to learn what makes Santa Fe unique, and understand the interests of our daily readers. Audience development and increasing local readership is key. Additionally, the lead Editor must understand and cultivate the important role our magazines and Pasatiempo play in our community including the world of art, music, performance, tourism and the general culture of Santa Fe. This person must be forward-thinking, innovative, and knowledgeable about technology and how it can help The New Mexican best deliver its news on every digital platform. The Editor must work collaboratively with other directors and departments and understand the role of each department in producing a daily newspaper and website. This person must be enthusiastic and energetic; able to see our potential and oversee the continuation of the quality of work consistently produced by The New Mexican staff, its many accomplishments in news as well as achievements in all other departments. The Editor prepares the annual budget for the newsroom for management approval and monitors execution of the budget, including control of overtime and expenditures for correspondents and freelancers and all other news gathering expenses. Minimum qualifications: • Bachelor of Arts in Journalism; • Seven years’ newspaper experience with minimum five years’ management experience; • Experience in utilizing digital technology to deliver news on any platform, www, iPad, mobile, etc.; • Ability to forecast, manage to a budget and analyze financial data; • Ability to speak and understand Spanish a plus. In filling this key position for The New Mexican, we will review all resumes, start with a phone interview(s) and then proceed to an in-person interview. Please submit a cover letter, resume and compensation expectations to: Tom Cross, Publisher, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 202 E. Marcy Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501. tcross@sfnewmexican.com. The New Mexican is an equal opportunity employer INSERTER OPERATOR/SUPERVISOR: Seeking a mechanically inclined operator for our mailroom at the Salisbury Post. Supervisory experience required. Must have basic computer skills, ability to drive forklifts and delivery truck when needed. Responsible for daily production of insert packages and quality control. Must work well within a team environment. Night work required. Experience on a Harris 1472 inserter a plus. The Salisbury Post is a non-smoking, drug-free, equal employment opportunity workplace. Send resumes to: steve.griswold@salisburypost.com.
NEWSPAPER COPY EDITOR: Paxton Media Group LLC has an opening for a copy editor in its Paducah, Ky., Page Design Center. The PDC produces nine daily newspapers, associated weeklies and special sections. Experience on a commercial newspaper copy desk is preferred. However, recent graduates with editing and design experience at college newspapers will also receive strong consideration. The Page Design Center uses Adobe In-Design CS-6 for pagination, so experience creating pages and paginating them with this software is a plus. Paxton Media Group LLC is the publisher of more than 30 daily newspapers in the South and Midwest. Paxton Media Group LLC offers a choice of health plans, 401(k) with company match and other attractive benefits. Please email resume and work samples to cash@paducahsun.com with “copy editor” in the subject line.
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REAL-TIME REPORTER: The State Media in Columbia SC is seeking an ambitious, high-energy Real-Time news reporter. We need a reporter to compile and produce lightning-fast stories and post all news that is driving the conversation online. The most compelling candidates will have: • The ability to write quickly, accurately and well; • Solid news judgement and excellent journalism ethics; • An intuitive sense of what’s important and interesting; • A good grasp of what drives interest on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms; • A strong entrepreneurial spirit, deep curiosity and extremely high energy. • A collaborative style that works comfortably across teams spread throughout the office and company. Skills: • Education: College degree required • Professional journalism experience • News judgement; excellent writing skills, facility with social media and SEO; quick study of CMS and storytelling tools. Ability to effectively communicate with all levels of staff and editors. Personal attributes: Energy, flexibility, and online smarts. The ability to monitor a vast amount of information for a wide audience, matched with discerning judgment about what to pursue. The ability to execute both quickly and well, with creativity. All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of post-offer drug and background screenings. We offer a competitive salary, along with a varied benefits package, including, Medical, Dental, Vision coverage, LiveWell, Life Insurance, 401(k) Savings Plan, vacation, sick leave and company holidays. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and affirmative action employer If interested please send cover letter, resume and salary requirements to Brian Tolley, btolley@thestate.com. RFC SERIES EDITOR: The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is seeking an RFC Series Editor (RSE) to provide overall leadership and supervision of the RFC Editor function. The RSE has overall responsibility for the quality, continuity, and evolution of the Request for Comments (RFC) Series, the Internet’s seminal technical standards and publications series. The position has operational and policy development responsibilities. The RSE is a senior professional who must be skilled in leading, managing and enhancing a critical, multi-vendor, global information service. The position reports to the RFC Series Oversight Committee (RSOC). The contractual relationship is that of an independent contractor under contract with the Internet Society on behalf of the IAB. More information about the position, including required qualifications and the RFP, can be found at:: https://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/RSE-RFP-4August2017.pdf Expressions of interest in the position, CV (including relevant experience), contract rate, and references should be sent to the RSOC search committee at rse-search@iab.org. Questions may also be sent to this address. Applications will be kept confidential. The application period is open until the position is filled. PUBLISHER / DIRECTOR OF SALES: Privately held Hagadone Newspapers, Moses Lake, Washington, is searching for a candidate to lead business development and oversee general business operations for three established print and digital publications: Columbia Basin Herald (Monday-Friday), Sun Tribune (Weekly), Basin Business Journal (Monthly). Work with the best while