The Washington Newspaper, May 2019

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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER May 2019

In legal emergency, call WNPA first!

Page 4

Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

BNC entry period extended

This year’s Better Newspaper Contest is open for entries until May 8, but that will be your last chance to enter. Brandon Hansen of the Chewelah Independent entered the photo above last year and placed third in the Photographer of the Year judging.

Nominations are now open for 2nd Vice President seat

The health of this organization and its ability to serve its members well depends on an active and engaged board of directors.

For that reason, each year we call for nominations for the office of Second Vice President, as required by the bylaws of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

The bylaws say a nominating committee, composed of the three most recent Presidents who are still active as

regular members, shall each year nominate a candidate for the office of Second VicePresident, which is the first position in what is intended to be a ladder to the presidency.

Candidates, for any of the elected positions, may be nominated by board members or by submission of the candidate’s name by at least 10 regular members. Regular members then elect Trustees and Officers at the association business meeting during the

annual Fall Convention.

The bylaws ask that a call for nominations be published in the association’s bulletin. This is that call for nominations.

WNPA welcomes your involvement. Anyone interested in knowing more about serving on the WNPA board can contact WNPA President Michael Wagar at the Centrailia Chronicle, or Executive Director Fred Obee at fredobee@wnpa.com or by calling 360-344-2938.

Olympia Bureau interns wrap up legislative work

By Sandy Stokes Our Olympia News Bureau officially closed on Monday, April 29.

The final story of 2019 was filed by reporter Emma Epperly at 2 a.m. that day.

The Legislature had passed the 2019-2021 state operating budget and then adjourned just before midnight.

Our 2019 session was 105 days long – 45 days longer than last year’s “short” session. It was the first time the longer budget session held every two years had adjourned on time since 2009.

We started with four reporters in January and for the last six weeks, we’ve been down to one very talented young journalist, Emma Epperly.

Big thanks go to Caralyn

Bess of the Columbia Basin Herald for sharing her Washington State University intern with WNPA to get us through this long session. Caralyn recruited a great reporter for us.

Emma is off for a well-earned vacation now and will start at the Spokesman Review later this month.

Our University of Washington reporters, Maddie Coats, Emma Scher and Sean Harding finished their internships on March 15.

Maddie has accepted a position as a city government reporter covering Kirkland, Bothell-Kenmore and Mercer Island for Sound Publishing.

Emma Scher and Sean are finishing up their degrees at UW and Sean plans to go to Kuwait in the fall as a journalSee OLYMPIA, Page 2

New WNPA podcast features Spokesman-Review’s Vestal

Spokane Spokesman Review columnist Shawn Vestal is the latest interview on WNPA’s podVestal cast site. In his interview, Vestal talks about his writing process, how he weaves fiction writing techniques into

his journalism, and where he looks for off-the-beaten track story ideas.

There are two other podcasts up on the site. One is with Les Zeitz, owner of the Malheur Enterprise, and Pulitzer Prize winner Eli Sanders, a writer for The Stranger in Seattle. To listen, go to wnpa.com and click on the podcast tile.

OLYMPIA: Interns wrap up coverage Continued from Page 1

lisher the Northern Light ist for the Army. in Blaine and Birch Bay. This session our re• Natalie Johnson, Edporters benefited greatly itor The Daily Chronicle and absorbed knowledge in Centralia. from seasoned editors • Richard Byrd, Manwho each stepped in aging Editor Columbia to help several times a Basin Herald in Moses week. As you know, edi- Lake. tors and publishers never • And retired publisher really have “spare” time. and WNPA life member I owe many, many thanks Dave Gauger also helped to the following profeswith a big story and sionals who helped edit graphic package on the and polish our stories and 19th Legislative District. often worked directly We ran the bureau like with the reporters: a daily newsroom – often • Michael Wagar, churning out several President of Lafromstories at a time. We filed boise Communications more than 150 stories in Centralia, Yelm & and several photo packBattleground. ages during the session.

• Scott Hunter, Editor Already, the WNPA and Publisher The Star Foundation Board, under in Grand Coulee. the leadership of its Presi• Roger Harnack, dent Don Nelson, has been Publisher Statesman looking toward the future.

Examiner in Colville.

We will be considering • Steve Powell, Manways to expand our Olymaging Editor Marysville pia operation in coming Globe and Arlington years to help develop more Times in Snohomish young journalists and betCounty. ter serve our association • Patrick Grubb, Pub- members.

Officers: Michael Wagar, President; Patrick Grubb, First Vice President; Sandy Stokes, Past President.

Trustees: Colette Weeks, Caralyn Bess, Roger Harnack, Scott Hunter, Steve Powell, Teresa Myers and Michelle Nedved.

THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the offical publication of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly

by WNPA, PO Box 389, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Staff Fred Obee: Executive Director: 360-344-2938 Email: fredobee@wnpa.com Janay Collins, Member Services Director: 360-344-2938. Email: ads@wnpa.com 2 The Washington Newspaper May 2019

FROM THE PRESIDENT

WNPA working hard for members; convention lineup looking strong

By Michael Wagar The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association held its quarterly executive board meeting in Ellensburg last month, and despite the hardships in our industry, the WNPA is thriving in support of its newspaper memWagar bers.

Under the direction of Executive Director Fred Obee, we’re in the black with a strong rainy day fund, our Better Newspaper Contest just wrapping up, we’re backing the lawsuit against the state Legislature regarding access to public records of our elected officials, our WNPA Olympia News Bureau brought member papers hundreds of stories during the Legislative session, we filled every seat in the room at Legislative Day, and our upcoming convention Oct. 10-12 in Olympia is shaping up to be three valuable days.

Highlights of the convention include keynote speaker David Chavern,

the president and chief executive officer of the News Media Alliance and the American Press Institute (if you are not signed up for the institute’s “Need to Know” daily email, you should give it a try).

I’m particularly excited for the workshop on feature writing by Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski, the former Associate Managing Editor for special projects and staff development for the Seattle Times. Reporters and editors should not miss this workshop.

I’ve heard Banaszynski speak before, and it was inspirational with specific examples of how to do the big story right.

She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for her story “The Trail of Tears” while on assignment in Africa covering the famine in Sudan in 1986. In 1988 she won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a series of stories titled “AIDS in the Heartland” in 1988. She is now Knight Chair at the University of Missouri school of journalism and on the visiting faculty of The Poynter Institute.

The convention will also have workshops on new revenue streams, how to write editorials for smaller community newspapers, how to use your iPhone to take stunning photographs suitable for the front page, how to use the Public Disclosure Commission information for the upcoming elections, and of course everyone’s favorite Better Newspaper Contest presentation of winners.

The WNPA has also put up another podcast.

Members should find real value in the interview with Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal as he discusses how his start on a small weekly newspaper gave him a solid foundation that has led to impressive reporting. He shares how he comes up with story ideas that don’t always seem obvious. Go to our website wnpa.com to listen to the podcast.

Dixie Lee Bradley award nominations The WNPA is again soliciting nominations for the Dixie Lee Bradley award. This award goes to that person who usually works behind the scenes

to make sure our operations are smooth. It could be a circulation clerk, an office manager or a bookkeeper.

Last year the award went to Jeanie Luna, the office manager of The Northern Light and Point Roberts Press located up near the border of Canada in the town of Blaine. She started work there in 1996 and soon was responsible for everything but the writing and designing.

She organized circulation, ran subscriptions, entered classifieds and other editorial materials that came in the door. She did the nuts and bolts work of invoicing, accounts receivable and payable, tax payments and making sure the coffee was brewing and water cooler filled.

We all have our Jeanies. If you know of someone like this at your paper or at other papers, please nominate them for the award but sending a short essay on why they should win to our executive director at fredobee@ wnpa.com.

Michael Wagar is the President of Lafromboise Communications and this year’s WNPA president.

Open records training for government officials set The Washington State Attorney General’s Office announced recently that registration is now open for the Local Government Public Records Act University.

Events are scheduled in Spokane on May 29 at the Spokane Convention Center and June 18 at the Lynnwood Convention center.

These all-day conferences are designed to assist local governments with responding to requests for public records. The courses will include a discussion of the

Public Records Act, an examination of how court decisions have shaped an agency’s duties, review of recent court decisions, and lessons learned from experienced public records officers. For more information and to register, please visit atg.wa.gov/public-records-actuniversity.

This program is for government officials. Please forward this message to any local government representative you think may be interested in attending.

Trump administration proposes cut to print employment ads

By Paul Boyle Proposed changes to an advertising requirement for employers in the U.S. could mean that soon, many eligible American workers will not learn about available job opportunities in the U.S. before they are offered to non-resident, foreign workers instead.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) are proposing to eliminate the requirement that employers inform U.S. workers of available job opportunities through publishing job listings in the local print newspaper. Instead, they are proposing to allow employers to simply

place an ad on a website that is “widely available.” While this solution may seem acceptable, it will practically guarantee that fewer eligible U.S. workers will know about job opportunities.

