August 2019 - Editor & Publisher Digital Edition by Duncan McIntosh Company

INLAND/SNPA ANNUAL MEETING October 6-8 | Chicago | JW Marriott

Be there as newspaper champions are reborn Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of history as the Inland Press Association and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association hold their inaugural Annual Meeting as a new, merged association—united in their determination to champion newspapers. Expect a meeting that mixes the practical and the forward-looking in the service of making your newspaper even stronger, across all platforms from print to digital, and from a wide variety of revenue streams. Expect, in other words, all the advantages you’ve always enjoyed from SNPA and Inland conferences—all in the collegial atmosphere of networking you’ve also come to expect.

Registration Information The registration fee for Inland and SNPA members is $795, through August 16. Ask about team discounts available to newspapers that send five or more employees from the same paper. Contact Carley Lintz at clintz@inlandpress.org to request the team discount. Never attended an SNPA or Inland Annual Meeting before? There’s a special first-time rate of $595 for members. Sponsorships are still available for this historic gathering of newspaper decision makers! For more information on sponsorships: Inland: Patty Slusher at 847-795-0382 or pslusher@inlandpress.org. SNPA: Cindy Durham or Paulette Sheffield at 404-256-0444 or cindy@ snpa.org or paulette@snpa.org.

Learn more and register at inland-snpa.org

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A Section

Features

Departments

CHANGING THE GAME

PRINT 19 Arrives in Chicago Oct. 3-5

CRITICAL THINKING

Deep.BI makes data analysis quick and easy for publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 8

RESTORING MEDIA North Carolina newspapers form media management company . . . . . . . . . . p. 9

ONE BRAND, ONE MISSION Philadelphia Inquirer introduces a new look with its rebrand . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 12

TOWN CRIER Two South Dakota newspapers create publication to shine a light on Native Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 13

Annual conference will bridge the gap between printing and technology . p. 31

Formula for Success What do profitable newspapers have in common? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 32

Reinventing the News To carry on, journalism must create its own media landscape . . . . . . . . . . p. 38 Cover illustration by Meredith Ewell

With more women running for president in 2020, is the media fairly covering them compared to the male candidates? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 15

DATA PAGE Declining trust in media among college students, media consumption sources by millennials in the U.S., average time spent with media in selected countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 18

PRODUCTION The latest production trends fuel the shift away from print and closer to an all-digital world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 26

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE Houston Defender Media Group partners with college students to cover Texas state politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 14

NEWSPEOPLE

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

SHOPTALK

Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado p. 16

Facebook and the ‘third person effect’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 50

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 44

Columns INDUSTRY INSIGHT

BUSINESS OF NEWS

DIGITAL PUBLISHING

10 things we owe today’s journalists p. 20

To assure a successful future, newspapers must break away from the print model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 22

As general manager of the Compass Experiment, Mandy Jenkins will explore new sustainable models for local news p. 24

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editorial

Reality Check

n 2012, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans caused uproar in the community and news industry when it announced it would no longer be published as a daily newspaper. Instead, it would only be delivered three times a week so that the newsroom could focus on gathering news online. As that was going on, the Baton Rouge Advocate expanded into the market and started to print and distribute a daily newspaper called the New Orleans Advocate. For six years, the two publications competed side by side, covering one of the most populated cities in the country. That is until Advocate owners John and Dathel Georges made a surprise announcement in May that they were purchasing the Times-Picayune from Advance Local. The combined New Orleans Advocate and Times-Picayune made its debut this summer, ending the city’s paper war. In Youngstown, Ohio, the Vindicator turned 150 years old on June 25. But instead of celebrating the milestone, the newspaper announced it would be closing at the end of August due to “great financial hardships.” Publisher Betty Brown Jagnow and general manager Mark Brown revealed in the announcement, “We did everything we could to increase revenue, including raising the price of the newspaper, and to drive advertising revenue into the paper and website. However, in spite of our best efforts, advertising and circulation revenues have continued to decline, and The Vindicator continues to operate at a loss.” The family had owned and operated the paper for 132 years. “A lot of those families are tired,” Joshua Benton wrote in Nieman Lab. “They’ve been fighting the demise of print advertising for more than a decade now, they see the direction things are headed, and they don’t like the idea of treating breakeven as a stretch goal.” According to Benton, the Vindicator did have two potential buyers, but no one came through. Perhaps it was the fact the Vindicator had been losing money for 20 of the past 22 years. Still, it’s a troubling sign when newspaper chains like GateHouse, Gannett 4 |

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and McClatchy aren’t interested in saving a city’s only newspaper. Without a local newspaper, it’s the citizens of Youngstown that will end up losing the most. “The loss of the Youngstown Vindicator every morning doesn’t mean that the region’s 200,000 will no longer be getting information,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch wrote. “It just increases the likelihood they’ll be getting bad information—intentionally manipulated, and sometimes outand-out fakery. Brown even told the Washington Post that without a journalist watchdog, he was “scared for the community.” But not all hope is lost in Youngstown. ProPublica recently announced it would expand its Local Reporting Network into the city and pay the salary for one full-time investigative reporter for a year. What happened in New Orleans and Youngstown is a reality check for the publishing world: Entertainment Weekly magazine recently announced it was going monthly (although it’s going to keep Weekly in the name), and satirical magazine Mad, founded in 1952, would no longer be published monthly, but instead only publish special editions. Just last month, the 114-year-old African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, announced it would cease print operations and transition to a digital-only platform. Hiram E. Jackson, CEO of Real Times Media (the Defender’s owner), said the move would help them reach more readers and make them more “nimble.” “I see this as our responsibility to show what the future looks like,” he explained. As more papers scale back and close, we have to imagine what the future of news will look like. Our feature stories this month may help paint that picture. Rob Tornoe writes about how journalism is reinventing itself by creating its own media landscape, and Evelyn Mateos breaks down several components on what makes a newspaper profitable, starting with having a compelling mission. It’s something simple, but it will make all the difference.—NY

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 Evelyn Mateos evelyn@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 CIRCULATION ASSISTANTS Emily Wells Horneff Dustin Nguyen PRODUCTION Mary Monge TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR David Kelsen OPERATIONS MANAGER Jennifer Chen, ext. 214 jennifer@editorandpublisher.com

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Give Readers More, Not Less

ROY E. BODE

There’s still a future for print newspapers as well as digital, but it will require a return to traditional standards and values and more local ownership directly connected to the communities where they publish. (“Editorial: Cuts Like a Knife,” July 2019) The loss of those qualities tops hundreds of reasons for the stunning demise of an industry that has generally reacted unwisely and belatedly to the blinding changes of the media world. When “team leaders” and editors in distant places run newsrooms in very different markets, there’s no doubt that more consolidation—whether of companies or key operations at individual papers—has become a problem, not a solution. Indiscriminate cuts may lower expense, but they soon reduce revenue in a business dependent more than ever on credible journalism, useful content and appealing ancillary products, a reality sadly unrecognized by many of today’s owners and operators. The greatest lesson I learned in more than 50 years as a large newspaper group manager and later as the owner of a small one is a simple one: “You can’t win by giving people less and charging them more.”

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

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Local is About Perspective Yet, regional news is local. Best to define “local” before saying if something is or is not local. (“Shoptalk: What is Local News?” June 2019) I’m a newspaperman, but I’ve worked in TV and radio. What happens in “the next town over” does indeed impact you, so that would make it “local,” right? Or maybe not. I think this is really a rural versus metro look at news. People, especially news people who are in large metro areas, see their city as “local” even though it might take two hours to drive from one side of town to the other. Two hours driving in rural America means a 100-mile radius. So is local based on square miles, city limits (what if you don’t live in city limits), drive times? It’s all about perspective. DAN LONG

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

First Amendment Belongs to the People Thanks for this incisive look at using social media engagement in the service

of investigative journalism, empowering readers and rebuilding relationships to better inform our communities. (“Industry Insight: Asking Readers for Help,” May 2019) This should remind us all that the First Amendment is not just for the “press,” it belongs to the people. LINDA SHOCKLEY

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Follow the Reader Moving from advertising income to reader income is not an easy way, but nowadays necessary to develop new revenue models according to time. (“One Size Does Not Fit All,” May 2019) Following the reader into the social networks gives more insight on content and new ways of generating income. CARLOS OLIVA-VELEZ

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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EPPYFPad19.qxp_Layout 1 7/18/19 9:15 AM Page 1

2019 CALL FOR ENTRIES

Honoring the Best in Digital Media The EPPYTM Awards, presented by Editor & Publisher, honor the best in digital media across 30 diverse categories, including excellence in college and university journalism. Now in its 24th year, this international contest has broadened its scope and also includes categories for investigative features, mobile apps,

videos, webcasts, advertising/marketing, photography and community service. Entries to the EPPYTM Awards are judged by a panel of notable figures in the media industry, chosen by the staff of Editor & Publisher.

For more information, please contact: Entry deadline: Aug. 23, 2019 Martha McIntosh at martha@editorandpublisher.com eppyawards.com

editorandpublisher.com

the A section VOLUME 152

FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2019

ISSUE 8

> Look Ahead

Changing the Game Deep.BI makes data analysis quick and easy for publishers By Evelyn Mateos

any news publishers are overwhelmed with the amount of solutions out there that promises to convert online readers into paying customers, but Deep.BI has the potential to change the game. The software provider has offices in California, London and Poland. Recently, Deep.BI made the Recency, Frequency and Volume (RFV) scoring metric developed by the Financial Times available to any media organization. RFV is a combination of different usage interactions: recency is the number of days since a user had used the product; frequency is the number of days (over of a span of 30 days) a user has been using the product; and volume (content consumption) accounts for page views and time spent listening to radio, podcasts or music services. Deep.BI goes beyond implementing the scoring metric by creating “finger-

Using the RFV score, Deep.BI takes a snapshot of a user’s RFV at any particular moment.

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prints” of a user. Using the RFV score, Deep.BI takes a snapshot of a user’s RFV at any particular moment. “Because we have this kind of fingerprint data left on all of the data events, we’re able to average the data and kind of spilt it anyway we want,” Alex Krzoska, deep score product manager, said. “We’re able to say, for ex} Sebastian Zontek ample, ‘What is the average engagement of a user who read this particular content category?’” The in-depth information collected by the fingerprints allows publishers to create thresholds for different automatic actions. Krzoska and CEO/CTO Sebastian Zontek explained a publisher can implement the right paywall for their site or as many other actions as they like with the information they receive from Deep.BI. The process of installing RFV is simple, Krzoska said. “We put our scripts either directly on your site or onto a Google tag manager and we immediately can begin the collection of data.” The only catch is that a publisher must have 30 days worth of data to begin with so that Deep.BI can properly present the initial RFV score, or the publisher can install the code and wait 30 days. To date, Deep.BI has worked with 20 newspapers around the world. Rafał Arciszewski, head of analytics at Polska Press Group/ Verlagsgruppe Passau, said, “Deep.BI provides comprehensive real-time user engagement scores which not only allow us to know and target our user base, but also allows our editorial team to review content flexibly from an engagement perspective, adapting powerful metrics from Deep.BI and creating new metrics that suit our editorial needs.” Zontek said when publishers work with them, “It’s not going to be a year project to implement custom metrics. Everything here is so easily accessible…you can build your own tactics, strategies and products. This is what we want to provide for media.” For more information, visit deep.bi. editorandpublisher.com

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the A section

Restoring Media

North Carolina newspapers form media management company

s more newspapers merge and consolidate, North Carolina’s last two family-owned daily publications, the Daily Record and the Wilson Times, have come together to create a media management company called Restoration Newsmedia. Last year, Keven Zepezauer was named Times president and publisher after a two-year stint as general manager. It was also during that time that Bart Adams, one of the owners of the Record, told his colleague Morgan Dickerman, owner of the Times, that he was ready to retire. He asked Dickerman if Zepezauer would also watch over his titles as president and publisher. After several months of working for both owners, Zepezauer came to the conclusion that there was a lot of opportunity to operate as a combined group and buck the current national trend of increasing expenses and declining revenue “We had a nice long meeting with attorneys, accountants and everybody involved, and thus the birth of Restoration Newsmedia,” he said.

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} Keven Zepezauer

serve as cochairmen, and Debbie Boykin, chief financial officer of the Times, serves as chief financial officer. The partnership is still a work in progress in terms of how and what resources and expertise will be shared, but several aspects are already in place, Zepezauer explained. Recently, Restoration Newsmedia created a Media Services Division in Wilson, essentially their pagination division where pages for all of the newspapers are laid out. There is also an ad production division, dubbed their Design Hub, in the city of Dunn that takes care of the advertisement department. When asked how employees and readers have reacted to the partnership, Zepezauer said, “With a lot of newspapers struggling in the climate today, they’re seeing what we’re doing in trying to keep newspapers and journalism alive in each one of these markets, and they have absolutely embraced it.”—EM

“With a lot of newspapers struggling in the climate today, they’re seeing what we’re doing in trying to keep newspapers and journalism alive in each one of these markets…” Zepezauer said the significance of the name “(focuses) on keeping newspapers alive in each market by restoring faith in the community in journalism.” The new company was revealed to readers in early May. Zepezauer serves as president and publisher of its eight titles, which include the twice-weekly CourierTimes, weekly Mount Olive Tribune, (published by the Record), the Enterprise,the Johnstonian News, the Wake Weekly and the Butner-Creedmoor News (published by the Times). Dickerman and Adams

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the A section Tornoe’s Corner > Wise Advice

} Kristin Roberts

“What are some key moments from your career that will help you lead in your new role as vice president of news for McClatchy?” Learning the power of being first by watching alerts move markets. Finding on the Muni Bond reporting job that the less heralded beats hide some of the most significant stories. Recognizing that everyone has an important story by talking to service families battered by war rather than just the officials inside the Pentagon. Standing up for responsible journalism by refusing to rewrite a reporter’s story that was smarter and less scandalous than the approach the bosses wanted. Ditching chase-the-polls coverage to free my team to think and be more ambitious. And deciding to get business literate to help our newsrooms own their destiny. I carry all of these moments with me into this job. Kristin Roberts was named McClatchy’s vice president of news in May and is the first woman to hold that position in the company’s history. She leads 30 newsrooms focused on delivering local news and information that is essential to the lives of readers and viewers in communities across the U.S. 10 |

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LEGAL BRIEFS South Florida Sun Sentinel Wins Contempt Case Over Parkland Shooting Suspect

According to the Associated Press, a judge has dismissed the Broward County School Board’s request that the South Florida Sun Sentinel and two reporters be held in contempt for publishing redacted material about former student, Nikolas Cruz, who was charged with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The district argued that the material, regarding Cruz’s education background, was redacted to protect his privacy. The paper argued the district failed to properly redact the material, allowing anyone to view it. The material showed the district hadn’t given Cruz the mental health treatment he needed before the February 2018 shooting that left 17 dead.

