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Achieving growth in circulation, revenue and engagement
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A Section
Features
Departments
NEW NAME, NEW FOCUS
10 Newspapers That Do It Right
CRITICAL THINKING
iMoneza rebrands as Wallit . . . . . . . p. 8
BRINGING THE ‘BACKSTORY’ UP FRONT
Achieving growth in circulation, revenue and engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 30
New weekly column aims to shed light on the basics of journalism . . . . . . . . p. 9
Road to Recovery
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS
The Canadian newspaper industry is getting a new jolt of life . . . . . . . . . p. 46
The Berkshire Eagle expands its news coverage using a drone. . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10
News on the Go
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
How publishers are improving the mobile reading experience . . . . . . . p. 52
The Tampa Bay Times used Legos to simplify a complex local news story p. 11
With the proliferation of “fake news” appearing on social media sites, should companies like Facebook and Twitter be protected? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 15
DATA PAGE Confusion caused by fake news, top 10 daily newspapers sold in 2016, where U.S. consumers check their emails, digital video initiatives in 2017 . . . p. 18
PRODUCTION Retired operations director reflects on industry changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 26
TAKING ACTION
NEWSPEOPLE
The Times-Picayune explores the impact of the state’s disappearing coast . . p. 12
New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 59
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
SHOPTALK
James Neiss/Niagara Gazette . . . . p. 16
Social media is no longer a safe place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 66
Columns INDUSTRY INSIGHT
BUSINESS OF NEWS
DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Fighting fake news with radical transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 20
Fake news is a golden opportunity for journalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 22
How the Independent Journal Review became one of the fastest growing news sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24
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editorial
All Ideas Welcomed
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hen we put out the call for nominations for our annual “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” feature, we were essentially asking for newspapers to send us their biggest and brightest ideas. Ideas that increased revenue. Ideas that helped gain subscriptions. Ideas that helped bring communities together. Ideas that got people talking. And newspapers around the world delivered. We loved reading about all the ideas people were sending in from different newspapers (more than 70 to be exact). A trend we noticed this year was the amount of papers submitting ideas centered on community engagement—whether it was talking and listening to your readers at city forums or hosting events focused on issues like race, economics, and religion. The best part is that your readers were showing up, meaning they do want to meet you and they do want to engage with you. Let’s face it; working for a newspaper is tough right now, but that didn’t stop any of you from sending in your ideas. Once again, we asked, “How can newspapers continue to grow and prosper?” Hear what some of the papers from this year’s list of “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” and honorable mentions had to say.—NY “Newspapers need to continue diversifying how they deliver their product, letting this question guide their initiatives: Can we make money doing this? For years, newspapers let their expert reporters and columnists appear on TV and radio, calling it brand promotion, but not reaping any financial benefit. Instead they created free programming for other media. Papers need to recognize that their independent voice has substantial value beyond print and their own website by creating programming that takes advantage of that.”—Jamie Stockwell, San Antonio Express-News “Newspapers must put themselves into the center of the most important issues that confront their communities, and not just 4 |
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investigate problems—of course they must do that—but engage directly in solving them. Yes, there is challenge in taking an activist role, that a misstep could compromise the independence necessary for good journalism.”—Douglas Ray, Gainesville Sun “I believe that the newspaper industry is one of the most resilient business models in America, as proven by its ability to weather the advent of new content technologies throughout the years. The transformation from a print only, to online, to advertising agency, and now to a diversified revenue generator shows me that the business will always survive. The format and revenues are becoming agnostic, showing the creativity of the businesses to find new paths to keep growing.”—Todd Peterson, Albany Times Union “Newspapers must get into the business of helping people — citizens — become better news consumers, able to distinguish credible, fact-based reporting from all of its lesser cousins. We will benefit if consumers have the critical thinking skills needed to distinguish between news and noise…A news literate community provides a builtin advantage for local newspapers that face challenges from competitors whose standards of verification and fair play are nowhere near as stringent as ours.”—Mark Baldwin, Rockford Register Star “Newspapers must be seen as a digest of information critical to daily life, and they must be trusted. Finding the path requires us to respect our audience. Stop thinking of them as uninformed, apathetic, unable to discern. We need to incorporate them in all of our work, from story conceptualization and reporting to showing diverse interests working together to find solutions. And we need to tell them more often how we do our work so that they see how hard we try in our daily routine to deliver that information. Redevelop trust, empower, engage, show people working together to solve tough problems, be transparent. Those things assure us a future.”—Doug Oplinger, Akron Beacon Journal
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To Save Newspapers, Focus on Your Reporting The most important part of the newspaper industry is still critical to our society—the professional, in-depth, impartial reporting. No one does it better. (“Your Message Here,” January 2017) It’s the method of delivery and the business model that are quickly becoming antiquated. As long as newspapers hold on to print, they will be perceived as dinosaurs, no matter what other victories they may claim. Shut down the presses, strip out all the production and distribution, and protect the industry’s most valuable asset—the reporting. JOHN HARPER
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Newspapers Must Market Themselves Great points made in this article. (“Your Message Here,” January 2017) One of the leading problems I see with the industry is that newspapers, by and large, don’t market themselves for one reason or another. For example, in the city where I live, there’s one major daily newspaper and many people go to it for local news. However, other community newspapers (dailies, weeklies and bimonthlies) exist and a lot of folks don’t even know about them because they aren’t putting their own names out there. Small papers are often owned by companies that are struggling so hard to even make the bills that branding falls by the wayside. But if a company does its best to let folks know it’s out there, it is working for you and 6 |
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the people who work for it are part of the community in which the newspaper/magazine is published, then (one would hope) advertisers would increase and so would rack purchases and subscriptions. A newspaper today cannot afford to lose its web/ social media presence either. If it doesn’t have one or doesn’t consistently keep up its accounts, then people often forget it even exists or consider it less credible than their competitors who often have consistently updated websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts. REBEKAH YEAROUT
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Journalists Shouldn’t Be Immune When They Break Laws I continually remind myself that my work as a journalist offers me no more or fewer protections afforded any citizen. (“Critical Thinking: How Will The Arrest of Amy Goodman Covering the Dakota Access Pipeline Affect Future Journalists From Covering Protests?” January 2017) If I trespass, I am responsible for the consequences. It is up to every journalist to decide whether their work warrants breaking the law. However, it is a mistake to assume that journalists should have any immunity. MICHAEL VOSBURG
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Amy Goodman Was Doing Her Job as a Journalist The day Amy reported there were no authorities. It was the pipeline’s temporary
hired security from out of state. (“Critical Thinking: How Will The Arrest of Amy Goodman Covering the Dakota Access Pipeline Affect Future Journalists From Covering Protests?” January 2017) The attack dogs and company were not properly certified through the state. There are laws within the state against using dogs to attack, bite laws, etc. All those laws were violated. She clearly asked the security questions—which they refused to answer. That’s on them. Not her. She gave opportunity. Only she could be charged with is trespassing but only if the land owner pressed charges. Curious though, during a war zone conflict is the journalist required to get commentary from both sides? Or just report on the facts of the moment and interview the ones who will speak willingly? Pretty sure she did exactly as she could in the moment and reported factually as to what was seen via video documentation of the incident. AMY
Submitted on editorandpublisher.com
Journalists Got Caught Up in Their Own Hype In general, most journalists are liberal and most editorial boards are liberal. (“Business of News: Reporting on the Real America” January 2017) Every day journalists would discuss new polls and as the polling appeared to reflect an insurmountable win for Clinton, journalists got caught up in the emotional hype. The storyline journalists continued to report was Trump was a joke and could never win the presidency. Journalists fell on the sword of their own elitism. They were ecstatic and drooling for election night to watch the political death of Trump. Journalists drank their own kool-aid. JERRY KURBATOFF
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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2/17/17 1:08 PM
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the A section VOLUME 150
FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH 2017
ISSUE 3
> Look Ahead
New Name, New Focus iMoneza rebrands as Wallit By Sean Stroh
T
here comes a time for some companies where, regardless of how long they’ve been operating, a fresh start is needed. Such was the case with the technology company now known as Wallit. After debuting as iMoneza in March of 2015, Wallit (wallit.io) has not only changed its name, but shifted its primary focus from micropayments toward maximizing the power of subscriptions.
“Our flexible system allows us to cater a program that fits the diverse needs of publishers selling their content.”
“The rebrand was a result of an internal decision to change our focus and we felt that a rebrand would be complimentary. It would provide the opportunity to re-introduce ourselves, so-to-speak,” said Tim Hunter, Wallit’s director of marketing. “We found that familiarity with the subscription model seemed to resonate more clearly with our audience. However, our micropayment technology is still leveraged extensively throughout the technology to offer diverse subscriptions.” Hunter says the new name better fits what the company does best—offering a robust } Tim Hunter, Wallit director of marketing paywall technology to meet 8 |
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} The Wallit platform gives publishers the ability to offer different subscription options to its readers.
the needs of publishers and content creators, and providing users a single account from which they can purchase content from any partner in the Wallit network. By using the Wallit platform, publishers have the ability to easily modify and employ different payment and frequency subscription types—whether it be through single article sales or an all access annual subscription. “We’ve had great feedback. The ability to offer print or print plus digital subscriptions has existed, but we’ve really taken that next step,” Hunter said. “Our flexible system allows us to cater a program that fits the diverse needs of publishers selling their content. They control the product and the pricing, without any need for IT resources.” Recently, The Durango (Colo.) Herald worked with the company to give its online readers additional purchase options beyond a monthly or annual subscription. The partnership was part of a larger strategy by the newspaper intended to enhance their website and offer new ways to monetize its content. According to Hunter, Wallit has also partnered with a few digital-only sites as well as some niche publishers, business-tobusiness properties and magazines. Additionally, the company hopes to begin working with more newspapers of all sizes. “The popularity of subscription services like Netflix, Spotify and Hulu really made people comfortable with the idea of a digital subscription. The Wallit technology steps ahead and allows publishers to offer a weekly, daily, monthly sports or nearly any combination that suits their needs,” Hunter said. “This product variety will help publishers reach a more diverse audience as a one-sizefits-all monthly subscription might not be right for all users.” editorandpublisher.com
2/17/17 12:05 PM
the A section
Bringing the ‘Backstory’ Up Front New weekly column aims to shed light on the basics of journalism
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hen Michelle Morgante joined the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star as its managing editor in late 2015, following more than two decades a reporter, editor and bureau chief with the Associated Press, she found herself interacting directly with readers on a daily basis. Sometimes, it was a call or email from a disgruntled reader. Other times, she encountered angry locals while running errands who wondered why the paper was “attacking” a friend of theirs. Morgante quickly recognized the overarching problem: there was a wide lack of understanding of journalism and the important role it plays in democracy. Inspired by “From the Editor,” a column written by Sandra Duerr, executive editor at The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif., she decided to create a column of her own called “Backstory” to address the confusion around what exactly journalists working at newspapers do. “I found it was common that folks didn’t know the difference between an opinion piece and a news article or even an advertisement. There was a lack of understanding about the difference between the Sun-Star and, say, local bloggers who publish unverified news,” Morgante said. “I also found that people Michelle Morgante, Merced in my social (Calif.) Sun-Star managing media circles editor
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news tips. The subject of Morgante’s Jan. 9 “Backstory” column explained how, despite a decline in print circulation, the Sun-Star was reaching a wider audience than ever thanks to its strong digital presence. Last November, nearly 425,000 unique visitors viewed the paper’s website, including 290,147 visits from outside the area. Meanwhile, their mobile app had more than 277,000 unique visitors that same number, an increase of 17 percent from the year prior. “A column is a way for me to directly reach out to our readers on a mass scale. I’ve spoken before community groups and local leaders, but this reaches more people and can be read on their time,” Morgante said. “Sun-Star columns tend to be very popular with our readers and I believe that’s because they address issues that directly concern the community and do so with a local voice.” –SS
> Did You Hear? had a perception that all ‘mainstream media’ were biased or even run directly by the government.” The veteran journalist says she is aiming to make “Backstory” a weekly column for both print and online, with topics ranging from the process behind an investigative piece to the details of covering a big breaking news story. She also plans to add brief bios about her reporters to the paper’s website in order to improve the connection with their readers and ensure they know where to go with ideas and
“No one ever had to remind Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow of the need to speak the truth when the truth was plain and the moral imperative clear. No one should have to remind this generation of journalists either.” Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald
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Reaching New Heights The Berkshire Eagle expands its news coverage using a drone
} Aerial drone shots show the Round Stone Barn at Hancock Shaker Village, the only circular barn ever built by the Shakers, a Christian sect founded in England in the eighteenth century (left), and The Mount in Lenox, Mass, the former home of author Edith Wharton, who built the estate in 1902.
A
great idea means very little without execution. However, if early results produced by the Berkshire Eagle’s new drone are any indication of what’s to come, the paper may soon find itself serving as a blueprint for success with the emerging technology. “Not only are we here in the newsroom excited by our drone we call ‘The Eagle,’ but our readers are as well,” said Kevin Moran, editor of the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. “So far, they’ve been fascinated by our initial forays and their response has been positive and appreciative, too. The drone offers readers a level of perspective we haven’t been able to provide them before.” The first flights made by the drone, a DJI Phantom 3 professional quadcopter, took place at several nearby locations that featured both interesting terrain and an open landscape to practice. These sites included Holiday Brook farm in Dalton, Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield and Hancock Shaker Village, where it captured an overhead of the historic Round Stone Barn. Hans Morris, one of four partners who purchased the paper last April, inspired the news team to engage in obtaining all of the steps necessary to operate a fully licensed drone to help cover the news. “It offers an opportunity to have much more dramatic images,” Morris said. } Ben Garver, Berkshire } Kevin Moran, Berk“We also have large Eagle visual news shire Eagle editor and editor vice president of news audiences here in
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the Berkshires during the summer, so I could envision some incredible shots of the crowd at Tanglewood on the lawn, or Wilco performing at MASS MoCA with the mountains as a backdrop.” } Fredric D. Rutberg (left) president of the Moran tasked photo Berkshire Eagle and New England Newspapers editor and photographer Inc., confers with Hans Morris, one of four Ben Garver with conduct- partners who bought the newspaper last year. ing research and helping put the proposal together for a process that took about four months to complete from idea to first flight. In order to operate the drone, Garver was required to study for weeks and successfully pass the FAA knowledge test for his pilot’s license for unmanned aircraft. “This is an amazing photographic tool, but it is also a powerful aircraft,” Garver said. “We want to use it with authority, and that means learning the law and finding ways to use the drone safely while adding to our photo report. We are early in the game right now, but I think it will be ideal for showing context in spot news and the scale of events.” Garver emphasized that despite the positive reaction of the initial images captured by The Eagle, he’ll continue to take a slow but steady approach with how he handles their new gadget. “In agreement with the leadership, we are starting with pretty safe subjects and moving to others as my skill level increases,” Garver said. “Breaking news coverage is on the horizon, but we’ll experiment safely and within the law. We’ll expand use with skills.” –SS editorandpublisher.com
2/17/17 12:05 PM
the A section
Some Assembly Required The Tampa Bay Times used Legos to simplify a complex local news story
J
ournalists can attest to the fact that not all stories are created equal, at least when it comes to the public’s level of interest in them. Though newsrooms have experimented with different ways to tackle the problem, a pair of reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and one imaginative intern recently applied an unusual approach to explain a rather complicated local news story. } Caitlin Johnston, Tampa Bay Times reporter With the help of a couple hundred Lego pieces and some clever stop-motion photography, the team managed to design a simple, eye-pleasing narrative about how the plan to fix Tampa Bay’s most important bridge fell apart. “Transportation is a complex subject but it can also be a fairly dry one. Despite the fact that transportation policy affects all of our readers—after all, everyone has to get from point A to point B—most shy away from reading a 30-inch story about roads,” said reporter Caitlin Johnston, who was the main writer for the project. “That’s where creative storytelling comes into play. The Lego format allowed us to visualize the story for our readers in a fun format.”
} Lego people were used to portray local lawmakers and state officials involved in the Tampa Bay Express project. editorandpublisher.com
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} Eli Zhang, a data and graphics intern at the Tampa Bay Times, used toy cars to simulate traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge, which connects St. Petersburg and Tampa, Fla.
While it had been discussed by local lawmakers and the state’s department of transportation for several years, the toll road project called Tampa Bay Express, or TBX, remained a convoluted web of bureaucratic jargon to most of the paper’s readers. For the story to be delivered clearly, the team understood it had to first consolidate the key components of the 182-page plan and figure out how the Legos would help demonstrate them. “Who doesn’t have a sense of nostalgia when it comes to those colored bricks? Suddenly this topic that seems really dense, complicated and dry becomes simple and entertaining,” Johnston said. “We had several readers comment that they wished every political policy was explained with Legos.” Once that step was taken care of, Eli Zhang, a data and graphics intern at the paper, got to work in the photo studio, shooting the project frame by frame. A few dozen Micro Machine toy automobiles assumed the role of cars on the bridge, while Lego people were used to portray local lawmakers and state officials. According to Zhang, the project took several months. When it was finally completed (tampabay.com/legobridge), Zhang said he had made a total of 336 handcrafted stop-motion frames. “It was a big challenge for me on a technical level. I’ve done stop-motion animation before but I didn’t have any sort of experience doing it for the web,” Zhang said. “That being said, there was never any doubt we could pull it off. We have some very talented engineers and designers in the data team and they were always willing to help.” –SS MARCH 2017 | E & P
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the A section
} Delacroix Island, surrounded by sinking wetlands, is an unincorporated community in St. Bernard Parish, La.
