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A Section

Features

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THINK LIKE AN EDITOR

2020 Mega-Conference Arrives in Fort Worth Feb. 17-19

CRITICAL THINKING

The Canadian Journalism Foundation launches ‘Doubt It?’ campaign to fight misinformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 8

28

Annual tradeshow celebrates 10 years of moving the industry forward. . . . . . . p. 26

After the debacle at Deadspin, should it be a mandate that all sports journalists “stick to sports?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 15

NEVER ENOUGH NEWS

Sending a Message

DATA PAGE

Community Impact Newspaper expands into Atlanta region. . . . . . . . . p. 9

News publishers create their own identities through powerful marketing campaigns. . . . . . . . . . . . p. 32

2020 Vision

Job performance of local news, political ads on Facebook, unsolved murders of journalists in countries with worst record for justice, proportion of screen time tweens and teens devote to various media activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 18

News publishers have a clear focus with finding innovation and success this year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 38

OPERATIONS

MAKING AN IMPACT IN 2020 McClatchy launches subscription product for political obsessives. . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10

FILING FOR THE FUTURE

International Newspaper Group and E&P to honor operations ‘all-stars’. . . . . . . . p. 28

New RJI project seeks to preserve digital archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 11

NEWSPEOPLE

FULL SCREEN REDESIGN USA TODAY upgrades website .. . . . . . p. 14

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 45

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

SHOPTALK

Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times . . . . . . . . . p. 16

In a post-truth world, your newspaper beats social media for facts. . . . . . . . p. 50

Columns INDUSTRY INSIGHT

BUSINESS OF NEWS

DIGITAL PUBLISHING

The hardest part with digital subscriptions is keeping them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 20

Journalists should empathize, not exploit, when covering disasters . . . . . . . . . . . p. 22

How ProPublica is harnessing the power of collaboration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24

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JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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editorial

New Year, New You

R

ight before the new year, a popular meme floated around social media called the 10-Year Challenge, where people compared their 2019 self to their 2009 counterpart. Some people posted embarrassing hairstyle and wardrobes choices they made; others posted their accomplishments and how far they’ve come. As for me, a decade ago, I was preparing to move from Michigan to California, and now my “winters” consist of a few rainy days instead of the usual snow blizzard and freezing temperatures (can’t say I miss that).

I thought it would be interesting to do the same challenge for the news industry, so I looked up the State of the News Media (an annual report put out by the Pew Research Center) and compared some stats from the 2009 and 2019 versions to see how much changed in 10 years.

In 2009: • The top four news sites were Yahoo, MSNBC. com, CNN.com and AOL. They saw unique visitors grow by 22 percent to 23.6 million visitors a month.

• U.S. newspaper print circulation fell 4.6 percent daily and 4.8 percent Sunday.

• Total ad revenue for newspapers fell 16 percent in 2008, and online ads amounted to less than 10 percent of revenue.

• Online video advertising only represented 10 percent of internet advertising.

• Advertisers spent $1.3 million on mobile advertising in 2008, up 59 percent from a year earlier.

In 2019: • U.S. newspaper print circulation decreased 12 percent and Sunday print circulation decreased 13 percent.

• Total estimated advertising revenue for the newspaper industry in 2018 was $14.3 billion. (In 2009, it was $27 billion.)

• Digital advertising accounted for 35 percent of revenue.

• Circulation revenue was $11 billion.

• Employment in digital-native newsrooms grew to 13,470 compared to 8,090 in 2009.

These are just a few select figures from two reports, but they paint a very clear picture of this past decade—and where it might be heading for 2030.

Print advertising and circulation will continue to decline (and despite how some experts incorrectly predicted 10 years ago that print would be gone by now, newspapers will continue to “rage against the dying of the light.”) Digital

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JANUARY 2020

PUBLISHER Mike Blinder, 406-445-0000 Ext. 1 mike.blinder@editorandpublisher.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nu Yang, 406-445-0000 Ext. 2 nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com MANAGING EDITOR Evelyn Mateos, 406-445-0000 Ext. 8 evelyn@editorandpublisher.com

will continue to grow, but there will be more rules and regulations for tech companies who are finally facing the music when it comes to the roles they play in spreading misinformation and how they’re taking their massive cut of the digital advertising pie. Fact-checking will continue to be a priority for many newsrooms as we enter further into this election year, and with more platforms available to news consumers now than 10 years ago, there is certainly more noise for them to filter through.

If you look at our feature stories this month, we hope it conveys what the future will look like next year. We spoke with news publishers from newspapers and digital news outlets as they reflected on this past year and what they have planned for 2020 (overall, they are staying optimistic). We also spoke with several news organizations who launched successful marketing and branding campaigns and why they worked. Our wish is to see more of these campaigns from publishers, especially when it comes to writing their own narratives.

One last note about this new year, Ken Doctor, who spent the past 15 years, analyzing the global news industry recently announced he was going to launch a new company called Lookout, a “wide-reaching new model for local news” taking everything he’s learned over the years and placing it in one place.

“It’s recombinant news DNA for the 2020s,” Doctor called it.

I welcome Doctor’s new company and his analysis. We’re going to need someone to fully study what this next decade is going to look like because as we saw from this past one, it’s unpredictable.

And as he wrote in his announcement, “As I look to the 2020s, I come not to bury journalism but to praise what it can—and must—do for all of us.”

Here at E&P, we couldn’t agree more.  Nu Yang is editor-in-chief of Editor and Publisher.

She has been with the publication since 2011.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rob Tornoe, Tim Gallagher Matt DeRienzo, Jerry Simpkins BUSINESS MANAGER Robin Blinder, 406-445-0000 Ext. 0 office@editorandpublisher.com MARKETING/ADVERTISING SUCCESS OFFICER Patti Minglin & Go Girl Communications 406-445-0000 Ext. 5 patti.minglin@editorandpublisher.com SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT Kevin Hoppes, 406-445-0000 Ext. 9 kevin.hoppes@editorandpublisher.com DIRECTOR OF DATA SERVICES Al Cupo, 406-445-0000 Ext. 3 al.cupo@editorandpublisher.com CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SALES Jon Sorenson 800-887-1615 FAX 866-605-2323 classifieds@editorandpublisher.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Mid-Atlantic Media 888-538-4188 circ@editorandpublisher.com DESIGN AND PRODUCTION DESIGN2PRO www.design2pro.com Howard Barbanel 516-860-7440 howard@design2pro.com

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America’s Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry With which have been merged: The Journalist, established March 22, 1884; Newspaperdom, March 1892; The Fourth Estate, March 1, 1894; Editor & Publisher, June 29, 1901; Advertising, June 22, 1925.

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comments ))) enough media sources that don’t stick to what made them what they are and have sold out for clicks. I wonder if people will ever be smart enough to figure out that the internet is what is killing journalism and brought us to where we are today. Doesn’t look like it. What these journalists did by quitting would be the same as going to sell cars for Chevrolet and then quitting because they can’t sell Fords.

Seems like more of an entitlement thing than anything else. They were hired to write about sports, but in the end, they just weren’t good enough to do it.

RANDY Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Say No to Funding from Facebook News organizations should not accept additional funding from private companies which employ questionable practices especially when it involves the spreading of disinformation. (“Critical Thinking: Should Newsrooms Accept Additional Funding from Facebook?” November 2019) Like most news organizations, Facebook thrives on ads, but we draw a line that such companies willfully ignore.

JOE CHARPENTIER Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Internet Business Model is Broken Thinking you should is the same mistake newsrooms have been making for over a decade. (“Critical Thinking: Should Newsrooms Accept Additional Funding from Facebook?”

November 2019) Yes, at first, the internet seemed glorious and the way to go. Everyone was all in as expected. But after almost 20 years, it’s become very evident that the internet is not good for news, newsrooms or newspapers. Look at the internet and tell me there isn’t a problem with news these days. For years, newspapers have been told they are doing it wrong. They aren’t innovative enough. They don’t understand how to get the most from the internet. Their business model is broken. That, of course, is all rubbish. Newspapers have/had a great business model—unlike the business model of the internet. It is the internet and its business model itself that is the problem.

That’s why so many newspapers have had to seek additional funding and have their “news” become so questionable. The sooner real news organizations reject the internet, call it out for what it is and get back to being proud of their print editions without being sucked into the endless new ideas that get them nowhere, the better. I also question whether the internet

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JANUARY 2020

truly is “all that” or it simply seems that way because the admitted practices of getting people addicted to tech are in full force.

GREEN Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Facebook and Google Should Pay for Content Rather than fund news organizations, how about they share more of the ad revenue they get from showing our content? (“Critical Thinking: Should Newsrooms Accept Additional Funding from Facebook?”

November 2019) Facebook and Google right now take so much ad revenue from our content showing on their sites that new organizations have been starving in some cases. That would help preserve good content.

Not direct funds—it just doesn’t seem right.

TODD MAISEL

Online News Still Struggling After a quarter century of trying, online news media is still finding its sea legs. (“Editorial: Deadspin is Dead,” December 2019) Unfortunately, it seems obvious, by this point, that there is not much room in it for news, at least not general interest or political content. As much as cyber news staffs may lament it, media is a business and unless the news product they produce can deliver the eyeballs, and the eyeballs deliver the advertising dollars, there is no future in it.

PHILIP S. MOORE Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Facebook News Site Could Work As long as it’s news and not opinion pieces, a Facebook news site should be a good thing. (“Critical Thinking: Should Newsrooms Accept Additional Funding from Facebook?”

November 2019) But it’s going to include opinion pieces, which Facebook will have in its “news” and so people will think it is news instead of opinion. This is how we’ve ended up where we’re at. People thinking opinion is news.

DAN LONG

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Kudos to P.J. Browning Many years prior I was contacted by Knight Ridder who requested I recruit a new publisher for one of their papers. (“2019 E&P Publisher of the Year P.J. Browning, Post and Courier,” November 2019) At the time of the recruitment process, we all knew very quickly Browning possessed the professional attributes Knight Ridder was looking for. This recognition for P.J. Browning by the industry she so loves is appropriately deserved.

JERRY KURBATOFF

Military Vets Welcomed The newsroom at the Killeen Daily Herald is about 50 percent veterans, as is our freelance staff. (“Military Journalism,” December 2019) We’re outside of Fort Hood, Texas, and looking to hire. This is a very large veteran community, so veterans are very welcome to apply. Feel free to send resumes to news@kdhnews.com.

DAVID A. BRYANT

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Deadspin Reporters Should Have Stuck with Sports So long. You won’t be missed. (“Editorial: Deadspin is Dead,” December 2019) In case you haven’t noticed, there is more than enough “journalism” these days. There are more than

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Send us your comments nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com “Comments,” Editor & Publisher,

5811 McFadden Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92649 Please include your name, title, city and state, and email address. Letters may be edited for all the usual reasons.

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JANUARY 2020  |  E & P  | 

7

the A section VOLUME 153

FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY 2020

ISSUE 1

Think Like an Editor The Canadian Journalism Foundation launches ‘Doubt It?’ campaign to fight misinformation

By Evelyn Mateos

} Natalie Turvey

T

here’s a well-known journalism motto: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” In other words, don’t ever assume anything.

Last September,the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) launched their own motto, “Doubt it? Check it. Challenge it” in a campaign to get news consumers to engage with their inner skeptic in order to check questionable articles and sources.

Natalie Turvey, CJF president and executive director, said the tools and skills the campaign provides doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to a minute to use.

“We want to first get (news consumers) to think like the editor in the newsroom,” she said.

“You don’t need to be a journalist to fight fake news or disinformation.”

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The campaign also teaches consumers how to challenge the articles or platforms they doubt on social media. Users are encouraged to use the hashtag #doubtit to explain how they debunked the piece of misinformation.

The campaign builds on the organization’s earlier project NewsWise (which was in partnership with CIVIX and supported by a grant from Google), a program that provided school-aged Canadians with an understanding of the role of journalism in a healthy democracy and the tools to find and filter information online.

“There was a lot of value in the classroom lessons,” Turvey said. “But we would needed a very different approach to appeal to Canadians online.”

Before tackling what approach to take, CJF did two things: they conducted a six-week research project, which identified the most vulnerable cohorts to misinformation (the 65 and older group, and the younger generation); and they spent time talking to experts (some of them included Craig Silverman and Jane Lytvyenko of Buzzfeed News; Joan Donovan of Data & Society; Claire Wardle of First Draft; and Mathew Ingram of the Columbia Journalism Review) to find out what the most pressing examples of misinformation were for citizens in Canada and the U.S. The organization is partnering with multiple news outlets, including the Toronto Star, Torstar Communities (which publishes 26 websites in Ontario), Toronto Public Library, National Association of Federal Retirees, to get the Doubt It? campaign in front of news consumers. In addition, the campaign will be promoted with a digital ad campaign as well as public service announcements from CTV National News anchor Lisa LaFlamme and co-host of The Morning Show on Global News Radio 640 Supriya Dwivedi.

CFJ plans to continue the campaign until this fall, while the resources and tools will be updated throughout the year.

For more information, visit doubtit.ca. editorandpublisher.com

the A section

Never Enough News

Community Impact Newspaper expands into Atlanta region

} Allison Altobelli and John Garrett announce Community Impact Newspaper’s expansion into Atlanta at the organization’s all-staff annual conference in October 2019. (Photo provided)

S

ince launching Community Impact Newspaper (CIN) in 2005, John and Jennifer Garrett have expanded from Round Rock and Pflugerville, Texas into Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Nashville and Phoenix. This year, they will be adding the Atlanta region to their list of markets.