Texas Supreme Court Rules in Favor of the Dallas Morning News in Libel Lawsuit

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the newspaper and staff writer Kevin Krause in a libel lawsuit brought on by RXpress Pharmacies and Xpress Compounding, owned by Lewis Hall and his son Richard Hall. The lawsuit was filed in March 2016 and sought $50 million in damages for what the Halls said were libelous and defamatory statements made in the News. Krause’s stories quoted court filings that accused the pharmacy of paying illegal kickbacks to physicians for writing prescriptions and said the company was the subject of a federal health care fraud investigation. But the Supreme Court decision said the News’ reporting was a fact-based account of court proceedings. editorandpublisher.com

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the A section From the Archive OF THE MONTH Four University of Arizona (UA) School of Journalism students recently helped create an app and a health website for the Arizona Daily Star. After Michael McKisson, a UA assistant professor of practice, secured a $35,000 grant from the national Online News Association, each student received $4,700 to work with Star product manager Becky Pallack and director of digital innovation Rob Wisner to develop these projects. Students Erin Thomson and Phillip Bramwell created the Tucson Access Guide, a mobile news app that gives people with physical disabilities reviews of accessibility at restaurants, tourist spots and other locations. The app opens to a map and allows users to select a location to either rate or read reviews. Bramwell explained in a UA News article that users can comment on five categories: bathroom access, transportation options and parking, staff assistance, ease of mobility inside, and ease of entries and exits. In addition, students Ava Garcia and Rocky Baier created Tu Salud Tucson (Your Health Tucson), a bilingual mobile website with health news and resources for Latinx families, featuring three main sections: Get Healthy, Find a Clinic and Health Events. Each section can be searched through a variety of different aspects, making it simple to find what the user needs. “We truly want to help people get the information they need,” Garcia said in the UA News article. “Health is so important, and we want people to know what resources are out there.” Pallack told E&P the paper hopes to hire one or more of the student founders. “In the next phase, the Star is looking for additional funding from advertisers, sponsors, and/or grant makers to keep the products going,” she said. “It was great working with the students because they helped us test many ideas at once and quickly learn which ideas we wanted to pursue.”—EM

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 Norman E. Isaacs, executive editor of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and Times, made a trip to the Soviet Union and distributed copies of the Detroit News’ special section of the Apollo 11 moon landing pictures—a feat of history not widely disseminated in the Soviet Union. “I distributed some copies at a collective farm in Eastern Georgia in the heart of the Caucasus Mountains,” said Isaacs. “You’d have thought I’d handed out one of life’s great treasures.” This photo originally appeared in the Oct. 25, 1969 issue of E&P.

67.6

32.3

A recent Storybench analysis found that during a six-week period, men wrote 67.6 percent of national stories about the 2020 presidential race, while women only wrote 32.3 percent of these stories.

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the A section

One Brand, One Mission Philadelphia Inquirer introduces a new look with its rebrand

} The Inquirer’s new logo debuted on June 1, 2019, the newspaper’s 190th birthday.

ood-bye, Philadelphia Media Network. Hello, Philadelphia Inquirer. On June 1, the Inquirer celebrated its 190th birthday with a new logo, web address and company name. The name change also affected the former Philly.com (now Inquirer. com) and the Philadelphia Daily News (all housed under the former PMN). Inquirer executive editor and senior vice president Stan Wischnowski explained that from 2006 to 2015, the company went through seven owners, and with those changes came many different names and identities. “It was time to deliver brand clarity to the market we serve,” Wischnowski said. “The Inquirer is now a public benefit corporation, and as such our primary purpose and responsibility is to serve the Philadelphia region with strong and independent journalism for the greater good of its citizens and the community at large.” Wischnowski estimates that all elements of the rebrand were

“There’s been a strong sense of pride through this transition.”

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under construction for about a year. During the process, he said that buyin was required from the newsroom every step of the way. Communication was key, and staff members had quarterly meetings about the rebrand. The nameplate was one item the newsroom grappled with for some time. } Stan Wischnowski Wischnowski said a team of in-house graphic artists collaborated with worldrenowned type-designer Matthew Carter to create the Inquirer’s new logo. Carter previously worked with the newsroom to digitize the previous masthead. After more than six months of research, a logo designed by Sara Pfefer, an Inquirer graphic designer, was chosen. “The newsroom was ultra protective of the nameplate—every letter was a conversation,” Wischnowski said. “It speaks to the pride, dedication and commitment that the journalists here have to the brand.” While the newsroom was sensitive to the changes of the nameplate, they were also hesitant about the switch to Inquirer.com. According to Wischnowski, one of the past owners had tried to make the change and it wasn’t well executed. These sensitivities led to the deliberate one year execution of the rebrand. The Inquirer also took time to survey readers about how they would feel about the changes. “There’s been a strong sense of pride through this transition,” Wischnowski said. “The Inquirer has a very loyal readership, both in print and digital, and those people have been very supportive.” With this new vision, Wischnowski said, “This move to a single brand doesn’t change that public-service mission, but without a doubt it provides a stronger level of brand clarity. While we’re all deeply committed to upholding the rich tradition of the Inquirer, we’re equally thrilled to usher in a new era of journalism that puts our storied brand at the center of our digital future.”—EM editorandpublisher.com

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the A section

Town Crier Two South Dakota newspapers create publication to shine a light on Native Americans

n Rapid City, S.D., two newspapers recently joined forces to create a publication named Eyapaha, offering readers and tourists a glimpse into the lives of the Native Americans in the region and to promote the culture and tourism sites on their Native Nations. The idea came together in February when Rapid City Journal publisher Matthew Tranquill and Tim and Jackie Giago, owners of the Native Sun News Today, decided to collaborate on a project. Tranquill, who is new to South Dakota, wanted to learn more about the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, and at the same time, educate his readers. By mid-March, the idea for Eyapaha was born.

The Sun News Today team came up with the publicationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name, which in Lakota means â&#x20AC;&#x153;town crier,â&#x20AC;? a man who traveled and shouted the news and upcoming

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events to the people of the villages. Together, the staff of the Journal and Sun News Today decided to include stories about all nine reservations in South Dakota and one Montana reservation. The special publication ran in both newspapers as an insert on May 29. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important for local media to work together to make sure that our communities know that we are trying to mirror their opinions and values,â&#x20AC;? Tranquill told E&P. The Giagos and Tranquill hope to work together again in the future to continue to educate readers about Native American life and share Eyapaha on their respective publicationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website in the near future. â&#x20AC;&#x201C;EM

6ROG Daily Newspaper The Bakersfield Californian

Bakersfield, California Cribb, Greene & Cope is pleased to have represented the Moorhouse and Cowenhaven families in their sale Sound News Media.

John Cribb Randy Cope Jeffrey Potts John Thomas Cribb jcribb@cribb.com rcope@cribb.com jpotts@cribb.com johnthomas@cribb.com 406.579.2925 214.356.3227 916.673.9778 406.570.5595

ENGCPOCEJKPGPGVYQTM EQO editorandpublisher.com

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the A section

Hands-On Experience Houston Defender Media Group partners with college students to cover Texas state politics 8

DEFENDER | MARCH 21 | 2019

defendernetwork.com

Pregnancy-related deaths

Black maternal mortality rate addressed general practice, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology physicians. The bias training, Thierry said, hen Jaymie is crucial to correct inaccurate beliefs Rivera-Clemente among the medical community that reflects on her Black women have “thicker skin” or four pregnancies, can tolerate more pain than their white there’s a comcounterparts, which can lead to mismon thread running through them – her takes being made when these women healthcare providers failed to properly are receiving any kind of treatment, not communicate with her each time. just maternal healthcare. “I ended up crowning my first “I've heard people say that child on the toilet simply because the African-Americans’ blood coagulates nurse didn't feel the need to make the faster,” Thierry said. “This is systemdifference in the type of pressure that I atic decades and decades of misinforState Rep. Shawn Thierry was feeling,” Rivera-Clemente said. mation and misinformation. That's how That was just one of Rivera-Cleit's affecting people. I want when you mente’s poor experiences with doctors say implicit bias, say racism.” and nurses while giving birth, and she’s Despite knowing otherwise, some not alone. Black women often struggle Black women may end up being afraid to be heard in those crucial settings, to speak up, Thierry said. Rivera-Clemente said, and it can have “There's a fear because of stedisastrous consequences. reotypes as a Black woman that if you In Texas, where maternal mortalwere to actually speak and advocate ity is already high, Black women are for yourself, even when you're in crisis, more than twice as likely to die as the that you may be retaliated against,” result of their pregnancy than white Thierry said. women, according to a 2018 report Implicit bias, as well as the diffrom the Department of State Health ficulties in getting healthcare profesServices. The report also said that of sionals to listen in times of need, can Dr. Michele Rountree, Ph.D. the 118 deaths studied, all of which destroy faith in doctors, said Riverahappened in 2012, eight out of every 10 were reasonably Clemente, who also now works as a doula – a person preventable. trained to provide information, emotional support, and Overall in Texas, approximately 14 Black women physical comfort to a mother before, during and just after die for every 100,000 live births. For white women, the childbirth – helping women get through their pregnancy rate is less than half that. as smoothly as possible. Rivera-Clemente, who now works for the advocacy (Doulas are often paid for out of pocket and are not group the Black Mamas Community Collective, Houston covered under Medicaid, making them inaccessible to State Rep. Shawn Thierry and experts met recently during many low-income women). the Texas Black Legislative Caucus Summit to discuss “You're not listening to us [during childbirth], and how to address the high Black maternal mortality rate. then we come into the office after we have a baby…I Thierry, D-Houston, has filed several bills this don't trust you, and I don't trust you to listen to me now,” legislative session to expand Medicaid coverage for Rivera-Clemente said. maternal health and to mandate implicit bias and cultural Thierry is also working on bills to establish August competency training for medical students and current as Maternal Health Awareness Month and create an online By CHASE KARACOSTAS Defender

Maternal mortality rates

This story was produced by a partnership with the University of Texas at Austin and HustonTillotson University. Chase is a student at UT, who covered maternal mortality at the Texas Legislative Black Caucus Summit.

IN TEXAS

die per • 13.9 Black women compared to six 100,000 live births, for white women. studied • Eight out of 10 deaths preventwere considered reasonably healthcare to able with minor changes treatment. of • Black women, regardless and marital status, education income, compared to are at the greatest risk any other race. t of State Source: Texas Departmen

Pending legislation House Bill 411 – Would expand Medicaid coverage for eligible pregnant women to 12 months postpartum compared to just 60 days. House Bill 606 – Would allow for automatic enrollment in the Healthy Texas Women program for anyone previously covered under CHIP or Children’s Medicaid as soon as they reach 18.

database to track maternal mortality and morbidity across the state. Beyond legislative action, Dr. Michele Rountree, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, said there also needs to be a focus on diversifying medical schools and the medical field as a whole. Rountree said this would go a long way toward improving trust between the Black community and the healthcare field, where just 7 percent are Black, though Blacks comprise nearly 12 percent of the state’s overall population. “There is a grave underrepresentation in health care in Texas,” Rountree said.

Rountree said the implicit bias and cultural competency training has the chance to improve how the medical community understands Black women, who often face some of the hardest discrimination throughout their lives, which can affect their mental and physical well-being. “African-American women are disproportionately affected by multiple sexual and reproductive health conditions compared with other races and ethnicities, and research suggests that racism is an underlying determinant of social condition,” Rountree said. “For Black women, it's as though we are living our lives with our foot on the accelerator constantly with the experience of discrimination or anticipation.”

Health Services

IN THE U.S.