} Isle de Jean Charles is a small enclave of houses on a narrow, oneand-and-a-half mile long strip of land in southeastern Louisiana. As the wetlands continue to sink and as sea levels continue to rise, the island has become a vulnerable environmental outpost ringed by a low levee.
Taking Action The Times-Picayune explores the impact of the state’s disappearing coast
F
or more than two decades, the Times-Picayune’s newsroom in New Orleans has paid particularly close attention to the ongoing issues related to the degradation of Louisiana’s coast. With the creation of the coastal reporting team, dedicated to in-depth coverage of the state’s continuous land loss, the newspaper is hoping the public will soon follow suit. “We want to ramp up staffing and use every storytelling tool at our disposal to make sure everyone understands the full scope of the problem, the cost and human impact of proposed solutions and the consequences of doing nothing,” said editor Mark Lorando. Over the past 80 years, Louisiana has lost roughly 1,800 square miles of land, an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. State officials have warned that without major restoration projects in place, the Bayou State could lose another 1,750 square miles during this century. It’s a problem that environment reporter Mark Schleifstein says concerns more than just the residents of Louisiana. The state either directly provides or acts as a conduit for a third of the nation’s oil and gas. “Loss of the wetland areas has the potential of dramatically reducing the effectiveness of its use as a nursery for the majority of U.S. commercial fishery species in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Schleifstein, who will lead the team alongside state news editor Drew Broach. “Those wetlands also act as protec-
} Mark Lorando, Times-Picayune editor
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} Ted Jackson, Times-Picayune photographer and videographer
} Mark Schleifstein, Times-Picayune environment reporter
tion for the thousands of miles of pipelines and equipment used by the oil and gas industry. Thus, the wetland loss issues faced by the state are actually a national economic problem, in addition to the environmental threat it poses.” The establishment of the coastal team was due in large part to a partnership with the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), which has provided more than $640,000 for journalism projects since 2010. The team will include contributions from longtime outdoors reporter Todd Masson and photographer/ videographer Ted Jackson. The newspaper intends to hire two full-time environmental journalists who will work exclusively for the new team as well. “As I interpret things, the written word provides the testimony within our published presentations. The photographs provide the evidence,” Jackson said. “It’s usually difficult for readers to wrap their minds around the dramatic loss of our coastline until they can see it. And once they see it, they are much more inclined to study the details and begin to care, which is the first step toward action.”–SS editorandpublisher.com
2/17/17 12:06 PM
L-E&P-
the A section
SAY WHAT?
Tornoe’s Corner
New Vocabulary for the Modern Era
Acqui-hire (noun): an act or instance of buying out a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff, rather than for the products or services it supplies. “Sadly, because of this Facebook acquihire, that means the end of Eyegroove as the world knows it. The app will shut down soon, and ‘much’ of the staff will be working for Zuckerberg and company any day now.”
—Hugh McIntyre, L-E&P-9x5.4375:Layout 1 Forbes 6/8/16 9:20 AM Page 1
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the A section From the Archive
> Wise Advice “What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?” Never assume you’re the smartest person in the room. People who think they know everything limit their exposure to new ideas, opposing viewpoints and the intellectual curiosity that is critical to brainstorming, team building, and, ultimately, truly great Logan Molen products and services. It’s simple advice but so important in fostering healthy relationships in and out of the workplace. Logan Molen is publisher and CEO of RG Media Co. and The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore. He spent 28 years in various news, digital and senior management roles at The Bakersfield Californian before moving into his current role in July 2016.
Operator Linda Witchen of the Bradford (Pa.) Era prepares an ad on Compugraphic’s AdVantage markup/makeup system. The principal instrument is the electronic pen through which commands are executed simply by touching the pen to instructions on the markup board. This photo originally appeared in the Nov. 10, 1979 issue of E&P.
LEGAL BRIEFS State Supreme Court Rules Against Wyoming Tribune Eagle Lawsuit
As reported in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that the city of Cheyenne is not required to allow public access to a city-formed team tasked with discussing employee pay. The court’s unanimous opinion ends a threeyear legal battle between the city and the newspaper. The Tribune Eagle had called for open meetings of the Employee Investment Study Implementation Team, which considered recommendations of an earlier report about staffing levels and employee pay. Although a Laramie County District Court Judge already ruled in favor of the city last March, the newspaper filed an appeal. The Supreme Court’s latest ruling concludes the appeals process.
New York Post Sued by City Official
According to Courthouse News Service, a New York City official described as the “Grinch of Jewish Holidays” in a New York Post article, has sued the newspaper, two reporters and a pair of sources for defamation, libel and emotional distress. Brenda Morgan, who works for the city’s Department of Education, claims an article published by the paper last October incorrectly stated she had told high school volleyball coaches they couldn’t reschedule two games that had been set for the night before Yom Kippur. The article included a quote from a high school coach saying Morgan “was being like a Nazi” and implied she had an anti-Jewish prejudice. Morgan is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
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critical thinking
If you have a question you would like to see addressed, please send it to sean@editorandpublisher.com.
J-school students and industry vets tackle the tough questions
“Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act protects websites from content it posts that’s created by third parties. With the proliferation of ‘fake news’ appearing on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, should the law be reexamined?”
A:
Speech is not action and speakers are not at fault for the crimes of their audience. That is a fundamental principle of a free press. I could not, for instance, be held legally liable if, upon reading this article, you decided to burn down your local fast food joint. So too is it unreasonable to hold websites liable for hosting political content Parker Richards, 21 that might inspire individuals to act junior, Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.) violently. Recent lawsuits against Facebook, Richards currently serves as Google and other social media platthe editorial page editor for the forms claim that, in allowing content student-run newspaper, The Dartmouth. He has also writfrom fake news to Islamic State propaten for the Nantucket Inquirer ganda to be shared, they must accept and Mirror in Massachusetts liability for the actions of the individuand the New York Observer. als who buy into those doctrines. Even without the protection of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, it would be absurd under our First Amendment protections to call for legal damages against the publisher or host website of any kind of press coverage, political writings or videos. Such liability would fundamentally undermine the freedom of the press intrinsic to American democracy. Regardless of the protections of Section 230, most lawsuits against fake news or even Islamic State-produced recruitment videos would fail the Brandenburg test, the Supreme Court precedent stemming from the 1969 court case Brandenburg v. Ohio. In that historic case, the court held that political speech must incite or produce imminent lawless action in order to fall outside the limits of the First Amendment. Even fake news, while potentially dangerous, must not be made illegal, for such an action would impugn the dignity of a society based on the freedom to express ideas—and to publish those ideas. No matter the unsavory content of what we see on our laptops, the responsibility lies with us as readers to be discerning; we are the ones failing, not Facebook or Google. The late, great Justice Hugo Black once said that “an unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.” That includes speech that you and I may not like, including fake news and, yes, videos and articles posted by terrorist organizations. Every restriction put on the press, every freedom stripped from our speech, constitutes in a truly absolute sense an attack on what defines America, what makes us able to claim to be “the home of the free.” editorandpublisher.com
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A:
When my newsroom got a call a few weeks ago that five children had died in a school bus crash, we were terrified. The source? A Facebook post. After a quick web search, I found the site the post referred to, and it was full of stories about fatal crashes, with the only difference being the name of Jamie Kelly, 37 the city in the headline. So it was fake managing editor, Williston news. Herald (Williston, N.D.) We were outraged. Kelly spent a decade in The problem is that outrage rarely journalism before taking a makes for good public policy. detour into public relations. That’s one reason I’m wary about He returned to the industry last year as the managing any changes to Section 230 of the 1996 editor of the Herald. Communications Decency Act. That section, also known as the Safe Harbor provision, protects online platforms from being prosecuted or sued for what third parties post on those platforms. Fake news isn’t anything new—it far predates the internet—but when its producers take advantage of social media sites or search engines, they can make their fake news reach far more people that anyone in 1996 could have imagined. But would changing the law so that websites become responsible for what others publish really do that? And even if it would, what else might it do? Let me try an admittedly imperfect analogy. Tabloids like the National Enquirer regularly run stories that are either libelous or nearly so. What if the stores and newsstands that carried those tabloids were liable for the offending stories? Without a distribution method, the tabloids might go out of business, or vendors might decide that carrying any publication is too great a risk. Websites are not exactly the same as those vendors, but the analogy is still useful. This might be overly optimistic, but it’s actually not that hard to figure out whether a story is a hoax through fact checking and critical thinking. I very much hope that people can be taught that, but on the other hand, we’ve all been falling for hoaxes for centuries. Another problem is that for the most part fake news isn’t illegal. The First Amendment protects lies just as much as it protects truth, and libel falls under pre-existing laws. I’m leery of leaving the solution entirely to the companies that have helped cause the problem in the first place. But I’m far more leery of changing a law that could stifle speech or require companies to filter things posted online. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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photo of the month
Send us your photos! E&P welcomes reader submissions for our Photo of the Month. sean@editorandpublisher.com.
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LUMINOUS LIGHTS ď ˝â€… James Neiss/Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) Niagara Falls was bathed in teal light on Jan. 6 in honor of National Cervical Cancer Month. The cities of Niagara Falls, USA and Ontario, Canada shared the expense of lighting the falls with a newly installed LED lighting system. Many charities ask to have the falls illuminated in their colors for special event days.
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data page Confusion Caused by Fake News Based on a survey of 1,002 U.S. adults who say completely made-up news has caused confusion about basic facts of current events.
AGE GROUP
A GREAT DEAL
SOME
NOT MUCH
NO
18-29
67%
26%
4%
2%
30-49
66%
21%
9%
4%
50-64+
64%
23%
6%
6%
65+
58%
29%
6%
5%
Ability to Recognize Fake News Somewhat confident
39%
Very confident
45%
Not very/at all confident
15%
Don’t know
1% Source: Pew Research Center, December 2016
Top 10 Daily Newspapers Sold in 2016 Based on daily circulation
NEWSPAPER
DAILY CIRC.
BUYER
SELLER
Orange County (Calif.) Register
196,700
Digital First Media
Freedom Communications
Salt Lake City (Utah) Tribune
168,600
Huntsman Family Investments
Digital First Media
Bergen County (N.J.) Record
139,500
Gannett
Borg Family
Tampa (Fla.) Tribune
103,700
Tampa Bay Times
Revolution Capital
Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise
79,300
Digital First Media
Freedom Communications
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
34,200
New Media Investment Group
Lilly Family
Jones Media (3 dailies)
28,300
Adams Publishing Group
Jones Family
Hutchinson (Kan.) News
26,200
New Media Investment Group
Harris Enterprises
Salina (Kan.) Journal
24,900
New Media Investment Group
Harris Enterprises
Pittsfield (Mass.) Berkshire Eagle
17,800
Birdland Acquisition
Digital First Media Source: Dirks, Van Essen & Murray
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What Newspapers Do You Read? Based on a survey of 517 online respondents representative of the U.S. population
65%
Local
17% 13% 12% 11% 9% 7% 7% 6% 2% 2% 2%
USA Today New York Daily News New York Times Wall Street Journal Newsday Washington Post Foreign Public transport (commuter) New York Post Los Angeles Times Chicago Tribune Source: ReportLinker, December 2016
Which Digital Video Initiatives Will Your Company Be Focusing On in 2017? Based on a survey of 143 editors, CEOs and digital leaders
89%
80%
Short social video
Live video
40% Long form video
78% News clips and other video on own website
38% Virtual reality
Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, “Digital News Project 2017,” December 2016 editorandpublisher.com
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Where U.S. Consumers Check Their Emails Based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, where they were asked “In the last month, during which situations have you checked your email?”
Watching TV/Movie Bed Vacation Bathroom On the phone Walking Commuting Meal with others Face-to-face Working out Driving Formal ceremony
69% 57% 53% 45% 44% 38% 34% 31% 21% 20% 17% 11%
Source: Adobe, October 2016 MARCH 2017 | E & P
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industry insight
Building Trust Fighting fake news with radical transparency By Matt DeRienzo
T
he emergence of “fake news” as a factor in the outcome of November’s presidential election was rightly framed as a threat to our democratic process. If we wholesale can’t agree on what is fact and what is fiction, basic political discourse is impossible. The trend also should have sent shockwaves across the journalism business, with national news outlets most immediately threatened, but local news perhaps not that far behind. If no one can tell the difference between legitimate news articles, content that is bent to achieve a partisan or ideological goal, and outright made-up lies masquerading as news, the already shaky journalism business model is dead. Some of the same platforms threatening publishers’ economic viability have enabled the success of fake news propagandists. False news stories gained traction on Facebook, boosted by the platform’s algorithms and even making its “trending news” section curated at the time by human editors. And top search results about the Holocaust on Google in the fall returned links to Holocaust-denying anti-Semitic websites. 20 |
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In theory, local news organizations are more insulated from this trend. You can make up something about the local high school, but readers’ kids go there or they can drive by the place and see for themselves it’s not true. It’s easier to believe that Hillary Clinton did x, y or z because she is so far away and so far removed from a reader’s personal experience. Because there are so many national news (and propaganda) sites talking about figures such as Clinton and Donald Trump, it’s hard for the average person to know whether the site that came up in search or across their social media feed can be trusted. The average reader is far more likely to be skeptical of an unknown or dubious website or social media feed reporting a local news story because they’re more likely to be familiar with the established local media landscape. Yet the average local newsroom dealt with distrust and accusations of bias long before the explosion of “fake news,” and the phenomenon threatens to exacerbate the problem. This is mostly about partisanship and the polarizing approach of Fox
News over the past 10 years. If you carry the Associated Press, and run headlines about national politics that question the ethics or policies of Trump, there’s a big segment of your audience that views you as a liberal propaganda machine. That’s regardless of the truth or fairness of those stories, and the distrust spills over to your local reporting as well. News outlets might never convince diehard ideologues who want to read only the things that confirm their worldview. But for a big swath of consumers in the middle, we can promote news literacy and build trust through an aggressive push for more transparency in our reporting. Writing for Poynter recently, Melody Kramer suggested that bylines go far beyond the name of a news article’s author, linking to other pieces they’ve written and providing a bio and background information about where the person is coming from. In Patch’s heyday, the editors of its local news sites disclosed their community involvement and even their political party registration. But what if that “where we’re coming from” approach was applied to each piece of editorandpublisher.com
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journalism we produce? Start with a great corrections policy, which can do more than anything else to build reader trust. Include an invitation to readers to fact check your work, and a commitment to interact with those who point out errors in story comments, via social media, phone or email. A good corrections policy should include the principle of noting mistakes that were made and corrected instead of just quietly editing them out of the story without acknowledging the error. NewsDiffs.org is a website that automatically tracks changes that are made to stories at major news websites, including the New York Times and CNN.com, after an article is first published. Why don’t news organizations set up this kind of automated log for their own sites and provide a place alongside or below each article where editors can comment on why particular changes were made, if necessary? What if every article included, template-
style, a section on “how we reported this story,” explaining briefly how you found out about it (i.e., press release, government meeting agenda, driving by and noticing something, following up on an old topic), and “what/who our sources were” (with links to source documents, and explanation if using anonymous sources why you chose to and what precautions you took to ensure accuracy)? How about a “how we know this” section in every article? And to help educate readers about the need to support your journalism financially, a brief explanation of “time and resources” that it took to report the story, including the hours spent by reporters, editors and photographers, and maybe even an estimated direct cost of the story? If nothing else, including this kind of information in your stories would immediately differentiate you from outlets that are doing little to no original reporting
because they often can’t answer the question “How do we know this?” or “Who are our sources?” because it’s just ripped from another news outlet without independent verification. This kind of transparency would not only build trust with your own readers, but teach them how to be discerning about other news they consume. Matt DeRienzo is a newsroom consultant and a former editor and publisher with Digital First Media. He teaches journalism at Quinnipiac University and the University of New Haven in Connecticut, and is interim executive director of LION Publishers, a trade organization that represents local independent online news publishers.
DV &M ROCHESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL INC. HAS SOLD
ROCHESTER (NY) BUSINESS JOURNAL 10,000 weekly circulation
TO
NEW MEDIA INVESTMENT GROUP We are pleased to have represented New Media in this transaction.