A new CIN property was recently announced in Alpharetta, Ga. with plans to launch its first print edition in March. The new location will function in the same manner as the others, where the website will be updated daily and the print edition will be delivered once a month.

Heading the Atlanta publication will be Allison Altobelli, a longtime newspaper executive who has served at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, and most recently at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).

When her position was eliminated at AJC, Altobelli began reaching out to different sources to figure out her next step. One of them was John Garrett whom she only knew from social media. She let him know that she was no longer working at the AJC and that kickstarted a conversation about an expansion into Atlanta.

“We chose Atlanta because of Allison,” John explained. “We believe there are a lot of areas that Community Impact Newspaper could prosper in, but we believe success starts with people.”

Altobelli added, “The second we got on the phone—his energy is so contagious and so upbeat—it felt different than what my experience has been speaking with other leaders in the industry. At this point, I went from (wanting to) tap into his vast network to find my next job to being more interested in working for him.” editorandpublisher.com

Last October, Altobelli attended CIN’s all-staff meeting, where John announced that Altobelli would be leading the expansion into Atlanta.

When asked how it felt to open a new publication when so many others were closing, John said, “It feels really missional. If we don’t, who will? Cities need a strong news organization to thrive. When I read about layoffs or cutbacks, it motivates me to work harder so we can expand more quickly.”

Indeed, CIN has been hard at work. So far, an editor, designer and } Allison Altobelli seller have already been hired and an office area has been selected.

As the location expands so will the team, Altobelli explained. John anticipates the Atlanta location to resemble the Houston office, which has about 70 people on staff.

In addition, Alltobelli said she is already spending time in the community attending chamber events, city hall meetings and visiting businesses to share the paper’s mission and values.

“Every day we will be out there as part of the community so that when CIN starts arriving in their mailboxes, they will love it as much as they do in Texas, Arizona and Tennessee,” she said.—EM JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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the A section

Making an Impact in 2020 McClatchy launches subscription product for political obsessives

I

n the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, McClatchy has launched Impact2020, a standalone politics subscription product which aims to “tell a full national story powered by local reporting” for political obsessives, according to a press release. Subscribers to Impact2020 can access political stories from all 30 of McClatchy’s publications across 14 states on one website (mcclatchydc.com).

In addition, the initiative includes a free daily newsletter, a mobile app and the revival of the weekly podcast “Beyond the Bubble,” hosted by Kristin Roberts, vice president of news for McClatchy.

Roberts also spearheaded the subscription product. She told E&P that the idea originated after she joined the organization in 2017 from Politico, where she ran the 2016 campaign coverage. Roberts realized McClatchy had a network of 30 newsrooms, so, as 2018 was approaching, she asked herself, “How do I elevate the local journalism that is happening on the congressional races?”

Roberts researched McClatchy’s newsrooms and found that the company had about 50 reporters that in some way touch politics. For Roberts, it was a perfect opportunity “to tell the 2020 story through the perspective of the reporters who are on the ground with the voters in their face that are going to be critical to the outcome of that contest.”

In addition, McClatchy’s past niche products, such as NC Insider and SportsPass, influenced the innovation of Impact2020. The subscription take was impressive, Roberts said. It told her that there was an audience that narrowly slices their reading based on a subject area and not necessarily the geography.

Before launching Impact2020, Roberts and Craig Forman, McClatchy president and chief executive officer, spent time creating one news

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organization out of the collection of 30 newsrooms. With the newsrooms united and the staff already producing great local political reporting, Roberts explained it was just a matter of collecting the work in one place.

But what about the states where McClatchy has no local reporters?

“We attempt to address that through the newsletter,” Roberts said. “We are going to give people all of the local journalism that is relevant, important and kind of needle moving on the 2020 contest…by having (the newsletter) include everyday stuff from non-McClatchy properties as } Kristin Roberts well.”

Many in the industry are happy to see that there is now a product where they can find political local coverage in one place, Roberts said.

In addition, she said that McClatchy has heard from many readers who particularly love the newsletter.

“They are telling us that they also subscribe to other political newsletters, but those other newsletters aren’t connecting the dots between Florida and North Carolina and the other purple states, which is exactly what we wanted to do so that’s very satisfying,” Roberts said.—EM editorandpublisher.com

the A section

Filing for the Future New RJI project seeks to preserve digital archives

F

earful that future generations could lose historical recordings, footage, and stories, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and the University of Missouri (MU) Libraries are working together to ensure the survival of today’s digital news with the help of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a $250,000 grant.

“The preservation of online news content—particularly as news outlets flourish and fail—is a thorny challenge, and the grant to the University of Missouri will help the Foundation understand much better what the priorities for support should be,” Patricia Hswe, program officer for scholarly communications, told E&P. According to an RJI press release, digital content can disappear or become inaccessible if not preserved due to technology failures, obsolete technologies, newsroom closures and ransomware strikes.

A team of 10 from the Journalism Digital News Archive, a joint initiative of RJI and MU Libraries, will visit news outlets across the U.S. and Europe to identify exactly what is hampering the process of preserving online content by examining their technology, workflows and policies. In addition, the team will produce a report highlighting best practices for properly providing long-term access to digital content.

editorandpublisher.com

Edward McCain, digital curator of journalism at RJI and the MU Libraries, said the team is still in the process of determining which news outlets they will visit, but a few have already been confirmed, including the Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer, both McClatchy newsrooms in North Carolina.—EM

JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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the A section Tornoe’s Corner

OF THE MONTH

From the Archive The Washington Post recently created an app for reading stories via Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. The app allows users to browse through a range of articles and dive deeper into each story by clicking on headlines to read articles, watch video or even listen to audio. According to a Post press release, the featured stories are curated by the newspaper’s Emerging News Products team and displayed in a “format that gives users total control of their news reading experience.”

“We wanted to bring the Post’s most engaging storytelling to smart TVs, where people are accustomed to watching videos or playing games,” Kat Downs Mulder, vice president of product and design, said in the press release. “This isn’t a video product. We have created a forward-looking experience that lets readers access our journalism in a convenient way and discover a different role that news can play in their lives.”

To start reading with the app, users only need to search for “The Washington Post” in Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. The app can be located and added on either platform when using a phone or computer as well. According to reports, the Post has no current plans to introduce paywalls for the content published on this platform. —EM

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Ron Taniwaki of Nikon Professional Service installs the still-photo-pool remote camera to be used in the O.J. Simpson trial courtroom. The camera is located inside a hard plastic blimp to make it silent. Staffers from the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Los Angeles Daily News, Reuters and Agence France-Presse took turns at the camera and shared their pictures from the trial. This photo originally appeared in the Jan. 14, 1995 issue of E&P. editorandpublisher.com

the A section > Wise Advice

According to a recent Knight Foundation/ Gallup poll, 45% of Americans trust reporting by local news organizations “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” compared with 31% for national news organizations.

} Lauren Gustus

What is your advice to other newsrooms that might want to launch community-funded journalism labs?

Start listening. Identify the journalism that your community and your newsroom value. You’ve got to build community-funded journalism with people it will serve. Getting the focus down first is critical. Host digitalonly subscribers and longtime subscribers. Find people who don’t engage with you. Bring in key stakeholders from constituencies you don’t reach.

Ask all of them what is important for the success of your community.

Then you can go about building out your process. There are many resources—from Nieman Lab to Poynter to Knight Foundation— that can help with the process. But it starts with listening.

LEGAL BRIEFS Maryland’s Political Ads Law Challenged

by News Organizations

The Associated Press has reported that due to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Maryland legislators passed a law to prevent foreign interference in future local elections. More than a half dozen newspapers argue in a lawsuit that the law violates the First Amendment because it requires them to collect and self-publish information about the sponsors of online political ads as well as keep records of the ads for inspection by the state board of elections. Online platforms (with 100,00 or more monthly U.S. visitors) are required to create a database identifying the purchases of online political ads and how much they spend. Maryland argues that the law does not infringe on the newspapers’ right to exercise their editorial control and judgment.

In addition, the newspapers argue that this law imposes a financial burden, forcing them to either buy expensive software to comply with the law or refuse online political advertising and lose that revenue. Last October, Courthouse News reported that the matter was being debated at the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. but the panel of three judges did not say when a ruling would be handed down.

Man Charged in Capital Gazette Shooting Pleads Guilty but Not Criminally Responsible Lauren Gustus was recently named director of Community Funding Initiatives for McClatchy’s 30 newsrooms across the country. In addition, she is regional editor for McClatchy’s West region, spanning 10 local newsrooms in California, Washington and Idaho. She is based at the Sacramento Bee where she also serves as editor. editorandpublisher.com

According to Reuters, Jarrod Ramos, the man accused of fatally shooting five people in the Capital Gazette’s office last year in Annapolis, Md. has pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible on all 23 felony charges against him. Further proceeding will take place to determine whether Ramos was suffering from a mental disorder that rendered him incapable of understanding the nature or consequences of his actions.

The Associated Press reported that Judge Laura Ripken has scheduled Ramos’ trial to start March 4 and last 13 days. If Ramos were found not criminally responsible, he would be committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital.

JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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the A section

Full Screen Redesign USA TODAY upgrades website

I

n late October, USA TODAY unveiled upgrades and a new design to USATODAY.com. It’s the first major redesign since 2012 when the organization commemorated its 30th anniversary.

Among the many new features are a mix of color to distinguish sections (blue for news, red for sports, green for money, etc.), competitive page speed, a “virtual highlighter,” to signify when content is an opinion piece, and improved content organization and website search.

Jason Jedlinski, senior vice president and head of consumer products, told E&P that the organization felt it was time to invest in the full screen laptop and tablet experience, and integrate some of the more modern features that had been working in mobile.

Jedlinski and his team spent several months deciding what the redesign should look like and studying data regarding the journeys } Jason Jedlinski that online users took, where they spend their time, and the personas of the people they were trying to reach and engage.

What they found were four principles from a product design standpoint: understand problems before trying to solve them, support risk-taking, conduct true experiments, and only build things they thought could have a material measurable value.

Through that process they found some surprising insights and conclusions. For example, Jedlinski said that users did not understand Life—one of the core sections since 1982 that included coverage of the Oscars, Grammys and celebrities—was an actual section; readers only thought of it as entertainment.

As result, they decided to create an entertainment section separate from Life.

With plenty of insights like this and other inspirations to draw from, USA TODAY spent May through August 2019 developing the features of the redesign. By Labor Day, they began testing the redesign with a small percentage of their audience before finally launching it.

“We heard from people complimenting the labeling and the very clear delineation of branded content, sponsored content, editorials and op-eds,” Jedlinski said.

He added readers also liked the removal of the comment option for stories. Of course, those that commented regularly were disappointed but there was a group that applauded the decision.

“This was a daunting challenge for me and some of my team leads, given USA TODAY’s history as an innovator—1982 print and Al Neuharth’s vision of breaking the rules, (but) that heritage inspired us,” Jedlinski said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do something that would respect the brand, premium advertisers, Pulitzer Prize winning journalism and the expectations of millions of readers.”—EM

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} The new USATODAY. com includes colorcoded sections to make it easier for users to navigate.

editorandpublisher.com

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

J-school students and industry vets tackle the tough questions

The editorial staff of Deadspin resigned recently after they were issued a company mandate to “stick to sports.” Is this a mandate that all sports journalists should follow?

A:

There is no doubt the world of sports media is changing.

Sports journalists are now faced with the difficult decision: To what extent do you cover an athlete and their sport? In my humble opinion, if an athlete makes news surrounding a societal issue, it is fair game for sports journalists to follow the story.

There is one major caveat however, becoming Jack Carlough, 19 knowledgeable in a variety sophomore, University of Colorado Boulder of areas is a staple in a journalist’s duty. For a sports Carlough is currently studying journalist to dive into a journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder and is the societal issue, they must do former head sports editor of the CU the research and support Independent. what they write. It’s a tricky situation because many sports journalists are pigeon-holed into the world of sports and rarely have the experience of covering an outside issue.

Journalism is built on credibility and I don’t believe many sports journalists have that credibility when covering a societal issue. I believe that a sportswriter must first look themselves in the mirror and decide if they have that credibility to branch out.

It seemed apparent that for Deadspin, they believed their writers simply didn’t meet that standard.

More so, an outlet’s audience plays a factor on which topics receive coverage. The executives at Deadspin most likely assumed their audience didn’t want to hear about societal issues. The sports section of any outlet often provides a disruption from the chaotic and often depressing world of news we live in. There is no need to break that with uninformed opinions on topics. If that is what Deadspin feels their audience embodies, fair enough.

I believe my caveat is reasonable but when players like Colin Kaepernick make news for racial protests, it needs to get covered with knowledge on the topic. Choosing to ignore major societal issues that arise in sports is also wrong. Like journalists, athletes are also given a platform for their voice and their word matters.

It’s important for sports journalists not to abuse the platform we have and cover issues outside our realm appropriately and with awareness on the subject. editorandpublisher.com

A:

Let me begin my answer to this thoughtful and timely question by saying that in my opinion, those Deadspin staffers appear to have gotten a raw deal. What makes this example problematic (and intriguing) in the realm of sports journalism is the fact that Deadspin had long trafficked in off-topic coverage. So much so, in fact, that such writing became a key part of its identity. It Jeff Rosen, 50 was current, colorful and assistant managing editor/sports, Kansas City Star irreverent. It challenged the status quo. And for a long Rosen has been AME/sports at the Star while, Deadspin management since December 2010 and recently took on the role of sports editor for seemed to be quite proud of McClatchy’s Central Region. that image. That’s no longer true, obviously.