, the preg• During 2011-2014 ratios were 40 nancy-related mortality live biths for Black deaths per 100,000 to 12.4 deaths for women, compared for women of white women and 17.8 other races. causes of • The most common were: Cardiovasdeath by percentage percent; non-carcular diseases, 15.2 14.7; infection diovascular diseases, e, 11.5; or sepsis, 12.8; hemorrhag thrombotic cardiomyopathy, 10.3; 9.1; cerebropulmonary embolism, 7.4; hypertensive vascular accidents, , 6.8; unknown, disorders of pregnancy embolism, 5.5; 6.5; amniotic fluid ons, 0.3. anesthesia complicati Disease Control Source: Centers for

Wellness tips for wom en

Getting regular health care can help identify conditions that can cause problems for pregnant women. serious If you’re planning pregnancy, get a preconception checkup, tell your provider about any medicines you take, protect yourself from infections and get to a healthy weight by eating healthy foods and being active.

cause pregnancy-related death. • Protect yourself from infections. Talk to your provider about vaccinations (like the flu shot) that can help protect you from certain diseases. Wash your hands with soap and water after using the bathroom or blowing your nose. Stay away from people who have infections. Don’t eat raw meat, fish or eggs. Use Also, make sure your pregnancy a condom to provider, such as an obstetrician/g health protect yourself from STIs. If you have a ynecolo- cat, do not clean gist, is right for you. Ask its litter box. Contact with friends, family infected cat feces can cause members, neighbors or toxoplasmosis, coworkers if they a parasite infection. have a doctor they like. Use your first visit • Eat healthy foods and as a litmus test. Your provider do something should: active every day. • Treat you with respect. • Don’t smoke, drink alcohol • Listen to your opinions or use and concerns. harmful drugs. Tell your provider • Show an interest in getting if you to know need help quitting. you. • Welcome your questions and answer them in ways that you can understand AFTER PREGNANCY • Tell your provider right away if you have you have any signs DURING PREGNANCY or symptoms of conditions that can cause • Go for your first prenatal pregnancycare visit as related death. soon as you think you’re These can include chest pregnant. pain, trouble breathing, dizziness • Go to all your prenatal and swelling in care checkthe legs, hands or face. ups, even if you’re feeling fine. • If you’re worried about • Tell your provider about anything or any medisomething doesn’t seem cines you take. right, call your provider. • If you’re at risk for preeclampsia , • If you’re having a medical talk to your provider about emertaking low-dose gency, call 911. aspirin to help reduce your risk. PreSource: March of Dimes, eclampsia is a serious condition Defender that can News Services

defendernetwork.com • Serving the Houston area for over 88 years

 (From left) Defender publisher Sonceria Messiah-Jiles, Chase Karacostas, Ka-

tie Balevic, Alexis Tatum, Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chair Harold Dutton, Samaiya Kirven and McKayla Ellison. (Photo provided)

otivated to give readers well-written and indepth coverage of the state legislature, and provide college students with real-world experience, the Houston Defender Media Group, an 88-year-old Black Press institution, came up with a unique partnership with local schools. Last October, the publication reached out to the communications departments at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Houston-Tillotson University (HT), a historically black campus, to find students to cover the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, which took place at the end of February this year. “(The partnership) is rare from the standpoint that members of the black press rarely reach out to non-black universities to establish partnerships…in this case we reached out to both,” Houston Defender publisher and CEO Sonceria Messiah Jiles said. There was no curated process to select the students; instead, professors were asked to choose the students. “If anybody knew who could write, it was the professors,” Messiah-Jiles said. “We didn’t want to go through a random selection process and end up with poor quality.” Three students from UT were selected: Chase Karacostas, Alexis Tatum and Katie Balevic, along with two students from HT: Samaiya Kirven and McKayla Ellison. To prepare for the event, the media company had teleconferences with the students so that they understood what type of audience

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 A story produced by University of Texas at Austin student Chase Karacostas regarding the Maternal Mortality workshop at the Texas Legislative Black Caucus Summit.

the Defender had and what approach they wanted the students to tackle. Messiah-Jiles explained that as a weekly publication, they were seeking a news feature approach—“drilling down on the issue and finding out what the solutions were.” The students were then assigned workshops based on their interest and class schedule. Workshops included criminal justice reform; juvenile justice reform; mental health and maternal mortality rate in the black community; the State of Texas HBCUs and public education; and 2020 census/redistricting. Then, the students each produced two stories: a news story (about 400 to 600 words) and a news feature with at least one sidebar (about 1,200 words). They were provided a two-week window to turn in the pieces. Stories were edited by professors and published in March, April and May. Students were paid for each of the articles they submitted. HT communications instructor Cate Malek told the Defender: “Both of my students were enthusiastic about getting out of the classroom and trying out their skills in a real-world setting. Some of the things we talked about in class that seemed vague to them took on a new urgency. This included concepts like the importance of the press as the fourth estate and questioning those in government or other positions of power.” Messiah-Jiles said overall the partnership was a success, and the Defender and UT are considering partnering again for more projects this upcoming fall semester. –EM editorandpublisher.com

7/18/19 2:09 PM

critical thinking

If you have a question you would like to see addressed, please send it to evelyn@editorandpublisher.com.

J-school students and industry vets tackle the tough questions

“With more women running for president in 2020, is the media fairly covering them compared to the male candidates?”

And they’re off to the races. For the first time in history, more than one woman is pursuing the Oval Office. However, the media has failed to give them an ample amount of attention creating a male dominated race to the polls. Women candidates are facing things like sexism and criticism instead of national Tameka Poland, 34 attention for their ideas and policies. junior, California State UniverAccording to Storybench.org, “One sity, Fullerton possibility is that the four female canPoland is studying journalism didates have simply been dealing with and sports broadcasting/manscandals at a higher rate than their agement. She will be joining Cal State University, Fullerton male counterparts. Elizabeth Warren and its student newspaper, has had the infamous ancestry test, the Daily Titan, this fall. Amy Klobuchar has the comb, Kamala Previously, Poland served as editor-in-chief of the Fullerton Harris has her prosecutorial past, and College student newspaper, Kirsten Gillibrand has been accused of The Hornet. mishandling sexual assault allegations in her office. But another possibility is that the women are simply facing more scrutiny than the men.” The fight for media attention has left many thinking that if it wasn’t for the scandals and unforeseen circumstances women face, there would be no knowledge of them as they proclaim their stake in the 2020 elections. It’s seems it’s also important to note that 20 percent of Democratic and independent men agreed with the statement that women are “less effective in politics than men,” according to a Daily Beast and Ipsos poll released in June—another possible reason for the disproportion. Although we are a year away from the elections, the question of “Who will be the next President of the United States of America?” is on everyone’s mind. Will history repeat itself and vote in another male, or has the country been under so much turmoil that we simply Has the country been under need a woman to come and make a change? so much turmoil that we Either way, there is plenty of time for all simply need a woman to candidates to put their come and make a change? best foot forth and put a stamp on history in the making. editorandpublisher.com

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I wish I could say that, yes, women are finally getting a truly fair shake in a presidential race in terms of coverage. But though the playing field may be more level for women than it has ever been, the game still favors men. It is certainly not as overt as in the past when women weren’t even taken seriously as candiMariel Garza dates. Or even as recent as 2008 when editorial writer, Los Angeles the press corp went nuts after Hillary Times Clinton shed a few tears. Garza has been writing But the double standards are still beeditorials and columns about ing applied, if more subtly. This makes state and L.A. politics for more than 15 years. Before joining it even tougher to combat, because it’s the Times’ editorial board in difficult to call out unfairness when it 2015, she was deputy editorial is disguised as journalistic rigor. Is it page editor of the Sacramento Bee and is a former editor of sexist to run a story about how some the editorial pages of the L.A. of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s staffers think Daily News and Los Angeles she’s a mean boss, as the New York News Group. Times did after the Minnesota Democrat entered the race? Not on its face, but it’s hard not to see the story as an example of how the media judge women candidates with the “likability” meter. There’s another stubbornly persistent double-standard also at play in this race: Looks. While a pleasing appearance is important for any candidate regardless of gender, a women’s attractiveness seems to matter as least as much as the substance of her policy platforms. For example, there may be little air between the platforms of Democratic candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, yet the media can’t seem to get enough of the super attractive Harris. None of this surprises me given that the news media, like politics, is still a man’s world, particularly at the highest levels. A recent report by the Women’s Media Center found that men dominated all areas of coverage and on average produced, or were credited with producing, two-thirds of the content. This doesn’t mean we can’t do better as an industry this time None of this surprises around. We can, and we should. me given that the news But it will require that journalists media, like politics, is of all genders to push back when they suspect unfairness in coverage still a man’s world… choices, even if it means jeopardizing their own “likability” rating.  AUGUST 2019 | E & P

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photo of the month

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Send us your photos! E&P welcomes reader submissions for our Photo of the Month. evelyn@editorandpublisher.com.

‘WE PERSIST’  Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado Elizabeth Warren addresses the crowd during an organizing event for her 2020 presidential campaign on April 16, 2019 in the hangar of the Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, Colo.

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data page Americans Believe the News Media Are Responsible for Fixing Made-up News Based on a survey of 6,127 U.S. adults

% OF U.S. ADULTS WHO SAY____CREATE A LOT OF MADE-UP NEWS AND INFORMATION

% OF U.S. ADULTS WHO SAY____HAVE THE MOST RESPONSIBILITY IN REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF MADE-UP NEWS AND INFORMATION

Political leaders/staff

57%

The news media

53%

Activist groups

53%

The public

20%

Journalists

36%

The government

12%

Foreign actors

35%

Tech companies

The public

26%

None of these

Source: Pew Research Center, survey conducted Feb. 19-March 4, 2019

Average Time Spent With Media in Selected Countries Based on an analysis of 8,754 metrics from 340 sources

Top 10,000 Facebook Videos Based on Type VIDEO BY TYPE Native video Live video

HRS: MIN PER DAY AMONG POPULATION

12:09

10:06

9:56

U.S.

France

Germany

Embedded video

AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT BY TYPE Native video Live video

9:50

9:38

7:36

Canada

U.K.

South Korea

Embedded video

7:17

6:39

4:59

China*

India

Native video

Live video

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48,734 24,433 10,940

AVERAGE COMMENTS BY TYPE Live video Native video

Source: eMarketer, April 2019; results based on adult respondents ages 18 and older; media includes digital (desktop/ laptop and mobile nonvoice), print (magazines and newspapers), radio, TV and other; includes all time spent with each medium, regardless of multitasking; *excludes Hong Kong

142,736 100,236 85,374

AVERAGE SHARES BY TYPE Embedded video

Japan

9,745 213 42

Embedded video

25,430 9,526 3,372

Source: NewsWhip Analytics, Jan. 1-April 30, 2019 editorandpublisher.com

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Media News Consumption Sources by Millennials in the U.S. Based on an online survey of 546 respondents ages 22-37 years A few times per week

Daily

A few times per month

Once per week

Once per month

47%

Social media

26%

Radio

21%

14%

18%

Network news

16%

Cable news

14%

Podcasts

11%

Newspapers

21%

7% 5% 3%3%

8% 5%

19%

23%

Online-only news sites

11%

12%

5% 5%

Less than once per month

11% 4%

22% 34%

13%

10%

15%

24%

11%

Never

34% 50%

17%

45%

Source: Statista, survey conducted April 17-21, 2019

Declining Trust in Media Among College Students Based on a survey of 4,407 college students currently enrolled in four-year degree programs

PERCENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO TRUST THE NEWS MEDIA TO REPORT THE NEWS ACCURATELY AND FAIRLY

3% A great deal

6% 11%

14%

A fair amount

37%

Not much Not at all

45%

2018

44%

39%

2017

Source: “Free Expression on College Campuses” report, College Pulse/Knight Foundation, May 2019, survey conducted Dec. 22-25, 2018 editorandpublisher.com

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industry insight

Taking Care of Our Own 10 things we owe today’s journalists By Matt DeRienzo

he turmoil in the journalism business over the past decade-plus has placed a lot of attention on business models, and a lot of attention on the health and fate of the companies and organizations that employ the people who report the news. Comparatively, we talk very little about the well-being and status of individual journalists. That’s a mistake and missed opportunity. When we talk about the loss of journalism due to economic factors or business model turmoil, we’re really talking about the loss of employed journalists. These are real people with expertise and knowledge that could still be used to protect democracy. That’s particularly pronounced when there are cuts in local journalism, where deep knowledge of a particular community isn’t just transferable to another place, even if an individual journalist was able or wanted to uproot their life and family. Beyond job loss, individual journalists are more likely to have to switch jobs multiple times within the industry as newspaper ownership consolidates and the landscape of local digital media is in a still-early and volatile state. It’s about financial security, for sure, but 20 |

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this dynamic, combined with the polarized and fraught state of our politics and press freedoms, takes a toll on the mental wellbeing and mindset of journalists. We have experienced not just a loss in the amount of journalism that’s being done. In many cases, the journalism that’s left has gotten worse as we’ve done a poor job helping reporters and editors adjust to depleted resources, an environment of constant change, and a radically different political climate. Conscientious publishers and others with a stake in the health of journalism business should make some basic commitments to the individual journalist, including: Bring journalists into B Transparency. the loop of revenue and profit-and-loss discussions. Teach them an enC Entrepreneurship. trepreneurial mindset, and the opportunity to use it. This is important not only for the health and growth of your business, but the skill sets that they’ll need in their next job and as the industry shifts in part to a legion of solo-operator, selfemployed local news businesses.

wage. Criminally low pay has D Alongliving been an elephant in the room for local journalism, exacerbated greatly by a decade of wage stagnation since the 2008 recession. It’s not fair or healthy to ask of a workforce under greater stress and required to have more varied skills than ever. and inclusion. Our track E Equity record on giving people of color and women a seat at the table and power to influence and make decisions has always been awful and has gotten worse in many places that are under economic duress. We can’t say we’re making a commitment to the well-being of individual journalists without fixing this. and wellness. Post-Annapolis F Safety and Donald Trump, newsrooms have to plan for and put into practice basic measures to make sure that journalists’ physical safety is protected. We have to acknowledge and do something about the fact that both isolated and cumulative exposure to violence and trauma can impact a journalist’s mental, emotional and physical health. And we editorandpublisher.com

7/18/19 2:23 PM

owe them a workplace with zero tolerance for harassment, in both policy and practice. to be human. No journalist G Space who ever lived was an unbiased robot, able to put aside every circumstance of upbringing, life, privilege or grievances that colored their perspective. Give journalists the space to be the human beings they are. We can be fair in our coverage, and transparent about where we’re coming from and how we do the work. We can’t be totally unaffected by who we are and where we came from. of arrogance. The best H Repudiation reporters know what they don’t know, and realize that in many situations they don’t know what they don’t know. The most common reporting mistake, and sometimes the most egregious, is missing context. Genuine listening, includ-

ing to our fiercest critics, is an antidote. editing. We owe it to jourI Rigorous nalists, whether they’re right out of college, or a 25-year veteran of the newsroom, to be merciless and heavy-handed with editing that questions assumptions, insists on rigorous attribution, and aims for the best writing possible under the time constraints at hand. learning. If today’s journalJ Endless ists are not absorbing new things every day about tech, about social platforms, about the communities and topics they are covering, they are falling behind. Publishers should expect learning, and facilitate it in formal and informal ways. Finally, publishers and oth1) Branding. ers with a stake in the health of the journalism business and a vibrant democracy should be taking concrete steps to

Because publishers must always be prepared for the unexpected

D V M & A

lift up the reputation of the profession of journalism in the eyes of the public, for their safety and the good of the industry. They are teachers. They are artists. They are first responders. They deserve to have a similar place in the American psyche. 