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray Santa Fe, NM
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t: 505.820.2700 www.dirksvanessen.com
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business of news
Living Up to Our Standards Fake news is a golden opportunity for journalists By Tim Gallagher
F
ake news is the best thing that has ever happened to real journalism. I mean the kind of journalism that requires serious work. If you’ve ever spoken to a high school class or a civic group, then you know that the average citizen knows as much about gathering and reporting news as they know about brain surgery. The public does not understand how reporters and editors sift through potential stories, make decisions about what to cover (with disinterest for the partisan viewpoints), and then begin the process of accumulating information, discarding some of it, challenging “proof” that sources offer, and finally choosing the words that will tell the story. The public 22 |
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knows nothing of the editing process—how a good editor can approach a news article submitted by a reporter with skepticism. How—finally—a copy editor reads the article one more time and summarizes the 800 words into six-to-10 words that fit in the headline space. Fake news has none of this. Terrific reporting on the “fake news industry” in major publications exposed the process of creating a fake news story for these websites. If you missed it, it comes down to this: a couple of fake news writers sitting in a room with laptops searching for words that are trending on the internet, and then composing a narrative that uses as many of those words as they can cram into the article. There is no verification. No
vetting. Just imagination. This is a time when we can contrast for the public how carefully we approach what we do. The fact checking. The verification. The putting your sources’ words up against the public record. The calls to a source to explain what they meant, or to walk you through a complex government process because it’s your job to make sure it passes the smell test. I was a panelist after the infamous Dan Rather reporting blunder on George W. Bush’s military service in 2004, and an audience member attacked the press on rushing to publish information and asked, “When will the media ever learn?” I stopped him and said, “We learn every day. Every single day in our newsrooms, we do editorandpublisher.com
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Y o a m L
not publish articles because there are no facts to support them. That is the part of journalism you do not see but it is practiced in newsrooms everywhere because we take the time to verify information. If we can’t prove it, we can’t print it.” Sander Vanocur, a legendary newsman and the only living panelist from the first Nixon-Kennedy debate, once wryly described the film version of “All The President’s Men,” as “a movie about typing.” But Vanocur acknowledged that the best part of the book and film was that it showed how carefully Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward verified the facts in their articles. The Oscar for 2016’s Best Picture award went to “Spotlight,” another of those movies that showed how difficult the task of reporting truly is. This is the difference the public needs to hear. But we must live up to the standards. Try to disprove what you believe. The chair of my journalism department in
college taught me this: “When you spend three months putting together your giant expose for the Sunday paper, spend three days trying to disprove it. You’ll either save yourself the embarrassment of printing a story that’s wrong, or you’ll be more convinced than ever that you’re right.” But how many of us do this? Or do we ramrod a story through our desks because we are convinced we spent so much time on it? Treat each article as a proposal to publish. At a seminar for city editors, a speaker told us that we should treat each article turned in by our reporters as something we should consider for publication if it met our standards for fairness and accuracy. There was no guarantee to publish just because the article was written. Practice disinterest. I never knew the political leanings of the best journalists I worked with. Their stories never carried a hint. They challenged the statements of sources regardless of party. The language
We’ll get your babies home safe.
of their articles used no jargon or labels associated with the sides in a controversial issue. We must get those loaded words out of our reporting if we want anyone to believe us. As odd as it seems, the fake news phenomena has created the opportunity for a golden age for good journalism. We need to practice it and then preach it.
Tim Gallagher is president of The 20/20 Network, a public relations and strategic communications firm. He is a former Pulitzer Prizewinning editor and publisher at The Albuquerque Tribune and the Ventura County Star newspapers. Reach him at tim@the2020network.com.
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digital publishing
Choosing to Listen How the Independent Journal Review became one of the fastest growing news sites By Rob Tornoe
W
hen Kate Bennett started her new role as a White House correspondent, she didn’t file the same traditional stories you’d see in the pages of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. One of her earliest pieces, titled “Everything I Learned My First Week as a White House Reporter,” set the tone for her somewhat irreverent coverage of the White House, offering readers the ability to experience what it was like to be part of one of the most important news beats in the country. So it goes at the Independent Journal Review (ijr.com), the online publisher you’ve probably never heard of that’s quickly morphed from a conservative blog to one of the fastest growing news sites in the country by focusing on overlooked readers looking for a different style of news coverage. “Our readers want to experience the news and read human stories,” said Alex Skatell, a former Republican staffer and one of the founders of IJR. “They want us to show them the news, not tell them what they’re 24 |
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supposed to think.” A prime example of this philosophy in action is a viral video made by IJReview’s team staring then presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, who gleefully destroys his cell phone while “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi plays in the background. The one-minute video, released days after President Donald Trump released Graham’s private cell phone number, has been viewed more than 2.2 million times and offers a refreshing spin on the traditional interview. Instead of Graham describing how angry he was at Trump, he shows readers by destroying his phone in increasingly violent ways. Another example of the site’s philosophy was to ban the term “frontrunner” from stories covering the presidential primaries. “Our readers don’t trust institutions, so we didn’t want to tell them who we thought was winning the race,” Skatell said, noting that many media outlets covered the campaign as if they already knew who was going to win. “We wanted to take every candidate seriously, and let readers and voters decide who they liked best.”
If traffic is any indication, readers are responding to IJReview’s “show me” approach. The site, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary this year, currently averages about 30 million unique visitors a month. In addition, its daily opt-in newsletter has over a million subscribers, helping IJReview to diversify traffic profile and limit its dependence on any one source, such as Facebook. Speaking of the social media giant, according to NewsWhip, a site that tracks social sharing, IJReview recorded more than 13 million Facebook Interactions on 1,347 articles last August, placing it among the top 25 English language publishers on Facebook that month. Compare those numbers to USA Today, which needed nearly 10 times more stories (10,780) to obtain a similar number of interactions (10.5 million) on the social media site. Aside from the content itself, a large part of IJReview’s success in regularly creating an increasing amount of inbound traffic is attributed to the emphasis placed on engaging headlines. It’s part of a four-part content editorandpublisher.com
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creation process the site has developed and monitors using the fast-growing worktracking tool Asana: content selection, creation, analysis and distribution. A recent headline showcases their overall content strategy at its most effective: “President Obama’s Last Tweet to Michelle is One of The Most Explosive in History—And For Good Reason.” It’s a headline that shows the site understands its center-right readers and their interest in family values, all while enticing them by hinting (and delivering) at payoff worth reading about. The result was a post that garnered more than 170,000 page views because it showed an “understanding of the magnitude of the finality of his presidency combined with the real human experience of a president, who at the end of the day is a dad and a husband,” said Skatell. Skatell says IJReview has been profitable “since day one,” and says they’ve taken advantage of their growing traffic through a combination of programmatic and native advertising, with event revenue thrown into the mix. Although they do not publicly report their finances, the site reportedly earns roughly $30 million a year in revenue. And they’re investing it in their staff. Currently, IJR has a newsroom of nearly 50 full-time staffers split between reporting and video production, and has poached staffers from national outlets like the Washington Post, Politico, BuzzFeed and National Geographic. The investment in their newsroom hasn’t only benefited their traffic—it’s further helped them legitimize their brand as an unbiased news source. Social media sleuthing by two reporters broke the news that the Treasury Department was preparing to announce they were putting a woman on the $10 bill. And Bennett broke the scoop on where the Obamas were planning on living after the presidency. In a sign of how influential IJReview has become in such a short period of time, the site partnered with ABC News in 2016 to host one of the Republican presidential debates. Seventy members of Congress and a handful of senators from both sides of the aisle attended a post-election event put on editorandpublisher.com
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by IJReview and Google. Most recently, CNN poached Bennett and fellow political reporter Hunter Schwarz to launch a new newsletter and join the network’s White House team. Bennett and Schwarz were co-writers of IJR’s popular politics newsletter The Political Edit, described as “for people who like a little Bravo with their C-SPAN,” a tagline that seems to sum-up at least part of IJReviews’s appeal with a broad spectrum of online readers. “When CNN is looking to your staff to help them beef up their political team, that means you’re making an impact,” Skatell said. “That means you’re seen as credible.” Despite a definite shift to the center in 2016 (a recent headline on the site read “5 Ways Trump’s Recent Comments on Europe Signal Putin May Be Getting Everything on His ‘Wish List’”) challenges remain in combating the perception they are a conservative news site more closely akin to The Daily Caller or Breitbart. Considering the partisan roots of their co-founders and the site’s beginnings of a mostly conservative blog, convincing skeptical readers they are a legitimate news source might be the largest struggle IJReview has in acquiring new users, especially at a time when everyone but the most partisan readers are on the lookout for “fake news.” Then again, both the late Tim Russert and George Stephanopoulos started out working for Democrats before attaining journalistic credibility respected by millions. “I don’t view it as conservative versus liberal—it’s independent versus institution,” Skatell said. “Institutions tell you what you should think and talk past you. We choose to listen.”
Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor for Philly.com. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.
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production BY W. ERIC SCHULT
Schult in front of his old Mac LC, building ad stacks with an early ad dummying program, circa 1988-92 at The Acorn Press in Ridgefield, Conn.
Schult retired after 35 years in the newspaper industry and currently works as a home inspector.
LOOKING BACK AT A 35-YEAR CAREER Retired operations director reflects on industry changes
“S
top the ride; I want to get off!” That might have been my unexpressed sentiment in leaving behind a 35-year career as a newspaper operations and technology executive. Two years ago this April, still a decade or so shy of my intended retirement, I walked away from an industry that had been, and in some ways still is, utterly entwined with my perceptions of who I was and am, embarking 26 |
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instead on a late-career shift to an entirely new profession and livelihood. While I still write occasional columns for Editor & Publisher and do some technical writing for an industry software vendor, my motivation is not the tidbit of income that comes from freelance writing. Rather, I do it to maintain a connection, if tenuous, to a profession that has given me many, many fond memories, and is the context within which I built lasting relationships with scores
of astonishingly talented and hard-working people. Some of those people I am privileged to consider my close friends. Having entered the business as a reporter, with a freshly minted degree in journalism, I could hardly have guessed in 1980 that my newspaper career would take the trajectory it did. My then-employer, a small, familyowned chain of hometown weeklies, would see fit to elevate me to editor. Then, given a glimpse of my nascent facility with early personal computers as a publishing tool, the owner tapped me as production manager. At the time, I considered it a sidestep to an eventual role as managing editor, but the longer I spent overseeing prepress, systems, pressroom, packaging, and building maintenance, the more the operations and technology side of newspaper publishing seemed my appropriate niche. I would spend the subsequent 28 years at consecutively larger papers, growing my career as chief operating officer. Throughout, I maintained my affinity for the newsroom, taking personal pride in the societal role my papers played in their communities and our democracy. For a time, I played an important role in a respected institution. I was compensated fairly. I enjoyed, for the most part, the challenges and wide variety of responsibilities that came with the job. I was very, very good at what I did. But at some point, without me being aware of it at the time (my spouse had to point it out for me)…it stopped being fun. That was a jarring realization; I so wanted to dismiss it. But I had to listen, because my spouse also detects when I’m thirsty before I do. “Do you need a drink of water?” she would ask. And more often than not, consuming one would quiet my normally dormant inner jerk. I would subsequently shift some of my energies and enthusiasm to a second job as a writing coach at a nearby university, renewing my devotion to that craft. Teach-
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Schult served as editor of The Ledger, a weekly paper in Lewisboro, N.Y. circa 1985. Also pictured is his features reporter Annie Higbee.
Pictured is Schult circa 1997 at The Journal Times in Racine, Wis. standing in front of a vintage carousel inserter that he would later replace during a major renovation of the paper’s packaging center and insert storage warehouse.
ing journalism, creative writing, or graphic arts, after all, wouldn’t be outside of my wheelhouse. But I eventually gravitated toward a more complete separation from the familiar, turning a lifelong vocational interest in ambitious, high-end home improvement into a profession. I opened a modest practice as a licensed home inspector. That’s right. I embraced a job that involves crawling around under houses—passed animal carcasses in stagnant puddles—as a preferable alternative to the continuing pursuit of my chosen career in the newspaper business.
products of my newspaper career, repurposed for building my new business’ online and social media presence, as well as nurturing partnerships that are critical for professional and financial growth.
Transferrable Skills I can be thankful that the newspaper profession prepared me for this new endeavor. I originally taught myself the rudiments of plumbing by installing a water heater at a remote news office. I framed, installed wall-board, trim, and doors; I ran electricity and hooked up outlets, switches, and light fixtures. The absence of financial resources to hire contractors was my invitation to develop my own skills on the job. At larger papers, I would come to manage staffs of plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, maintenance workers, and machine operators—with whom daily interactions broadened my knowledge base. I already knew how to write, but polishing that craft as a reporter and editor assured I would be able to articulate my findings as a home inspector. I knew how to translate complex technical information— forgoing trade jargon—so that it could be understood by a layperson. Communications, whether written or verbal, is a transferable skill, even if it’s to be used in a utilitarian way. Here, I’d be writing reports aimed at educating would-be homeowners about the condition of their prospective homes. I’d also walk each client through their chosen home, assuring they understood its deficiencies and challenges before assuming ownership. As for producing detailed reports with pictures, captions and text; importing data compiled from various devices; and assembling all those elements using specialized software, well, let’s just say there are parallels there that align with my previous occupation. Whatever marketing and entrepreneurial skills I possess are also
Lessons Learned Two years into this new endeavor, I have the luxury at looking back at my newspaper career—not without pangs of loss—for some perspective about how the industry changed, how I responded to that change, and what I might have done differently so that I could have continued squeezing fun out of the newspaper profession for what remained of my working career. It seems to me it comes down to this: I was happiest when I was positioned to drive change instead of change driving me. One of my earliest anecdotes that demonstrates this goes back to the late 1980s when we were still manually dummying ads onto “blueboards,” using wooden rulers and non-repro (light blue) felt markers to indicate where ads go, and then pasting each individual ad onto its designated blueboard, using hot wax as an adhesive. With five weekly broadsheet newspapers and ads running in any combination of them, the task of making sure the right ad got onto the right page of the right paper was akin to mixing multiple jigsaw puzzle pieces into one pile and being able to pick out a specific piece for a specific puzzle, on demand. We had this lovable crank of a fellow whose job it was to perform this task, day-in and day-out, without error. However, when he was sick or on vacation, it fell to his manager, which happened to be…you guessed it. It was not more than a few times attempting to navigate his system of status shelves and alphabetized drawers before I set myself upon the task of automating this process. It involved discovering an existing software solution that I couldn’t afford; finding another newspaper that had a crude, but functional, home-grown alternative; convincing them to share the solution with me (as-is, with no technical support); and then making that solution work with an advertising mainframe that didn’t initially have a means for exporting ad data. I would subsequently start shadowing my lovable crank’s manual layouts with my own computer-generated dummies until I was
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3 QUESTIONS WITH… Ric Miller, Press Manager, Sandusky (Ohio) Register
What has been your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it? Being a small city newspaper, our technology in the press room had become way behind for the times. Our new publisher wanted to get us into the 21st century, so he put me in charge of revamping our plate room (we were still using negatives). This included a new room, a computer to plate (CtP) system and having to reduce our web width from 25-inch to 22-inch. Learning everything I could about these changes and taking each step day-by-day was not only exciting but got us to where we needed to be.
Where do you see the future of print production? Social media has exploded and young people are not reading newspapers which make the future of the print product a frightening question. However, in my opinion, a solid newspaper can survive and thrive for many years to come with a good staff of reporters and photographers covering local news and events, plus a well trained press and mail room crew that gets a quality product to the streets on time.
What printing technologies are you most excited about? In my opinion, the greatest technology coming is the processor-less printing plate. We not only have to print our own publications but also print other newspapers as well. This requires us to run two shifts, so we use a lot of plates. The maintenance and cleaning of the processor has almost become a daily chore. Not having to run plates through a processor would save so much time and money that could be funneled elsewhere. Ric Miller has worked at the Sandusky Register for more than 40 years, starting out as a paperboy before becoming press manager in 2006.
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consistently doing it faster than he could. I’m certain I caused this fellow quite a bit of discomfort, but I didn’t make him do it my way. He eventually asked me to show him how, and over an extended training period, without any deadlines, he made the transition voluntarily. I don’t remember there being a particular scope of work or timeline laid out for me when, at another paper in the mid-1990s, we set about launching the paper’s first website. The newsroom assigned a young reporter to generate content, and I started teaching myself HTML and building page templates. I thought it would be cool to publish our classified liner ads on a daily basis, but this was before our classified system had a means of exporting ads with HTML tags, and I learned by first-hand experience that manual tagging would take hours and hours every day. With the help of an online community of Applescript experts, I wound up inventing my own solution to this problem and along the way became an evangelist for workflow automation. I would come to build solutions for: tracking page flow from the newsroom and reporting on-time press starts; tracking display ad workflow through the creative services department; building printed catalogues; dummying comics pages; exporting editorial content in XML format for automatic ingestion into online content management and library systems; and converting all our display ads for online publication and making them searchable. I remember a corporate VP asking me why I would publish all our display and classified ads online, and my answer was: “Because I can.” He seemed to want a revenue justification, but I had practical uses for the solution, if not revenue. Our sales reps were using it internally for grabbing pickup ads. It was subsequently reducing write-offs due to the wrong ad being run. For most of my career, it was other people’s jobs to worry about revenue. I enabled cost savings by productivity enhancement, doing away with boring, repetitive, error-prone tasks that nobody wanted to do anyway. There were posi-
tions eliminated—both in and outside my direct area of supervision—because they didn’t need to be done anymore or could be done by fewer people. I realized that this subjected others to that uncomfortable sense of change beyond one’s control—and I agonized about that sometimes—but usually the folks that readily embraced the change would be rewarded. It was the folks with feet of clay who let themselves become casualties of progress. I preferred change to the status quo. I had jobs that I loved with dream bosses (thanks, TBN, Dick, and Greg) but after good runs of 14, 11, and six years, respectively, I left them if I found a meaty, new challenge somewhere else to apply my talents. Staying in one place for too long seemed a recipe for stagnation and boredom, and I never did let that happen to myself. I would eventually assume responsibility for mid-to-large commercial print operations and sales, reluctantly leaving technological innovation to my very able IT staffs. With each new paper, I slotted myself into a niche where the need was greatest, and if there was a commercial print manager doing quotes on the backs of napkins, using paper and ink consumption formulas squirreled away in the back of his head, I was obliged to provide a more transparent and reproducible method. If there was a shame in distancing myself from IT, it was an area anyway in which centralization at chain newspapers was stripping away local innovation. One could be the company’s foremost expert on building customized workflow solutions with Applescript, and that would have limited value at a chain standardizing on another platform. And while it was also true that chains began centralizing their production facilities about that time—consolidating print and packaging—I had positioned myself at what would become a commercial print hub for multiple daily newspapers. Though sales was not really my thing, one of my proudest moments in newspapering was landing my paper’s largest ever commercial print customer and shep-
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On Schult’s last day at The Fayetteville Observer, the staff made him a poster filled with messages of thanks and well wishes.
page count and circulation declines made it possible and necessary. But somewhere along the way—between the outsourcing of creative services departments and newsrooms becoming a shadow of their former selves—fatigue began to set in. I truly thought I could step out before I had to contribute one last blow to the ongoing sustainability of the business, but even that was denied me. My utmost regrets to the gritty veterans that remain. It’s a noble profession, and you have your work cut out for you. For me, I’m rooting for you from the nearest crawlspace, my foxhole in a war whose outcome has greater implications for our republic than our citizens understand.
resources conspired to threaten my employer’s solvency. I enabled administrative and clerical positions to go dark by providing the technical solutions to render them obsolete. I consolidated shifts in my pressroom when
W. Eric Schult is a retired, 35-year veteran of the newspaper business. He most recently served as senior operations and technology executive at The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. Contact him on LinkedIn.com.
herding it through the process of transition and stabilization in 2012.