Which brings us to the present, and my answer to your question: If a publisher’s policy states that its staffers may only write, post and comment on social media within certain parameters, it’s inarguably within that company’s right to tell those employees that other topics are off-limits.

Here at the Star, for instance, we encourage our reporters and columnists to interact with our audience via social media. Generally speaking, we believe that’s good for the mutual brand: ours and theirs. We ask them to limit this interaction to topics pertaining to their beats or areas of expertise. Of course, we allow some latitude about current events and other off-beat topics, within certain guidelines. Sports and non-sports news of the day frequently intersect, and we don’t expect our writers to be robots. Informed dialogue should be essential to any publisher’s goals of building brand trust and dispelling perceptions of “fake news”—we hate that catcall.

But just as we don’t hire sports reporters to write sports commentary (we have professional sports columnists who specialize in crafting reporting-based opinion), we also don’t expect our sports journalists to spend their time weighing in on topics of a political nature, for instance. We have professional news-side opinion writers who are paid to do precisely that. So, while “stick to sports” sounds just about as derisive as “fake news,” it’s a pretty good rule of thumb for the professional sports journalist.  JANUARY 2020 | 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. evelyn@editorandpublisher.com.

CRANBERRY HARVEST ď ˝â€… Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times

Bog crews tighten the circle of cranberries as they move them towards a chute sending them to be washed before loading into a transport truck. The harvest is big news on Cape Cod as the fruit is a main agricultural product. Drone technology gave Heaslip the option of covering this harvest from a low altitude over the bog giving readers a unique view of this colorful sight.

data page Job Performance of Local News Based on a survey of 4,163 Gallup panel members Do you think news organizations in your local area do an excellent, good, fair or poor job at each of the following?

EXCELLENT

GOOD

FAIR

POOR

Providing factual local news reports

14% 49% 28% 9%

Highlighting the people or groups that make a difference in your local area

14% 47% 30% 8%

Educating people about what is going on in your local area

12% 49% 30% 8%

Making sure people in your local area have the knowledge they need to be informed about public affairs

9%

45% 33% 12%

Making people feel inspired or uplifted by others in your local area

8%

39% 37% 15%

Holding local leaders in politics, business and other institutions accountable for their actions

8%

32% 37% 23%

Source: “State of Public Trust in Local News” report, Knight Foundation/Gallup, survey conducted June 24-July 11, 2019

Political Ads on Facebook Based on a survey of 1,629 responses, weighted by U.S. adults To What Extent Do You Agree That Facebook Should Fact-Check Political Ads and Prohibit Ones They Determine to be False?

6%

To What Extent Do You Agree That Facebook Should Ban Political Ads on the Platform?

10%

13%

5% 13%

58%

13%

9%

57%

16%

Strongly agree

Somewhat agree

Strongly disagree

Somewhat disagree

I’m not sure

Source: CivicScience, October 2019

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editorandpublisher.com

Unsolved Murders of Journalists in Countries with Worst Record for Justice in 2019 Philippines

41

Brazil 15

Mexico

30

Afghanistan 11

Somalia

25

Bangladesh 7

Syria 22

Russia 6

Iraq 22

South Sudan

India 17

Nigeria 5

Pakistan

5

16

Source: Global Impunity Index 2019, Committee to Protect Journalists

Tweens and Teens: Proportion of Screen Time Devoted to Various Media Activities Based on an online survey of 1,677 U.S. young people age 8 to 18 Tweens

TV/Videos 53% Games

31%

Teens

TV/Videos

39%

Games

22%

Browsing websites

5%

Browsing websites

8%

Social media

4%

Social media

16%

Content creation

2%

Content creation

3%

Video chatting

2%

Video chatting

4%

E-reading

2%

E-reading

2%

Other

2%

Other

6%

Source: “The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens,” Common Sense Media, survey conducted March 11-April 3, 2019 *“Content creation” includes writing on digital devices, making art or creating digital music. *“Other” includes GPS or other functional apps, doing email, shopping and doing any other digital activities not specifically asked about in the survey editorandpublisher.com

JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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industry insight

Catching Readers

The hardest part with digital subscriptions is keeping them

By Matt DeRienzo

W

hat leads people to pay for a digital subscription to a newspaper? A ton of thought and energy and data analysis have gone into that question in recent years amid the big shift from chasing ad-supported page views to reader revenue. What kinds of stories spur conversion?

What marketing tactics are most effective? What kind of pricing?

The next question, equally, or perhaps more, important, is what keeps them subscribing?

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It’s important as a separate conversation because the answers can be very different. Heavy discounting can bring subscribers in the door. More consistent pricing from the beginning can mean far lower cancellation rates. Once-every-six-months blockbuster investigative stories can bring a lot of new subscribers in the door. More consistent and comprehensive coverage of routine local stories could be more important in making subscribers feel like their ongoing subscription is worth it.

The whole industry took notice over the summer when the Los Angeles Times reported adding 52,000 new digital subscriptions in the first half of 2019 but netting an increase of only 13,000 due to churn.

Veteran circulation directors will point to a reduction in churn percentage being just as valuable as growth in new subscribers, and potentially a lot less expensive to accomplish.

Data. News organizations have done a lot of work analyzing what types of stories ultimately

get a reader to sign up for a digital subscription, and even a new subscriber’s reading history leading up to that decision.

But the types of stories that are read by logged-in subscribers could be more instructive when it comes to retention. What’s the diet of a satisfied subscriber? What are the habits of subscribers who cancel?

I’ve argued before that news organizations should be developing a robust customerrelations management database for subscribers in the way they do for advertising clients. What editorandpublisher.com

do you know about them beyond their credit card number and address? How often have they heard from you? Are they even opening your emails?

Engagement. At a basic level, if a subscriber is consistently engaging with your content, they’re less likely to cancel. Newsletters and other engagement by email has been a focus in trying to convert readers to subscribers. Building a more premium newsletter product specifically designed to engage people after they subscribe could be a key to retention efforts.

Giving readers “inside” information about the workings of the newsroom and inviting them to participate in your process for developing story ideas and sources could be seen as a perk for subscribing in addition to a point of engagement that might support retention.

Stretched newsrooms have been slow to carve out resources for

this kind of work, as the tradeoff means less capacity to produce the journalism that is prompting people to subscribe.

But a Northwestern study on digital newspaper subscriptions showed that “less can be more,” that more attention to a tight curation of your best and most relevant work is more important than flooding readers with as large a volume as possible of local content.

User experience. More focus on the experience subscribers are having, versus simply what kind of content you are producing, is a resource issue that cuts across a news organization’s entire operation.

The newspaper industry has suffered a lot of self-inflicted damage over the past 10 years in bungling the literal delivery component to print newspaper subscribers, and outsourcing customer service, making it more frustrating to complain about

that delivery. Circulation bills are confusing, and sketchy on purpose in many markets, to hide extra fees and fine-print “opt-out” sections that end up inflating the cost of a subscription far beyond the advertised price. Tactics that were ramped up as overall volume declined.

The industry is carrying some of those bad habits over to digital, tacking on “sign-up fees” not tied to any kind of real expense, and being less than transparent about the nature of introductory pricing and automatic renewal rates. And if you can sign up for a digital subscription online, why do you have to make a phone call to cancel? It’s not about what’s intuitive or convenient for subscribers. It’s about making it difficult for people to know how much money you’re really getting out of them and making it difficult for them to do anything about it.

It’s not a good formula for a long-

term relationship of trust with subscribers.

And a great user experience requires marketing, tech and editorial to be aligned. When will major newspaper chains figure out the basic issue of keeping digital subscribers logged in? Or how to stop sending constant subscription marketing offers to people who have already subscribed?  Matt DeRienzo has worked in journalism as a reporter, editor, publisher, corporate director of news for 25 years, including most recently as vice president of news and digital content at Hearst’s Connecticut newspapers, and previously serving as the first full-time executive director of LION Publishers, a national nonprofit that supports the publishers of local independent online news organizations.

Syndicated Philip E. Swift was born in Holden, Mo., on August 1, 1917. He passed away at his home in La Quinta, Calif. on November 27, 2019 at the age of 102.

He was reared on a farm near Olathe, Kan., and attended Moonlight grade school, a country school located near the farm home. He graduated from Olathe High School and College of Emporia, Kansas. After college graduation, he was employed as a teacher in the high school at Ozawkie, Kan. for two years (1938-39).

Pursuing his strong interest in newspapers, he bought the weekly newspaper in Clarence, Mo., in 1940. Employees of that newspaper continued its publication while he served 47 months (March 1942-January 1946) in the United States Navy as a naval aviator. His training as a Navy pilot was completed at Corpus Christi (Texas) Naval Air Station where he was commissioned an Ensign and received his Navy wings November 1942.

He resumed active publication of The Clarence Courier following military service and, in 1948, acquired three additional weekly newspapers in St. Clair County, Mo. moving to Osceola, Mo. in 1949 to assume their active management. In 1955, he sold the four weekly newspapers in Missouri and joined Scripps League of Newspapers which published daily newspapers in several Western states, serving that company in various executive positions from offices in Logan, Utah and Napa, Calif.

In 1975, he left the Scripps company to form Swift Newspapers, Inc. (currently Swift Communications, Inc.) which, during the ensuing years, acquired daily and weekly newspapers located in the West. The company’s corporate offices have been maintained in Carson City, Nev. His two daughters, Marilyn Shelton of Carlsbad, Calif. and Janet Buschert of Eagle, Idaho, are the current owners of the company.

He was married in 1948 to Leta Margaret Dobyns Trussell of Shelbina, Mo. who predeceased him in 1997. In 2001, he married Elizabeth (Ruth) Blakey of Morley, Yorkshire, England. Since that time, they have lived in homes in La Quinta and Morley. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; two daughters, Marilyn Shelton (John) and Janet Buschert (Russell); a stepson, David Trussell (Micke) of Lancaster, Pa.; grandsons, Jack Shelton (Cecilia) of Carlsbad, Calif. and Tim Trussell (Cindy) of Lancaster, Pa. and five great grandchildren.

Respecting Philip’s desire for privacy, there will be no memorial service. He requested those desiring to make memorial contributions make them to the Bessie Minor Swift Foundation (named in honor of his mother who was a one-room school teacher) celebrating literacy and education. Those contributions may be directed to the Foundation at 235 W Floating Feather Road, Eagle, ID 83616.

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Quick, cost-effec�ve research for decision-making Phillip Beswick CEO 832-521-1000 PBeswick@TheMediaAudit.com JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

21

business of news

When Tragedy Strikes

Journalists should empathize, not exploit, when covering disasters

By Tim Gallagher

O

ne of the jokes about Southern California is that our weather is so nice here, outsiders think we have no seasons. We have seasons. Fire season.

Earthquake season. Mudslide season. Flood season.

And lately—no jocularity intended—we have mass shootings in any season of year.

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Covering disasters—whether natural or caused by humans— is a way of life for journalists everywhere. Newspapers can gain credibility and build connections with their communities if they cover tragedy correctly: emphasizing accuracy; thinking like residents and being accessible to them; and carefully ensuring that you cover the story, and do not become the story. These are

the tenets of disaster and tragedy coverage every newsroom ought to follow.

Accuracy has always been at the apex of everything we do. During tragedies, the rumors reported by citizens—even by elected officials—can be wildly inaccurate and can cause needless panic. The bar for newspaper reporters must be higher. Even simple things such as fact-checking information

before re-tweeting it (or ensuring the original tweet came from an official source).

Information during a tragedy comes at reporters and the community like water from a fire hose. Sifting through that is crucial.

The foundation of our business is being known as an organization that can be trusted to carefully check those rumors, tweets and comments found on Nextdoor. editorandpublisher.com

In normal times, our skepticism of government officials and their actions should be vigilant. But in times of turmoil for a community, I might align with local officials on release of information in order to keep calm in a community. If they asked our newspaper to wait to release information and had a good public reason, I think I would go along with it.

At the same time, I am trying to align with local officials, I would assign someone to file all the public records requests for information, studies and reports about the tragedy and track them. Kudos to my local media in Thousand Oaks, Calif. whose public records requests helped break the story that a police officer who died in the line of duty in the Borderline Bar and Grill shooting was actually killed by friendly fire.

While it was an uncomfortable story, it showed that the media was playing its watchdog role.

I would be especially careful with visual coverage to ensure it accurately represents the facts.

(Footnote here about separating ourselves from TV brethren. For example, the same shot of wildfire flames repeatedly endlessly might be appropriate for them as they cycle news every 15 minutes for the “viewers just tuning in.”) I think our photography must take a broader and still compelling view.

I also believe our thinking should change just slightly toward a sympathetic side. I’ll never forget the Rocky Mountain News headline the day after the Columbine shooting that had nothing to do with words such as “massacre” or “crazed gunmen.”

The simple one-word headline was “Heartbreak.” It showed the Rocky feeling with the community rather than exploiting it.

On the scale of large tragedies that attract national news reporters, there is a different role for the local

media. It starts at the beginning as you develop a relationship with officials and citizens and make sure to remind them you are the local media and you are there for the long haul. I have known editors to give their cell phone numbers to local families and encourage calls at any time to talk about coverage, or to make sure a story is told accurately and with sensitivity.