U.S. employers are required to make every possible attempt to hire U.S. workers before turning to non-immigrant, foreign workers, who can be granted visas to work in our country (In early April, the DHS and the DOL announced they would issue up to 30,000 H-2B visas through the end of the government’s fiscal year – this is in addition to the 66,000 visas that are already granted each

year). Under the current policy, which has been in place since the 1980s, employers must place two advertisements in Sunday newspapers in the local market in which the job opening is available. Now, that could change. Last fall, both the DHS and DOL set forth proposals that would weaken this longstanding policy.

While an online ad may seem to offer the most reach, there are critical reasons a website placement requirement alone would fail to reach many local U.S. residents: An ad on a single, local website doesn’t come close to the reach of employment ad in a

printed newspaper ad.

Why? Because in addition to print, newspapers provide added reach by distributing the ad across all of its platforms.

In addition, not everyone in the U.S. is connected to the internet, leaving many citizens in the dark when it comes to job opportunities posted solely on the web.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly 40 percent of Americans living in rural areas lack access to fixed broadband internet. The print newspaper continues to be the primary way Americans — particularly those living in rural areas — learn about their communities, including

available job opportunities. In their proposal to eliminate the print requirement, the DHS and DOL acknowledged that nearly one-third of American workers learn of job opportunities in print publications.

Not only is the current requirement to post employment listings in the print newspaper good for the U.S. worker, it is good for the employer who wants to legally hire a foreign citizen.

In any job market, employers are expected by the government — and their U.S. customer base — to prioritize promotion of available positions to the U.S. worker.

The local newspaper offers a trusted, verifi-

able means of doing so, as well as the supporting documentation to prove that the employer complied with the law.

Fortunately, it is not too late for the Trump Administration to protect the U.S. worker. Instead of eliminating the print ad requirement, DHS and DOL should simply require employers to use both print and digital ads for letting U.S. workers know of available job opportunities.

This is one of those situations where more is more – and good government policy.

Paul Boyle is the Senior Vice President of Public Policy at the News Media Alliance.

WITH OVER 60 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, WE KNOW JOURNALISM. From public records to protecting journalists, from defamation claims to business needs, large and small Washington publishers turn to us.

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The Washington Newspaper May 2019 3

Facing a legal emergency? Call WNPA first

By Fred Obee At WNPA, we are devoted to helping our member newspapers protect themselves from lawsuits, libel actions and other legal difficulties. The hotline, as we’ve always referred to it, was established Obee many years ago to provide quick legal advice from an attorney when members faced a legal emergency.

For years, we kept an attorney on retainer and members were allowed to call the attorney directly, and during this time the use of the hotline expanded. People were calling about lots of non-emergency issues,

from access to meetings and documents, to questions about becoming a legal newspaper, copyright infringement, what the rules applied to housing ads in classified columns, human resource questions and plenty of other issues.

Ultimately, the WNPA Board of Directors decided that keeping an attorney on retainer to answer these non-emergency legal questions was veering pretty far from the original purpose of our legal hotline, and because legal advice from practicing attorneys often costs between $300 and $400 an hour, we decided to rein in use of the hotline for non-emergency questions.

Our policy today is this: If someone serves you with a subpoena, presents you with an or-

der to turn over files, files a lawsuit against you, issues you a summons to testify, or takes some other legal action against you that requires an immediate response, you should call WNPA and we will give you clearance to talk to Michele Earl Hubbard, an attorney well known to WNPA members, and she will tell you what your legal options are and what steps you need to take next.

Following that onehour initial conference, WNPA members can retain the hotline attorney, or any other attorney, for any follow up that is necessary, such as writing a letter to the complaining party or their attorney or defending a lawsuit.

In the end, this doesn’t really cut back on services to our members.

The reality is that most of

the questions our members face can be answered by the WNPA staff. When we face a particularly vexing issue about open records or meetings, we can collaborate with the attorneys at the Washington Coalition for Open Government and get a quick response.

We know time is of the essence when lawyers are breathing down your neck, so I am available at almost any time of the

TURN ON THE LIGHT…

Make sure your marijuana ads have the right warnings

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board issues rules and regulations on marijuana advertising and how retail outlets can promote themselves.

In preparing advertising for marijuana shops, newspapers should heed the following: • Marijuana advertising can’t contain any statement, or illustration that is false or misleading or that promotes over consumption.

• Advertising can’t say the use of marijuana has curative or therapeutic effects.

• Objects, such as toys or cartoon characters that are especially appealing

to children or other persons under legal age are prohibited. It is against the law to design an ad that would be especially appealing to children or other persons under 21 years old.

• Giveaways, coupons and distribution of branded merchandise are banned.