living in the desirable Pacific Northwest. Moses Lake, Washington…a region known for its beautiful lake and tremendous outdoor activities located right on Interstate 90 with easy access to Spokane and Seattle. With over 300 days of sunshine per year, you can always plan and enjoy your activities. In this exciting role you will drive top-line revenue while leading an established sales team of Multimedia Account Executives and Facilitators, while reporting directly to the President. You will need to demonstrate a history of driving sustainable results with an ability to work independently, while thinking and acting strategically. Lead in sales, lead in the community. As the senior on-site executive, you will also spend quality time representing each newspaper while engaging with community leaders, organizations and events. Qualifications: Experience making a best-practices sales culture a top priority. Proven success in sales leadership with 5 plus years experience along with a proven track record of growing revenue. Meaningful experience leading digital sales preferred. You’ll need a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in marketing, advertising or related field. Strong skills in integrating analytics, market insights, strategies, account planning and other best practices to create and execute successful sales growth. Send cover letter and resume. Only applicants meeting the strict criteria outlined above will be contacted as part of the shortlisting process. Send in confidence to: Human Resources/Publisher PO Box 910 Moses Lake, Washington 98837
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shoptalk /commentary The True Value in News is Commanding an Audience By Andrew Dunn
T
his article is worthless. You heard me. I wouldn’t pay a dime to read it, wouldn’t pay myself a dime to produce it and wouldn’t pay a dime to publish it. Even if this were to go viral on BuzzFeed or Forbes, it’s not like it would feed my family. The issue is this: The article itself, as a form of writing, has been devalued to the point where its essential value is zero. Part of it is because platforms like Upwork and Fiverr have made it possible to commission 300 words on anything for a few bucks. But more than that, there are thousands of people with real talent who are sharing their art with the world. There are more brilliant articles written each day than anyone could possibly consume. Even the best of them aren’t enough to move any financial needle. The apocryphal example is the massive enterprise project from Mother Jones on the problems with private prisons. If you’re in the journalism world, you’ve probably heard about it. The story racked up more than a million views and had a tangible impact on public policy. It cost roughly $350,000 to produce. Online, it brought in roughly $5,000 in revenue. An article is worthless. An audience — now that’s valuable. Journalists, especially at the local level, have been conditioned to believe that they are cogs in a machine, replaceable, interchangeable and useful only for churning out content to fill a news hole. They’ve generally not been willing or empowered to wield their clout to push for change in their institutions or command higher salaries.
If a sizable group of people isn’t pulling out its wallets to read your coverage, your job is in jeopardy.
This must change, and quickly. Chasing page views is a losing battle. Building a stable of committed, enthusiastic subscribers is the only way to sustain a news product in the internet era. Journalists who are able to help do this will become increasingly valuable. A reporter who can pull in 1,000 paying subscribers is more than paying their salary. The problem then becomes creating the right incentives. The metrics here are less cut and dry. How many people maintained their subscriptions with Mother Jones because of the prison story? It’s impossible to know. But clearly, that’s where you make a business case for laying out 350 G’s on a single story. According to the most recent numbers, Mother Jones has about 200,000 subscribers. If they all pay $12/ year, that’s a nice $2.4 million per year in revenue before you get to still-lucrative print advertising. An individual story on a county school board meeting might only pull 800 readers. Not worth the effort, right? Not necessarily. If these 800 people subscribe to the
newspaper for education coverage, that changes the equation. For some reason, I keep seeing news organizations hire reporters for continuous news desks or breaking news beats. Their job is to populate the website with articles throughout the day. At the national level, this makes sense. You can build a business with enough scale where a page view play is achievable. At the local level, these efforts are mostly in vain. If a sizable group of people isn’t pulling out its wallets to read your coverage, your job is in jeopardy. No matter how good an article you can write.
Andrew Dunn is the editor-in-chief of Charlotte Agenda, a rapidly growing local digital news company in North Carolina. Prior to joining the Agenda, he was a reporter and editor at The Charlotte Observer.
Printed in the USA. Vol. 150, No 9, EDITOR & PUBLISHER (ISSN: 0013-094X, USPS: 168-120) is published 12 times a year. Regular issues are published monthly by Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA, 92708-7000; Editorial and Advertising (949) 660-6150. Periodicals postage paid at Fountain Valley, CA 92708, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: EDITOR & PUBLISHER. P.O. Box 25859, Santa Ana, CA 92799-5859. Copyright 2017, Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Subscription Price: U.S. and its possessions, $99.00 per year, additional postage for Canada & foreign countries $20.00 per year. Single copy price $8.95 in the U.S. only; Back issues, $12.95 (in the U.S. only) includes postage and handling. Canada Post: Publication Mail Agreement No. 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 682. Subscriber Services (888) 732-7323; Customer Service Email: circulation@editorandpublisher.com.
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IT’S YOUR DESTINATION TO COLLECT SOLUTIONS AND IDEAS FROM SPEAKERS, EXHIBITORS AND YOUR PEERS Featuring: ▶ GateHouse Media’s Jason Taylor ■ Learn how community engagement makes a difference along with strategies for success. ▶ Tulsa World’s Mike Strain ■ Learn the why’s and how’s of video use 101. ▶ News Media Alliance’s John Murray ■ Learn new ways to get those numbers up in this circulation session. ▶ University of Tulsa’s Calvin Moniz ■ Calvin Michael Moniz, J.D., will shine a light on hiring and retaining millennials. ▶ Friends2Follow’s John Miller ■ John Winn Miller will predict what newspapers’ social media will look like in two years.
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