(At this point I might as well differentiate between responsible reporting and the errors made by the staff of the college newspaper staff at Northwestern. Sensitive reporting doesn’t mean you won’t hurt someone’s feelings.)

In the past, I have written about the No Notoriety movement to report the identity of killers in shooting cases, but not to cover them in a way that gives them the notoriety they seek.

Finally, I’d be cautious about allowing staff to give interviews to other media or write first-

person accounts of their coverage.

There’s an old saying that goes, “We are here to cover the story.

We are not the story.” And while it might sound cranky, I believe it keeps you safely away from the line of exploitation. News organizations act in poor taste and damage their credibility when they tout their coverage of tragedies. As a reader, I can determine how well you’ve told the story. 

Tim Gallagher is president of The 20/20 Network, a public relations and strategic communications firm. He is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher at The Albuquerque Tribune and the Ventura County Star newspapers. Reach him at tim@the2020network.com.

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JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

23

digital publishing

Better Together

How ProPublica is harnessing the power of collaboration

By Rob Tornoe

I

f there’s a buzzword in journalism these days that can challenge “engagement” for newsroom supremacy, it’d probably be collaboration.

It might seem like an odd pivot for an industry historically fueled by heated competition for scoops and angry newsroom rivalries.

After all, movies have been made chronicling the exploits of rival journalists at the Washington Post and the New York Times chasing down leads to report out huge stories, such as Watergate and the Pentagon Papers.

Even today, much of the original reporting on the Trump administration originates at either the Times or the Post, thanks to reporters hard at work competing for scoops (and proudly seeking glory for their accomplishments on Twitter).

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But for other media outlets without their reach and digital subscriber base, collaboration is part of a larger adaptation to a maturing digital media landscape. The strains placed on newsrooms due to the decline of print advertising have forced many outlets into a situation where they have to pick and choose the topics they can devote serious resources to covering.

Plus, some stories these days are so complex, the only way to truly tackle them properly is by collaborating with experts in other newsrooms.

Leading the push for all things collaboration is ProPublica, the scrappy one-time internet start-up that has grown into a powerhouse of investigative journalism, collecting multiple Pulitzer Prizes along the

way. Collaboration is in the DNA of ProPublica, who initially partnered with media organizations like NPR, “60 Minutes” and the Atlantic mostly out of a necessity to reach readers.

That’s not so much a problem today for ProPublica, where collaborations have become a cornerstone of the digital media organization’s unique approach to journalism. Just one quick look around their website reveals several large databases on relevant topics they’re sharing with any news organization that wants them—for free. Everything from Trump Town, which tracks the personal records of Trump administration staffers, to Nursing Home Inspect, which draws on nursing home inspection reports to look for trends or patterns.

Recently, two of my colleagues at the Philadelphia Inquirer drew on ProPublica’s Dollars for Docs database to file a report on 76 doctors in the Philadelphia region paid more than $500,000 each by pharmaceutical and medical device companies (including one local ophthalmologist who pocketed nearly $6 million from 2014 to 2018).

So, it’s fitting ProPublica has rolled out a new tool designed to encourage and facilitate partnerships across multiple newsrooms. It’s called Collaborate, and as its name would suggest, it has a broad mandate—to help journalists work together and help manage complex projects. Think of it as an easy-to-use project management software that’s designed to funnel tips into a central database that editorandpublisher.com

journalists can use to find and track stories and sources.

The open-source software is based on ProPublica’s own in-house tool, which the company built to report out big collaborative projects like Electionland, which brought together more than 125 newsrooms to track voting problems. Thanks to a grant from the Google News Initiative, ProPublica was able to beef up its software and make it open source for any newsroom in the world to use for free.

“It’s a really helpful tool to help newsrooms go through crowdsourced information. It lets you easily mark and catalogue which tips were followed up on (and) which have been verified,” said Rachel Glickhouse, a ProPublica reporter who used the software to help manage their Documenting Hate project, an investigation of hate crimes and bias incidents in the U.S. compiled by over 170 newsrooms.

“But (Collaborate) also could be useful for certain types of data projects because it allows you to mark up each individual data point and keep track of every time a reporter has reached out to a source,” Glickhouse added.

“It’s something I have found tremendously useful in my job, and I’m really glad we’re able to make it available to other newsrooms. Really, the intent is to save people time and sanity.”

The beautiful thing about the software is that it’s easily accessible by small and midsized newsrooms that don’t have their own developers on staff.

Newsrooms can use a service like Heroku or Google Cloud (which have free tiers but might end up charging a small fee for heavy users) to launch Collaborate, and ProPublica has gone to great lengths to write step-by-step instructions that even I could walk through with ease.

“I just think we can do so much more work if we share the bounty,” Glickhouse said. “We’re allowing newsrooms all over the country to make use of all the information we’ve gathered…It helps save resources and we enable much more journalism to happen.” editorandpublisher.com

Collaborate is just the latest move from ProPublica to help push more newsrooms past that gut feeling most journalists have to hog a scoop for themselves. It’s also an area where ProPublica reporters have learned to not just talk the talk over the years, but also to walk the walk.

Back in 2015, ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller learned that The Marshall Project’s Ken Armstrong was chasing the same story—an 18-year-old girl who said she was raped before reversing her story to police officers who didn’t believe her.

Obviously, with the competitive juices of journalism flowing through both their veins, it was hard to overcome the instinctive urge for one to try and beat the other to the story. But the

“Collaboration is part of a larger adaptation to a maturing digital media landscape.” two ultimately decided to join and collaborate on the piece, with Armstrong focusing on the woman’s story and Miller concentrating on police failures identifying rape victims.

The result? The story, An Unbelievable Story of Rape, won the 2015 George Polk Award for Justice Reporting and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, and it was later adapted into the Netflix series “Unbelievable.” So yeah, collaboration can be a good thing.

“Now my first impulse is to collaborate,” Armstrong told

CNN at the time. “That’s the new media landscape, I suppose—and I don’t say that as a complaint.

In this case, collaborating worked beautifully.”  Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor and writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.

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2020 Mega-Conference Arrives in Fort Worth Feb. 17-19 Annual tradeshow celebrates 10 years of moving the industry forward

By Nu Yang

P

ut on your cowboy boots and get your lassos ready because the Key Executives Mega-Conference is heading to Texas this year. More than 700 news professionals are expected to attend the show scheduled for Feb. 17-19 in Fort Worth.

The show is hosted by America’s Newspapers (the newly merged Inland Press Association and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association), Local Media Association (LMA), and News Media Alliance, in association with the Texas Press Association.

“We’re bringing to Mega-Conference the latest trends and strategies for newspapers across print, digital and beyond,” said Jay Small, LMA’s chief innovation officer. “We’re paying special attention to the impact of news and journalism on our society, and how newspapers can best communicate and illustrate that impact in their communities.”

In addition to the many networking opportunities, attendees have a wide range of sessions to choose from throughout the show.

“It’s hard not to be excited about the whole program we’re planning,” Small said. “We will have some insightful general sessions on subjects such as the impact of news and how women leaders are revolutionizing newspapers.

And we’ll go fast-paced with revenue ideas and sales transformation strategies. We’re also planning to cover the state-of-the-art in digital subscriptions and memberships, branded content, recruiting and retention, new funding models for local media, and much more.”

The Solutions Stage will return to the exhibit hall once again. According to America’s Newspapers chief executive officer Dean Ridings, more than 30 companies have submitted proposals for presentations.

“Attendees always find a wealth of knowledge in the exhibit hall,” he said. “We encourage all newspaper attendees to spend time in the exhibit hall with our exhibitors. They will learn about products and services available to their newspapers that will easily pay for their trip to Fort Worth.”

The Mega-Innovation Award ceremony will also make another appearance. Honoring the

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} The 2020 Mega-Conference will take place at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Texas. (Photo provided)

latest newsroom innovations, three finalists will present their innovations at MegaConference, where the winner will be revealed.

“The Mega-Innovation Award is always a highlight of the conference,” Ridings said.

“Innovation is critical to any industry and we are honored to recognize the best of the best each year at this conference.”

As Mega-Conference heads into its 10th year, Ridings attributed the conference’s success to the “true coming together of newspaper and media executives from across the country.”

“By working together, America’s Newspapers, Local Media Association and the News Media Alliance will continue to bring their members together to address the challenges we face and the great promise that this industry holds,” he said. “The next 10 years will bring change, but there will always be the need for newspapers to tell the stories of their communities and nation—its struggles and its triumphs…To aid us in this mission, it is

important to come together as an industry—at conferences like this—to learn from each other and tackle the challenges that we face.”

Alliance president and CEO David Chavern added, “Mega-Conference has been an important resource for publishers as the news industry has shifted over the past decade. The opportunity to share our struggles and learn from each other’s successes is what makes the conference so valuable and keeps publishers coming back year after year.

“As we head into the next decade and continue to fight for our industry, MegaConference will be where some of our most important conversations take place. From learning how to make the most of digital to figuring out how to fight back against the duopoly, so much of what our industry leaders have done and will do starts with the connections we make at Mega-Conference.”

For more information, visit mega-conference. com.  editorandpublisher.com

оperations

BY JERRY SIMPKINS

A NEW PARTNERSHIP International Newspaper Group and E&P to honor operations ‘all-stars’

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editorandpublisher.com

A

s part of the 2020 International Newspaper Group (ING) Leadership Networking Summit, ING and E&P have agreed to collaborate on the first annual ING/E&P Operations All Star Excellence Awards, kicking off a powerful partnership. The Summit is scheduled for Sept. 18 to 20 in Chicago.

According to Steve Mattingly, ING program chairman and senior vice president of Southern Lithoplate, the awards will celebrate both current and emerging print centric operational leaders.

When Mattingly and Mark Hall, ING } Mark Hall president and regional manufacturing director for Postmedia Network Inc., presented the concept to the ING board of directors, they received unanimous approval. As this project rolls out, ING will work closely with E&P publisher Mike Blinder to firm up details for the award presentation and post award celebration at the upcoming Summit.

“E&P is excited to partner with ING to ignite the marketplace with current, highly relevant content centering on best practices, networking, and idea exchange driven from operational excellence,” Blinder said regarding the collaboration. “For over 100 years, E&P has been the primary source for information for this essential and important part of the news publishing business. Now more than ever we believe it is important for us to be the voice for those who focus on operations.”

Blinder has pledged updates and coverage in the magazine throughout the roll-out and into conclusion of the program. Both he and Mattingly will work together to promote the program and gain additional support from sponsors.

Award parameters will be announced this month.

This announcement will be followed by initiating the awards search and compiling entries, confirming those entries and then reviewing nominations early in the third quarter of 2020. Winners will be presented their awards at the Summit on Sept. 19, followed by a celebratory wrap-up feature to be published in E&P. “ING 2019 was such a success, we know we are on the right track for location, time of year and overall program content and structure,” Hall said. “Our goal is to ensure print leaders have full access to true best in class ideas and networks to ensure their personal and professional contributions are fully optimized. Therein is the momentum.”

As an operations executive, it’s particularly exciting to me as well to see this effort in recognizing the contributions that production and operations have made throughout the years and continue to make to our industry. Many areas of the industry strive to be recognized with awards specific to their editorandpublisher.com

area. Newspapers around the country proudly display Pulitzer Prizes for their exceptional journalism. There are awards for breaking news, investigative reporting, photography, editorial cartoons—the list goes on. But the focus this new award puts on the operations area is long overdue and will lead to renewed enthusiasm by many in this critical department of the industry.

While taking nothing away from the many welldeserved accolades bestowed on other departments, this award will recognize the accomplishments of operations individuals who contribute to print profits through their operational excellence, innovation and sustainability of our industry.

Based on my extensive personal experience in production and operations, I decided to put together some thoughts from my own perspective as to the benefits I see with this partnership.

Many years ago, production personnel networked and traded best practices, evolving technology and other print-centric information at the annual NEXPO conference. For years, production leadership and hardworking individuals from every aspect of production/operations shared their experiences and exchanged ideas at these conferences. In their heyday, the shows presented an opportunity to discuss issues with vendors face-to-face and review their latest and greatest offerings.

If something wasn’t going just right in your shop, you were able sit down with your peers or a vendor and come away with a solution, or at least a great idea to take away and try when you returned to your own shop.

Many of the discussions we shared at NEXPO not only contributed to the enhancement of our processes, but they also allowed us to improve quality and find new and innovative ways to save money and contribute to the overall health and profitability of our franchises.

Then the NEXPO conferences simply stopped, and as a result, many of the opportunities to network and develop our trade through collaborative efforts with our peers and vendors stopped as well.

From my perspective, ING has not only done an excellent job of filling the void for production and operations personnel, but it has expanded on past conferences with new and dynamic speakers, enhanced informational forums, expanded vendor participation— once again providing us with the opportunity to network and share experiences with peers and vendors in a comfortable and organized professional conference setting.

Most, if not all, major vendors attend the ING Summit. Now, with this new awards ceremony, there’s just one more reason to attend.

As budgets have been trimmed over the years at most of our properties, some leaders have questioned the logic of going to the ING Summit or any conference related to operations. This question came up in an article I wrote on my preview of the 2019 ING Summit.

I stick to the statement from that article that if a newspaper operations executive can walk away with just one idea or recommendation they can implement JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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} The ING Leadership Networking Summit gathers production and operations leaders from around the country.

This year’s show will feature the first annual Operations All Star Excellence Awards. (Photo provided)

back home, the cost should be viewed as an investment with a credible ROI, rather than an entertainment expense.