Surpassed by Change I’m hard-pressed to put my finger on where the wagon started getting ahead of the horse. I may have let go of the reins in 2015, but the momentum of industry change was shifting earlier. I love my iPhone and iPad, but it was as much my hero Steve Job’s fault as anyone’s that readership habits moved to mobile devices about the same time print advertising dollars dried up in the financial meltdown of 2007 and thereafter. I’d witnessed and participated in staff curtailments when disruptive influences broadsided the industry before. I laid off typesetters when the industry computerized and composition techs when paste-up yielded to desktop publishing. I presided over the outsourcing of a print facility decades ago when aging equipment and limited financial
Schult gives a tour of the pressroom at The QuadCity Times in 2009.
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Albany T ime Union s
Albuquerque Journal
LedgerEnquirer Oklahoman
Petosk News-Re ey view
Quad-City Times
Rockford r Register Sta
San Antonio Express-News
Times of Northwest Indiana
Straits Times
Achieving growth in circulation, revenue and engagement
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By Nu Yang and Sean Stroh
O
ur annual 10 Newspapers That Do It Right feature once again puts a spotlight on some of the biggest and brightest ideas occurring in our industry right now. From digital initiatives that are tapping into new audiences to community programs that are fostering stronger relationships, the ideas are as diverse as each market each publication serves. As you read through this year’s 10 newspapers and our list of honorable mentions, we hope you find something that will stir your newsroom, your advertising department, or your community into action.
Albany Times Union Albany, N.Y.
Circulation: 95,208 Sunday; 83,034 daily In 2016, the Albany Times Union made a commitment to refocus on their subscribers. They did that by offering Thursday through Sunday and/ or Sunday-only print delivery as primary options. The strategy was a success, securing an additional 5,067 new Thursday through Sunday and Sundayonly print starts versus the previous year. In addition, the paper limited discounted offers to 50 percent with limited exceptions through the year. According to circulation sales and marketing manager Brad Hunt, this move also countered past programs offering heavy introductory discounts which resulted in higher churn and/or downgrades. “As consumers continue to downsize their subscriptions to fit into a busier and more digital audience, this change in tactics presented the consumer editorandpublisher.com
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with flexibility,” he said. Vice president of circulation Todd Peterson said he and Hunt set the table for this plan in 2015 with the goal to reduce subscription stops in 2016. The paper partnered with Leap Media Solutions to analyze data numbers in order to adopt more efficient retention and engagement touch points. As a result, starts increased by 7 percent and stops decreased by 18 percent, giving the paper a net gain of more than 1,200 starts over stops for the year. When given the ability to position the lower frequency delivery options as the primary offer, Hunt said kiosk and telemarketing vendors wrote an additional 3,907 subscriptions over the previous year. Digital efforts such as email and online also secured 714 additional starts versus the previous year. Hunt pointed to the recent
The Albany Times Union’s recent Thanksgiving campaign resulted in 284 new starts over a six week period.
Members of the Albany Times Union’s circulation and customer service departments gather for a photo. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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Pictured is the Albany Times Union circulation department in a weekly meeting.
Thanksgiving edition campaign. The Times Union promoted Thursday and Sunday delivery using one of the limited use price points below 50 percent off, where custom-
ers received eight weeks of delivery for just $8. Through kiosk locations, telemarketing, direct mail, single copy inserts, and online promotions, 284 new starts were generated
over a six week period. Compared to 2015’s promotion, the 2016 campaign produced 61 percent more responses. Another “a-ha moment” for the Times Union, Hunt said, was when the new chip feature was added to many of their customers’ credit and bank cards. “Unknowingly, many customer card numbers changed when their new chip card arrived. In some cases, just an expiration date was changed,” he said. “(We) deployed email and retooled direct mail efforts to counter the pending impact.” The initiative resulted in nearly 1,000 payment updates over several days. Peterson said these ideas were about “controlling the stops and saving the customers” instead of losing them due to lapsed subscriptions and offers. “We exceeded all our expectations and met our goals in 2016, and by reacting and being proactive, we expect to exceed them again in 2017.”
Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque, N.M.
Circulation: 98,090 Sunday; 81,281 daily In 2016, the Albuquerque Journal reinvigorated their approach to real estate with the launch of HomeStyle. The tabloid made its debut inside of the Journal in May, but it quickly became a standalone section in October. Published every Friday, more than 86,000 copies are distributed to Journal readers and 3,500-plus copies are delivered to grocery stores, real estate offices and related businesses. According to marketing manager Lauren Rolls, the magazine averaged $30,000 in revenue each month and is budgeted for more than $451,000 for 2017. In the coming year, the magazine will target apartment dwellers and expand into the Santa Fe market. Vice president and chief revenue officer Joe Leong credited the unique content found inside the magazine for its success. “Even if you’re not looking for a house, you will find something interesting,” he said. Editorial content primarily comes from local real estate professionals and includes 32 |
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Pictured is the advertising, circulation, and marketing team of the Albuquerque Journal. editorandpublisher.com
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commercial and residential industry insights, do-it-yourself projects, consumer tips, profiles on local companies and professionals, plus local market stats. The website ABQJournal.com/homestyle features interactive search capabilities for multiple listing services of homes for sales and open houses in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area. The Journal also made it a priority to invest in its classifieds section by working with the right partner. They outsourced their classifieds (the paper kept legals and obituaries) to A Marketing Resource (AMR), freeing up their sales reps to focus on local retailers. “Per call, they’re making seventy more dollars than we were able to do,” Leong said. The Journal also took advantage of AMR’s sister company, SkyBridge Mobile, by adding digital components to their print ads, activating a “text to” feature that sends customers links to a mobileoptimized website. “We have budgeted over $500,000 in 2017 and are confident this is a conservative projection as the fourth quarter of 2016 generated over $100,000 in new revenue,” said Rolls. Lastly, the Journal worked with the 2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta team to create a new, official app for the event. By signing a multi-year deal, the paper was able to secure $30,000 in sponsorships for 2016, with sponsorship opportunities of more than $50,000 for 2017. Although print still plays a big role for them, Leong said there are certain categories where newspapers can think outside the box. Whether it’s creating an app or partnering with a vendor, Leong said the motivation was always, “How do we buck the trend?” editorandpublisher.com
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Ledger-Enquirer Columbus, Ga.
Circulation: 24,000 Sunday; 20,000 daily Rodney Mahone always envisioned bringing a special type of project to the Ledger-Enquirer. As publisher, he was well aware of the impact the newspaper could have on the community and wished to showcase it in some way. By using a proven model introduced in several other markets by Kim Nussbaum, vice president of advertising for parent company McClatchy, Mahone successfully brought the paper and 22 other local } Ledger-Enquirer publisher Rodney Mahone announces a $70,000 investment in the first leaders together as phase of Together 2016 at Theo McGee Park in Columbus, Ga. part of a year-long than 55 Little Free Libraries in Columbus, effort to improve their community. Fort Benning and nearby Phenix City, Ala. A “Every market is unique of course so you $135,000 investment was made for enhancehave to tweak it and adjust to your area, but ments on the Frank K. Martin Pedestrian (Kim) had a solid plan that was well tested,” Bridge as the group’s regional project. Mahone said. “I thought that if it worked In addition to making a tangible impact on in more than half a dozen other McClatchy their community, the Ledger-Enquirer was also markets why couldn’t it work right here in able to showcase its digital capabilities through Columbus?” their Together 2016 multimedia marketing As part of the Together 2016 civic initiative, campaign. each participating member served on a board “We exposed who the newspaper is now and of directors and provided a financial investhow we’re able to use our platforms to reach a ment that was then allocated toward funding bigger audience than any time in our history community projects, marketing the program to some of the leaders in our community,” and administrative costs. For three months, Mahone said. “It let people know that we are the board collected ideas for neighborhood and so much more than just a half-page print soluregional projects from local residents, before tion.” selecting the most applicable for implementaMost importantly, Mahone said, is the fact tion. that the community-building model used by The neighborhood projects funded by the the Ledger-Enquirer and others can serve as campaign included five scholarships for high a blueprint for newspapers looking to make a school students, 11 markers along the Mardifference in their own neighborhood. tin Luther King Jr. Learning Trail and more MARCH 2017 | E & P
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The neighborhood projects funded by the Together 2016 initiative included 20 aluminum benches and more than 55 Little Free Libraries.
“I think it’s something that can be replicated by other newspapers. It gives you the chance to both work with the key leaders in your market for your readers as well as highlight your own platforms,” Mahone said. “You get to redefine the newspaper to the biggest stakeholders in the community.”
Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Okla. Circulation: 147,582 Sunday; 105,632 daily When staff members at the Oklahoman’s Newspapers in Education (NIE) program learned they were at risk of losing nearly 30 percent of its funding last year, the team recognized doing one thing wouldn’t help—panicking. Instead, the group went back to the basics, outlining creative fundraising opportunities revolved around community engagement. By the end of the year, funding for the program exceeded $420,000, a 9.9 percent increase from 2015.
Ashley Howard, NIE educational services and digital audience development manager, noted several key changes in how they approached fundraising, including refocusing their efforts on the paper’s most loyal readers. “My theory is that when you’re talking to your subscribers, you’re speaking with people who already see the value in consuming credible news information,” Howard said. “This makes it much easier to translate the importance of what we are doing for the students. We work off a model where they can actually sponsor a student for an entire semester.” NIE staff also began organizing community events such as the Academic Excellence Luncheon, which helped raise more than $17,000. The special event recognized community partners and the program’s sponsor of the year. While Howard acknowledged the funds raised were significant, the relationships formed proved to be even more valuable. “When we can establish meaningful relationships with sponsors we are forging bonds that ultimately lead to an emotional investment in the program,” Howard said. “These people believe in our mission and give both time and money to ensure its success.” Another popular new event introduced by the team last year was the Cars for Education show. Those who participated in the car show had an opportunity to not only display their cars but compete against other auto enthusiasts in several different categories. Attendees were treated to live music, food trucks and a visit from the Thunder Girls, the official dance team for NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder. According to Howard, NIE plans to host a golf tournament this year in addition to the luncheon and car show. “We found that most of our challenges came from a lack of personal experiences. No one from our team had ever participated in a car show before so it took a lot of dedication to attend a variety of shows and seek relationships with people that knew what they were doing,” Howard said. “We relied on others to be the experts and carried out a large scale survey to assess where we can learn and do better next year.”
Petoskey News-Review Petoskey, Mich.
Circulation: 9,000 daily (Monday-Friday)
The Oklahoman’s Newspapers in Education team include (from left) Ashley Howard, Bailey Huntsman, Brooke Marley and Angela Meade.
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Jeremy McBain, Petoskey News-Review executive editor
Eighteen months ago, the Petoskey News-Review split the newsroom into digital-focused reporters and printfocused reporters, and the payoff continued in 2016 as they amped up production of videos, photo galleries and interactive graphics. “In the digital world, we have seen leaps in viewership with readers clicking on our multimedia offerings editorandpublisher.com
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over 200 percent more than in the previous year,” said executive editor Jeremy McBain. “This growth is mirrored in the numbers of people that visit our websites to read various stories written for a digital audience with average online sessions and the time they are spending on our site up by double digit percentages in each category.” When the newspaper made the decision to split the newsroom, McBain said it allowed both groups to produce more high-quality content. Over the course of five years, a reporter’s responsibilities have grown beyond a 40-hour work week, he explained, and he realized that his reporters were being pulled in too many different directions. So, he looked at his six reporters and instead of splitting it down the middle, he refocused their duties and beats to where it was 80 percent digital and 20 percent print. There were different expectations from each reporter now. The digital reporters had fewer beats, had to create daily digital offerings like video and photo galleries, and come up with quarterly digital-only initia-
Digital reporter Matt Mikus prepares for a podcast.
tives. Those focused on print delved deeper into longer investigative and enterprise pieces. In addition to the revamped teams, the small newsroom is also experimenting with technology typically found at larger papers. McBain highlighted their 360 degree/virtual reality technology, which has also been translated into online advertisements. The paper also experimented with augmented reality in its entertainment publication. In 2017, McBain plans to add more staff members to produce videos and podcasts, and he
Head pressman John Wolf (right) keeps the presses at the Petoskey News-Review running with help from the entire crew. (Photo by G. Randall Goss/Petoskey News-Review)
wants to put their news drone back in the air once they receive their FAA license. He’s also figuring out ways to convert these new skills and technology to the advertising side. “Last year it was all about editorial, but now that we know what we can create and do, how can we monetize this?” he said. “The more diversified our revenue streams, the more ways we can put our products in front of readers.”
Quad-City Times Davenport, Iowa
Circulation: 44,876, Sunday; 39,876 daily When Autumn Phillips became Quad-City Times executive editor in December 2015, she implemented a strategy process that led to the creation of a new beat structure, a content-driven redesign of the Sunday newspaper and creation of new content categories. The process also led to innovations in the physical layout of the newsroom and in the paper’s digital workflow. Starting in January 2016, each newsroom employee was tasked with interviewing a former subscriber. Phillips explained they were told to interview the subjects about life: their struggles and concerns, their hopes and dreams, and their family life and daily routines. “The idea was to design a print product and a set of newsroom behaviors that responded to our community’s true needs, not just to what they tell us they want to read,” she said. In February, the newsroom shared their information on large Post-It notes displayed on a wall. By analyzing these demographics, needs, drivers, and trends, Phillips and city editor Dan Bowerman designated team leaders and assigned four to five people to each group. They were asked to brainstorm beat ideas based on the themes, and with several new beats in place (such as a Caretakers/ 36 |
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The Quad-City Times news and sports staff
Aging beat, a Neighborhoods beat, and a Paycheck beat), the attention shifted to changing the newsroom in order to encourage risktaking, collaboration and creativity. The new layout required putting desks in teams of two or three where the new beats overlapped and creating common areas where reporters could work together. The changes have resulted in better communication and an editorandpublisher.com
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Thank you for acknowledging our efforts. We’re keeping the conversation moving. The Times Union is providing more than just award-winning daily news coverage. More than watchdog journalism that holds the powerful to account. More than tips on how to save money, where to find local entertainment and who’s up to what in our business community. We also offer insightful commentary to stimulate conversation on the important issues of our day. Our news columns are filled with balanced reporting from trusted journalists, here and abroad, to help you distinguish fact from fiction. Our Perspective columns share insights from your neighbors and some of the nation’s top thinkers. It’s all here, in your Times Union newspaper and online at timesunion.com.
A Hearst Newspaper | Founded 1856
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Notes@ Noon and Ryan’s WrapUp have each become a popular and sustained part of our daily digital report.” Rick’s Six is written every morning by a.m. digital editor Rick Rector. It contains six points every commuter needs to know that morning (from traffic to weather reports) and sent through a push alert every morning. Jack’s Notes News reporters Jack Cullen (left) and Amanda Hancock talk @ Noon is compiled by reporter with a college student about their careers in the newspaper Jack Cullen, where he wanders the industry. streets and takes a photo of someone he meets and writes a short story to go improved newsroom culture because it was with the photo. Ryan’s Wrap-Up is sent out a team effort, said Phillips. every day at 5 p.m. with a push alert. The Phillips also took a look at the paper’s in-depth, quick read by digital editor Ryan digital offerings. “(In 2016), we developed Jaster features the day’s popular stories and three routine-predictable, personalityphotos for the commuter driving home. driven pieces,” she said. “Rick’s Six, Jack’s
Rockford Register Star Rockford, Ill.