Matt DeRienzo is vice president of news and digital content for Hearst’s newspapers and websites in Connecticut. He has worked in journalism as a reporter, editor, publisher, corporate director of news for 25 years, including serving as the first full-time executive director of LION Publishers, a national nonprofit that supports the publishers of local independent online news organizations.

BLISS COMMUNICATIONS

HAS SOLD

JANESVILLE (WI) GAZETTE 14,300 daily circulation 17,000 Sunday circulation

MARINETTE (WI) EAGLE HERALD 6,000 daily circulation and related publications and websites

ADAMS PUBLISHING GROUP

Helping publishing executives generate insights for better, faster and more informed business decisions since 1884

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We are pleased to have represented the Bliss family in this transaction.

Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April

Santa Fe, NM t: 505.820.2700 www.dirksvanessen.com

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business of news

What Business Are We In?

To assure a successful future, newspapers must break away from the print model By Tim Gallagher

y Sunday routine is set. I am in the shrinking group that still goes to Sunday mass. I watch my favorite baseball team. Relax a bit. And at night I turn on the TV and “watch” the New York Times. I mean I watch the New York Times show called “The Weekly,” a half hour show on the FX network that also streams on Hulu. There’s nothing new about a Sunday night news program. “60 Minutes” has been a staple in that slot for decades. But no journalism show with the quality of the Times has ever been on screen consistently and I am hooked as my favorite newspaper moves into a new medium for storytelling. (In an earlier column, I confessed fandom for the 22 |

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Times’ daily podcast called simply “The Daily.”) The Times, with its 1,600 journalists spread across the world, is beating a big drum in an orchestra where few others can scarcely make a peep. But that does not mean we should not follow the lesson here: newspapers produce great journalism—and we need to deliver in more ways. The podcast world is booming. Next to celebrities, journalists have some of the highest Twitter followings. New video streaming services are starving for content. Each of these deliverers has a channel with one thing in common—a hunger for great content. And who better to provide that local content than local journalists?

Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, said recently that unless local newspapers have a local billionaire behind them, most of them will be dead in five years. His time chart might or might not be off by a few years, but he’s right. Advertising and circulation revenue do not support a business model based on such heavy production and delivery costs. No business in any industry can survive for long this way. But look at the content moves that have paid off in the past 30 years. My old company—E.W. Scripps—started HGTV and invigorated The Food Network. What was a newspaper and TV station company doing in category television? Moving its content creators into a new medium. editorandpublisher.com

7/18/19 2:22 PM

By all rights, Meredith, which owns Better Homes & Gardens, should have made this move. But it stayed in the magazine business. Netflix eschewed the store for the stream. Craig Newmark asked why the “help wanted” ads had to wait until the morning newspaper. Bill Simmons hopped from print to television to websites to podcasts, taking a loyal following wherever he went. And whoever heard of an “app” 10 years ago? Flexibility and adaptation are the keys. Local newspapers have a following. A loyal following. No one is in the local news game as we are, so why tie yourself to the print model that Baquet says will be dead in half a decade? The delivery highways need us so let’s use them. Look at Adam Davidson, the former New Yorker staff writer. He and Laura Mayer, former executive producer at the podcast company Stitcher, are partnering with Sony

Music to create programs across a variety of topics. You can easily see this new company developing local markets. Be there first with your own podcast. Find a partner for the delivery. You create the content. This is not for everyone, but ESPN and Fox Corp. are pushing hard into apps for domestic sports betting. What local content that you produce could you deliver on an app to your community? What makes local newspapers so unique is the variety of content—from well-known and comfortable content such as columnists and popular sportswriters to the everchanging breaking news, to being the only source of reporting on local school boards and city councils. Mix in the deep, local reporting on the critical issues in your community and you have a content mix that no one can touch. Our industry has learned painful lessons about partnering with delivery platforms such as Facebook that took our content and

offered little return. We are smarter now. Be it TV, or podcasting, or apps, or video, or even something that is going to be created in the next few years—let’s not wait for our ship to come in. Let’s untether from the anchor of print and swim out to meet those opportunities. 

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.

NEWSPAPER

STRONG No other profession in the world requires the stamina, strength, and intelligence of newspaper professionals. If newspaper professionals had extra time on their hands, Mount Everest

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digital publishing

Leading the Way As general manager of the Compass Experiment, Mandy Jenkins will explore new sustainable models for local news By Rob Tornoe

oogle’s latest multimillion dollar mea culpa to the news industry will soon be staffing up. After spending years sucking away digital advertising revenue from newsrooms across the country, the online search giant is attempting to make amends by spending big bucks to launch three new hyperlocal websites in underserved communities with a focus on sustainability. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Google isn’t building the websites or hiring the reporters themselves—they’re paying McClatchy “many millions of dollars” over the next three years to do it, according to Google’s vice president of news Richard Gingras. The websites, which will be part of McClatchy’s sci-fi sounding Compass Experiment, will focus on underserved communities in the U.S. with less than half a million people. While Google’s commitment to directly fund journalism should be applauded, keep in mind that three new websites won’t come

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close to replacing the 1,800 newspapers (mostly weeklies) that have been forced to close since 2004, according to a recent report from the University of North Carolina on news deserts. Which is why the sustainability portion of this experiment is more important than Google writing a check to hire reporters. The funding for the Local Experiments Project comes from the Google News Initiative (GNI), which launched back in 2018 with a commitment to spend $300 million to help the struggling world of journalism over a three-year period (if that number sounds familiar, it’s the same amount Facebook also pledged to spend to help local news survive earlier this year). To run the Compass Experiment, McClatchy tapped Mandy Jenkins, a Project Thunderdome veteran and the former editor-in-chief of Storyful. But more importantly, Jenkins began her career at local newspapers like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Cincinnati Enquirer, so she

knows a thing or two about what works on the local level. That’s good, since Jenkins’ task is not just creating excellent news content, but also developing three self-sufficient businesses in the process. In a conversation with E&P, the recentlyhired Jenkins spoke about what attracted her to the Google experiment and what it’s like taking a role under such a bright journalism spotlight. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You can follow Jenkins on Twitter @mjenkins and keep tabs on the progress of the Compass Experiment by following its page on Medium. What attracted you to McClatchy and this role involving Google? The thing that was most intriguing to me was that this wasn’t just money going to some esoteric initiative of grants and stuff, but Google giving to a company to start news sites, and specifically to have these sites be in a place where there’s not currently a news presence. editorandpublisher.com

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What does the partnership between McClatchy and Google look like? Google is supplying the funding…but their involvement, at least as far as I can tell, is hands off. We’ve got to build out what the websites looks like, what we want on the backend, and all of that’s going to be in house at McClatchy. Gingras cited the Texas Tribune when discussing local news business that can thrive. Are there any hyperlocal websites out there you’ve drawn inspiration from? I look at the publications that make up the LION Publishers, which include many interesting stories and people in various sized communities. Some of them are wildly successful, like ARLnow, Berkleyside and West Seattle Blog, which has been doing it forever. Or like Flint Beat, which is doing some really cool stuff up there (in Flint, Mich.) and it’s just this one woman who’s working 48 hours a day. Do you think that’s part of the challenge many larger companies often experience when it comes to hyperlocal websites, that employees can’t put in the long hours a local owner can? Not really. If you asked some of the people who run hyperlocal websites what would they do if they had more money, they’d probably say I wouldn’t work these long hours. So, I think that’s one of the benefits of having Google’s resources—we want to have the snappy approach of a small hyperlocal website coming up from the ground and having everyone be excited to work there, but also maybe they don’t have to kill themselves to do it. How do you plan to promote these new digital news websites to readers? Some of that is going to be on the social… but a lot of it, especially at some of the really local places, it’s just a matter of being there and showing up to the city council meeting, showing up at events and telling people who you are. It’s one of the ideas behind hiring people locally who are already there, because those local connections are going to be a big part of getting that word of mouth out there. Since you’re partnering with Google, will there be any help proeditorandpublisher.com

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moting your website’s content from a search perspective or using their data to inform your decision making? That’s not something that’s formally built in yet, but we’ll be working with the people at GNI. I think Google probably has some pretty interesting trends data…I’m thinking about people searching for news in areas and not getting something back. They have that information, and I think it’d be pretty intriguing to see it. When do you expect the first website to launch? I don’t really know for sure on the timeline, but we’re definitely going to get that first one out the door quickly—ideally this fall…I think what success will look like for this is if in three years, we’ve got websites that have become such an important part of the community that people can’t imagine them not being there. Considering how much the industry will be watching this experiment, will you be doing any reporting on the results of this experiment? Google very much wants this to be knowledge that’s put out into the world that people can learn from our experience on this, and I’m more comfortable operating in that place as well. I mean, what’s really proprietary anymore, right? We all need to be learning from each other. And I think the more we can be contributing to that knowledge, the better. I guess I’ll even have to be more active on Twitter. Yes, because now you’ve become one of the great hopes of the industry, right? No pressure, no pressure at all. 

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 and writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.

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production BY JERRY SIMPKINS

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RISKY BUSINESS

The latest production trends fuel the shift away from print and closer to an all-digital world

little over a year ago, I wrote an article here outlining the latest trends and advancements in our newspaper industry. At that time, I went into the assignment eyes wide open and full of enthusiasm, being provided the opportunity to write about an industry that has supported me over the years and that I continue to be proud to be a part of. Unfortunately, once I researched our advancements over the last decade or so, I became frustrated at the lack of innovation newspapers experienced and the backslide many publications were in. Fast forward to 2019 and I was presented once again with the opportunity to document new trends and innovation in our industry. Full of renewed excitement and with a fresh perspective, I embraced the opportunity to review where the industry had gone. I not only went into it enthused, but also determined that I’d turn over every rock and report on all the progress and positive events of the past year. So confident things would turn out better this year, I took a similar approach to writing this article. I casually approached a few vendors and asked for their thoughts on what innovations print had made over the past year. After coming up short, I spoke with a few associates and again came up empty. It was at that point I thought to myself, “It must be “Groundhog Day.’” A little over 25 years ago, the movie “Groundhog Day” was released. In the movie, Bill Murray was stuck in a horrific cycle, forced to relive his worst day over and over again. As I considered my angle on this article, I drew a parallel to “Groundhog Day.” It seems like day after day, newspapers are living the worst day of their lives over and over again without any sign of snapping out of it. Now I know what Phil Connors, the TV reporter Bill Murray portrayed, went through. If you only knew how much I wanted to sing the praises of our industry in this article.

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To detail how to spite what we all are going through and are sick to death of hearing about—declining ad revenues, anemic classified advertising, faltering circulation draws and increases in consumables and labor costs—that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Not just the same old, same old, day after day without any advancement or positive change. Needing to find some good news and swing out of my own personal “Groundhog Day” I figured I needed to regroup and focus on what a newspaper means to readers and advertisers. In this, I found some encouragement.