Let’s move on to new ideas to enhance revenue and implementation of new revenue streams.

Throughout the years many of us have been reminded that production is “a service department.” While I subscribe to that thought to a degree, a few years ago this all seemed to change. I’m not exactly sure when it did, but over the last five years or so, when a franchise

} Joe DeLuca, executive vice president and general manager of the Times Publishing Co., addresses the audience at last year’s Summit. (Photo provided)

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is looking for new ideas to increase revenue for core publications, reduce expenses and enhance efficiencies, production and operations have a front row seat at the table. Many of the ideas we present and develop can be shared with our peers at the ING Summit and rolled out to our industry.

Also, our commitment to quality continues to grow over the years. We have always concentrated on delivering the highest possible quality on all our newspaper products; quality is an important part of maintaining our subscriber base and securing the confidence of our advertisers. As margins from our core publications grown thin, many franchises today survive on commercial revenue. In order to maintain and grow our commercial print opportunities, we need a strong focus on quality and cost savings. ING presents a solid base for sharing our ideas and seeking help with any quality challenges we may have. Sharing our strengths and seeking help on our shortfalls in quality is to some a reason alone to attend the ING Summit.

Bringing E&P into the mix and developing an award that recognizes the efforts of production/ operations leaders just makes sense. Not only does ING offer benefits to our industry, but the collaboration between ING and E&P on this award is the start of something big.  Jerry Simpkins has more than 30 years of experience in printing and operations in the newspaper industry. Contact him on LinkedIn.com or at simpkins@tds.net. editorandpublisher.com

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENTRY LEVEL LABOR IN 2020

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’m thankful the holidays are over. Yes, holidays can be fun, but it’s not that much fun on the production side of the industry. The mailroom takes it especially hard. It’s a two-to threemonth period in which we’re working 80 hours some weeks and still not catching up with all the preprints flowing in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the revenue, but not much else. Weekends away from family, holiday shopping in the middle of the night, a stale bag of chips for dinner— bah humbug.

For production workers in our industry, it’s a badge of honor to make it out the other end.

But, where would we be without it? I’m betting we all know the answer to that. I’m thankful for each preprint that hits our door. Despite the naysayers, newspapers continue to have a stronghold with advertisers for holiday preprints.

To make it through these challenging times, we need a strong team of players and of course the usual compliment of temporary labor. Trouble is the pool of qualified workers—and even some not so very qualified—continue to challenge mailrooms around the country for multiple reasons. If you have an answer to reversing this trend, you’re one up on me.

Just about any big box store you go into has a sign out front for help wanted. The starting hourly pay for many entry level positions is $13/$14 in most areas and even higher in larger cities and states with a healthier minimum wage.

Throughout my career I’ve functioned in virtually every position from inserter to general manager. I’ve sat at the “big table” and clearly understand what many of our companies are going through. I’ve seen the steady decline in print revenue, and I editorandpublisher.com

understand that paying 50 percent more than we do now to our mailroom labor force to stay competitive with the big box stores would sink the ship quickly. With some properties hanging on the edge, it’s just not a wage we can afford and stay in the black.

So, what’s the solution? Is there a solution that works? I’m not sure, but I can tell you that what many newspapers are doing just isn’t working, such as can a higher hourly wage mean a more efficient worker? Most people perform to the degree we are willing to accept and nothing more.

Sure, we have the occasional ambitious newbie who goes above and beyond on a daily basis and works their way to the top, but outside of that if we don’t ask for more effort, we’re not going to get it. Most of our laborers are not lazy but are just not performing to their highest level because often we don’t require more of them.

If you see potential in any line employee, take action that may allow them to gain rewards and for you to develop and retain a valuable employee regardless of the competitive wages in your area. While this may seem like an obvious path, to some organizations it may sound like the word “raise,” but it is not. It’s good old fashion staff development and a decent way to build a stable workforce by paying a competitive wage for stellar workmanship.

Put programs into place that encourage the concept of higher hourly wages for more efficient performance. i.e. if you have a worker who is comfortable loading one pocket on your inserter challenge them to load two or three. If you can develop a few of these all-stars soon, you’ll need less people on the line and get more done through these efficiencies. You should reward those individuals appropriately.

But this is just a small example. Stretch the quality people on your staff. Set up a formal goal program that outlines specific expectations and a timeframe for each. Detail beginning and end goals and go over the goals with your potential all-stars (then nominate them for the ING/E&P Operations All Star Excellence Awards). Set high expectations and you may be surprised at what your folks can accomplish.—JS

THE LATEST FROM Wehaa

How does Wehaa’s native directory platform help news publishers stay competitive in today’s marketplace?

A common struggle with newspapers across the globe is capturing local advertiser revenue and providing a robust digital solution that delivers real value and ROI for their advertisers. Big aggregates have taken most of the pie, and local papers don’t have the technology resources to stay competitive and relevant.

We all know most publishers have limited sales reps and most lack digital acumen needed to sell against the big players. In comes Wehaa, a technology vendor that provides innovative white label solutions for newspapers, magazines, broadcast companies, etc.

We know when creating a solution for publishers there are a couple of parts that are paramount, it must be easy to implement, work for big and small markets, have good margins and use cutting-edge technology to stay up with the competition.

That’s why Wehaa has released a native directory platform designed to turn special sections into recurring revenue by capitalizing on local newspapers’ brand equity and natural search authority.

The idea to create a platform started when some newspaper clients using Wehaa’s real estate platform saw their real estate clients pop-up on the first page of Google in just a few days.

Combining the page rank and authority of a newspaper domain with best practice and some Wehaa wizardry will help move advertisers ahead of competitors in an incredibly crowded search marketplace.

The directory is a simple and effective way to promote service ads, special sections, tabs and more. It will also work for medical directory, senior living, local services, wedding guide, etc. and it includes dynamic widget banners, mobile app and reverse publishing. The advertisers benefit from the halo effect of association with the publisher website as well as the newspaper’s search authority.

Kevin Collins has been in the internet space for more than 20 years, mostly ecommerce and affiliate marketing. His goal prior to joining Wehaa three years ago was to bring an immerging technology company into the demand side.

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editorandpublisher.com

SENDING A MESSAGE News publishers create their own identities through powerful marketing campaigns

By Evelyn Mateos

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urn on the television. Pick up a magazine. Scroll through your Twitter feed. Chances are, you’re being inundated with hundreds of marketing campaigns. But news publishers are only producing a fraction of those, and as an industry, we need to do better.

We can’t allow individuals to dictate our identity as “fake news.” We can’t let headlines be flooded with news about layoffs and closures. We must step up and share with our readers—and even our critics—the good work being done in newsrooms around the country. If we don’t communicate the efficiency and power of journalism, who will?

E&P spoke with various news publishers about their recent marketing campaigns and found what happened when they took matters into their own hands.

} Stills from the Wall Street Journal’s 90-second spot directed by Juan Cabral

Read Yourself Better, Wall Street Journal In world full of noise, the Wall Street Journal chose to call out the issue that digital overload might be hindering an individual’s ability to understand important subjects and issues in its latest campaign, Read Yourself Better.

The campaign launched last November with a 90-second spot directed by Juan Cabral. The film depicts intriguing—and at times—odd images of individuals going about their day with interruptions from text messages, memes, pop-up advertisements and more. Aside from the film, the campaign consists of home, online video, social media, print and display advertising. The Journal also had a mural commissioned in Brooklyn that depicts the same themes as the film.

For a short time, the Journal had a pop-up vending machine which allowed spectators to editorandpublisher.com

trade in a piece of printed media for a copy of the newspaper or they could unlock the website with near-field technology as they walked up to the vending machine. While the machine has since been put away, Paul Plumeri, vice president of global marketing, said it could make a return in the future.

The&Partnership agency—a longtime collaborator with the Journal— helped get the campaign off the ground. In early 2019, the Journal and the agency began talks about creating a campaign that would highlight the Journal’s point of view and place in the media industry, according to Agnes Fischer, president of the The&Partnership’s New York office.

“We were also trying to find a brand idea that would help them support all of their initiatives (so they) could live under this one brand

} Paul Plumeri

} Agnes Fischer JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

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umbrella,” she said. “Hopefully what you’ll see in the future from us will all fall under Read Yourself Better.”

Research helped narrow down ideas for the campaign and the target audience. The Journal and The&Partnership found that those who subscribe to the newspaper often have a strong sense of self determination—the group

Truth, New York Times According to New York Times executive creative director of marketing Laura Forde, the aftereffects of the 2016 presidential election was the perfect moment in time for the paper to talk about the role } Laura Forde of independent reporting and its role in society.

The result was the Truth campaign, which launched in February 2017. The first television spot (Truth is Hard) aired during the Academy Awards that year. According to AMA Marketing News, the commercial ran for a week after the televised awards ceremony and digital ads continued for a month. It also ran in ads online and in print.

A few months later, the Times released a set of commercials directed by Darren Aronofsky. The commercials each showed a series of images from a story with the credited photojournalist narrating the scenes.

Since launching nearly three years ago, the Truth campaign has shifted to other important topics. The 2018 campaign, Truth Has a Voice, highlighted sexual harassment and the Times’ reporting on the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

And more recently, the Times released Truth is Local, featuring New York City’s five boroughs and the paper’s commitment to local reporting.

Helping with the Truth campaign is Droga5, a New York City-based digital advertising agency.

“Our team at Droga5 are exceptional strategic and creative partners,” Forde said. “They are able to create work that highlights our mission, breaks through the clutter and resonates with people emotionally, while adhering to our standards for accuracy.”

The reaction to the campaign from readers was immediate, she said. Readers took photos of the print ad and posted them on Instagram.

They hung the ads in their apartment and store windows. There attended a press freedom rally outside the Times building with people holding up the ad in support of the newspaper.

Even “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert made

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of people they sought. They wanted this group of people to reach beyond the static and rely on true quality journalism to drive their decisions.

Once the idea was selected the rest came together quickly, Fischer said. The film took five days to produce, and during that time, the agency captured as many assets as they needed for social media and digital.

When asked why marketing and branding should be a priority to publishers, Plumeri said, “There’s only so much disposable income for subscription services…so we need to make our positioning and our value very clear. We also need to make sure that the promises that we’re making are the promises that we’re keeping.”

} A storefront installation from the New York Times’ Truth Is Local campaign

There are 1,700 people in our newsroom working incredibly hard every day. We think that story doesn’t get told enough. It’s our job in marketing to highlight the rigor, integrity and independence of our journalism, and the positive impact it has on society.

– Laura Forde

a parody of the television spot—which Forde considered a compliment.

As reported by Droga5, due to the Truth campaign, the first quarter of 2017 became the Time’s “best quarter ever for subscriber growth,” and in the second quarter, the “paper passed 2 million digital-only subscribers, a first for any news organization.” The agency also reported the campaign received 5 billion earned impressions, $16.8 million earned media value and several awards including two Gold Cannes Lions and a Webby Awards for People’s Voice.

“We know that people really want to understand the world, arguably more than ever before,” Forde said. “There are 1,700 people in our newsroom working incredibly hard every day. We think that story doesn’t get told enough.

It’s our job in marketing to highlight the rigor, integrity and independence of our journalism, and the positive impact it has on society.” editorandpublisher.com

} The Dallas Morning News invited guests to write down what matters to them

on a chalk board set up at one of the popup events to promote their What Matters campaign.

What Matters, Dallas Morning News When the Dallas Morning News launched its What Matters campaign last fall, it was really a reintroduction into the community.

The Morning News kicked off the campaign with a popup event in September to coincide with the relaunch of the newspaper website.

This event provided free coffee and copies of the paper, both print and digital (the latter was good for three months). In addition, large chalkboards were set up posing the question “What matters?” where guests were invited to share their answers. Some of the top answers included family, love, friends, kindness and community. The subjects written on the chalkboards were also integrated into the newspaper’s content. For example, one common subject that came up was veterans, so the Morning News created a Military and Veterans section.

“We took the handwriting samples from the chalkboards and that’s what we integrated into our ads throughout town to illustrate that this is a dialogue with our audience, our community,” Dan } Dan Sherlock Sherlock, head of digital and brand marketing, said.

In its entirety, the campaign consists of posters, stickers, popup events and advertising. editorandpublisher.com

Before launching publicly, the Morning News launched the campaign internally at an event, where staff also got the chance to share what matters to them.

To help create this campaign, the Morning News enlisted the help of GoDo Discovery Co., a local advertising agency.

A lot of companies go straight to pitching creative and interesting ideas, } Todd Lancaster Sherlock explained, but GoDo first spent time with the Morning News interviewing internal and external stakeholders to find out who the newspaper was and why they continue to do what they do—a process Todd Lancaster, CCO for GoDo, called a GoDo Session. In addition, the newspaper partnered with Praxis Research to conduct external research about their brand. All the collected feedback and data was translated into the What Matters campaign, which GoDo pitched to them.

Lancaster said you hear people from all over the world ask, “What matters?”

“But if we’re reintroducing (the Morning News), and if we are going to tell people local journalism matters and that you need to read it, it needs to be (about) something that the people actually care about,” he said.

After the green light was given, it took a few months to build the pieces of the campaign.

Before launching publicly, the Morning News launched the campaign internally at an event, where staff also got the chance to share what matters to them.

Sherlock hopes the campaign can last and extend into various topics for years to come.

In fact, the newspaper already plans that it will play a part in celebrating their upcoming 135th anniversary in October.

} Two guests order free coffee at one of the Dallas Morning News popup events.