Circulation: 40,000 Sunday; 30,000 daily dialogues with the community. The first round table discussion drew about 100 people. Every few months, the paper’s editorial board also holds its own meeting in a public space, typically in partnership with a community organization. The purpose of the “road show” meetings is to clarify Rockford Register Star executive editor Mark Baldwin leads a discussion on the role of the board race during the paper’s community conversation. as well as hear what local residents have to say. In 2016, the Rockford Register Star saw “There’s never been a time when we’ve its editorial board road shows and public done an editorial board road show or done conversations continue to grow in interest a public conversation that we didn’t learn from the public. something. Typically, those that come are The Register Star’s “Race in the Rock not people whose names fill up the newsRiver Valley,” a yearlong occasional series paper,” said Mark Baldwin, the paper’s examining a variety of issues regarding executive editor. “What we’re really trying to race in the region and the people it affects, do is set a tone for the community and show provided an opportunity for a series of 38 |
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Panelists listen as Antar Baker (right) speaks during the Rockford Register Star’s community conversation on race.
them how to have a productive civil dialogue.” Meanwhile, the Register Star’s sister publication in Freeport, the Journal-Standard, found success with the debut of the Freeport Fish Tank competition. The Journal-Standard is a two-person news operation directed from Rockford. When the final event of the paper’s inaugural contest, which coincided with game one of the World Series, drew a standing-room only audience of roughly 200 people, they knew it had made a special impact on the community. “It was pretty remarkable considering that the Cubs are wildly popular here. I think what it did is rekindle the pride of this small community,” said Baldwin, who also serves as executive editor of the Journal-Standard. “It really gives people something to be proud of.” The paper’s editorial board members launched the “Shark Tank” style contest last August in the hopes of increasing the entrepreneurial spirit of Freeport. In total, the competition drew 26 applications from people who wanted to open or expand businesses or non-profits in the area. Additionally, the Freeport Fish Tank project earned the paper its second consecutive community journalism public service grant of $2,500 from the Associated Press Media Editors. Freeport High School students, who pitched building escape rooms, which challenge participants to solve various puzzles to get out of a space, ultimately emerged as the competition’s first-place winner. The team won a package worth more than $12,500, including a $2,000 advertising deal from the Journal-Standard. editorandpublisher.com
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real estate
app design & development
innovating the future A new publication, apps and bringing print to life. It was a busy 2016.
text keyword classifieds and page redesign
Albuquerque Journal is honored to be considered one of Editor & Publisher’s top ten newspapers that do it right. Innovation is at the center of what we do and we thank all of our employees who are making the impossible possible.
AlbuquerqueJournal abq Journal.com
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Honorable Mentions
San Antonio Express-News San Antonio, Texas
Circulation: 125,000 Sunday; 82,000 daily
The E&P staff thanks each paper that sent us a submission this year for 10 Newspapers That Do It Right. As we read through the entries, we were encouraged by the quality of work being done at publications around the world. It gets harder every year to narrow down the list to just 10 papers, but we still want to recognize the ones that didn’t quite make the final cut this time.
Akron Beacon Journal Akron, Ohio
In December 2015, the Beacon Journal pulled together a group of a dozen Ohio media outlets to discuss ways to work together during the presidential campaign to produce news content that earned the trust of citizens. Named “Your Vote Ohio,” the project received support from the Knight Foundation for polling and deliberative sessions in which citizens defined their top issues.
Arizona Republic Phoenix, Ariz.
In the past year, the Arizona Republic launched AZPublicInfo.com, a one-stop solution that links directly to public records for more than 800 Arizona state, county, law enforcement and school district boards, bodies or agencies. The paper also launched Street Scout, a real estate website, and XAZ, a free membership program that features travel content about exploring the state of Arizona. Additionally, a live storytellers program launched at the Republic several years ago was scaled this year across the USA TODAY NETWORK.
Gainesville Sun Gainesville, Fla.
In March 2016, a black Gainesville teenager holding a soft pellet gun was
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The History in Motion RV is a converted 44-foot long vehicle that visits area schools and allows students to interact with different stations that emphasize aspects of local and Texas history. The San Antonio Express-News teamed up with a local auto dealership to create the traveling exhibit.
The city of San Antonio is probably best known for two things: its rich history and its NBA team the Spurs. It’s no wonder the Express-News has capitalized on both aspects. In October 2015, the paper launched a 48-page, all-color tabloid magazine, Spurs Nation, full of original and exclusive reportage on the team (it currently has 80,000 subscribers and is inserted in the Sunday paper and sold on newsstands). Four months after the magazine launched, a half-hour Spurs Nation television show debuted on the local NBC affiliate. On Spurs game days, the paper began publishing a double-truck with a scouting report and feature story. Much of the content is accessible on the paper’s premium subscriber website, ExpressNews.com, and on a niche site, SpursNation.com. In a single buy, advertisers are able to appear in the magazine and newspaper, and on the TV show and websites. “The TV show is now called S.A. Sports Nation, but no matter what the name, it has carved out a dominant position on Sunday nights,” said managing editor Jamie Stockwell. During a recent week in December, the show’s rating was 10 times higher than ESPN’s competing SportsCenter. The paper is also experimenting in book publishing. This past holiday season, the Ex-
press-News published a Spurs Nation book chronicling major moments in San Antonio basketball. The book followed the earlier success of a volume published in the fall of 2015, commemorating the paper’s 150th anniversary. In January 2015, the paper began publishing a daily, full-page historical feature. Each weekday was themed and advertising was sold on an adjacent, full-page. The book is now in its third edition. Looking ahead, the Express-News will launch a new series of daily historical articles, with ad sponsorship, leading up to the celebration of the city’s 300th anniversary in 2018. The result will be a
Co-hosts Jabari Young (left on screen) and Tom Orsborn (right on screen) prepare to tape a segment as associate general manager Jason Roberts works in the production studio during the filming of S.A. Sports Nation.
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10
NEWSPAPERS
THAT DO IT RIGHT
Straits Times Singapore
Circulation: 390,000 daily (print and digital)
The San Antonio Express-News found success publishing books commemorating the paper’s 150th anniversary and major moments in San Antonio basketball.
companion book, covering the first 150 years of San Antonio’s history. The paper will also produce daily Tricentennial Minutes to air on local TV stations next year. Additionally, the paper partnered with a local auto dealership to create a unique experience for school-aged kids: A History in Motion RV named Olé. The RV travels to area schools, where fourth grade students can experience local and state history come alive through an interactive and educational exhibit. These projects are just a few examples of how the paper is “taking stock of content (they) already have,” said Stockwell. “We’re thinking outside of the paper and finding new ways to make money. As a result, we’re getting our work in front of new audiences, but retaining our loyal readers.” HONORABLE MENTIONS
killed by police officers and sheriff’s deputies. The Gainesville Sun dedicated its small resources to deeply investigating disparities that fall along racial lines and initiated Gainesville For All (#GNV4ALL), convening people across divides, holding community forums, focusing study groups, and partnering with the big players and grassroots activists.
Galveston County News Galveston, Texas
The Galveston County News launched a magazine line, Coast Monthly, using existing staff and distribution. The product is on track to reach
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$1 million annually while expanding the advertiser base, and building a new and powerful print franchise. The process is being replicated in other sister newspapers with expected collective revenues to cross $4 million in 2017.
Honolulu StarAdvertiser Honolulu, Hawaii
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser published a special Pearl Harbor 75th Commemorative Edition. The National Park Service provided nearly 1,000 pages of first-person accounts from military personnel who witnessed the attack. The 88-page special edition
(From left) Straits Times food critic Wong Ah Yoke and managing editor Fiona Chan have a discussion during an askST session at the Singapore Coffee Festival.
Getting millennials to recognize the value of newspapers, not just in print but through digital and mobile platforms as well, is a challenge publishers continue to grapple with throughout the world. At the Straits Times, that question led to the creation of Singapore’s first coffee festival. The idea first originated from the events division of the Times’ parent company, Singapore Press Holdings. Over the course of four days last June, Singapore’s F1 Pit Building played host to more than 100 vendors ranging from cafes and coffee roasters to stalls selling books and home décor. By the end of the festival, the total number of guests that had attended reached 20,000, twice the turnout originally expected. “We wanted to target a millennial crowd in particular, and much of the publicity was specifically created for maximum impact on social media,” said managing editor Fiona Chan. “It clearly worked as the group that showed up exceeded our expectations, and we had to implement crowd control measures on the spot.” A wildly popular element of the festival was a series of daily workshops led by a local café. Within two days, every session available with the coffeemaker had been booked, prompting curious onlookers to watch the workshops from the viewing gallery. However, the festival provided much more than just a refreshing cup of coffee. At the paper’s designated Reading Room onsite, guests had the chance to interact with reporters, columnists and editors at the Times through a series of hourlong askST Q&A sessions on topics affecting the residents of Singapore. “Readers are increasingly looking for more than just commoditized news that they can get for free anywhere. What they want is to engage with journalists and newsmakers, to ask specific questions about the issues that interest them and to obtain detailed answers,” Chan said. “As a branding exercise, the Straits Times found the coffee festival very useful in reaching out to a younger audience that doesn’t necessarily equate a national broadsheet with expertise on editorandpublisher.com
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Takayuki Miyazaki, a barista from The Local Coffee Stand in
Tokyo, Japan, shows his skills at the Good Coffee Tokyo booth.
topics that are relevant to their age group.” Additionally, a select number of guests on the final two days of the festival were treated to an eight-course meal curated by food editor Tan Hsueh Yun, who also hosted the special dinner and chat. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the festival, the paper plans on bringing it back this year to a larger location that can accommodate a bigger crowd and more sponsors.
was promoted through rack cards, digital banners, email blasts and social media posts. As a result, the paper distributed 16,262 more copies than the previous week, a total that included a bump in single-copy sales of 5,680 copies. In addition, the digital store sold more than 825 additional newspapers by year-end. The print edition brought in $125,000 in new advertising revenue.
News-Gazette Champaign, Ill.
To combat the notion that young people don’t read newspapers, the News-Gazette set out to have young people “write” newspapers. “High School Confidential” served as the springboard to a broader goal of winning over the high school crowd—in
5 Daily Newspapers and 18 Weeklies
San Francisco, Calif.
The San Francisco Chronicle completed two key innovative projects in 2016. “Last Men Standing” was a storytelling project and featurelength documentary about longterm AIDS survivors. The Chronicle also spearheaded the SF Homeless Project, a collaboration of more than 80 Northern California media organizations that agreed to cover issues
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San Francisco Chronicle
On behalf of our staff...
Sold:
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print, online and via social media. In August, the paper asked principals at 35 area high schools to nominate one student to serve as their weekly correspondent. The paper also asked them to use their cell phones to submit photos. Their edited work encompassed a full color page each Wednesday.
We are proud to provide our communities with award winning stories and content. Remember, Community Civility Counts. Check us out at nwi.com
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NEWSPAPERS
THAT DO IT RIGHT
Times of Northwest Indiana Munster, Ind.
Circulation: 51,630 Sunday; 41,080 daily Despite launching the Community Civility Counts initiative in the spring of 2015, the Times of Northwest Indiana, in partnership with the Gary Chamber of Commerce, took their campaign to the next level in 2016. Though the civility initiative was already comprised of several different parts from the very beginning, including a logo, a #CivilityCounts hashtag, Facebook page, an essay and drawing contest for kids, and a civility pledge on the paper’s opinion page, the team recognized room for growth in its second year. In fact, the year began with a high point for the initiative when the Indiana Senate unanimously approved a resolution commending the group for “delivering an awareness campaign to remind everyone about the need for civility and treating each other right.” The State House approved the same resolution a week later. “That was a big boost for us,” said Bob Heisse, editor of the Times Media Co., which publishes the Times. “We got a huge standing ovation in the senate and several members made com-
(From left) Bob Heisse, editor of The Times Media Co., and Chuck Hughes, executive director of the Gary Chamber of Commerce, announce the 2017 World Civility Day.
ments in support of it as well. After that we figured since our one year anniversary was going to be in April, why not hold a special day?”
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of homelessness on the same days. The coverage garnered national attention and was emulated in cities around the country. It led to various ballot initiatives, legislation and significant philanthropic donations and will continue in 2017.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune Sarasota, Fla.
After winning a Pulitzer Prize with the Tampa Bay Times in 2016, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune doubled down on its investigative and enterprise journalism and launched four major projects. “Bias on the Bench” tackled an overlooked problem plaguing Florida’s court system, the disparate treatment between black and white defendants. When a local man went missing in Texas in March 2013, the HeraldTribune began investigating his disappearance in “What Happened to Mason?” A series of stories on Medicaid produced more than a dozen Page 1 stories showing the gaping holes in the system meant to keep Florida’s children healthy. “Can You Afford to Live in Paradise?” examined how rental rates, availability and the conversation surround housing are shaping the future of local young professionals.
St. Helena Star Helena, Calif.
Located in the heart of the Napa Valley,
A few months later, the inaugural World Civility Day attracted visitors from 10 states to the city of Gary and featured Clyde Rivers, a United Nations world peace ambassador, as its keynote speaker. Nearly 200 people attended the event, which Heisse said will continue this year albeit with an upgraded location and program. “The only problem we had last year was that we couldn’t have younger people there because it was at a casino,” Heisse said. “This year, we decided to get away from the casino and expand World Civility Day into something that has workshops, takeaways and an evening event.” Another new component added to the editorandpublisher.com
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the St. Helena Star decided to create a better way to report on the wines they were recommending to readers. They partnered with the Napa Valley Vintners and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone to create a 20 to 25 person tasting panel. Each month there is a different varietal tasted, all current release and all available for purchase. After the tasting, there is a discussion about the wines, which is the basis for an article that is printed in the St. Helena Star and the other papers that are part of Napa Valley Publishing.
Today’s News-Herald Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
Lake Havasu City’s Vision 20/20 committee identified a drought of young people as a potential problem for the community’s continued success. The Today’s NewsHerald knew they could help make a difference in the perception of the community by highlighting young people who were already working to build a better future. They published its first “Under 40” section at the end of September 2016, highlighting 30 of the up-and-coming local leaders. To honor them, the News-Herald partnered with the Vision 20/20 group and a local economic development firm for a gathering, where they unveiled a beer called “Bright Future,” custom brewed in coordination with Havasu’s four local microbreweries and featuring an original label with the names of each person in the “Under 40” section.
initiative was Civility in the Classroom, a weekly pilot program intended to promote news literacy and civility with self, others and as a leader. After the pilot phase of the program ended in June, Summer Moore, digital and audience engagement editor, gathered a group of educators from Gary to expand it into a year-long curriculum. “The reaction to the first pilot program was incredible. We were given essays from the students that mentioned how we changed the culture of the room and empowered them in the class to be leaders for civility in their schools,” Moore said. “We are very excited to see what the students’ reactions are this year.” MARCH 2017 | E & P
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The Canadian newspaper industry is getting a new jolt of life
illustration by tony o. champagne
By H.G. Watson
O
n Jan. 24, 2017, news broke that Postmedia, a Canada-wide newspaper chain, had sent layoff notices to a handful of staff in three newsrooms—the Windsor Star, the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen. On Twitter, the reaction was immediate. It ranged from anger at the media company— that had recently awarded five executives just under $2.3 million in retention bonuses—to what can only be described as despondency. This cycle of despair over the state of affairs of the Canadian newspaper industry is something I have witnessed many times over. I edit J-Source, a website dedicated to media news in Canada. Just two weeks into starting my job in 2015, I reported on the closure of the Alberni Valley Times, a community newspaper that had served a community of 25,000 in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island.
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It is never long until I am reporting on another round of layoffs; another closure. In January 2016, Torstar, which owns the Toronto Star and several smaller regional papers, closed their printing plant and culled 13 staff from the Star newsroom. Only four days later, Postmedia underwent a massive restructuring and cut 90 jobs company wide. A week and a half later two separate newspapers—the Guelph Mercury, a 149-year-old paper owned by Torstar, and community newspaper the Nanaimo Daily News, owned by Black Press—sent their last ever issues to print. In February, buyouts were confirmed at the Ottawa Citizen. In March, the Winnipeg Free Press—touted as the largest independent paper in Canada—offered “voluntary layoffs” to its staff. Metroland, a Torstar subsidiary, offered buyouts next, and seven staff at free daily paper Metro were laid off. In June, 135 people lost their jobs after Postmedia decided to outsource their printing operations in southwestern Ontario. In August, Torstar announced they were laying off 52 staff, many of whom had been working on a much hyped tablet app, Star Touch. By September, the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers, had announced they were offering buyouts to staff—at least 30 people ended up taking them. Buyouts were also the order of the day at Postmedia in the fall—the National Post saw 20 staff leave, with more following chain wide. And that was just in the newspaper sector. Canada’s journalism community is small, and in many ways insular. Each new layoff and closure announcement was a keenly felt blow, leaving us all staring agape at one another, asking essentially the same question: What the hell happened to the Canadian newspaper industry?