What Trends Will Continue? Our newspapers are trusted and well regarded by millions of readers throughout this country and abroad. I found encouragement in a recent AP story about a journalist, Marcos Miranda Cogco who was kidnapped due to his reporting on Noticias A Tiempo, a news page on Facebook he founded and edits. His captors told him he was being kidnapped for being a “gossip.” Perhaps it was more a case of speaking the truth and reporting on sensitive subjects. The story went on to explain that “Fortynine journalists have been slain in the country (Mexico) since 1992 for motives confirmed as related to their work, while sixty-two more were killed in circumstances that have not been clarified.” I came away after reading this story extremely proud of all journalists who continue to bring truth to the public despite overwhelming challenges. Regardless of what they’re writing about—a council meeting in a small town or for those who literally put their life on the line—the service we provide is tremendously important, and we need to find ways to continue to bring that information to our readers. So with respect to all those talented journalists and everyone else in our industry who delivers on a daily basis, I’ll climb down off

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my high horse and get back to a story about innovation and bright new ideas in our industry over the past year. We’ve all seen what hedge funds and mega group ownerships have done to our industry—it isn’t pretty. Recently, we experienced the decimation of many newsrooms across the country as well as shuttering print sites and the operations personnel along with them. Last year, I somewhat defended this practice based on the fact that many smaller papers simply couldn’t survive on their own and that larger more financially backed groups were able to scoop them up and make necessary business decisions to keep these newspapers in operation. Over the past year I’ve seen much of this change. With the recent consolidation of publications and the ongoing shutdown of smaller properties, it seems that the larger groups that once seemed to offer protection have now become so focused on profits that they have put profits ahead of quality journalism. This is my opinion. Some may want to argue this point but before you do, talk to one of the 2,100 media workers who have reportedly lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2019. I can briefly go through the same points I did last year and show that not much has changed. There will be a continuation of the trend in ownership. The hedge fund groups and more financially established groups will continue to gobble up smaller struggling properties. We will continue to see a consolidation of print sites; it continues to make good sense, and as we all struggle to maintain financial stability so will this consolidation effort continue. For those who are fortunate enough to either have a strong commercial printing base or those who will be taking the plunge into this still lucrative arena, this trend will continue. But as far as production technology in print, it appears many of us have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Breaking the Cycle I am saddened where new trends often take us in production. It’s a tough time for production as consolidation continues to 28 |

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occur and the financial pressures continue in our industry. Most newspapers are no longer putting in new presses and staff reductions tend to follow closely behind the precipitous drop in circulation draws. New installations and upgrades in production equipment are reserved for the few who have stayed on top of the print. Sometimes you have to make changes that hurt to preserve the business. So, for those of you who know me or who have taken the time to read through the many articles I’ve written over the years, you may be surprised by the direction I’m going to take. I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again, “I love print.” But I also love our industry and have many times stated that there needs to be a more effective blend of print and digital that not only better serves our readers but also allows newspaper owners to be profitable. I don’t know of many other businesses who would continue year after year after losing money driven by a commitment to their communities and readers to provide services. So here I go. I’m going to lead us down the trail of an adventurous and brave alternative to the newspaper publishing. The first plan that a diehard paper and ink guy like myself can buy into as plausible salvation for our industry. Virtually everyone has internet, if not at their home certainly connecting to remote sites at restaurants or other provider locations. For years, our newspaper industry has dabbled in a mixture of daily digital news and print. As print revenues decline, we’ve made half-hearted efforts to convert many of our print advertisers and subscribers over to our digital offerings, which often look very similar to all the other so called “news sites” on the web, but with one exception. We’ve had the journalists and the news gathering resources to stand out from the crowd. But often our websites don’t stand out and as our print revenues decline, we find ourselves cutting newsroom staffs and aggressively seeking every possible way to reduce expenses and offset revenue losses. Did someone find a new innovative model and a way to turn losses into profits? I don’t know, but I do see innovation pop-

ping up at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Ark. The company reportedly will spend $12 million on 36,400 iPads. The tablets are on long-term loan to subscribers for the period in which they continue to pay for their subscription. More than 10,000 iPads have already been distributed in the outlying areas of the state. At the current lowest monthly subscription rate of $34, this is projected to generate approximately $14.8 million dollars in annual revenue, resulting in a revenue stream that could spell profitability for the paper. Here’s an innovation that makes sense to me—the digital replica looks/reads just like the printed paper. It is intuitive to navigate within the app. When you click on a jump, it takes you to the rest of the story, no more looking for random jump pages or sorting through a conventional website. The newsroom currently employs 106 journalists, a sizable staff and a serious investment in the community. Publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr. not only wants to sustain a strong newsroom but has stated that if successful, he’d like to add to it in the future. That’s quite a commitment to quality journalism. In March 2018, the experiment took root in Blytheville, Ark., a town of 14,000 in the far reaches of the Democrat-Gazette’s circulation area. Two hundred subscribers were offered the iPad and personal training sessions all at the current print delivery rate. As a result, more than 70 percent of the subscribers converted to the digital version. This is the goal for the Democrat-Gazette in 63 counties. The replica version is expected to be available to readers seven days a week by 4 a.m. daily. On Sunday, the DemocratGazette will continue to distribute a printed version including all preprints. A big selling point is the fact that this replica version offers hometown news when subscribers are traveling. While many digital offerings can say the same, I prefer the newspaper format over the standard web page format. The app not only works on your furnished iPad (or your own iPad) but the Democrat-Gazette also offers a desktop

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and phone application. I myself was impressed with the reviews of customer service launching this conversion. Of course, Hussman wants this to be a success and apparently everyone at the paper feels the same. They offer over the phone training, group training and even private in-home training, if necessary. Hussman is investing millions of dollars to convert print subscribers to digital by 2020. Do you know of any other newspaper publishers willing to go all-in to the tune of millions of dollars? The Philadelphia Inquirer and Montrealbased La Presse attempted similar ventures with mixed results. Hussman was quoted as saying, “Sometimes you’ve got to risk your business in order to save it.” I’ve never met the man but I certainly do admire his commitment to quality journalism and our industry as a whole. Hopefully his gamble will benefit others in the future. Admittedly, I had a few questions regarding this program. While doing through reader forums, one of the concerns I found was crossword puzzles. In the past, it’s become apparent readers are touchy about crosswords, comics and obits (along with several other features). This new format gives the reader two options: print them out and continue with the old pencil and paper version or use the interactive version that lets you electronically complete the puzzles. It’s a win-win. Another question is regarding legal notices. Many of our communities look to the local paper for legal notices. City councils (and others) are required to place notices of numerous activities in a newspaper. It’s truly about accountability. Legal notices will still appear in the Sunday print edition. Another forum question asked “Is it a newspaper when it uses no paper?” My answer is when you employ 106 people in a single newsroom, when you are the watchdog of the community, when you deliver up to date real (not fake) news through a statewide news reporting agency, of course it’s a newspaper, regardless of the medium. Hussman stated that he’s not sure if the digital replica will appeal to younger readers. I feel that if the replica provides content that is a necessary part of the individual’s day, then it will not make a difference what generation you’re from. It’s about content and how vital that information is to readers. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the Democrat-Gazette digital conversion here. All I can say is that it’s innovative and I’ve been looking for innovation in our industry for quite some time. Will it become a trend is yet to be determined. I welcome the fact that someone is willing to take this risk and stray from the day to day “Groundhog Day” approach we all seem to have settled for.  Jerry Simpkins has more than 30 years of experience in printing and operations in the newspaper industry. Contact him on LinkedIn.com or at simpkins@tds.net.

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THE LATEST FROM… DEVCON

What solution does DEVCON offer to help efficiently protect against harmful cyber attacks? With many companies moving away from on-premise systems in favor of cloud-based servers and services, the need for better edge security has become a hot topic. Third-party JavaScript is one area of great risk in this new era. Two of the top five data breaches of 2018 occurred due to third-party JavaScript security vulnerabilities: Ticketmaster exposed more than 40,000 user’s personally identifiable information resulting in a $6.5 million-dollar class action lawsuit, and British Airways had 185,000 customers involved in a breach attributed to the MageCart Hackers (a credit card skimming criminal hacker group). To fight against the growing threats, DEVCON has developed DEVCON EdgeSafe, a suite of security tools specifically engineered to tackle three key components of edge security. First, document object model permissioning, which provides custom settings to allow and disallow what third-party JavaScript can do on the page, preventing zero-day attacks and malicious browser plug-in attacks. Real time blocking of these events are continuously recorded in the platform, tracking not only what the code attempted to do but the entry point attempting to perform the disallowed actions. Second, 3PJS agentless page insights tracks changes to all third-party JavaScript on a site, and alerts or blocks suspicious changes to code and highlights those changes for further investigation, and seamlessly integrates with top security information and event management tools like ArcSight, Splunk and Alien Vault. Centralized communication service provider is the last piece of the DEVCON EdgeSafe suite, providing easy centralized management of content security policies. Attacks on third-party JavaScript will only increase over time as creative hackers find new ways to exploit companies though this emerging attack surface, making it critical for every company to monitor, detect and prevent attacks on all resources distributed to their end users. Maggie Louie has spent more than a decade as a digital leader in the publishing industry, developing products for the E.W. Scripps Co., Los Angeles Times, American Public Media Group and Morris Communications, where she also served as the vice president of audience and corporate entrepreneur.

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PubofYearFP1.qxp_Layout 1 6/12/19 9:11 AM Page 1

Connecting the complex facets of publishing with vision and purpose

2019

PUBLISHER 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

OF THE YEAR 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

and imagination. We are looking to honor a publisher who has risen above the rest

Submission Information:

and accomplished what seems like

Please complete the online form and include a short synopsis of why the nominee should receive recognition. Include specific leadership successes, innovative program development, and obstacles and challenges overcome.

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.

Eligibility:

• Submission time period: Now through Sept. 20, 2019. • All entries will be treated with strict confidence. But the selected publisher should be prepared to be interviewed by Editor & Publisher for the special “Publisher of the Year” issue.

• “Publisher of the Year” recognition is open to all newspaper publishers worldwide, from papers large and small.

Nomination Deadline: Sept. 20, 2019

Photos courtesy of APTech  Last year’s PRINT event saw 16,500 attendees.

 More than 80 educational sessions are expected to be on the schedule this year.

PRINT 19 Arrives in Chicago Oct. 3-5 Annual conference will bridge the gap between printing and technology By Nu Yang

rinting professionals and exhibitors are invited to attend this year’s PRINT event at Chicago’s McCormick Place Oct. 3 to 5. Administered by the Association for Print Technologies (APTech), last year’s event saw 16,500 attendees. According to APTech vice president of marketing Sarah Markfield, 21 percent of them were first-time attendees and 84 percent were senior-level executives. “We are on track to match or beat those numbers,” she said. “And when we look under the hood, what last year’s breakdown tells us is that in spite of industry challenges there are new people and companies who see great opportunities, and that our show is still the central marketplace for education, innovation, and a great place to do business.” This year’s show will once again offer an array of educational sessions and workshops. “We are assembling 80-plus educational sessions that run the gamut of big-picture trend discussions to practical ones,” Markfield said. “We know that PRINT attendees need and value both the 30,000 foot view as well as the getting deep into the nitty gritty on topics that impact their day-to-day editorandpublisher.com

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operations.” Also on the schedule is keynote speaker Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. Markfield described his speech, “The Wired Future: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Privacy, Social Media, Truth, Tech Companies, and More,” as a “future-forward” talk about how people will be be using technology in print and in their daily lives. “The quickening adoption of artificial intelligence/machine learning is already affecting how content is created and distributed,” she explained. “This trend along with robotics will transform not only our devices, but how we earn paychecks, determine public policy and a host of other issues.” This year, PRINT will host an opening night reception open to all attendees on the exhibit hall floor. “This will give exhibitors and attendees alike an opportunity to mix and mingle and talk business in a more relaxed format than during the hustle and bustle of traditional show hours,” Markfield said. Returning this year are TechWalks (exclusive, expert-led, curated exhibitor tours) and the RED HOT Technology Recognition Program, featuring publishing and printing technology, equipment or services that have

come to market within the past 12 months. New to this year’s program are TechTalks, sessions highlighting specific technologies. On the show floor, Markfield said attendees can expect a full exhibit hall experience that includes manufacturers and suppliers as well as front-end and finishing solution providers. “We’re on track to have several hundred exhibitors covering the entire spectrum of the print value chain, including those catering to the newspaper industry,” she said. Markfield added the goal of the show is to “demonstrate that there is a future for print and the print industry.” “We live in a digital world, but even so, there are many who continue to desire the tactile experience that only print can provide,” she said. “For our exhibitors and attendees, we want them to make connections so that they can collaborate to create new products which will positively impact their customers.” For more information, visit printevent. com. 

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Formula for 1

Su ccess Success

What do profitable newspapers have in common? By Evelyn Mateos

uccess can be measured in many ways. On most occasions, it’s measured by a number. In the newspaper industry, success perhaps means having the largest circulation or the most page views. Maybe those numbers mean little to readers who instead measure how successful a newspaper is by how it delivers important news to them. However we might measure success, it seems that successful newspapers do have several things in common. Read on to find out the ingredients.

A Compelling Mission Today, a mission statement might sound like a sentiment of the past—and in fact, it was in the late 19th and early 20th century that newspapers began adopting these kinds of slogans, according to “The Rise of New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts,” a report by Penelope Muse Abernathy, the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina. However, Thomas Kent, the former standards editor of the Aseditorandpublisher.com

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sociated Press, shared with Poynter that a mission statement is important for any news operation. “A published mission statement makes the editors’ criteria more transparent to audiences,” he said. “…a mission statement, especially for a local news outlet, can go much farther. It can identify very specific subjects of coverage, and define the publication’s top values.” Many newsrooms are proud to share their mission statements, such as the Washington Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” which it adopted in 2017. The catchy slogan is concise enough to fit on a t-shirt—and perfect for building a brand and marketing purposes. Earlier this year, the Post released its first Super Bowl commercial that put emphasis on the motto. Likewise, the New York Times, whose mission statement is “We seek the truth and help people understand the world,” put out two commercials last fall focused on that message. One highlighted an investigative report into the separation of families at the border and the other was a report into the Trump family tax schemes. Both ads ended with the words, “The truth is worth the wait.” AUGUST 2019 | E & P

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Abernathy makes it clear to E&P that before any organization sets out to accomplish (or market) anything, they must first have a mission—a compelling reason to exist. According to her research, there has recently been an abundance of private equity funds, hedge funds and other types of investment partnerships that have bought and now manage newspapers. Unfortunately, their main mission tends to be making a profit. “These new owners are very different from the newspaper publishers that preceded them. For the most part they lack journalism experience or the sense of civic mission traditionally embraced by publishers and editors,” Abernathy wrote in her report. Abernathy’s research shows how important local news is in every community—and it begins with the mission. It also shows that when the mission is all about money, investors operate with a “short-term, earningsfirst focus” and they are prepared to rid of any holdings (including newspapers and reporters) that fail to produce what they deem an adequate profit—ultimately leading to news deserts.