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The Klay Offer, Bay Area News Group In 2017, the Bay Area News Group (BANG) discovered something refreshing: the popular Golden State Warriors basketball player Klay Thompson reportedly loved reading } Olga Mitina the newspaper before every game. BANG immediately reached out to see if the star athlete would be interested in working together, and by spring 2017, Thompson was signed on to become a spokesperson.

“We thought this would really help us bring awareness to our brand with younger readers… and kind of show them there’s value in reading the newspaper and looking at the newspaper as an authentic news source,” said Olga Mitina, BANG marketing director.

In October 2017, the Klay Offer launched with the slogan, “Start a new ritual, read the paper.” The campaign features a landing page (klayoffer.com) which offers digital access to any one of BANG’s three local daily publications for 11 months for 11 cents a day (11 is Klay’s jersey number). The offer also includes Sunday print and digital for $3.50 a month. Also part of the campaign were television and radio spots, billboards, kingsized bus posters, in-house ads, Facebook ads, email, and creative point-of-sale promotions, such as life-size Klay cutouts.

BANG’s in-house design team created all assets of the campaign, except for the slogan and the videos. The organization worked with Division of Labor, a San Francisco advertising agency, for the first year of the campaign,and Atomic Productions, a production company based in Emeryville, Calif., for the second year.

In 2018, BANG also received an inquiry from Anta, a China-based sportswear company and Thompson’s biggest sponsor, about teaming up to launch a new shoe featuring some of Thompson’s greatest moments and milestones.

Supporting Local Journalism, Newsday In Long Island, Newsday launched the Supporting Local Journalism campaign in June 2019, which highlights the vital role that local journalism plays in the community.

The campaign ran for five weeks across Nassau and Suffolk counties. It included a variety

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News that goes with everything The East Bay Times + Klay Thompson KT4 Shoe Release Event

Tweets from the readers: “I already loved @KlayThompson, my favorite @nba player, for his grit, work ethic, his incomparable shooting ability, his shutdown defense and his selflessness. Now this! #JournalismMatters”

~ Anonymous

“I need these. I am a sneakerhead and I still read the newspaper!”

~ Anonymous

Thanks for supporting local journalism.

} The Bay Area News Group’s Klay Offer campaign featured popular Golden State Warriors basketball player Klay Thompson.

When the group launched the first campaign video with Thompson—with zero promotion—it went viral with more than 37,000 organic views. In addition, for the first year of the campaign, brand awareness increased from 27 percent to 56 percent and the likelihood to purchase doubled.

of 30-second ads that ran across television networks, and it played before stories and feature videos on Newsday’s website. Audio versions were also played across several radio stations. In addition, the campaign was promoted through digital, email and social media.

Supporting Local Journalism was created inhouse, where over the course of six months in

When BANG launched this campaign and partnership, Mitina said they did not know what to expect, but data reflects positive results.

When the group launched the first campaign video with Thompson—with zero promotion—it went viral with more than 37,000 organic views. In addition, for the first year of the campaign, brand awareness increased from 27 percent to 56 percent and the likelihood to purchase doubled.

The landing page saw more than 2,000 offers selected in the first year and more than 7,000 in the second year. The average retention during the Klay Offer (starting at 26 weeks) was 71 percent, and at 12 months, the retention for the offer was 69 percent compared to 48 percent for all starts.

2018, Newsday’s consumer marketing team met weekly to brainstorm ideas for a cross-platform campaign that highlighted their journalists.

Research was conducted to find which Newsday investigative stories had the most impact in the community. As a result, five journalists were chosen to appear in the campaign to discuss their work. editorandpublisher.com

A FEW MORE BRANDS We looked outside the world of publishing to see what other creative and effective marketing campaigns caught our eye. Check them out below.

} A sample of Newsday’s social media promotion of their Supporting Local Journalism campaign

“We focused on writing, researching, interviewing and filming our watchdog and investigative journalists who are extremely passionate about the stories they tell,” Royston Wilson, director of marketing, said. “This allowed us to create promotions that forge a more } An email promotion personal relationship sample of Newsday’s between the newsroom Supporting Local ­Journalism campaign and our readers.”

The most important message the news organization wanted to convey to subscribers was that their continued investment in Newsday produces groundbreaking stories that bring about positive changes in the community, Wilson explained.

He added that Newsday also felt that it was important to share with readers that “strong, local journalism takes courage, costs money and depends on the support of the local community.”

A reader survey } Royston Wilson for this campaign revealed that 61 percent felt the newspaper made Long Island a better place to live, 49 percent of respondents felt local journalism would be threatened or disappear if readers didn’t subscribe, and 52 percent believed paying for news provided better coverage.

Although the campaign has ended, Newsday is considering extending the campaign with new stories and reporters—and the organization now has greater motivation to market their brand.

“It’s essential...Branding represents who we are as an organization, what we believe in and how we want to be perceived by the audience,” Wilson said. “It allows us to speak to our readers and inform them about what their subscription supports and delivers in terms of value to their lives and communities.”  editorandpublisher.com

In 2009, National Geographic Society launched its Big Cats Initiative to bring awareness to the decline of big cats in the wild. Last year, the Society expanded the campaign with the Save Archie campaign. The organization enlisted street artist, Dean Zeus Colman, to design a missing cat poster for the lion, which was then drawn on the floor of London’s Paternoster Square so that when pedestrians walked across it, the image slowly faded away.

Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign started with a twominute commercial narrated by football player Colin Kaepernick, who had recently been rejected by the NFL after protests during the national anthem to call attention to racial injustice. The video portrays a host of athletes, from Serena Williams to Isaiah Bird, a 10-year-old wrestler from Long Island. The campaign also included multiple print ads featuring athletes in black and white with mantras front and center.

Amazon’s 2019 Super Bowl spot poked fun at itself with its 90-second spot titled “Not Everything Makes the Cut.” As described by The Drum, a group of celebrities including Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker, Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jackson take part of an Alexa beta test group. They test out dog collars that enable pets to order more food with every bark, toothbrushes that can’t be heard when brushing and other items that all fail to be useful in a hilarious way.

Amazon Studios timed the release of their film “The Report,” which follows the Senate Intelligence Committee as they investigate the CIA’s use of torture following 9/11, with a marketing campaign that took over the front page of the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Dallas Morning News. According to Adweek, the newspapers were wrapped in faux, redacted versions of frontpages and mastheads.

A Squarespace and Sesame Street collaboration recently hit the top five list of creative brand ideas on AdAge. The two companies had teamed up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show and produced a video with Oscar the Grouch among his piles of trash which get mistaken for modern art and uploaded to a Squarespace website. Oscar quickly becomes famous despite his protests. Fans could even purchase limitededition art capsules from OscarTrashArt.com, which quickly sold out. All proceeds went to the Sesame Street Workshop.

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News publishers have a clear focus with finding innovation and success this year

By Nu Yang

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n 2019, we saw Gannett and GateHouse Media merge to become the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. We saw more news organizations take a stronger stance against the spread of misinformation and lies. We saw publishers stand up to tech giants like Facebook and Google in order to save digital advertising revenue. We saw political journalism grow in newsrooms around the country as they prepared for a combative election year.

If that’s what last year brought us, what will 2020 bring?

In order to look ahead, we must reflect, which is what these five news leaders did for us. Despite facing challenges, their newsrooms are experimenting with new revenue sources, pursuing new audiences, and fueling their newsrooms with energy and foresight.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

Jay Allred: We had not yet launched a membership program that was effective and aligned with our values but doing so was going to be a tremendous lift for a small staff. A key to doing it was to create a cross-departmental team that brought everyone to the table and made membership everyone’s job.

Brian Jarvis: Revenue challenges have been a big problem related to pre-print and national advertising. We are still determining how to overcome it. That was high margin stuff and it is tough to replace.

Lance Knobel: A sustainable business model for local news remains a struggle for everyone in the field. Berkeleyside celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019, which puts us When journalists among the oldest of the local news digital startups. We decided that after 10 years as a for-profit we should are laid off from other convert to nonprofit status as the best way to sustain our mission. news organizations, Judi Terzotis: This year we purchased the assets of the Times-Picayune and NOLA. looking for more workcom from Advance. The biggest challenge balance, we find they was integrating the business in a very short window of two months. In most acquisitions of leaving the industry. this magnitude, the transition time is six to eight months. Our team worked tirelessly to do the – Emily Walsh impossible. Our transitional plan was well thought out and nicely executed. The team from Advance were invested in our success and critical to our successful transition.

Emily Walsh: Recruitment and churn—both on the editorial and sales side. Talent is harder and harder to find. When journalists are laid off from other news organizations, or looking for more work-life balance, we find they are leaving the industry. In addition, not only are Google and Facebook eating our advertising dollars, but now they are hiring editorandpublisher.com

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our journalists, too. So are brands, in their need to create content to drive traffic to their websites. Everyone needs content, so everyone’s hiring journalists. The industry is also challenged with a donut-hole effect: essentially, we’re seeing journalists early in their career or long-standing veterans. We’re struggling to maintain younger journalists in the industry. On the revenue side, there are more things to sell than a print ad these days.

You might say, “Duh!” but we still find our fair share of order-takers who think working at weekly newspapers is going to be their retirement job. Our reps have to be platespinning, people-pleasing entrepreneurs. It takes some serious hustle, and those qualities are hard to find.

What was the most important financial lesson you learned?

Allred: That diversifying our revenue was critical, and core to that was doing it in ways that utilized our unique abilities as a news organization. We’re trusted communicators, expert question-askers, possess a deep understanding of our audience, and retain the ability to convene and guide conversations to constructive ends. We rethought our revenue initiatives to leverage those abilities.

Jarvis: We cannot rely on pre-print and national advertising as a future source of revenue.

Knobel: Reader revenue from members can be a very significant, growing part of our revenues. We’ve added nearly 1,000 members in the last year, bringing out total members to more than 2,600 in our city of 120,000 people.

Terzotis: After working for a publicly traded chain for most of my career, I’ve come to appreciate the investment local owners can make in the products and the staffing. We are growing as a direct result of our owner’s commitment to the highest quality community journalism supported by a robust newsroom.

Walsh: This past year has created a deeply personal conflict among my family’s philosophy of giving back to the communities we serve,

} Jay Allred, president, Source Media Properties, Mansfield, Ohio

being stewards of change and helping those in need. With rising print and distribution costs, this year was the first year that any 100 percent in-kind advertising we offered as a sponsorship for a local nonprofit really affected profitability.

In 2020, we’re moving toward a more measured approach and carefully considering causes that need our support and switching to a matching model so there’s some revenue tied to it.

What were some of your success stories from 2019?

Allred: The launch of Source Brand Solutions, our in-house content marketing agency has been crucial. It’s allowed us to compete head to head for business outside of our coverage area. Sales attributed to marketing services are one of our fastest growing verticals.

Jarvis: We launched a new product called “Business Profiles” that creates content that the business maintains the rights and can distribute themselves. We run it in print and share

After working for a publicly traded chain for most of my career, I’ve come to appreciate the investment local owners can make in the products and the staffing.

– Judi Terzotis

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} Brian Jarvis, president, NCWV Media, Clarksburg, W.V.

multiple times across our social networks. It has resulted in a nice uptick in revenue.

Knobel: On the editorial side, Berkeleyside continues to provide both comprehensive and deep reporting on many of the key issues in our city. The growth of our member program and the continued growth of our ad revenue bucks some of the trends we see elsewhere in local news.

Terzotis: The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com asset acquisition was certainly a highlight for our company. But winning our first Pulitzer was the top achievement in 2019. We are proud that our series “Tilting the Scales” helped change Louisiana law from a 10-2 jury to a unanimous jury for conviction. We also won a Polk Award for the series.

Walsh: First of all, I’m going to brag. At an unnamed conference a few years ago, a speaker said, “Flat is the new up.” Not so at the Observer Media Group. Our revenues continue to grow year over year, and that includes both print and digital. No declines.

But that also may be attributed to the fact that we are free weeklies that have never relied on subscription revenue. We’re really proud that we’ve made a commitment to allocate extra pages of our paper, sans advertising, for big editorial packages about issues important to our communities twice a year. It doesn’t take a lot money-wise but making those investments in content reinvigorates our newsroom and shows them that we value what they do. Also, in February 2019, we launched our Black Tie App, which has been on my to-do list for more than five years. Black Tie is our section for social coverage in the Sarasota/Manatee market in Florida. This app serves a niche of socialites editorandpublisher.com

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} Lance Knobel, publisher and co-founder,

} Judi Terzotis, publisher, The Advocate of Baton

} Emily Walsh, publisher, Observer Media Group,

in those markets who want to know what they should attend, what they should wear and who will be there. It’s been an awesome success on both the user and advertiser side.

Walsh: I’m really excited about America’s Newspapers. (Full disclosure, I sit on the new board for America’s Newspapers.) The merger of SNPA and Inland is truly gamechanging. Newspapers have been notorious for not marketing themselves. I’m excited to see how America’s Newspapers can change the dialogue. I hope they convey how newspapers are an important part of our democracy and relevant assets to the communities they serve on a national level. And, I want newspapers to be exciting and relevant again—because we are.

Walsh: We want to be the dominant print/online local resource in our market. To accomplish that, we’re considering launching new print and digital products and rolling out a new marketing campaign.

Berkeleyside, Berkeley, Calif.

When you look at the industry, what are you most excited about for 2020?