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Newspapers that closed in Canada over the last few years include the Guelph Mercury and the Nainamo Daily News.
affected the rest of the media industry. Google and Facebook dominate internet advertising revenues in Canada, much as they do elsewhere. Revenues are, across the board, down, and more people are accessing news online—and they aren’t paying for it. A Reuters survey in 2016 found that only 9 percent of Canadians polled pay for news online. While American media outlets felt the blow of the global economic crisis as soon as it hit, Dwayne Winseck, the director of the Canadian Media Concentration Research Project, based at Carleton University in Ottawa, says here, the impacts were delayed. It’s why things seemed more stable until about 2012. “Something that is well known by media economists (is) that advertising in particular is a really good barometer for the condition of the macro economy,” he said. “(If the) macro economy suffers from economic recession or financial crisis, advertising goes down in
lock step, and when economic conditions improve advertising goes back up.” Newspaper advertising revenues in Canada has been on the decline since the early 2000s, but, if you look at statistics provided by Newspapers Canada, you can see that pace accelerates 2012 onwards. A recently released report on news and democracy in Canada, Shattered Mirror, found that Canadians do understand the linkages between democracy and journalism—but they still aren’t interested in paying for news. According to Allan Gregg, who contributed to the report and spoke at an event explaining the report’s findings on Jan. 26, in many cases, people didn’t even realize our newspaper industry was in trouble because to them, it seems like there is more journalism than ever before, available in every corner of the web for free. But everyone has these problems. In other ways, Canada’s situation is unique. editorandpublisher.com
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The ownership of Canada’s newspapers has become more concentrated in the last 30 years. To try to make more sense of Canada’s newspapers present, we need to understand the industry’s past. The situation was not always as dire as it feels today. According to Newspapers Canada, an advocacy group for the Canadian newspaper industry, Canada had 110 daily newspapers in the 1980s. In 2015, there were 99 paid dailies—not a huge change. What has significantly changed is who owns those papers. The ownership of Canada’s newspapers has become more concentrated in the last 30 years. Researchers looking at media concentration in Canada have found that as of 2011, four companies accounted for 84 percent of all newspaper ownership in Canada. Though levels did fall since then, one company in particular saw a spike in ownership—Postmedia. This history of Postmedia itself illus-
trates how newspaper ownership has contracted in Canada. To quote from Bruce Livesey, an investigative journalist for the startup National Observer, in a deep dive he did on the company: “Postmedia’s roots go back to the Southam Inc. newspaper chain that was founded more than a century ago. In 1996, Black bought the Southam papers and soon created the National Post as its flagship paper. His term as boss would be short-lived, however: pressed by his bankers to chop debt, Black sold the papers to the Asper family’s CanWest Global Communications Corp. in 2000. Seven years later, the New York-based hedge fund GoldenTree—co-founded by Steven Shapiro, a former manager with CIBC World Markets—began buying up CanWest’s debt issues. As CanWest floundered, GoldenTree acquired more of its debt. Poorly
The Local News Map Services increases
Service reductions
2% (5)
18% (56)
Shifted to online
5% (17)
Daily becomes community paper
Closures*
New outlets**
17% (51)
56% (171)
Closures*
56% (171)
Service reductions
18% (56)
New outlets**
17% (51)
Shifted to online
5% (17)
Daily becomes community paper
2% (5)
Services increases
2% (5)
2% (5)
Source: The Local News Map, as of Jan. 3, 2017
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*Closures includes closures due to mergers **New outlets include new outlets due to mergers
managed by the Aspers, weighed down by $4-billion in debt and pummeled by the credit crisis, CanWest declared bankruptcy in 2009. A year later, GoldenTree and 19 other foreign and domestic lenders, mostly hedge funds, paid $1.1-billion for the CanWest papers, created Postmedia and made Paul Godfrey its CEO.” In October 2015, Postmedia completed a debt recapitalization plan that reduced its debt from approximately $648 million to $341 million. Despite all this, as of 2015, Postmedia owns a full third of the Canadian newspaper industry, the result of the purchase of Quebecor subsidiary Sun Media, comprised of a group of broadsheet and tabloid papers, some titled the Sun in their respective markets. The result was that Postmedia had two newspapers in three cities—Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa, as well as the Toronto Sun in the same city where their flagship paper, the National Post, has its newsroom, and two newspapers in Vancouver they already owned, The Vancouver Sun (not a part of the Sun Media chain) and The Province. The deal was approved by the federal Competition Board, with Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of Postmedia, telling the Globe and Mail that they planned to keep the newsrooms of the papers separate. That changed in January 2016, when the newsrooms were merged in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. At the time, Postmedia spokesperson Phyllise Gelfand told me that stories would be rewritten at to suit the tone of the publication they would appear in. “The right content and the right voice will be adapted at a re-write desk,” MARCH 2017 | E & P
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The point is, in Canada, we have the opportunity to shape what the future of our news industry will be—who could say no to that? she said. Winseck believes that as newspapers were bought at inflated prices by the various chains, the debt they ended up incurring has weighed them down, dramatically cutting resources and overall impacting the quality of journalism produced. “It was kind of a vicious downward cycle,” he explained. “Audiences could see through the declining quality of the journalism, and they loosened their attachments to these newspapers as their go-to sources of information.” Some papers have tried to innovate. The Toronto Star, following the lead of French language daily La Presse, launched a tablet edition, Star Touch, in September 2015. They hired 60 new staff for it, joyous news for the industry when it was desperately needed. James Bradshaw, a Globe and Mail journalist, reported in a recent feature on Torstar that this gave the newsroom at “startup feel.” It didn’t last. According to the Ryerson Review of Journalism, the app itself was static. “Its stories don’t change throughout the day, much like a traditional newspaper,” wrote then Ryerson Review editor-in-chief Katrina Eschner. “Breaking news stories aren’t fully integrated into the app, but can be read on a pullout tab, as long as you have web access.” Audience pick up was “slower than expected,” she noted in an addendum to the story a few months later. Many of the staff assigned to the tablet have been laid off. Revenue continues to fall. And Torstar took drastic measures to cut costs to offset revenue declines company wide.
The Local News Crisis Guelph is a mid-sized town about an hour and a half drive north-west of Toronto. Primarily known as a regional agricultural center, it is a rapidly changing place. Commuter trains shuttle people back and forth to Toronto a few times a day, and University of Guelph, which has an enrollment of over 27,000, continues to grow. And for 149 years, the town was home to an ambitious local daily newspaper. Phil Andrews was the managing editor of the Guelph Mercury for 10 of those years. During his tenure, he oversaw an investigative series on the local gravel industry that won a National Newspaper Award and stories that were nominated for and won multiple Ontario Newspaper Awards. 50 |
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“There was an ambitious culture quite deeply rooted there when I walked in the door,” he recalled. “The paper took a great deal of pride in being in doing journalism that was probably beyond its resources to do.” What he remains proudest of are the journalism careers that were cultivated at the Mercury through its internship programs. (Full disclosure: I interviewed for, and didn’t get, an internship there in 2013—but the fact I was even considered thrilled me beyond belief). The paper was a farm team for emerging talent, and many great reporters emerged. Daniel Dale, the Toronto Star Washington correspondent widely known for his aggressive daily fact checking of Donald Trump, was a sports reporting intern at the Mercury, according to Andrews. Andrews says that for months, he had been nudging channels at Metroland, a Torstar subsidiary, for meetings to discuss the future of the Mercury. “I just couldn’t get anywhere.” In hindsight, he realized why. On Jan. 22, 2016, a Friday, he alone was told that next week, the Mercury would print its final edition. The announcement was made public on Jan. 25, and on Jan. 29, the final edition—a -30- splashed above the fold on A1—came off the presses. Local news outlets in Canada have borne the brunt of the impact of falling revenues. April Lindgren, an associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism in Toronto, studies news poverty—the extent to which a community’s critical information needs are being met by local media. To that end she co-created the News Poverty Map, a crowdsourced map that tracks what is happening to local news across Canada. Using data collected from the map, Lindgren has determined that since 2008, there have been 171 local news outlet closures in 138 communities. Of those closures a majority are community newspapers which publish four times a week or less. What often happens, according to Lindgren, is that where chain buys another paper in smaller centers, they close it or consolidate it with the competing paper. A good example of this is seen with the West Coast chain Black Press. After purchasing several papers on Vancouver Island from Glacier Media in 2014, they went through the process of shutting down the competing paper in two-newspaper towns. The overall result is simply less coverage. Lindgren also researched how well the Canadian federal election in 2015 was editorandpublisher.com
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covered by a few small communities across Canada. Surveying coverage from the month before people headed to the polls, she determined the number of stories focusing on the local races per 10,000 registered voters. Some cities fared well—Thunder Bay had 25 stories per 10,000 voters, for example—while others did not. Brampton, a diverse city that had grown out of what was once a Toronto suburb, only had two stories per 10,000 voters, despite the fact that there are five federal ridings in Brampton, and thus five local electoral races to cover. Everyone knows there is an issue here. Even the federal government has gotten involved, last year launching a committee of Members of Parliament (MPs) to examine the “local news crisis.” Academics, publishers and editors have all appeared before it to explain what they think is to blame for the crisis in the newspaper industry. However, the biggest boogeyman might be Canada’s publicly funded broadcast corporation. The CBC ranks among the most highly trafficked websites in Canada, according to recent comScore results, and draws in digital ad sales valued at about $25 million, according to the Shattered Mirror report. At a public talk with several newspaper publishers last year, Globe and Mail publisher Phillip Crawley said, “I hate that I’m competing with something that I fund with my taxpayer money.” However, CBC’s internet ad sales, while more than the Globe and Mail’s, are still much lower than the internet ad revenue reported by Torstar and Postmedia in 2015. And while local newspapers are hollowed out, the CBC maintains a Canada-wide network of bureaus and offices. It isn’t lost on people that should newspapers collapse, the CBC might be the last outlet standing for many local communities. The Shattered Mirror report, which came at the request of the federal government, offered 12 recommendations to help improve the civic function of journalism–everything from overhauling tax laws; creating a multi-million dollar journalism fund; and making the CBC digital ad free. Several of those ideas, especially the idea of a fund, are already being opposed by Canadian journalists. And others wonder if any of these changes will actually be made, and if they are, will they only benefit large legacy media organizations?
Shaping Our Own Future There is a palatable sense of frustration that has been bred amongst Canadian journalists. During much of 2016, while out for drinks with colleagues from other news organizations, we’d experience a collective grimace as we discussed whatever the latest layoff news was. I can only speak for myself, but I do experience a sense of powerlessness. It doesn’t feel like the entrenched higher-ups, whether they be publishers or editors, have any interest in aggressive ineditorandpublisher.com
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novation or changing the status quo of newsroom culture. Maybe they do—but that feeling isn’t being communicated down the ranks. It doesn’t encourage a lot of confidence in our industry’s future. I love journalism, and I will keep doing it as long as I can be paid for my labor, but I genuinely wonder sometimes: what jobs will be left for us? Perhaps, the ones we create ourselves. Take, for example, Discourse Media. Based in Vancouver, it was originally conceived as a freelancer collective. But it quickly evolved into a journalism startup focused on doing in depth journalism that is often too costly for media outlets to do themselves. One project had them do a deep data investigation about transportation in Vancouver—their findings led to stories in a number of local media outlets and then nominated for a global data journalism award, according to their website. A recent project closely examined how the constitutional right to freedom of the press applies to Canada’s Indigenous communities. These are stories that fill a demonstrable need. “I think Canada is an incredibly underserved market,” said Erin Millar, the co-founder of Discourse. It’s not just locals who have noticed, she pointed out. The BBC and BuzzFeed have opened offices here in the last two years, and the New York Times just recently appointed a Toronto bureau chief. A small but steady stream of new journalism organizations have begun to appear, some national—Canadaland, iPolitics, the National Observer— and some local—The Halifax Examiner, AllNovaScotia.com, The Tyee. So far the evidence suggests that these new organizations have yet to fill the gap left by local newspapers—Winseck points out that none of the new Canadian journalism organizations listed above have managed to crack the top 60 on comScore. And the data from Lindgren’s map shows that only 51 new local media outlets have opened Canada wide. But for every shared grimace, there are also all of the people I’ve met or interviewed in Canada who believe there is opportunity here—like Millar, who continues to grow Discourse into a bigger company; or Phillip Smith, who pulled his community together to start an innovative journalism funding project; or Maureen Googoo, who used crowdfunding to make her dream of creating a news outlet covering Indigenous news in Atlantic Canada a reality. Those outlets may be small now, but we don’t know what the next 10, 20, 30 years are going to look like. The point is, in Canada, we have the opportunity to shape what the future of our news industry will be—who could say no to that? H.G. Watson is a journalist based in Toronto. She is the associate editor of J-Source, the Canadian journalism project, and has written for Motherboard, Daily Xtra and rabble. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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How pu the mob blishers are improvi ile read By Taylo i n g experie ng r Hill nce
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ews publishers will remember 2016 for many reasons—not least of which was the outright attacks from a new administration on U.S. newsrooms’ qualifications for disseminating information. While the jury’s still out on whether a nearly 200-year-old industry has forgotten how to publish news, one thing that was cemented this year was the takeover of mobile. Forty-four of the top 50 U.S. newspapers now say their websites get more unique visitors from mobile devices than desktops—at least 10 percent more, according to the latest Pew Research State of the Media report. And 35 of the top 50 newspapers saw at least a 10 percent increase in mobile unique visitors compared to 2015. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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The sea change was expected. Last year, comScore’s Mobile App Report revealed a jaw-dropping number—people were spending 68.2 hours per month engaged on mobile apps, spending 87 percent of their time within apps and only 13 percent on the mobile web. That’s left publishers searching for ways to adequately invest in mobile technology that offers audiences an interactive, captivating experience on their phones while also taking into account the shortcomings advertisers are seeing in the mobile realm. News groups making the move online through desktops, tablets, and mobile phones are greatly expanding the reach of many newspapers, but the attention span of those getting the print edition and those viewing stories online is vastly different. A new study found that the news-reading public read the print versions of British national newspapers for an average of 40 minutes per day, against 30 seconds per day online and via apps. The study by Dr. Neil Thurman of City University of London is the first research to comprehensively account for the time spent reading newspapers via mobile devices. It found that 89 percent of time spent reading national newspapers is in print format, while 7 percent is on mobile and just 4 percent is on a computer. Scale those numbers up, and they’re not far off from what American newspapers are seeing in advertising revenue splits. According to the Pew Research Center, print ad revenues brought in $16.4 billion in 2014, while digital ad revenues tallied around $3.5 billion—a number that’s barely budged since 2006 due to the steady decline in digital ad rates. It’s in this unstable environment that publishers are attempting to get a steady foothold in the mobile news market. Here, we look at three publishers in different phases, taking different approaches to launching a mobile app.
Deseret News Salt Lake City-based Deseret News lays 54 |
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claim to Utah’s largest Sunday circulation, and also is the state’s oldest continuously published daily paper. It’s under those auspices that Deseret News general manager Burke Olsen and product director Christian Ross embarked on revamping both the paper’s website and mobile app last year. So far, the work appears to be paying off, as the group just earned a Local Media Digital Innovation Award for DeseretNews.com—but the bigger test will be how the public reacts to its newly designed mobile app. Since mid-2016, mobile unique users consistently surpassed desktop users visiting Deseret News. “Apart from bringing a more modern look and feel to DeseretNews.com, we knew from the outset that mobile had to be a priority,” Ross said. As users have moved toward mobile, product development has increasingly focused in that direction as well, our new design dramatically improves the mobile user experience and our ability to generate revenue from mobile users. In the months since our redesign, we’ve continued to enhance the site, and that work will continue.” The changes include a move away from pinned footer advertisements that limit users’ scrolling ability on articles, and a shift to inline ads on article pages. “The scroll-depth we see on many of our mobile pages is impressive, and it’s helped to make our inline display ad units viable,” Ross said. Still, the challenge is to get the mobile users to stay on the site and on the app once they get there. One of the major successes for the paper has been live streaming of high school sports—a mainstay of the paper—whose stats archives for some sports go back more than 50 years. Another tactic the paper is using is to focus on optimizing long-form stories for mobile device consumption. It’s an idea that seems paradoxical. The smaller screen sizes and multi-tasking tendency of mobile phone users seems like a hard sell to try and lengthen user engagement. But according to an online reading behavior
Burke Olsen, Deseret News general manager
Christian Ross, Deseret News product director
Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, La Presse president
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study from the Pew Research Center, consumers do spend significantly more time with long-form stories than short articles. In fact, articles 1,000 words or longer averaged about twice the total engaged time compared to short-form stories: 123 seconds to 57 seconds. So far, Deseret News is seeing similar results. “Last year, we built out a feature story called Everyday Angels,” Ross said. “The average time spent on that story was double the time on a regular story. That trend hasn’t just applied to projects with special design. We recently published a 5,000 word profile on a state political figure. Mobile users spent an average of seven minutes on the page — almost a minute longer than desktop users.” Overall, the team is still seeing shorter average session times for mobile web users compared to desktop users, but there are some encouraging trends. The average time mobile users spend on individual article pages is actually longer than desk-
News groups making the move online through desktops, tablets, and mobile phones are greatly expanding the reach of many newspapers…
top users, and for the users coming to the Deseret News through the mobile app, “the average session length and screen views per session far surpasses what we see from mobile users on the website,” Ross said. “We have a loyal app user base, and that’s something we’re working actively to grow.”