Strong Leadership Having a great leader at the forefront of any organization is ideal. They influence happiness and productivity of their employees and with the overall success of the company. For a newspaper, a strong leader can make all the difference in a languishing industry. In Vale, Ore., the Malheur Enterprise, was a struggling newsroom. But according to a NPR article, its circulation has surged in recent years, thanks to Les Zaitz, the paper’s editor and publisher. A successful investigative reporter in his day, Zaitz served at The Oregonian for decades. When he acquired the paper in 2015, he noticed that it wasn’t producing much quality news, so he came in ready to coach the newsroom. As a result, employees developed their skills and began producing top-notch, in-depth reporting. The paper has also won several national awards, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information Award. 34 |

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} Jed Williams, Local Media Association chief strategy officer

When leadership is poor, it can plague a newsroom with a series of disasters as it did for the Los Angeles Times. That changed last year when local billionaire Patrick SoonShiong purchased the paper and returned the publication to local ownership. The Times went on a hiring spree, and even attracted Norman Pearlstine, who has held leadership positions at the Wall Street Journal and Time Inc., to join the paper as its executive editor. “What excited me and made me want to come on board was an understanding of the depth of (Soon-Shiong’s) commitment to wanting to make this just a great paper and to invest resources in ways that make that possible,” Pearlstine told the Columbia Journalism Review. A revival is also taking place at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Ma. As a former district court judge, Fred Rutberg was nearing retirement when he began looking forward at what might come next. It turned out his answer was becoming a newspaper owner. According to the Associated Press (AP), Rutberg pulled together a group of investors and bought the Eagle in the spring of 2016. He hired more reporters and editors, added new sections, revitalized its website and spent money on better-quality newsprint. Rutberg goes as far as answering reader’s

} Penelope Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina

phone calls and pursuing revenue diversifying ideas. The AP described this level of involvement as “a thrilling contrast to the Eagle’s former corporate owners.” The paper had been declining drastically during the two decades of corporate ownership, but the Boston Globe reported Rutberg’s methods are working: digital subscriptions grew 60 percent, and daily circulation is holding steady at 14,179 and at 16,711 on Sunday.

Taking Innovative Risks Innovation doesn’t necessarily equal digital media. One print innovation we’ve seen is the Ledger Dispatch’s Interactive News augmented reality app (interactivenews. live). Readers in Jackson, Calif. download the app to their phone and have an interactive experience by holding the screen over a printed image or text. Writing for the INMA, publisher Jack Mitchell said that due to the app, revenue was up 30 percent last year and key revenue categories that had left the paper, such as real estate and automotive verticals, had returned. “AR features can be a fast way to generate new revenue,” Mitchell wrote. “The more exclusive the content and the more AR experiences you have, the more downloads editorandpublisher.com

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} Mark Medici, EVP and chief marketing officer of Hearst Newspapers (left) and Rob Barrett, president of digital media of Hearst Newspapers, present during a Local Media Association Innovation Mission visit to Hearst Newspapers in New York City. (Photo provided)

of your app and the more successful you will be.” Meanwhile, the Washington Post continues to lead the way when it comes to digital innovation, especially when it comes to its Arc Publishing software. Media analyst Ken Doctor recently reported for Nieman Lab on the success of the publishing platform, citing that Arc was serving more than 30 clients in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and more. He also wrote about the Post’s ambition to make Arc central to the business strategies of the trade. Digiday also reported the Post was add-

ing new subscription tools to the platform: “a registration system designed to capture audience email addresses; a paywall, which can be either hard or soft; a customer service portal that connects publishers’ customer support teams with subscribers; and a page builder that allows publishers to develop and deploy offer pages on their sites without programming or design resources.” In April, MediaPost reported that the platform “may grow into a $100 million business that would bolster the company’s bottom line.” With a new 360-virtual reality film and Spanish language podcast also on its plate,

Innovation is the foundation for creating a sustainable and successful future for the industry. editorandpublisher.com

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there is no shortage of innovative examples when it comes to the Post. At the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, publisher Walter Hussman is taking a huge gamble on innovation. The AP reported Hussman is promising subscribers a free iPad to view the digital version of the paper (as it will only be printed on Sundays by the end of the year) if they pay $34-$36 a month for a subscription. The paper began the experiment in Blytheville, Ark., where more than 70 percent of subscribers converted—if replicated statewide, the paper could turn a profit, which it hasn’t done since 2017. For Jed Williams, chief strategy officer at Local Media Association, “innovation is the foundation for creating a sustainable and successful future” for the industry. He cited Hearst as a media company that continuously experiments, but one thing that Williams points out is their variety of content verticals and niche franchises. “Hearst utilizes a blend of centralized corporate strategy and market autonomy to kindle innovation unique to each property,” he said. One such example is the San Francisco Chronicle’s The Press, “a collection of winery reviews (and much more) from the journalists at The Chronicle, with the mission of providing a one-stop travel resource for Wine Country,” according to its website. Another Hearst property, the Houston Chronicle, has the Texas Sports Nation, which promises in-depth coverage of Houston sports, ticket giveaways and invitations to exclusive watch parties and VIP events. Hearst not only created content verticals but also built out consumer revenue channels from there, Williams said. “I think it’s also smart innovation in that these are focused objectives with clear goals…and they’ve got a very cohesive well articulated strategy between corporate and the markets.” Williams said McClatchy is another company that has a strong innovative spirit. An example is their McClatchy New Ventures, a space dedicated to focusing on emerging technology and immersive storytelling. The project has led the organization to experiment with video, podcasting, long-form AUGUST 2019 | E & P

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pany Tribune Publishing, the University of Maryland and others helped the newsroom to continue. Hutzell talked about how the paper was recognized for their work, most notably by the Pulitzer Prize committee which honored them a special award and citation including a $100,000 bequest for their courageous response to the tragic event. Ultimately, Hutzell’s message to journalists and newsrooms around the world was this: “No matter the threat, your dedication to the work of journalism is what guarantees a free press survives. What matters is showing up for work and doing your job, even when it’s heartbreaking. Even when it’s dangerous.”

Plans for a Future } Jeremy Gockel, director of employee engagement, speaks at a Local Media Association Innovation Mission

visit to McClatchy’s Raleigh, N.C. office. (Photo provided)

episodic programming and smart-speaker news delivery. A ventures unit like this dedicated to continuous innovative experimenting is ideal in any industry, and it certainly plays by Williams’ law that “innovation must be a discipline.”

Strength and Endurance One newspaper that has shown endurance is the Philadelphia Inquirer. Between 2006 and 2015, the company went through seven different owners until philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest became its owner. During this time, former Cleveland Plain Dealer publisher Terry Egger was hired as publisher. With Egger leading the way, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com restructured their newsrooms and became a single operation called the Philadelphia Media Network (PMN). Then, this past June, after celebrating 190 years, PMN rebranded to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com became Inquirer.com and the masthead was redesigned. After years of uncertainty, the media organization is now paving a path toward a certain future. Sometimes it’s Mother Nature that tests 36 |

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a newsroom’s strength. When wildfires erupted in Northern California, newsrooms like the Paradise Post still had a job to do. Newspapers were hand-delivered to locals at evacuee shelters, hotels, trailers and anywhere they could find readers. Former Chico Enterprise-Record editor David Little, who also oversaw the Paradise Post, told CNN that the two newspapers, along with the Oroville Mercury Register (another sister newspaper), would be distributed together in hopes of reaching evacuees staying with friends and family. In addition, Little and his staff were focused on constantly updating the website. Perhaps the newsroom showing the most strength is the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md. After a gunman killed five employees in the newsroom on June 28, 2018, reporters didn’t stop working. Reporter Chase Cook tweeted on the same day he lost his coworkers, “I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.” That edition went out, and the newspaper has carried on. On the one-year anniversary of the attack, Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell wrote a column to commemorate the date. He mentioned how the dedication of his staff and support from parent com-

As more disinformation spreads in the news cycle, the livelihood of newspapers is essential for every community. We must look forward to the opportunities that will help keep newsrooms open. For starters, invest more in training journalists and teach them skills that will help them in any role. Video production. Data and analytics. Social media. Journalists wear so many hats now, so why not invest in more training? Build trust among readers. According to the Indicators of News Media Trust report, a 2018 Knight Foundation and Gallup survey found 71 percent of those surveyed said “a commitment to transparency is important, and similar percentages say the same about an organization providing factchecking resources and providing links to research and facts that back up its reporting.” Diversifying revenue is another opportunity. Focus on revenue streams that don’t rely only on reader revenue and advertising, but get creative with services and products that will attract dollars. And perhaps most importantly, we need more collaboration. Many newsroom leaders and journalists would have never imaged that they would be working alongside print and digital competitors, but it’s something we are seeing more often now in attempt to close coverage gaps. 

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Mega Summit East

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Reinventing the News To carry on, journalism must create its own media landscape By Rob Tornoe

hen I daydream about the world of tomorrow, my mind immediately goes to old Popular Science magazines with cover stories about flying cars and wondrous devices. But ask most journalists about the future, and a look of demoralized panic will wash across their faces. Yes, technology makes modern-day reporting faster and more accurate, and the internet has been a boon to journalism and the art of keeping tabs on your local government. But it has also nearly disintegrated a once-prosperous business model that supported robust news gathering for more than a century. Headlines about the spate of newspaper closures are almost as dispiriting as the continuous line of former journalists being forced out of the profession by layoffs, buyouts or a general malaise about their future prosperity. At times, it seems the only real response is

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an oversized bar tab at journalism conferences that fail to deliver on any big promises, focusing instead on the next shiny object that won’t move the needle. It’s Parkinson’s law of triviality in action, where we focus on relatively unimportant issues as the house continues to burn down in the background. But what if we could reframe the future and reclaim it for journalism? I’m not talking about the current strategy of replacing print dollars with digital pennies, but think of new ways to support and sustain journalism through the 21st century and beyond. Would that truly require bold, radical ideas that are currently being worked on in some tech genius’s garage, or are the seeds for that new future already being planted today, despite the doom and gloom surrounding the industry?

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Reinventing the News

} By partnering with streaming services, newspapers have a better chance with getting in front of more audiences.

Netflix and News Why not start with how news might be able to not only take advantage of streaming services, but end up becoming the key to winning the streaming war? Nearly 150 million people in the U.S. currently subscribe to Netflix. Another 28 million subscribe to Hulu. And while Facebook and Google long ago realized that access to news stories was an essential component of the user experience on their platforms, most streaming networks have avoided news and journalism all together (outside of documentaries). Recently, Hulu has attempted to change that. The Disneyowned streaming platform has partnered with the New York Times to offer the newspaper’s new feature The Weekly, a digital streaming home after its debut on FX. The Weekly is essentially taking content that began as long-form investigative journalism and adapting it into 18 to 24 minute episodes for a television audience. Edward O’Keefe, currently a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard and a former senior vice president at CNN, believes that it’s only a matter of time before streaming platforms figure out that news can help them win the battle for consumer attention and loyalty. O’Keefe argues that throughout history, every new medium— print, radio, television, cable, the internet, social media—news has become the essential component to building and retaining a loyal audience. Pointing to the Times’ unique partnership with FX and Hulu, O’Keefe thinks the newspaper is busting boundaries in a number of different ways, including their willingness to give a competing platform a hard-earned news scoop, something that’s been traditionally anathema to the newspaper industry. “They’re saying promiscuity is the new exclusivity,” O’Keefe said. “The more platforms you can be on within a shorter duration of time, the more powerful the impact of the journalism can be.” The Times might be one of the few news organizations in the country to currently have the resources to devote to a project of this scope. But O’Keefe thinks that it’s an option available to small 40 |

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and mid-sized newspapers across the country who are willing to disrupt the industry by partnering with their competitors. “I’d love to see a local newspaper partner with their local TV station and do exactly what the New York Times, FX and Hulu are doing right now,” O’Keefe said. “There’s absolutely no reason that model can’t be copied on a local level.” At least one newspaper company already has. The Alabama Media Group, which is owned by Advance Publications, grew a successful string of humor videos about Southern culture into a profitable digital business called Red Clay Media, complete with a Facebook Watch deal, merchandise and online engagement what rivals large nationals brands like the Times. It’s not hard to imagine these shows ending up on a streaming platform. “If Hulu made news content—especially in short form—available to you on their service, my argument would be if it’s good, and it’s easily accessible, maybe that brings you to them instead of someone else,” O’Keefe said. “It would be a low cost experiment, compared to the magic bullet for the next mega hit. And it would be a boon for local news.”

News as a Product How many people subscribed to the newspaper for the comics or the crosswords? How many picked up the Saturday edition to go house hunting, or the Sunday paper to find a job? Journalists often forget that the newspaper itself was first and foremost a product, perfectly designed to take advantage of the economy of the 20th century. So, it makes sense to think of it as a product once again, this time with 21st century consumers in mind. Just look at the Washington Post. It wasn’t that long ago the storied newspaper was struggling financially right alongside its peers. But thanks to a cash infusion provided by new owner Jeff Bezos, the Post has reinvented itself from a media organization into a profitable product company, making big bucks licensing out its content management system and ad technology to other websites and media companies. Vox has also quietly moved into the product business with Chorus, its content management system which it began licensing out last year. Already, Vox is nabbing clients such as The Ringer, Funny of Die and the Chicago Sun-Times with a pitch as obvious

“The more platforms you can be on within a shorter duration of time, the more powerful the impact of the journalism can be.” editorandpublisher.com

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} The Athletic is an example of an ad-free interface that loads fast and puts content at the forefront.

as it is brilliant—use our technology and you’ll never draft a story in Google Docs again. Vox has also developed an advertising platform around Chorus users called Concert. “There’s nothing stopping one of those two companies from creating the next app for hundreds of small publishers, who can just plug in their own content and publish,” said Tony Haile, the former CEO of Chartbeat who is hard at work on his own new product, Scroll. Scroll, which is currently in the test phase now, hopes to convince readers to spend $5 a month to read their favorite news sources ad-free. In exchange, Scroll will send news organizations 70 percent of their subscription revenue. The new product currently beta testing and has already amassed an impressive of list partners, including the Atlantic, BuzzFeed and MSNBC. Haile is a realist when it comes to publishers suddenly shifting gears in an attempt to become the next great tech company. After all, engineers aren’t cheap and most media organizations are struggling with just keeping the lights on and the printing presses going. The good thing about our industry is editorandpublisher.com

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that the Seattle Times doesn’t have to fail for the Miami Herald to succeed, and news organizations don’t have to build a product from scratch in order to take advantage of it. After all, one of the benefits of operating in local markets is a product readers might be willing to pay for or support in Washington D.C. might also be as relevant in Oakland, Calif. It just depends on the right content, which thankfully is the sweet spot of most media companies.