Allred: The innovation at the local level. While the giants race to scale their businesses and find efficiencies, hundreds of independent local and statewide organizations like Berkleyside in California, VT Digger in Vermont, and The Devil Strip in Ohio are connecting with readers again. I’m more convinced than ever that journalism will be reborn through the work of these organizations and others like them.

Jarvis: 2020 will likely yield more opportunities for us to grow our digital reach.

We are growing at a 20 percent clip year over year in new users and having success getting them to provide us some information to target through ads and newsletters.

Knobel: This might sound crazy, but I’m optimistic about the future for local news.

There’s a growing cohort of journalistic entrepreneurs building successful local news sites, while many legacy news providers are struggling. I’m hopeful that entrepreneurial activity in local news—both among nonprofits and for-profits—will provide viable models that can be replicated in cities starved of good reporting.

Terzotis: The industry is continuing to consolidate, so I’m excited, that as a privately held company, we can react our communities and provide the coverage and marketing solutions they need and expect. editorandpublisher.com

Rouge and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, La.

What are your goals and priorities for this year?

Allred: We want to get to a newsgathering operation that is sustainable through individual, corporate, and philanthropic support. We think we can do that in 2020, and it’ll be a key to ongoing success.

Jarvis: Do better selling more items to our print and growing funnel of digital users.

Knobel: We bootstrapped Berkeleyside’s start 10 years ago. We now have ambitious plans under our new nonprofit organization to build significant funds from foundations, major donors and corporate sponsorship so that we can extend our Berkeley-focused journalism and expand into underserved communities that, remarkably, abound in the Bay Area, one of the wealthiest regions in the world.

Terzotis: Continuing our growth in digital audience and revenue, leveraging the assets of our vast footprint along the 1-10 corridor in south Louisiana and our statewide digital reach as well as continuing the diversification of our revenue with our event division.

Inc., Sarasota, Fla.

What is on your wish list for 2020?

Allred: That the industry itself and those who believe in journalism become even more focused on the local news ecosystem. I am certain the situation in the U.S. will become much worse before it gets better. The Knight Foundation and many others are working tirelessly to support the reinvention of the business model. To the degree that we can all be in that fight together, we need to.

Jarvis: Facebook and Google to be better than a frenemy by actually helping small market journalism pay for the content we create about the people and places we love.

Knobel: We want to see local news organizations adopt some of the innovative community-driven, non-traditional forms of engagement and storytelling that are needed to reach and serve underrepresented communities in our cities.

Terzotis: For our country to appreciate journalists, and for the current rhetoric that we are “the enemy of the state” to dissipate.

Walsh: Bigger profit margins. Although revenues continue to grow, it’s costing us more to do business. As mentioned before, printing and distribution costs continue to go up, but so has the cost of technology, insurance, people— the list goes on and on. While we continue to be profitable, margins continue to decline.

So, my greatest wish is to turn that trend around.  JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

41

For more than 10 years, Editor and Publisher has selected 10 newspapers that earned a notable achievement in at least one particular area, carried out a successful innovation, implemented cost savings procedures or developed programs that have generated revenues or increased circulation. As our news industry grows and expands beyond paper, we want to profile not just newspapers, but all news publishers that are doing exciting things at their companies.

This year, we invite all news publishers—print, digital, television and radio—to send in a nomination for our 10 News Publishers That Do It Right contest. Selected publishers will appear in our March 2020 issue. The objective of the story is to bring ideas together and share the best and the brightest in one comprehensive feature. All ideas are welcome.

Nominate your News Publishing Company, submit your ideas

42 | E & P |

JANUARY 2020

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Nick Monico has been named chief operating officer of Adams Publishing Group (APG), a newly created position to maximize revenue, content, circulation, digital and operational initiatives.

Most recently, Monico served as president of News Media Corp. Prior to that, he was president of Gannett Media News Network of Central Ohio. He also held COO positions with Thomson Newspapers, Trib Total Media and Wick Communications. Monico has also served as VP of Community Newspapers for Gatehouse/New Media.

Gannett and New Media Investment Group Inc. have announced a new board of members following the merger of Gannett and GateHouse. The new board will have nine members including Michael Reed, New Media CEO and chairman, who will serve as the board’s chairman. Joining Reed are Kevin Sheehan, Mayur Gupta, Theodore Janulis, John Jeffry Louis, Maria Miller, Debra Sandler, Laurence Tarica, and Barbara Wall. editorandpublisher.com

Allison Kaufman has joined the Associated Press as assistant director of photography for entertainment.

Kaufman has more than 16 years of experience in the photography industry.

Most recently, she served as director of operations and production for Invision, the organization’s entertainment photo agency. In addition, Kim Johnson Flodin, who had served as the Central region’s interim photo editor since last July, was named the region’s deputy news director/ photos and newsgathering in a 14-state territory that stretches from the Upper Midwest to Texas. Most recently, she served as news editor for Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma for the AP.

AP Photo

Wendy Metcalfe has joined Heart Connecticut Media Group as vice president of content and editor-and-chief, overseeing the group’s eight daily and 13 weekly newspapers including the New Haven Register, Connecticut Post and newspapers in Greenwich, Norwalk and Stamford. In her new role, Metcalfe will be responsible for upgrading the quality of enterprise reporting across all the company’s newsrooms as well as working with consumer marketing teams to deepen reader engagement. Most recently, she oversaw editorial, marketing, circulation and customer services at Brunswick News Inc. in eastern Canada.

Roula Khalaf has been appointed editor for the Financial Times becoming the paper’s first female editor. She succeeds Lionel Barber who has stepped down after serving in the position for 14 years.

Previously, Khalaf served as deputy editor since 2016. Prior to joining the FT in 1995, Khalaf worked at Forbes.

AP Photo

Barbara Peters Smith has been named the opinions editor for the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. She succeeds Tom Tryon, who has retired after 39 years. In the last 31 years, Peters Smith served two stints at the newspaper. Most recently, she covered the city of Sarasota and the Sarasota County Commission. In addition, she has served as Herald-Tribune health and aging reporter, features editor and more. Her experience includes a stint at the Tampa Bay Times, three years as copy editor and associate editorial page editor at the Santa Barbara (Calif.) NewsPress, and three years as business editor, then special projects editor and writing coach for the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun.

NewsPeople

Teresa Jackson has been named editor of the Madras (Ore.) Pioneer. She began her journalism career at the Stayton (Ore.) Mail in 2002 as a reporter. After serving for three years at the paper, she was hired by the News-Review in Roseburg, Ore. as the education reporter.

She also served on the copy desk and as web editor. Later, she worked the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash. as a copy editor and page designer before eventually returning to Oregon.

CNHI, LLC recently appointed five new regional editors. They include David Bohrer, editor of the Meridian (Miss.) Star, as regional editor for Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee; Renee Carey, editor of the Herald, New Castle News and Allied News, all located in northwestern Pennsylvania, as regional editor for Kentucky newsrooms; Dale Gosser, North Texas group editor for CNHI, as regional editor for Texas; Samantha Perry, editor of the

Bluefield (W.Va.) Daily Telegraph, as editor for Georgia and Florida; and Kim Poindexter, editor of the Tahlequah (Okla.) Daily Press, as one of two regional editors for Oklahoma.

Ann Maloney has been named recipes editor at the Washington Post. She joins from the Times-Picayune, where she served as food editor. At the Post, Maloney will be responsible for developing and editing recipes, and collaborate with other members of the food team and with photo editors, art directors, food stylists and others who work on Voraciously, the Post’s digital destination for food coverage.

Bob Geiger has been named vice president of sales for PA Media Group, publisher of PennLive.com and the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. He will be responsible for advertising and marketing operations at both publications. Most recently, he was senior vice president of sales for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a past director of group sales for the USA Today Network/Gannett and has worked in senior management at GateHouse Media, Media General and the Journal Register Co. Carlos Lozada, an associate editor and book critic for the Washington Post, and David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, have been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board. Lozada joined the Post in 2005.

During his tenure, he saw coverage of economics and national security and served as editor of the paper’s Sunday Outlook section. He became a book critic in 2015. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker since JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

45

NewsPeople

AP Photo

1998 and a staff writer since 1992. He also serves as the host of the magazine’s national radio program and podcast, “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” which airs weekly.

Samya Kullab has been named Iraq correspondent for the Associated Press.

Kullab, who is based in AP’s Baghdad bureau, has covered the Middle East since 2013. Previously, she served as senior correspondent for Iraq Oil Report. Prior to that, Kullab worked as a freelance journalist covering migration, security and politics across the Middle East for several international news organizations.

Matt Volz has been appointed Rocky Mountains news editor for the Associated Press. Most recently, he served as interim Rockies news editor over the past year, where he worked with teams of journalists of all formats in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. Prior to that, he was a longtime correspondent and editor who covered stories for the AP from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska. He joined the AP in 2002.

Misty Knisely has been named managing editor of The Daily Journal in Kankakee, Ill. She succeeds Mike Frey, who has retired.

Most recently, Knisely worked as the manager of marketing and communications with the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance. From 2013 to 2016, she served as the managing editor for the Pharos-Tribune in Logansport, Ind. Prior to that, she was the metro editor for the Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune and assistant editor for the Hendricks Country Flyer in Avon, Ind.

ACQUISITIONS Holler Media, LLC has purchased three publications in central-Tennessee from Rust Communications. Cribb, Greene & Cope represented the seller. Publications in the transaction include the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, the Marshall County Tribune and the Bedford/Marshall County Shopper. Rust Communications, based in Cape Girardeau, Mo., continues to own more than 40 publications in eight states.

Capital Region Independent Media has acquired Manchester Newspapers, Inc. and all associated digital and print products from the Manchester family. Cribb, Greene & Cope represented the Manchester family in the sale. Located in in Granville, N.Y., Manchester Newspapers is a weekly newspaper and specialty publishing company that prints five newspapers each week as well as 40-plus specialty publications annually.

Sean and Cheryl Kelly have sold the Ransom County Gazette, the Sargent County Teller, Cass County Reporter and Traill County Tribune, all located in North Dakota, to NorDak Publishing, LLC. This purchase includes the first newspapers NorDak will operate in North Dakota. J. Louis Mullen, owner of NorDak, owns 11 other community weekly newspapers in South Dakota, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. Julie Bergman of Grimes, McGovern and Associates represented the Kelly family in the sale.

Ogden Newspapers has acquired the Courier in Findlay, Ohio and the Review Times in Fostoria, Ohio from the Findlay Publishing Co. Findlay Publishing Co. will continue to operate three radio stations in Findlay and four in Columbus, Ind. Jeffrey Potts of Cribb, Greene & Cope represented the Findlay Publishing Co. in the sale.

Kirk Davis has left his position of chief operating officer of New Media Investments and CEO of GateHouse Media following the Gannett merger.

Davis is former owner of the

James D. Miller has been named vice president of advertising for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. He will lead a team of more than 50 sales representatives, managers, graphic artists, event coordinators and support staff who serve customers throughout the Richmond region. Miller joins the Times-Dispatch from Tribune Media, where he served as executive director of media sales at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. In the past, he has also served as vice president of digital sales innovation at various Tribune newspaper properties, a general manager of recruitment at Hearst, and a regional vice president at Monster.com, as well as representing start-up companies.

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Holden Landmark Co., which once owned Holden Landmark in Worcester, Mass. and Worcester Magazine. Davis sold the Holden Landmark Co. to GateHouse.

The Local Media Consortium has elected Stefanie Manning of Maine Today to join the consortium’s 10-member executive board.

She has a 30-year career in publishing and currently serves as the group vice president of consumer revenue at Masthead Maine.

In addition, Anthony Katsur of Nexstar Media Group will take over for Nicole Goskel of Tribune Media, which was recently acquired by Nexstar. Katsur will serve out the remainder of Goskel’s term. Four current board members were also re-elected including: Gary Smith, The Seattle Times; Chris Loretto, Digital First Media; Mike Orren, A.H. Belo Corp.; and James Green, Lee Enterprises.

Gary Meo has joined Coda Ventures as vice president of key accounts. Meo’s print industry career includes management positions at Time Inc., People Weekly, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and Hispanic Magazine. He also spent more than 20 years at Nielsen Scarborough. Before joining Coda, Meo was vice president of client development for Research and Analysis of Media. editorandpublisher.com

NewsPeople David Bordewyk has joined the South Dakota News Watch as its executive director.

Bordewyk will work with an existing two-member team of journalists. He will also continue his longtime role as executive director of the South Dakota Newspaper Association.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais has been named Washington assistant chief of bureau for photography at the Associated Press.

He originally joined the AP in 1998 as a photographer in Washington. Prior to the AP, Pablo worked as a staff photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The new Gannett has announced several key appointments following its merger with New Media Investment Group. Mike Reed, previous CEO of New Media, will serve as CEO of the combined company. Paul

Jamie Paxton has been named president and chief executive officer of Paxton Media Group (PMG). He succeeds David Paxton, who held the position for 20 years. Jamie is the fifth generation of the Paxton family to hold the title of president. David will remain with the company as chairman. In addition, Jamie has been elected to the board of directors of PMG. As president and CEO, Jamie will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations, which include 71 community newspapers and related websites in 10 states as well as the NBC-affiliated TV station based in Paducah, Ky.

Bascobert will serve as CEO of the company’s operating subsidiary, Gannett Media Corp.