• All advertising must contain the following warnings: “This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming.” “Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug.” “There may

4 The Washington Newspaper May 2019

be health risks associated with consumption of this product.” “For use only by adults twenty-one and older. Keep out of the reach of children.”

It is also best to also include: “Marijuana products may be purchased or possessed only by persons 21 years of age or older.”

The same basic guidelines also apply to online advertising and social media, with the caution that care should be taken to not appeal to children.

For a more detailed list of prohibitions, cautions and rules regulating marijuana sales and advertising, go the state Liquor and Cannabis Board website at lcb.wa.gov.

day, any day of the week.

Our office phone is 360344-2938. If we are out of the office, you can call my cell phone at 360301-6453.

We also have recently instituted an email that goes out to publishers across the state, so sometimes non-emergency questions can be answered by your peers in the industry. To use that service, just email wnpapublisher@listeron.com.

We are happy to consult with our members on any issue they face, but legal advice about your business, taxes, employee issues, copyrights and other non-emergency questions aren’t for the legal hotline.

They are more appropriately directed to your personal attorney for resolution.

Fred Obee is the WNPA Executive Director.

…OUR TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT BELONGS TO YOU.

DON’T LOSE IT!

Keys to government Accountability Responsibility Accessibility

Washington’s Open Public Meetings and Public Records Acts Preserve your rights to government actions that affect you.

Learn about Open Government – When Records Requests are Denied…

http://washingtoncog.org/dealing-denial

In partnership with Contact us with your open-government questions

360-344-2938 • wnpa.com

WNPA JOB BOARD REPORTER The Shelton-Mason County Journal in Shelton, Washington, has an opening for a full-time general assignment reporter.

We offer a competitive salary with opportunities for advancement and training, paid time off, and a health club membership. Northwest candidates encouraged.

Email non-generic cover letter, resume, four clips, and three professional references to Editor in Chief Adam Rudnick at adam@masoncounty. com.

Applications available at the office, 29 Alder SW, Ephrata, Mon-Thurs 8am5pm, and Fri 9am-12pm.

Mail resume to: PO Box 998, Ephrata, WA 98823.

Email: moser@gcjournal. net

with opportunities for advancement. Send cover letter, resume and clips to: Frank DeVaul, DeVaul Publishing, Inc., 429 N. Market Blvd., Chehalis, WA 98532, or respond by e-mail to fdevaul@devaulpublishing.com.

SPORTS & COURTS REPORTER EDITOR The Statesman-ExamSound Publishing iner in Colville has an immediate opening for a “sports and courts” reporter. Begin your workday by checking in with local cops and courts, then move onto sports and outdoor recreation.

We cover high schools in Stevens and Ferry counties, hunting, fishing, REPORTER golf and other outdoor The Daily Record in recreation. Mid-summer, Ellensburg, Washington you can even cover a is looking for a general assignment reporter. The snowmobile race on the Pend Oreille River. successful candidates We have a strong must have a strong managing editor, so we’re writing background, be able to shoot photos and looking for a strong video, and have a work- sports aficionado. Come be a part of a growing ing knowledge of social newspaper in a beautiful media. The ability to city that still wants — and work as a part of newsexpects — a strong comroom team is essential.

A degree in journalism is munity newspaper. E-mail resume, clips and referrequired and newspaper ences to Publisher Roger experience preferred, Harnack at publisher@ and a driver’s license and working vehicle are statesmanexaminer.com.

No calls, please. required.

Ellensburg is a small EDITOR & REPORTER college town in Central POSITIONS Washington, recently Editorial opportunities ranked as one of the top with growing and vi20 “micropolitan” areas brant community weekly in the nation. This is a newspaper group based full-time position that includes health benefits, in beautiful Southwest Washington. If you emPTO and and a 401(K). brace the importance of Submit resume, writing quality journalism, strong samples and references to mgallagher@kvnews. local coverage, ethical values, and connecting com. with the community, we’d like to talk with you about REPORTER joining our team as a The Grant County reporter or editor. We offer Journal is looking for a Health, Dental, Vision full-time general assignment reporter. Entry-level and retirement benefits qualifications welcomed. in a growing company 5 The Washington Newspaper May 2019

has an immediate opening for an Editor to lead the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber. This is not an entry-level position. Requires a hands-on leader with a minimum of three years of newspaper experience including writing, editing, pagination, photography and monitoring social media.

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including health insurance, paid time off (vacation, sick, and holidays), and 401K with an employer match.

If you are interested in joining our team, email us your cover letter and resume to careers@soundpublishing.com. Please

be sure to note ATTN: EDITRO-VI in the subject line.

Sound Publishing is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace.

Check out our website to find out more about us! www.soundpublishing.com