The Future of Advertising While the industry as a whole continues down the path of more direct revenue from readers, media companies will still depend on advertising as an important revenue stream. Print advertising decades-long decline is expected to continue, but worldwide digital ad spending is expected to rise nearly 18 percent to more than $330 billion in 2019, and continue to increase well into the next decade, according to market research company eMarketer. Within that market are any number of opportunities for enterprising media companies to take advantage of, whether it’s the growth in ad spending on mobile video thanks to emerging technologies or the explosion in ownership of internet con-

} Tony Haile

nected devices. And the growth of podcast advertising continues unabated, with the Interactive Advertising Bureau projecting the market will top $1 billion in 2021. The Ringer, a relatively new media organization founded by former ESPN personality Bill Simmons, made more than $15 million in 2018 on podcast ad sales alone. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company charges advertisers upwards of AUGUST 2019 | E & P

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Reinventing the News

} Podcast advertising is projected to top $1 billion in 2021.

$50 for every 1,000 people who hear an ad, well above the pitifully low CPM rates most media companies are able to charge for display ads. There’s just one problem to developing a strategy around digital ad revenue. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. digital ad market is consumed by Google, Facebook and Amazon, who leave crumbs behind for the rest of us. Haile thinks it’s an unfortunate truth that small and mid-sized publishers will continue to be squeezed out of the lucrative digital ad market. “Advertising will overwhelmingly occur through the large platforms with very little left aside from small players who lack either the targeting or reach to compete,” he said. “Every single trend in advertising has generally made ads bigger, more interactive or more intrusive.”

Optimism About Selling Digital Subscriptions The biggest idea is also arguably the most boring—simply charging readers to access news content online. At this point, nearly all major newspaper companies and many digital news companies sell digital subscriptions or offer mem42 |

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The next generation of news consumers will grow up with an internet where it’s expected they’ll have to pay for content online. berships, and have some form of paywall walling off their content. Some, such as The Athletic, do it well, with a slick, ad-free interface that loads fast and puts their creators and content at the forefront. The Guardian, which has no paywall, has 190,000 readers who pay for a premium version of its mobile app and

tablet layout that have no ads and better offline reading functions. Others are slow-loading, glitchy monstrosities that force you to constantly reenter your login information and provide little value beyond accessing stories and annoy the very readers news organizations are attempting to engage with. Regardless, digital subscriptions have been one of the few bright spots for some when it comes to local news organizations attempting to create sustainable revenue streams online. One of the best examples at the local level is the Boston Globe, which has more than 110,000 digital subscribers paying on average $300 a year. In fact, the Globe just became the first local newspaper where digital subscribers outnumber print subscribers. But selling a digital subscription to news stories isn’t the only opportunity newsrooms have in this area. The Lenfest Foundation (which owns the Philadelphia Inquirer, where I work) founded a team called the Lenfest Local Lab focused on mining the value of location by experimenting with mobile apps that mix the expertise of local news organization with specific products that might appear to local residents. In addition to selling a premium version of its mobile app, the Guardian solicits donations from readers on every story to donate a small amount to support the news organization’s journalism. The result? More than 340,000 one-off contributions during its last fiscal year, according to the company. Which is why there is some level of optimism about the next generation of news consumers, who will grow up with an internet where it’s expected they’ll have to pay for content online. They’ll subscribe to Netflix. They’ll pay to be a premium member on Spotify. So the idea that news has to be free online won’t be an entrenched thought in the mind of future readers. “We just need to work out what the nexus of value is,” Haile said. “If we can find a way to be relevant to this new generation in a way that we can’t be out competed by Facebook, we may have something.” 

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Non-member newspapers in states surrounding Wisconsin (our convention host state), may attend for the NNA member rate! Plus, nonmember newspapers will receive 30% off membership dues the first year. Email Lynne Lance at lynne@ nna.org for a membership quote.

Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association (NNA) is a not-for-profit trade association representing the owners, publishers and editors of America's community newspapers.

NewsPeople Michael Moses has been named publisher and chief revenue officer of Newspapers of New England’s (NNE) Massachusetts operations, which includes the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Greenfield Recorder, Athol Daily News, Amherst Bulletin and the Valley Advocate. He previously served as vice president of sales and marketing for the NNE Massachusetts publications and has been working in newspapers across the New England region for the last three decades. Moses got his start working in distribution at a Connecticut newspaper while in high school and since then has held a variety of positions in the industry, ranging from reporting to marketing and advertising. Doug Oathout, Erie (Pa.) Times-News executive editor, has left his position to join Gannon University as the school’s new chief marketing and communications officer. In this role, Oathout will provide leadership for the university’s internal and external marketing and communications strategies, including media, public relations, promotion and advertising. Oathout worked for the Times-News for 24 years and held a various positions, advancing from reporter to editor. He became executive editor in 2015. Mark Horvit has been named director of the Institute for Nonprofit News. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism with experience in investigative and nonprofit journalism. He directs Missouri’s State Government Reporting Program, where he is focused on creating a new model for statehouse coverage. In addition, three member-representatives were re-elected to the INN board: Laura Frank, vice president of journalism at Rocky Mountain PBS; Anne Galloway, executive director of VTDigger; and Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for 44 |

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ACQUISITIONS Sound News Media has acquired the Bakersfield Californian and weekly Tehachapi (Calif.) News from Virginia F. Moorhouse, Virginia L. Cowenhaven and Garret P. Cowenhaven. After 122 years of ownership, the family is selling the two newspapers along with other publications and digital properties owned by their company, TBC Media. The family was represented by Cribb, Greene & Cope in the transaction. Paxton Media Group has purchased the Grand Haven (Mich.) Tribune and the Lebanon (Tenn.) Democrat from Sandusky Newspapers Inc. Cribb, Greene & Cope represented Sandusky in the transaction. Paxton has acquired the Tribune’s and Democrat’s respective websites and digital operations, both newspaper office buildings, as well as the West Michigan News Review. The sale of the Grand Haven and Lebanon operations leaves Sandusky with two newspapers in the Ohio group, two daily newspapers and three weeklies in its Northeastern Tennessee group, and interests in a variety of digital operations. Paxton Media Group has acquired the Log Cabin Democrat, a daily newspaper in Conway, Ark., along with three Arkansas weeklies: the Van Buren County Democrat in Clinton, the Sun Times in Heber Springs and the Newport Independent, from GateHouse Media. The Democrat has served the community since 1879. Cribb, Greene & Cope represented GateHouse Media in the sale. Bliss Communications has sold its two Wisconsin daily newspapers, the Gazette in Janesville, and the Eagle Herald in Marinette; and its weekly Wisconsin community newspapers, the Janesville Messenger, the Wisconsin/Illinois Stateline News and the Walworth County Shopper Advertiser to Adams Publishing Group. All associated websites and the company’s printing and production facility in Janesville are also included in the transaction. The Gazette, a 14,000-circulation daily, is the flagship newspaper of the group. The newspaper was established in 1845 and is the oldest continuing business in Janesville. Members of the Bliss family have owned the newspaper since 1883. Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April represented the Bliss family in the sale. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Responsive Politics. The three will serve through June 2021. Todd Benz has been named group publisher for the Dispatch in Lexington, N.C., the Times-News in Burlington, N.C. and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C. Benz most recently served as the general manager for the CourierTribune. Throughout his 36-year career in newspapers, he has worked on both local and regional levels in several states including Wisconsin, Michigan, California, South Carolina and Florida.

Michael Ellis Langley has resigned as executive editor for the Tracy (Calif.) Press. Langley joined the Press in 2013 and during his tenure, the newspaper received 19 awards from the California News Publishers Association. Fernando de Yarza López-Madrazo, president of Henno in Spain, has been elected president of WAN-IFRA. He succeeds Michael Golden, who served as president since 2017. New executive board members for the coming two years were also elected. They include: Stig Ørskov, JP/Politikens Hus, Denmark; Lisa MacLeod, Tiso Blackstar, South Africa; Paul Verwilt, Mediahuis, Belgium; Gerald editorandpublisher.com

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By Evelyn Mateos evelyn@editorandpublisher.com

NewsPeople

Don Blount, editor of the Stockton (Calif.) Record, has been named GateHouse Media’s California state editor. In his new role, Blount will lead and coordinate newsroom efforts for the company’s 10 California properties, including five daily newspapers as well as continue his role as editor of the Record, a position he has served in since 2017. He previously served as managing editor for 12 years.

Grünberger, VÖZ, Austria; Phillip Crawley, Globe and Mail, Canada; Karin Pettersson, Schibsted, Sweden; Marcelo Rech, RBS, Brazil; and Warren Fernandez, the Straits Times, Singapore. Rich Jackson has left his position as executive editor of the Times-News in Burlington, N.C. to become executive editor of the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald-Times. He will also be involved in 10 other newspapers within the area. Jackson began his journalism career 26 years ago. He joined the Times-News as executive editor in 2017 and prior to that, he was the editor for the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Ind. In addition, Scott Jenkins, executive editor at the Lexington (N.C.) Dispatch, has succeeded Jackson in Burlington and will serve as regional editor for both papers. Jenkins has been with the Dispatch for about two and a half years. Jill Doss-Raines has been promoted to Dispatch managing editor. She has worked for the Dispatch for nearly 27 years and most recently served as lifestyles editor. Larry Horne has joined the Institute for Nonprofit News in a new role as development director. He will lead INN’s revenue strategy with a focus on establishing a editorandpublisher.com

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major gifts program and diversifying the grant funding portfolio that supports services, programs and growth for a network of more than 210 member newsrooms. Horne brings more than 30 years of experience in fundraising and nonprofit management to his new role. Scott Blonde has been named publisher of the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah and the Daily Herald in Provo, two publications owned by Ogden Newspapers. He

of Leader Publications in Festus, Mo. and group president of Boone Newspapers. Phares intends to fulfill his term as the president of the Inland Press Association, which will run until October. Evelyn Connatser Sandlin, advertising director for The Daily Times, in Maryville, Tenn., has retired after 20 years with the newspaper. She joined the Times in 1999 as the marketing director and was promoted to ad director two years later. Prior to that, Sandlin spent 10 years as secretary to the publisher at the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Ala. When a new publisher took over, Sandlin was moved into the advertising department and five years later, she was named ad director. Kendra Majors has been named publisher and editor of the Andalusia (Ala.) Star-

Phil Hensley has been named vice president of circulation for Lakeway Publishers and circulation director for the Citizen Tribune, in Morristown, Tenn. He joins the Tribune after 37 years at the Johnson City (Tenn.) Press and a nine-month stint at the Opelika-Auburn News in Alabama. During his tenure at the Press, Hensley rose through the ranks in circulation, from district manager helper to director.

comes to Utah from Florida-based Breeze Newspapers, another Ogden Newspapers property. Blonde succeeds Rhett Long, who has retired. Doug Phares has stepped down as CEO of the Sandusky News Group, owner of the Sandusky (Ohio) Register and the Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector. He joined the company in 2005 as vice president and publisher of the Register. He also has served as president and publisher

News and its associated media products. Majors returns to the paper from The Brewton Standard, where she most recently served as publisher. Before that, she worked for the Star-News in several capacities including creative director, magazine editor and reporter. Previously, Majors worked for several other Alabama newspapers including: the Luverne Journal, the Lowndes Signal and the Troy Messenger. Laura Streelman has been named sales manager for Interlink. She most recently served as the company’s product manager, where she directed the production and AUGUST 2019 | E & P

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NewsPeople launch of True Newspaper Mail. She will be based at the company’s corporate office in Berrien Springs, Mich. Eric Strachan has been named publisher of Naples Florida Weekly. He will be in charge of all aspects of the newspaper’s content and will work closely with editors of all of the Florida Weekly newspapers. He succeeds Robbie Spencer who has moved to Minnesota to pursue new career opportunities. Previously, Strachan worked for the Naples Daily News in a variety of roles including senior managing editor before leaving the industry in 2013. Kimbriell Kelly has been named editor in Washington for the Los Angeles Times. She joins the Times from the Washington Post, where she served as an investigative reporter for the past six and a half years. In her new role, Kelly will be responsible for leading a team of five reporters. In addition, she will help expand the Washington bureau staff’s data-journalism techniques as well as their use of FOIA and other public records laws. Mandy Jenkins has been named general manager of The Compass Experiment for McClatchy. The experiment is a threeyear experimental lab for local news in partnership with the Google News Initiative. She will lead the effort to launch three digital-only local news sites, hire and manage a team of journalists, sales professionals, audience growth experts and product staff. Most recently, Jenkins served as Storyful’s first editor-in-chief. She previously worked as managing editor of the Project Thunderdome newsroom for Digital First Media and in digital news roles at the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 46 |

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Teresa Ressel has been named the editor of the Daily Journal in Park Hills, Mo. Most recently, Ressel served as the newspaper’s assistant managing editor since July 2013. She joined the paper as a reporter in 2001, and for more than a decade, she covered the court system, law enforcement and the Bonne Terre, Mo. area.