Henry Faure Walker will serve as CEO of Newsquest Media Group, a publishing arm in the United Kingdom. Adam Reinbach will serve as president and CEO of BridgeTower Media. Bill Scanlon will serve as interim head of UpCurve. In addition, Alison Engel was named CFO; Maribel Perez Wadsworth, USA Today publisher, will add the role of

president of news; Kevin Gentzel was named chief revenue officer; Polly Grunfeld Sack will serve as general counsel; Kris Barton will continue his role as Gannett’s chief product officer; Bernie Szachara will serve as president of U.S. publishing operations; Jason Taylor as president of events and promotions; Samantha Howland as chief people officer; and Jay Fogarty as senior vice president for corporate development. 

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Publications For Sale

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MICHIGAN PAPERS: Four very nice community newspapers in super solid markets. One daily, three weeklies. Total 2018 revenue $2.4 million. Longtime family ownership. Offered

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Help Wanted

Help Wanted

AREA MANAGER: The Colorado Springs Gazette Circulation department is seeking a full time Area Manager to oversee the delivery of newspapers to subscribers within a defined geographical area. This position is part of a support system that oversees carriers, ensuring delivery accuracy, observing warehouse activity and physical distribution of newspaper. The Area Manager is responsible for prospecting and contracting independent contractors for delivery services, familiarizing contractors with route locations and enforcing contractual agreements.

The ideal candidate will be self-motivated with the ability to work both independently and as a member of a team. This position requires tenacity, consistency, good judgment, quick decision making and solid interpersonal skills. Must have strong time management skills, including the ability to set priorities and give attention to detail.

Requirements: • Valid driver’s license, dependable vehicle and proof of insurance are required for this position.

• Ability to work as part of a team, with minimal daily supervision and high degree of self-motivation.

• Ability to problem solve, resolve issues & complaints, demonstrate sound reasoning, exercise judgment, and make decisions.

• Ability to repetitively stoop, bend and walk to distribute newspapers. Will push and pull carts loaded with newspapers and repetitively lift newspaper bundles weighing between 10-50 pounds.

• Ability to work flexible overnight hours, available at any time as needed to include weekends and holidays.

• Basic computer skills (Excel and Word).

• High school diploma or equivalent required.

Preferred Skills • Prior newspaper experience in circulation as well as a management background is preferred.

• Strong leadership ability to lead a mixed workforce of employees and independent contractors spread out across several different markets.

Please tell them you saw it in

The Colorado Springs Gazette, located in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO, is the leading media company in the front range with a 7 day a week publication, along with additional print publications. We offer great products to our customers and at the same time deliver outstanding customer service to our audience.

In addition to a workplace that values and respects its employees and customers, we offer a benefits package, which includes vacation, sick and personal time off, health, dental & vision coverage, 401(k), and more.

To apply please send your resume to michelle.aramayo@gazette.com and put Area Manager in the subject line.

48 | E & P |

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editorandpublisher.com

Phone: 800-887-1615

Help Wanted

Fax: 866-605-2323

Help Wanted

MANAGING EDITOR: The Capital Journal, a five day community newspaper, is looking for a top notch, go getter, who loves story-telling, facilitating community discourse and helping team members grow. Our newsroom is small and fierce, with four reporters covering the state capital and the beautiful town of Pierre and Ft. Pierre along the Missouri River in the great state of South Dakota.

This position requires analytical skills, people skills, joy of writing and editing copy, and a willingness to be a lifelong learner. The ideal candidate is someone who seeks adventure, cultivates a positive and focused environment and showcases a love of the English language - knowledge of Associated Press style and AP copy and headline writing are preferred.

The managing editor crafts the editorial goals for the community newspaper, and provides clarity and fair consideration throughout the pages of the print and digital products.

Adhering to deadlines is a critical part of this job opportunity as is having strong organizational skills.

This is a full- time position and as part of Wick Communications, we offer a strong package of pay and benefits, including base salary, bonus plan, medical, vision, dental, and a 401(k). See our web site at www.capjournal.com and learn about our parent company at www.wickcommunications.com. We are an equal opportunity employer.

Please submit letter of interest, resume and salary requirements, references and examples of writings, headlines and editing, to Publisher John Clark at john.clark@capjournal.com and Group publisher Ken Harty at kenh@fergusfallsjournal.com.

PUBLISHER: Run your own show (For real.) Private group. Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper and a capital city newspaper among our three-market media cluster based in Rutland, VT. Sample News Group seeks publisher to lead a great team and drive multiple revenue streams. Email: kluvison@morning-times.com

PUBLISHER: We’re looking for a successful, innovative publisher to lead the Journal Record Publishing Company, a subsidiary of BridgeTower Media, located in Oklahoma City, OK. You will be responsible for guiding a group of talented individuals responsible for Oklahoma’s leading source of news, energy information and events for the business community. We’re a digital-first organization that prides itself on providing our audience with information that they can’t get anywhere else.

In this role, you will be expected to represent our brands in the business community, but your primary responsibility will be to work with the sales team to achieve and exceed goal, grow new sources of revenue, find sales leads and close business. You will be responsible for driving digital and print advertising sales, presenting high-visibility events, developing ancillary revenue streams, helping with marketing collateral, and creating a culture where everyone feels motivated and can shine.

You will receive executive and administrative support from BridgeTower Media, which allows you to focus on the operational areas that drive revenue. We are seeking a proven leader with excellent management skills, experience with a P&L and budgets, as well as experience leading a solutions-based sales team.

We are searching for a strategic thinker who can work with your managers to develop and execute plans. You will need to be hands-on, self-motivated, proactive and digitally savvy.

No task is too great or too small. Your drive and willingness to do the work necessary to grow new business, while growing community relationships, will be vital to your success.

BridgeTower Media is a leading provider of information to the business and legal communities through our collection of niche newspapers and websites in cities across the country. We offer a competitive salary package commensurate with experience along with a comprehensive benefits program.

BridgeTower Media and all subsidiaries are Equal Opportunity Employers and value diversity in our workplace.

To be considered for this position, please apply directly on our site at: https://recruiting.adp.com/srccar/public/RTI.home?c=2163213&d=BridgetowerMedia&r=5000562095906#/

“I’m extremely pleased with the fantastic results we receive from advertising in E&P.” - Kevin B. Kamen, Kamen & Co. Group Services editorandpublisher.com

Help Wanted

Help Wanted

PUBLISHER: The Minot Daily News is currently hiring the position of Publisher to lead its award-winning team, one that is committed to excellence in journalism through service and leadership in the community.

The Publisher has primary leadership responsibility for industry growth and operations with a focus on culture, sales, marketing, financial management, and a strong appreciation for high journalistic standards. The ideal candidate will have at least 3 years of experience and will be a positive, out-going, self-motivated, detail oriented leader who will continually develop the skills of the team. This is a unique opportunity to uphold our values of excellence and service.

The candidate will display the ability to work efficiently and maintain a high level o productivity and quality; work independently and as part of a team; communicate regularly; balance multiple priorities; and meet deadlines in a fast-paced, team-focused environment. The candidate will have a proven record of creating and growing a positive, respectful and energetic work culture.

The Minot Daily News is an award-winning daily newspaper covering local news, sports, business, jobs and community events. The newspaper is published Monday through Saturday covering Minot and the surrounding communities of Ward County, North Dakota, with a circulation of 9,896 copies. Minot is the fourth largest city in North Dakota with a population of over 47,000 people. It is the home to the Minot US Air Force base. Minot is home to a strong Scandinavian ancestry history and home to the North Dakota State Fair every year.

About us: Founded on September 22, 1890 with H. C. Ogden’s launch of the Wheeling News, Ogden Newspapers has since grown to 50 daily newspapers, along with a number of weeklies and a magazine division – stretching from New York to Hawaii.

Throughout that time, the company has been committed to excellence in journalism through service and leadership in our communities. Newspapering has changed over time – long gone are the days of hot lead typesetting and linotype machines – but our core values as a company have not. We believe local newspapers should not only report the news of the day, but also tell the stories of their communities, and of the people who live there. We take writing the first draft of history seriously.

How people consume news has changed, but our mission stays the same. Our newspapers have found new ways to serve their communities, creating robust online content.

These keep all of our readers, both print and digital, well informed and engaged with local happenings. Our rich heritage of newspapering combined with a company-wide commitment to high journalistic standards, positions us to continue to uphold the values of excellence and service for decades to come.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following: • Oversee all newspaper operations with a focus on culture, sales, marketing, financial management, and high journalistic standards.

• Manage P&L to ensure financial growth with ultimate responsibility for the financial health of the operation including but not limited to creating and managing the overall forecast.

• Enhance the newspaper’s positive presence in the community.

• Direct the online footprint for the newspaper.

• Ensure both advertiser and subscriber needs are met at very high levels.

• Develop and execute strategies across multiple platforms to maximize sales.

• Implement effective operations through all departments to uphold the values of excellence and service.

• Lead process for to recruit, evaluate and hire candidates, and manage disciplinary issues.

• Other duties and responsibilities may be assigned as necessary.

Requirements: • Bachelor’s degree (B. A.) from four-year College or university; and minimum of 3 years publishing experience • A background in Advertising or Editorial a strong plus.

• Background and experience leading advertising or editorial depts a plus.

• Significant relevant work experience with advanced editing, writing, and proofreading skills.

• Strong written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.

• Excellent customer service skills.

• The ability to lead and direct others to achieve or exceed organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner.

Please send all resumes to the following contact: Michael Christman at mchristman@ogdennews.com

JANUARY 2020 | E & P |

49

shoptalk /commentary

In a Post-Truth World, Your Newspaper Beats Social Media for Facts

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board

T

he debate over how social media is handling—and should handle—false political advertising covers a lot of ground.

On one side, Mark Zuckerberg’s public declaration that Facebook will continue to accept payments for political advertisements without fact-checking. On the other, Twitter’s line in the sand it will not accept political advertising at all.

As the debate plays out, it’s worth asking: Is social media, designed to give anyone and everyone their 15 minutes of fame, be it via a slip-and-fall meme or a cat video, the place to get vetted information on our government and its leaders?

The internet is vast, wild and full of false information. The CIA-confirmed narrative of Russian trolls’ coordinated intervention in the 2016 election is just one cautionary tale of social media as the new Trojan horse. We don’t just invite disinformation into our cities; we bring it into our homes.

Zuckerberg may or may not cave to mounting pressure to adopt a Twitter-like ban on political advertising. But Facebook is just one—albeit giant—platform. The real problem lies in our willingness to trust unvetted information from social media, especially when it comes to political news. As long as that’s true, we are susceptible to the next platform flavor of the week—and not all will be run by companies with leaders easily hauled before Congress.

Beijing-based TikTok, anybody?

Expecting Facebook or Twitter to vet information is not the answer. That’s an impossible task, especially given the speed users expect answers.

But it’s not all “1984” apocalyptic disinformation-age mayhem. We’re here to remind you a place does exist where facts are still valued and truth still matters: The humble local newspaper. (Yes, we are tooting our own horn here.) Traditional media has its share of critics and is certainly not without fault. Critics cry bias, others dismiss paper as something from the dinosaur age. Since the advent of the internet it’s had to compete for what was a captive audience.

But for those who have forgotten what newspapers do—both in print and on the internet—here’s a reminder: They report the news, as accurately and as quickly as they can.

Every day, local reporters and photographers head out into the community to spend time in schools, courtrooms, businesses, government buildings and homes—all with the goal of seeing, understanding and reporting the realities of life in New Mexico. Every day, editors work to ensure stories are clear and accurate.

Every day, designers and press staff work to put those stories into an easy-to-read format.

Are there errors and flaws? Of course. That’s true of any human endeavor, especially one that releases a new product 365 days a year. But we’re not nameless, faceless trolls sitting behind a computer somewhere in Russia or China.

We live in your community. Reporters put their names on stories, photographers on their pictures. We pick up the phone when readers call. On our editorial pages we regularly publish letters and columns critical of our editorial stances and news coverage.

In other words, unlike shadow writers populating social media with rumors, halftruths and blatant lies, we are accountable to you, the reader.

The Journal isn’t alone. A vibrant ecosystem of local news organizations dot the state,

each doing valuable reporting that likely would otherwise go undone. The Santa Fe New Mexican, the Farmington Daily Times, the Gallup Independent and the Las Cruces Sun-News are just a few of the reputable newspapers offering in-depth local coverage in New Mexico.

You might be frustrated with traditional media. You might feel a story or an editorial is unfair, roll your eyes when you catch a typo, or wonder why you should pay for a subscription when so-called “news” is free online.

But you get what you pay for, and communities without local newspapers are worse off for it. We’re committed to fighting for your right to know and to preserving your voice.

So use that voice. Write letters to the editor, or pick up the phone and call. Subscribe to your local paper so you won’t have to rely on Facebook or Twitter to tell you what’s true.

Because they’ve made it clear that’s not their job. It’s ours. 

This editorial was written by the editorial board of the Albuquerque Journal and was published Nov. 7, 2019.

It is reprinted here with permission.

Printed in the USA. Vol. 153, No. 1, EDITOR & PUBLISHER (ISSN: 0013-094X, USPS: 168-120) is published 12 times a year. Regular issues are published monthly by Editor and Publisher Magazine.,19606 Eagle Crest Drive, Lutz FL 33549; Editorial and Advertising (406) 445-0000. Periodicals postage paid at Lutz FL, 33549, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: EDITOR & PUBLISHER. P.O. #322, 23110 State Road 54, Lutz FL 33548. Copyright 2020, Editor and Publisher Magazine. 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.

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50 | E & P |

JANUARY 2020

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