Adblock Continues to Grow on Desktop and Mobile Devices
11% 30% 74% 77% 615M
of the global internet population is blocking ads on the web (December 2016) global growth YoY in adblock usage (December 2015-December 2016) of adblock users say they leave websites with adblock walls of adblock users are willing to view some ad formats global devices are blocking ads (December 2016)
Source: Pagefair 2017 Adblock Report
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As far as a response to ad-blocking, Deseret News is taking a wait-and-see approach. “We have a system in place to track ad blocker usage, but we are currently just observing trends and gathering data,” Ross said. “Over the past three months we have noticed that ad blocker usage has plateaued on our site. We will continue to watch that data closely as we evolve a strategy to combat the problem.”
La Presse Montreal’s French-language daily paper stopped the presses—literally—last January when it went all-digital on weekdays, ending a 131-year run of publishing its weekday edition. For some, it marked the end of an era. For La Presse president Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, it was the natural progression toward focusing on what the news site now viewed as its flagship product—the tablet. Launched in 2013, LaPresse+ (the tablet version of the newspaper) became not just a digital extension of the La Presse’s print product, but a replacement. “We had a decision to make,” Levasseur said. “In 2010, when we started working on the formation of La Presse+, we were trying to capture what historically made newspapers great. We had the great brand recognition, great storytelling, and over the MARCH 2017 | E & P
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Devices Using Adblock Software on the Open Web 380M
400
JAN 2010
Millions
275M 216M
2011
236M
181M
200
2012 2013 2014
21M
30M
39M
54M
54M
145M
2015 2016 DEC 2016
0 2010 Jan
2011
2012
2013
2014
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DESKTOP BROWSERS
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21M 30M 39M 54M 54M 181M 216M 236M
— — — — — 145M 275M 380M
2016 Dec
Source: Pagefair 2017 Adblock Report
last 20 years, some great ink, design, and graphics improvements. We had people spending 30 to 32 minutes a day with their paper.” Looking at the mobile landscape and the limitations of web content and smartphones at the time, the team decided to put its efforts into building a unique news reading experience specifically for tablet devices. “We saw the lean-back nature of the tablet, versus the quickhitting nature of mobile, and we thought we could replicate the advantages of print onto a new medium,” Levasseur said. Three years in, and it looks like the experiment has paid off. Prior to the shuttering of the daily paper, La Presse+ was getting about 190,000 unique openings on tablets per day. The newspaper estimates about half of the paper’s print readers transitioned to the app, and its daily openings now stand at about 272,000. At the same time, they’ve been able to retain nearly 90 percent of their print advertisers, with ad revenues only taking a small dip in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year. That type of ad retention is unheard of at most daily newspapers—where ad revenues have declined steadily for years. The trick in luring advertisers to stay onboard with the tablet, according to Levasseur, has been maintaining engagement. “We’re getting readers staying on La Presse+ 50 minutes on weekends and 40 minutes on weekdays,” Levasseur said. “Our advertisers are getting a tremendous brand lift when we deliver those 56 |
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types of results.” The trick has been in creating a news product unique to tablets—not trying to cram the same content agnostically across web, mobile and print platforms. “You can build software that allows you to press one big ‘publish’ button, and all your content goes across all your distribution channels, but it’s not going to serve any of those platforms well,” Levasseur said. “Every one of our actions backed our decision—from sales, to storytelling, to communications strategies, to marketing… everything was geared towards the tablet.” Currently, the company has a mobile app, but it’s basically a direct mirror of content put on the website. Now, thanks to bigger screens, quicker load times and an ever-growing user base, La Presse is looking at taking its La Presse+ tablet model to the mobile phone. Levasseur said he expects to have a working mobile app prototype in the next few months. “We’re white-boarding it the same way we did the tablet,” Levasseur said. “We’ve got 110 people on our tech team and they’re involved in getting this going from the ground up—thinking about the navigation of it, getting the right design and functionality.” The main goal will be to bring the type of engagement La Presse+ has championed in the tablet realm to mobile. One of the focal points will be figuring out how long-form stories can be optimized in the mobile app. editorandpublisher.com
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“We saw the lean-back nature of the tablet, versus the quick-hitting nature of mobile, and we thought we could replicate the advantages of print onto a new medium.” - Pierre-Elliott Levasseur
Additionally, the team is looking at how to get users into the app even before they unlock their phones. Push notifications can be set to send to mobile users even when their phone is still in lock mode—one tactic in the increasingly competitive attempts to snag mobile users’ attention. These notifications often resemble a tweet-sized text block publishers hope will lure readers into the app. But Levasseur says the team is toying with creating video options viewable as a notification. “We are trying to make our notifications richer, so that users don’t just see two lines of text and they get more of an idea of what we’re trying to communicate—more of a reason to want to click,” Levasseur said. “We want to create a very engaging mobile experience.” As people are starting to spend more time on mobile reading longer articles, there’s perhaps an opportunity for La Presse’s tablet framework to break through, where they get a lot of people engaged for a long time. “It’s not going to be the same time as a home device like a tablet, but if we can really build an experience optimized for mobile phones, and get the average 4 minutes of engagement we see on our mobile app today up to 14 minutes, then that could be a game changer.” That type of engagement could put La Presse in a position to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google in the cutthroat digital advertising world. “We’re telling advertisers we can give them a million impressions, and then Facebook says they can give them 100 million at a cheaper per-click rate; it’s dangerous to try and compete with editorandpublisher.com
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that,” Levasseur said. “But if we can create an engaging app on your phone—and keep our traffic from becoming beholden to Facebook clicks—that’s a start.”
The Guardian In 2014, the Guardian rolled out completely redesigned native apps for Android and iOs users, streamlining all of its international properties under one digital roof. The site threw out the singlecolumn, same-sized row of stories that app users would scroll down, and instead moved to a layout of different sized “cards” for each story, aimed at signifying a stories’ perceived importance. “The new layout better enables editors to curate stories according to their perceived importance, elbowing aside algorithms for the Guardian’s own ‘editorial voice’ on the news agenda,” The Next Web wrote at the time. This year, the Guardian utilized President Donald Trump’s inauguration to try out mobile-based news experiments through its recently established Mobile Innovations Labs app. The Guardian’s Innovation Lab app is separate from its main mobile news application and allowed the news group to test out iOS 10’s expanded push notification features without disrupting its core user base—so users had to download the lab app to see the new experiments. The first new feature involved testing a live stream of the inauguration inside a push alert. Users who had downloaded the app beforehand would get the push notification, tap on it, and immediately be able to watch the live stream of Trump’s swearing in ceremony right from their lock screens. “So far as we know, this is the first time anyone has used notifications this way,” the Guardian Lab wrote in an announcement. App users also saw a “rolling summary” on their lock screens of inauguration events as they unfolded. Updates came automatically, with the most recent happenings displayed first, creating a sort of running diary of the events of the day. And finally, Guardian’s lab app gave users a glimpse into what future live event coverage could look like in mobile, with its “Shifting Lenses” feature. A video feed showing the presidential inauguration allowed users to swipe left and right on their screen to bring forward different camera angles of the podium, and the surrounding fanfare. “Shifting Lenses allows you to swipe left and right between two views to get the latest on what’s happening in each narrative line,” the Guardian wrote, clarifying that the features are still in the “experimental” phase and might not have functioned as planned. “After the experiment, we’ll follow up with a survey about most features to get your reactions, and will use your feedback to help shape future experiments.” The Guardian’s tinkering with lock screen, push notification, and video functionality in early 2017 is just the latest experimenting for news publishers trying to figure out mobile. Expect more tinkering from many more publishers throughout the year. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications has added two veteran journalists to its staff. Herbert Lowe will join the college as a lecturer in journalism and serve as director of its Summer Media Institute. He spent 22 years as a reporter at newspapers such as Newsday in New York, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. His wife, Mira Lowe, will serve as the new director of the Innovation News Center, the college’s award-winning multimedia newsroom. Prior to becoming a senior editor at CNN Digital in Atlanta, she worked at Newsday for 18 years, rising to associate editor for recruiting and staff development. Ashley Dawson has been named managing editor of the Delaware State News. She previously was news editor of the newspaper from 2010 to 2014. In addition, Andrew West has been promoted to editor. For the past 20 years, he served as managing editor. Kevin Lasier and Gary Tolley have been named wide-format account managers at Agfa Graphics. Lasier will be the primary point of contact with key accounts in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska while Tolley will concentrate on the state of Florida.
Stephen Wade has been appointed president of the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. He will continue to serve as general manager of the paper, a position he has held since 2015. Wade previously served as regional publisher for BH Media Group in Florence, S.C. and the senior group publisher for GateHouse Media in Independence, Mo.
Dena DeRose has been named advertising director of The Bulletin in Bend, Ore. Most recently, she worked as the ad director for the Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune for the past seven years. Prior to that, she held a variety of positions for the newspaper, including customer service assistant and page layout coordinator. William Mitchell has been named publisher of the Shelbyville (Tenn.) Times-Gazette and its sister publication, the Marshall County Tribune in Lewisburg, Tenn. He first joined the newspaper in 2006 as its general manager. Prior to that, he served as president of Fulton Publishing, Inc., owner of the Fulton Leader in Kentucky. Rich Roxbury has been named circulation director of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune. He previously held the same position for the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan for more than nine years.
ACQUISITIONS Observer Media Group has acquired the Financial News & Daily Record from James Bailey Jr. The media group owns 10 weekly newspapers including the Business Observer. The Bailey family had owned the newspaper since 1912. Tracy Press has purchased the Champion newspapers in Chino and Chino Hills, Calif. The weekly newspaper had been owned by Allen McCombs for 60 years. Hearst Corp. has acquired The Pioneer Group from Jack and John Batdorff. The Pioneer Group publishes daily and weekly newspapers in Michigan as well as four local shopper publications. The company also operates a digital marketing services business.
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Trevor Baratko has been named managing editor of the Loudoun TimesMirror in Leesburg, Va. He originally joined the Times-Mirror in 2012 as the county government reporter. Beau Ravellette has been named vice president and general manager of the Ravellette Publications, Inc. newspaper group. Ravellete’s family has owned the weekly newspaper group since 1963. He has spent 11 years working in various roles with the company. Gary Nevan has retired as publisher and owner of the Columbia Press in Warrenton, Ore. He has served as the weekly newspaper’s publisher and owner for the past 28 years. Longtime reporter Cindy Yingst will now oversee the Press. Mike Distelhorst has been named publisher of the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News. He will continue to serve as publisher of the Jacksonville Daily News, the New Bern Sun-Journal and the Kinston Free Press in North Carolina. Michael Fibison has been appointed vice president of advertising for North Jersey Media Group. Over the past two decades in the media industry, he has held many leadership roles, including vice president of Digital First Media. Prior to joining Gannett in 2015, he was senior director of strategic sales for Angie’s List.
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NewsPeople David Adams has been named publisher of the Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill., Daily Review Atlas in Monmouth, Ill and all other GateHouse newspapers in the Illinois Community group. Prior to joining GateHouse, he served as vice president of sales and advertising director for Gannett Media. He was also director of sales at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader and The Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Ark. George Cogswell has retired from his role as president and publisher of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. He originally joined the paper in 2012. During his 33-year career in the industry, he held various newspaper leadership roles in Florida, Colorado, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Carl Esposito has been named president of Adams Publishing Group—Tennessee/ North Carolina. He will continue to serve as publisher of the Daily Times in Maryville, Tenn., a position he has held since 2010. Prior to that, he was regional publisher and group leader of Media General’s Tri-Cities/Southwest Virginia Group. Melissa Matczak has been named executive editor at the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald. She joined the paper in 1997 and has served as its managing editor for the past four years. She will replace Mike Reilly, who accepted a new role as vice president of news with the World-Herald’s parent company, BH Media Group. Scott Shriner has been named executive editor of Record Publishing Co. He has served as the company’s associate editor for 60 |
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Lynnie Guzman has been named advertising director at The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. Most recently, she was advertising sales director for the Tuscaloosa News in Alabama. Guzman has also worked at the Americus (Ga.) Times Recorder and The News Press Media Group in Fort Myers, Fla.
the past 15 years. In his new role, Shriner will oversee the company’s seven weekly newspapers, which include the Aurora Advocate, Cuyahoga Falls News-Press, Hudson Hub-Times, Nordonia Hills News Leader, Stow Sentry, Tallmadge Express and Twinsburg Bulletin in Ohio. Mark Rhoades has been elected president and chairman of the Nebraska Press Association Foundation. He currently serves as publisher of Enterprise Publishing Co., which owns 11 newspapers in Nebraska and Iowa. Jennifer Cannon has been named online content editor for the Kinston (N.C.) Free Press. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist for its sister paper, the New Bern (N.C.) Sun Journal, covering education, county government and breaking news. Vanessa Koper has been named vice president of advertising for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal. She began her career working in the mailroom at the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio. Koper later served as the corporate director of sales for Sandusky News Group, which owns a dozen community newspapers in Utah, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio. Stacy Hathaway has been named advertising director of the Times Observer in Warren, Pa. For the last nine years, she has been
the adverting sales manager for the Warren County Guide. Prior to that, she worked in the circulation and advertising departments for the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal. Tom Schultz has retired from his role as city editor for the Times Observer in Warren, Pa. He originally joined the newspaper in 1971 as a sports reporter. Postmedia recently elected eight directors at its annual meeting of shareholders. The new directors of the company are: Rod Phillips, Paul Godfrey, Wendy Henkelman, Mary Junck, David Pecker, Daniel Rotstein, Graham Savage and Peter Sharpe. The directors will serve until the date of the next annual meeting of shareholders. Evelyn Webster has been appointed interim chief executive officer of U.S. operations for Guardian News and Media. Webster spent the past five years as executive vice president of Time Inc., where she oversaw the business operations and strategy for 26 brands. In her new role, she will be responsible for leading the commercial and operations teams of the media company. Thom Hanrahan has been appointed sports editor of the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press. For the past two and a half years, he has worked as a reporter in the newspaper’s sports department. Prior to joining the editorandpublisher.com
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NewsPeople Julie Fox has been appointed publisher of the Times West Virginian in Fairmont, W. Va. For the past 11 years, she was the regional audience development director for The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, Pa. Additionally, Fox also managed the audience development department at the Cumberland (Md.) TimesNews for two years. She began her newspaper career in 1989 as a customer service representative at The Southern Illinoisan.
News-Press, Hanrahan held managing editor positions with the Brownwood (Texas) Bulletin and the Cherokee County NewsAdvocate in Baxter Springs, Kan.
editor of the Ledger Dispatch in Jackson, Calif. for five years. Budrick replaces Dana Nichols, who retired following a two-year stint as the paper’s top editor.
Jesse Wright has been named editor of the Port Arthur News in Texas. Prior to joining the paper, he was editor of the Bogalusa (La.) Daily News, the Picayune (Miss.) Item and the Clarksdale Press (Miss.) Register. He began his career in 2001 at the Brenham (Texas) Banner-Press.
John Pourtless has been named digital media sales manager at ProImage. He has spent more than three decades in the industry, holding various positions in management, sales and technology. Pourtless began his career as a classified systems manager at the Buffalo News.
Jake Winfrey has been promoted to sports editor at The Cullman (Ala.) Times. He has served more than four years as a reporter at the newspaper, covering various local high school and college sports. Prior to joining The Times, Winfrey worked for the OpelikaAuburn (Ala.) News.
Cody Thorn has been named managing editor of the Maryville (Mo.) Daily Forum. Most recently, he was sports editor of the St. Joseph (Mo.) News Press. Prior to that, Thorn spent five years at the Neosho (Mo.) Daily News. He began his career as a sportswriter with the Joplin Globe in 2000.
Kevin Lyons has been named managing editor of the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill. He has served as the paper’s news editor since 2004. Lyons joined the Herald in 1995 as a municipal reporter. He later became a courthouse reporter and served briefly as the paper’s Woodstock bureau editor. Jerry Budrick has been appointed editor of the Calaveras Enterprise in San Andreas, Calif. Prior to joining the Enterprise, he was editorandpublisher.com
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Ralph Baldwin Jr. has been named publisher of the Cleveland (Tenn.) Daily Banner. He most recently served as president of Adams Publishing Group East. Baldwin was also chief operating officer of Jones Media Inc. for eight years. Prior to that, he was publisher of the Daily-Post Athenian in Athens, Tenn. Lee Hartman has been named editor and publisher of the Fort Bend Herald in Texas. He has worked for the past 26 years at the
Herald in various different positions including assistant photographer, advertising sales representative and general manager. Madeline Keith has been promoted to publisher of the Williams-Grand Canyon News and Navajo-Hopi Observer in Arizona. She has worked at the Canyon News for six years and held a variety of positions including business manager and sales executive. Beverly Joyce has been named publisher of the Hendricks County Flyer in Avon, Ind. She will continue to serve as publisher of the Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind., a position she has held since 2015. Prior to that, Joyce was publisher of the Commercial-News in Danville, Ill., as well as regional sales director for the Kokomo Tribune and Logansport Pharos-Tribune in Indiana. Mitzi Moe has been named general manager of the Fergus Falls Daily Journal in Minnesota. Moe previously was publisher of the Williston Herald and Wahpeton Daily News in North Dakota. Sam Pernice has been promoted to the newlycreated position of director of sales and services for KBA-MetalPrint products. He has held dual roles as a sales and service representative in the web offset division for the past four years. J.D. Grantz has been promoted to advertising director of the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette. Most recently, he was publication manager for the paper’s shopper’s guide. As part of his new role, Grantz will help coordinate the staff and managing operations for the department. He first joined the Gazette in December 2013 as an advertising consultant. MARCH 2017 | E & P
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Configuration Options: Vision Data “Soup-to-Nuts” packages are available in various configurations: In addition to locally-hosted server configurations, we offer both IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service - Vision Data hosted) and SaaS (Software as a Service - leased access) system configurations, both of which save you the cost and manpower of installing and managing your own server.