Pam Sander, regional editor for GateHouse Media’s Coastal North Carolina Group since 2017, has been named editor of the company’s publications in the Southeast region. She will lead and coordinate newsrooms in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia. Sander has served the StarNews in Wilmington, N.C. in recent years, holding a number of titles including features editor, community editor, magazine editor, operations editor and executive editor. John E. Cash, general manager of the Greeneville (Tenn.) Sun and chief revenue officer for Adams Publishing Group’s Tennessee/ North Carolina/Virginia region, has retired. Cash was in the newspaper business for more than 48 years—33 of which were spent with the Sun and its sister companies. Succeeding Cash is Paul W. Mauney. He has served in several leadership positions with Morris Multimedia, Freedom Communications and GateHouse Media in Tennessee, North Carolina and California. Most recently, Mauney was regional publisher of three GateHouse-owned North Carolina daily newspapers: the Times-News of Burlington, the Dispatch of Lexington and the Courier-Tribune of Asheboro. Gary Miles, a 19-year veteran of the

Detroit News, has been named the newspaper’s editor and publisher. He succeeds the late Jonathan Wolman. Miles joined the News in 2000 as assistant metro editor and has held various management positions, overseeing local news digital operations, projects and sports. He was named managing editor in November 2013. Prior to joining the News, Miles was managing editor of the Times Herald in Port Huron, Mich. and he also held management and reporting positions at the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal and the Daily Journal in Vineland, N.J. Sammy Lopez has been appointed executive director of the New Mexico Press Association. Most recently, he was publisher of the Farmington Daily Times. Lopez has also been the publisher at newspapers in Las Cruces, Carlsbad and Deming and served as a group manager for World West for eight newspapers in three states. Lopez also served in an executive role for Civitas Media, where he managed six daily newspapers and two weeklies. Early in his career, he worked for the Santa Fe New Mexican as a photographer. Rob Roberts has been appointed editorin-chief of the National Post. He joined the publication as a copy editor and rose through the ranks to become national editor and executive producer, news, until he left in 2015 to head the Atlantic bureau of the Canadian Press. Roberts began his career in radio and moved to print journalism with editorial positions at newspapers in Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. 

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FOR SALE: Exceptionally strong weekly in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Perfect for an individual buyer or couple looking to retire from the daily grind of daily deadlines. Top line revenues above $650k. Please contact National Media Associates--Edward Anderson, Broker 417-338-6397 or email: brokered1@gmail.com FOR SALE BY KAMENGROUP.COM: NY parent target mag w/massive print distribution, digital components & outstanding profit margins. National Librarian & Support Staff Magazine. San Diego, CA, Charleston, SC, St Louis, MO, Tacoma, WA, Austin, TX, San Jose, CA, Boston, MA, Rhode Island, Florida & Oklahoma weekly newspapers for sale. National boating/fishing mag, NY/NJ equine magazine, SC Group of titles avail. Oregon, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Arkansas & Texas Daily newspapers seek new owners. Nationally Distributed Family Owned Outdoors/Recreational title from Midwest. Adult beverage digital sites & properties. KAMENGROUP.COM • info@kamengroup.com. Discover the current market value of your publishing entity. Plan ahead and schedule your multi media financial valuation! 516-242-2857, KAMEN & CO. GROUP SERVICES, LLC. LIBRARIAN/TEACHING MAGAZINE FOR SALE with SOLID DIGITAL COMPONENTS by KAMENGROUP.COM:Video Librarian is a highly respected, subscriber-based, advertiser supported video review magazine for libraries. In its 34th year, Video Librarian is the only publication that provides comprehensive DVD/Blu-ray/digital reviews for librarians building quality video collections. Exclusive listing; info@kamengroup.com Excellent opportunity. Great looking title, solid professional brand in educational sphere. Owners seek to retire. 516-379-2797. KAMEN & CO GROUP SERVICES, LLC

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COPY EDITOR: Are you an experienced copy editor who enjoys designing eye-catching pages? Are you proﬁcient in InDesign and Adobe Photoshop?? If so, keep reading because we might have a job for you. The AntelopeValley Press is looking for a page designer/copy editor who likes to create appealing pages to present information to our readers.? You must be self-motivated, detail oriented, organized, able to meet daily deadlines, work independently and have an understanding of what’s important to our readers and what should be featured on your pages. You should have at least three years experience in pagination and design and be comfortable taking direction from the editor, to whom you will report. Newspaper or magazine reporting experience is a plus.

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EDITOR: Mohave County Miner, Inc., located in Kingman, Arizona is seeking a leader for our daily publication, Kingman Daily Miner, who is excited to become part of the community to uncover the news people are talking about. Whether it’s online or print, our goal is to surprise and delight our readers with 100% local content that is relevant, informative, and entertaining. The editor is responsible for planning, directing, and editing stories for the print edition and daily updates online as well as attending local events and meetings. The right candidate will have 5 years management experience, strong pagination and design experience, and knowledge of all things AP style. A journalism degree required. This is a full time position with benefits, PTO, and 401k. Weekend work required. NSE EEOE. Send resume, work samples, and letters of reference to WNIRecruit@westernnews.com. EDITOR: The Norfolk Daily News - an independent, family-owned news organization serving the northeast quarter of Nebraska - is seeking an editor to guide its approximately 15-person newsroom and play a key role on its leadership team. The Daily News, which has been owned by the same family for more than 125 years, is known for its commitment to community advocacy and a conservative worldview, and is seeking an editor who embraces those foundational pillars. The Daily News publishes not only a six-day-a-week afternoon newspaper, but also a variety of digital products that continue to grow in scope. Its next editor will have a track record of journalistic excellence and a broad knowledge of the issues, challenges and opportunities in the evolving world of community journalism. The Daily News is seeking an individual who is equally comfortable in meeting with high-ranking elected officials as well as individual subscribers. The editor will especially be knowledgeable and excited about the digital side of journalism and how best to distribute content to effectively reach Nebraskans of all ages. To apply, contact Bill Huse, publisher, at whuse1@gmail.com. EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Union Leader Corporation is looking for a dynamic, experienced journalist to take the leadership role of Executive Editor in our newsroom. This role will be responsible for leading other managing editors, copy editors and reporters through the evolving newsroom as we move through the digital age. The successful candidate will be highly collaborative with staff and other departments determining content and topics, reviewing writing styles and identifying potential legal issues, addressing these legal issues if they arise. This person will also be responsible for the development of long-term objectives for newsroom and be active in the community maintaining a good rapport with all consumers of our products. Our ideal candidate will have an undergraduate degree in journalism with a minor in business administration or the equivalent experience. This person will also have a minimum of five years of experience managing a team of professionals and will be able to demonstrate leadership ability. Past experience with financial budgeting is also required. To apply, email hr@unionleader.com.

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INSTRUCTOR IN SPORTS JOURNALISM: The Department of Journalism in the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI) at the University of Colorado Boulder invites applications for a full-time Instructor to teach sports and multimedia journalism courses. This is a non-tenure-track faculty position starting in August 2019 with an initial contract period of three years. The Instructor will teach three courses a semester as assigned by the department and will assist with the development and administration of the new CMCI Sports Minor. This will include mentoring students interested in sports communication, working with student media focused on sports reporting, and organizing an annual Sports Summit in the spring. The Instructor also will work with master’s students in the sports track of the department’s online Master of Arts in Journalism Entrepreneurship program. In addition, the Instructor will provide service to the Department of Journalism, such as serving on committees and attending regular department faculty meetings. Qualifications: ● Master’s degree required ● Minimum of seven years of journalism experience ● Experience in sports journalism ● Experience with video, audio and other multimedia forms of storytelling ● Teaching experience at the college level or experience working with college students in internships or other professional settings Instructions to Applicants: Applications must be submitted electronically at https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail/?jobId=18692 To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume or vitae, 1-2 samples of or links to professional work, and the names and contact information for three references. Review of applications is ongoing and will continue until the position is filled. Salary is negotiable and nationally competitive. Additional questions may be emailed to Elizabeth.Skewes@colorado.edu. About CMCI, the University and Boulder The College of Media Communication and Information, established in 2015, is the first new college on the CU-Boulder campus in 53 years. CMCI is designed for collaborations among faculty and students in the departments of Journalism; Information Science; Media Studies; Communication; Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design; and related fields. The Journalism program, nationally accredited since 1948, offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. In addition to operating CU News Corps, it is home to NewsTeam Boulder (a local student news broadcast), the web-based CU Science Update, the internationally acclaimed Center for Environmental Journalism, Buff Sports Live (a weekly sports broadcast), and numerous other journalism projects. The department offers certificate programs in International Media and Sports Journalism. For more information, visit http://www.colorado.edu/cmci/. Boulder often appears on lists of the best college towns and best places to live in the nation. Recreational activities like hiking and mountain biking abound, thanks to Boulder’s location at the base of the Flatirons, its miles of trails through the Open Space and Mountain Park system, and its proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park. Outdoor activities continue year round with access to some of the world’s best ski resorts. Getting around Boulder is easy, thanks to a well-connected public transportation system that is free for faculty, low traffic, and plenty of bike and pedestrian paths. A lively downtown offers up a five-block pedestrian mall lined with shops and eateries, and Denver, a major media market with a nationally acclaimed food scene, year-round art and culture festivals, and a major international airport, located just 30 miles away, offers easy access to the best of city life. The University of Colorado Boulder offers a robust benefits package to eligible employees, including health insurance, retirement plans and paid time off. For more information about benefits, visit http://www.colorado.edu/hr/employees/benefits. The University of Colorado is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to building a diverse workforce. We encourage applications from women, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals with disabilities and veterans. We are committed to an inclusive and barrier-free search process. Alternative formats of this ad can be provided upon request for individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities in search of accommodations throughout the search process should contact the ADA Coordinator at: hr-ada@colorado.edu.

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shoptalk /commentary Facebook and the ‘Third Person Effect’ By Joseph B. Walther

number of prominent figures have called for some sort of regulation of Facebook—including one of the company’s cofounders and a venture capitalist who was one of Facebook’s early backers. Much of the criticism of Facebook relates to how the company’s algorithms target users with advertising, and the “echo chambers” that show users ideologically slanted content. Despite the public criticism, the company has posted record profits. And billions of people—including more than two-thirds of American adults—continue to use the unregulated version of Facebook that exists now. I have been studying the social dynamics of the internet for 30 years, and I suspect what’s behind these apparent contradictions is something psychological. People know about Facebook’s problems, but each person assumes he or she is largely immune—even while imagining that everyone else is very susceptible to influence. That paradox helps explain why people keep using the site—which still boasts more than 2 billion monthly average users. And ironically, it also helps explain what’s behind pressure to regulate the social media giant. The psychological tendency at work here is called “the third person effect,” the belief that media don’t fool me, and maybe don’t fool you, but all those other people are sitting ducks for media effects. Ironically, this dynamic can encourage people to support restrictions on media consumption—by others. If someone uses, say, a social media site and feels immune to its negative influences, it triggers another psychological phenomenon called the “influence of presumed influence.” When that happens, a person worries that everyone else falls victim, and supports efforts to protect others, even if they think they themselves don’t need the protection. This could be why there are lots of Face-

book users who complain about Facebook’s danger to others, but continue using it nevertheless. Even the Facebook-funding venture capitalist Roger McNamee, who wrote a book about how bad Facebook has become, may have fallen prey to this psychological irony. As the Washington Post reports, “despite … his disgust with the worst crimes of social media platforms…McNamee not only still owns Facebook shares…he also still counts himself among the behemoth’s more than 2 billion users. After all, McNamee acknowledges with a shrug and a smile, ‘I’ve got a book to promote.’” McNamee may think he’s immune to the echo chambers and other online influences that, he warns, affect the average Facebook user. What if average Facebook users think they’re not the average Facebook user, and therefore also believe that they are immune to Facebook’s pernicious influences? I explored this possibility in a survey of 515 adults in the U.S. who used Facebook at least once the previous week. Participants were recruited by Qualtrics, a company that administered my survey questions. Respondents resided in all 50 states. Their average age was 39, and they reported an average of just under 10 hours per week on Facebook, which they estimated to be similar to most other Facebook users. The survey asked the respondents three groups of questions. One group was about how strongly they believe that Facebook affects them on a number of important social and political topics, including building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding or repealing the Affordable Care Act, whether President Trump is doing a good job and other major national issues. The second group of questions asked how much each respondent believes Facebook affects others’ perceptions of those same issues—how much social media affects their idea of “the average person.” The third group of questions asked how

strongly each respondent supported regulating Facebook, through a variety of possible strategies that include rulings from the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission, breaking up Facebook using anti-trust laws, requiring Facebook to reveal its algorithms and other steps. Respondents believed that Facebook affects other people’s perceptions much more strongly than it affects their own. The more they thought that others were more vulnerable than they were, the more they wanted to rein Facebook in. People who thought they were far less affected than others, and who wanted to regulate Facebook, also believed more strongly that the source of the problem with Facebook lies in the power of echo chambers to repeat, amplify and reinforce a user’s beliefs. That was true even though they would be affected by the regulations as well. Echo chambers do exist, and they do affect people’s perceptions—even leading one person to shoot up a pizza parlor alleged to be a front for child prostitution. But research has called into question the idea that echo chambers are extremely influential over most people’s views. In my view, it’s more important to help people understand that they are just as much at risk from Facebook as everyone else, whatever the level of risk may actually be. Society may bear some responsibility, but so do individual Facebook users. Otherwise they’ll ignore recommendations about their own media consumption, while supporting calls for sweeping regulations that may be too broad and potentially misdirected. Ultimately, people need to save themselves more, and worry a little less about saving everyone else.  Joseph B. Walther is the Mark and Susan Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society, a Distinguished Professor of Communication, and the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This article originally appeared at The Conversation.

Printed in the USA. Vol. 152, No 8, 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 2019, 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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