Large Customer Base: We have a large base of over 2,000 publications made up of a good mix of privately owned newspapers and newspaper groups. We have continually grown our base at a manageable rate , aided by our reputation for outstanding customer service and attention to customer needs. We take great pride in our history of customer retention.
“Soup-to-Nuts” Ongoing Support Pricing: By investing in Vision Data’s “Soup-toNuts” systems, you can also lower your ongoing support costs by replacing multiple vendor support charges with a singled “Packaged” support charge. Publishers investing in the total Vision Data “Soup-to-Nuts” package can save over fifty percent from the cost of multiple support packages.
•
Competitive Pricing: When we believe a publication is a good fit for Vision Data’s userbase (built over 40 years of steady growth) we can be very aggressive with pricing. We are privately-owned and no one can touch our low overhead .
Circulation:
For outstanding overall performance, simplicity of operation, vendor reputation, ongoing relations & support, innovation, and the cost of implementation, you should definitely consider Vision Data as your next system.
• Circulation management system for today’s print, digital, TMC and blended
subscription models. Management dashboard instantly displays and compares data, CASS certification, postal reporting, remote access for account or route management, EZ Pay, user-friendly CSR, full accounting and reporting.
Ad Tracking/Production:
• User-friendly Classified Pagination/Publication Layout for Quark or InDesign. • Ad-Tracking functionality streamlines and manages ad creation, proofing, etc. Cut costs, track production time, reduce makegoods with this powerful tool.
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Contact us today . . .
sales@vdata.com
518-434-2193
www.vdata.com
2/17/17 1:19 PM
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Phone: 800-887-1615
Appraisers / Brokers
E-mail: classifieds@editorandpublisher.com
Appraisers / Brokers
Proud to be the expert media financial valuation resource for FORBES 400 list of America’s Richest People 2016 and 2015
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Discover the current value of your publishing entity! Confidential • Customized • Comprehensive EXPERT COURT VALUATION WITNESS Testimony • Depositions • Declarations Follow us at www.twitter.com/kamengroup • Custom Brokering For Media Organizations • Print & Digital Media Valuations & Business Plans • Book Publishing, Video, Direct, Interactive, B2B, Listing & Database Valuations info@kamengroup.com
www.kamengroup.com
KAMEN & CO. GROUP SERVICES (516)379-2797 • 626 RXR Plaza, Uniondale, NY 11556
Help Wanted
Help Wanted
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Virginia’s “Best Large Weekly Newspaper” as ranked by the Virginia Press Association seeks an advertising director for a fast growth market and experienced, cohesive ad team. Six display reps and two classified reps in a very stable, high morale, professional work environment. Loudoun County is the third fastest growing county in the nation, located in the suburbs of Washington, DC, a dynamic, family friendly place to work and live. The Loudoun Times-Mirror purchased its sole remaining competitor last year, creating immense sales opportunities. Several magazines and events are growing quickly. LouduonTimes.com has very high audience numbers. Digital experience necessary. Sales management support is strong under and above the advertising director. Email cover letter and resume to skeyes@virginianewsgroup.com. EOE. No Phone calls please.
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Help Wanted
Fax: 866-605-2323
Help Wanted
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: We are looking for the right individual to lead our circulation efforts at an 12,000 daily and 15,000 Sunday publication in New England. The top candidate will have a solid background in circulation sales and operations. Along with leadership and team-building skills, we need a creative problem solver with an energetic approach to marketing a community daily in a robust and growing region of the country. We offer a competitive salary with health coverage, vision/dental, life insurance, 401K and vacation. If you are interested in a rewarding opportunity with a company that offers a great career potential, please send us your resume and a cover letter briefly summarizing your talents, achievements and compensation needs to generalmanager@c1web.com.
EDITOR: Mid-Atlantic Media, a fast-growing publisher of community and ethnic titles, including Baltimore Jewish Times and Washington Jewish Week, is looking for an editor to join its stable of award-winning journalists. We’re looking for a “can-do” manager who can work through copious amounts of copy and serve as a mentor to up-andcoming talent. A take-charge leader who can also take direction from senior management, a go-getter who can field reader complaints and staff concerns, who will do so with a smile and will come back for more. The ability to juggle multiple projects, the willingness to help shape multiple publications and online experience is a must. Occasional travel will be expected. Familiarity with the Jewish community is a plus. This is a high-energy position and comes with the ability to shape how tens of thousands of people across several states digest news and features. Qualifications: • Minimum 4 years of community news experience • An ability to write & edit quickly and accurately in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment • Strong people skills and an ability to manage and motivate a team • Technical aptitude, including comfort with Wordpress, Photoshop, Mac systems and digital photography • Ability and willingness to wear many hats, from high-level editorial strategy down to shoe-leather journalism and in-person community engagement • Travel is involved. Responsibilities: • Assignment editor – Help our writers uncover local scoops, select stories for coverage, create a rundown and communicate with officials, sources and readers. • Monitor email and social media for story ideas and trends. • Copy editor – Regularly check and correct our reporters’ copy for errors, awkward phrasing, verbosity and un-engaging wording. Uphold AP Style and our house style. • Team leader – Set high editorial standards and motivate your team to produce compelling, accurate community and national journalism that wins followers and makes a difference. When needed, you will lead by example, reporting stories yourself and assisting with breaking news coverage. • Editorial strategist – Engage with the community and help spread the word about our sites and our journalism. Work closely with the editorial director and publishers to plan execute further growth. Also, assist the editorial director with company-wide editorial initiatives. • Problem solver – Diagnose and help to resolve minor technical problems. Ensure continuity during employee off days. Please email a cover letter explaining why you are the right person for the job and emphasizing your problem-solving experience, clips of recent work and a resume to: cburke@midatlanticmedia.com.
I f y ou ar e r eading this , so ar e y our p ot en tial cust omers! To advertise, call 1-800-887-1615 editorandpublisher.com
2/17/17 1:23 PM
Phone: 800-887-1615
Help Wanted
Fax: 866-605-2323
Help Wanted
EDITOR: The Sentinel-Echo in London, Kentucky, seeks an editor to deliver top-notch local coverage in print, online, and on mobile and social media platforms. We need an editor with a take-charge attitude who will lead our small, ambitious newsroom in covering the community in new and exciting ways. We expect someone with a clear vision to further enhance our digital presence. Our editor must have a thorough knowledge of newswriting and editing for print and the web. A community newspaper background is necessary. Knowledge of news design, Photoshop and InDesign are also essential. Candidates must have excellent leadership skills and the willingness to become part of an active community. The Sentinel-Echo is an award-winning, three-day newspaper published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In addition, we publish several magazines, a shopper and a website, www.sentinel-echo.com. Located in the rolling green hills of south-central Kentucky, London has the charm of a small southern town. An easy drive from either Lexington or Knoxville, the area offers a great quality of life and many recreational activities, including boating on beautiful Laurel River Lake. Interested candidates should send a resume and work samples to Publisher Dave Eldridge at The Richmond Register, Big Hill Avenue, Richmond, KY 40475 or by email at deldridge@richmondregister.com. The Sentinel-Echo is a CNHI newspaper. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, CNHI is a leading publisher of local news and information. Its newspapers, websites and specialty publications serve communities in 23 states.
LOCAL AD SALES MANAGER: The Longview News-Journal is seeking an experienced, aggressive Local Advertising Sales Manager to join our team. The News-Journal is the preeminent source of news, information and advertising in the East Texas region. It offers high-value products and services through the newspaper, website, digital services, direct mail, events and partnerships with other media. Our mission at the News-Journal is to inform the residents of East Texas and to act as a resource of business growth for our advertisers. A commitment to customers and employees is fundamental to the company’s success. In addition to your solid advertising experience, what else will contribute greatly to your success in this family-owned and operated newspaper environment serving a total of 25,000+ paid circulation? You should have the uncanny ability to create profitable value through print, TMC and digital innovation. Your pleasant leadership skills will consistently offer directives that convince others of the value of the many advertiser-winning innovations this creative award-winning newspaper company offers. This position will manage our sales team and provide leadership towards the achievement of maximum revenue growth, digital growth and multi-media based campaigns. Must have a proven track record building business in a competitive environment and a commitment to solutions based selling. Ideal candidate is adaptable, both creative and analytical, and passionate about customer service. Minimum five years media sales experience required. Position pays base plus a generous commission plan. We also offer an excellent benefits package, including medical, dental, vision and life insurance, 401(k), and generous paid time off. The job is based in the Longview, Texas, office of the News-Journal. The News-Journal is the East Texas flagship of M. Roberts Media, a family owned group of three daily and one twiceweekly newspapers and associated websites that reach more than 300,000 consumers each week. We’re located in the oil-rich piney woods of East Texas, an area known for its outdoor recreational opportunities, proximity to the Dallas metro area and temperate climate. To apply, please send your resume and salary requirements to employment@news-journal.com.
MANAGING EDITOR: Champion Newspapers, Chino CA. We are looking for a person with just the right blend of editorial skills and personality to lead our small but mighty newsroom. The successful candidate will have news management/leadership experience, along with a solid understanding of the digital component of today’s newspapers. Responsibilities include: -Overall supervision of the news staff (3 people plus stringers) -Writing stories, editing and photography -Layout and design of the news pages using Adobe InDesign -Public relations and participation in community affairs -Uploading news to our website, www.championnewspapers.com Salary commensurate with experience. Benefits include medical insurance program, vacation, life insurance, sick leave and 7 paid holidays. Resumes to wfleet@championnewspapers.com.
You can place your ad by calling 800-887-1615 or emailing classifieds@editorandpublisher.com or place your web only ads online at www.editorandpublisher.com.
editorandpublisher.com
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Help Wanted
Help Wanted
NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY The Denver Post is seeking entrepreneurial, business-oriented individuals who want to run their own business and/or diversify their current business. We are looking for independent contractors to handle distribution of multiple publications including The Denver Post. Circulation volumes may vary but could be as many as 25,000 Sunday newspapers. Must have distribution experience, valid driver's license, commercial general liability insurance, reliable transportation, and a personal computer/printer. Minimal start-up expense, bi-weekly reimbursement.
For more information contact Brian Trujillo at 303-954-5391 or email btrujillo@denverpost.com. NICHE PUBLICATIONS MANAGER: The Longview News-Journal is seeking an experienced Publications Manager to oversee strategy, development and sales for its niche publications. This position is responsible for: • Developing existing niche publications to position effectively in the market (including both print and digital media) • Developing and implementing effective advertising sales strategies for each publication • Writing content and managing stringers • Managing production and delivery schedule for each issue • Working closely with Advertising, Creative, Circulation and Editorial Departments to ensure development and production of a premier product. Prior experience as a publications manager is required. The ideal candidate will be a strong communicator with excellent time management skills and a strong attention to detail. Must be able to work nights and weekends as required. Position pays base plus commission. The job is based in the Longview, Texas, office of the News-Journal. The News-Journal is the East Texas flagship of M. Roberts Media, a family owned group of three daily and one twiceweekly newspapers and associated websites that reach more than 300,000 consumers each week. We’re located in the oil-rich piney woods of East Texas, an area known for its outdoor recreational opportunities, proximity to the Dallas metro area and temperate climate. To apply, email employment@news-journal.com.
SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR: The Nebraska Press Advertising Service, Inc., located in Lincoln, NE, is seeking a self-motivated, on task person for the position of Sales & Marketing Director. This is a full time salary and commission position. Candidate must be well versed in print and digital advertising sales. Previous print media sales experience is required. Submit resume and credentials to the Nebraska Press Association, 845 “S” Street, Lincoln, NE 68508. Attn: NPAS Board of Directors.
SEEKING TALENTED REPORTER: The Paducah Sun, located in Paducah, KY, is seeking a talented reporter who likes to dig beneath the surface of the news, develop good sources and write solid enterprise stories. The ideal candidate will have a college degree and at least a year of reporting experience. Applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, references and no more than three stories to Executive Editor Steve Wilson at swilson@paducahsun.com.
“I’m extremely pleased with the fantastic results we receive from advertising in E&P.” - Kevin B. Kamen, Kamen & Co. Group Services
MARCH 2017 | E & P
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shoptalk /commentary Social Media is No Longer a Safe Place By John Biggs
T
here are now 1.79 billion people on Facebook. There are 320 million on Twitter. There are 400 million on Instagram. We think these social media juggernauts will keep going, swallowing eyeballs and minds, country by country, until they run out of victims. The idea that 2 billion Facebook users would leave the service is ridiculous, right? Wrong. There is a slow but heavy backlash brewing against all social media on multiple fronts. Social media hurts us. Researchers at the University of Delaware discovered that social media can increase social anxiety and depression. Regular users are finding that the all-knowing algorithms used by Twitter and Facebook are hiding important news and, as evidenced by recent political changes, they make it easy to go down a rabbit hole of one’s own opinion. Publishers and journalists are also finding out that Facebook and Twitter are awful ways to spread news and important work. The social media updraft after posting something particularly interesting is limited and fades quickly. A few thousand retweets or shares may seem great, but converting those to actual readers or turning the Tweets and comments into actual discussion is far more difficult if not impossible. I believe we are entering a Third Age of sharing. The first age, the Newlywed Age, as it were, brought the first chat rooms and webcams. Sites like Jennicam and Julie & Julia allowed writers to bare their souls to faceless audiences and result was a wave of emotional and highly personal content that led to services like Tumblr and Wordpress. This era is characterized by users baring it all at all costs. It was expository and kind
of kinky. Fast forward a few years and the first social networks grew out of these high-bandwidth services. Myspace and Friendster were popular and, thanks to tech-savvy students, Facebook and Twitter rose to prominence. Why did they grow? Because they were easy to use and they didn’t cost much time or money to create. Vine and Instagram grew popular because you didn’t need a film crew or nice camera to become a visual artist. Facebook is social
The fake news phenomenon isn’t new but the fact that fake news gets more eyeballs than real news is disastrous. shorthand, allowing you to create an online personality out of a few cryptic comments. This era, the Social Era, brought about an ethos of quick, dirty, and careless. In fact we now volunteer massive amounts of personal information willingly. That’s about to change. Social media is also no longer a safe place. The things we post there have realworld consequences. Whereas the web was once a broadcast medium it is now a twoway or many-to-many medium. Our errant Twitter thoughts can make us targets and we often don’t know we’re being watched. Entire wars can break out online that have real-world consequences—see Pizzagate— and hoaxes flit through the memetic bloodstream like cancer, breaking down our defenses. The fake news phenomenon isn’t
new, but the fact that fake news gets more eyeballs than real news is disastrous. We’re nearly at the Age of Privacy. Services like Snapchat and Telegram revel in their security and ability destroy messages as they’re sent. End-to-end encryption is more exciting than photo filters and the next big move in social media will allow us unmediated and secure access to our friends, family, and fans. While it’s hard to imagine how these sorts of things would work, you can look to blockchain technology and encryption for ideas on how the next news site, book, or media project will be distributed. We will pay a small amount to each other to gain a moment of attention, to pay for an article read, or to simply support an artist working in her medium. Further, there will be no middleman, no Apple or Google or Facebook to take their cut. The next Age could be as free and open as the original internet and secure by design. If you don’t think Facebook can end up a graveyard, I have some stock in Myspace I can sell you. And if you don’t think the sort of micropayment and micro attention economy I’m describing can work, we need only point to the rise of the internet. What we do know for certain, however, is that the next revolution in social media is the most important. It is the rise of the individual in control of her own arguably important online existence and it is the social media that finally allows us to stay quiet.
John Biggs is a writer and entrepreneur. His latest book is “Marie Antoinette’s Watch: Adultery, Larceny & Perpetual Motion” and he is working on a new project, WalkTo.co.
Printed in the USA. Vol. 150, No 3, EDITOR & PUBLISHER (ISSN: 0013-094X, USPS: 168-120) is published 12 times a year. Regular issues are published monthly by Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA, 92708-7000; Editorial and Advertising (949) 660-6150. Periodicals postage paid at Fountain Valley, CA 92708, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: EDITOR & PUBLISHER. P.O. Box 25859, Santa Ana, CA 92799-5859. Copyright 2017, Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Subscription Price: U.S. and its possessions, $99.00 per year, additional postage for Canada & foreign countries $20.00 per year. Single copy price $8.95 in the U.S. only; Back issues, $12.95 (in the U.S. only) includes postage and handling. Canada Post: Publication Mail Agreement No. 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 682. Subscriber Services (888) 732-7323; Customer Service Email: circulation@editorandpublisher.com.
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editorandpublisher.com
2/17/17 1:02 PM
Looking for new revenue opportunities? The Association of Free Community Papers (AFCP) and the Southern Advertising Publishers Association (SAPA) will join forces to present the largest free community paper conference and trade show of the year, April 20-22, 2017 at the Galt House Hotel & Suites in the center of downtown Louisville, Kentucky! - Keynote Speaker -
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Photo by Marty Pearl
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