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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER August 2018
Bakers buy Pomeroy paper Garfield County Courthouse, Pomeroy, Wash.
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Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
Registration open for 131st annual convention Registration is now open for the 131st gathering of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. The DEADLINES conference • Sept. 5 – Conis set for Oct. 11-13 ference registrations at the Red Lion Hotel • Sept. 10 – Hotel reservations in Yakima and includes fascinating workshops, the chance to confer with your peers and of course the Friday night, Better Newspaper Contest gala awards ceremony and dinner.
Bill Ostendorf, President and Founder of Creative Circle Media Solutions, leads off the conference with a keyOstendorf note address titled “Print isn’t dead! (and what you can do to keep it that way).” Ostendorf says there is plenty we can do to grow, save and improve print now. And newspapers would be crazy not to invest in print, the source of much of their digital content,
Tariffs reduced, but still too high; final vote Aug. 29 Paul Boyle News Media Alliance The Department of Commerce on Aug. 2 announced its final determination regarding tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada. While Commerce is restricted by law from eliminating the tariffs altogether, it reduced the tariffs, particularly as they relate to the assessment of antidumping duties on manufacturers. While this was a positive step, the combined countervailing and antidumping duties still range up to 20 per-
cent, depending upon the manufacturer. These duties cannot be absorbed by newspapers and will result in newspapers continuing to take measures to reduce their consumption of newsprint, and may cause some community and rural newspapers to go out of business. The Alliance is encouraging the International Trade Commission (ITC) to reverse these tariffs when it votes on this trade case on Aug. 29. The ITC is investigating whether imports of newsprint have See TARIFFS Page 3
Schust Elsberry subscriber commitments and advertising revenue. Ostendorf will also lead a workshop called “The New Newsroom.” Ostendorf says it will pay to take a fresh look at your paper’s content, and adopt new approaches to stories, pho-
tos, headlines and captions. “When applied during our redesigns, the result typically is higher newsstand sales, increased readGust ership scores and higher user satisfaction. Are you ready to really rethink your content?” Ostendorf asks. Jim Elsberry, President of Elsberry Consulting, has held management positions with newspapers in five different states. He worked for Boone
Newspapers as Associate Publisher and Advertising Director of the Natchez Democrat. He was a Vice President and group manager for Southern Newspapers based out of Houston and was the publisher of the Greeley, Colorado, Tribune and Regional Manager for the Northern Colorado Communications Group for nine years. Jim will present a couple of workshops: Anatomy of a sales conversation, the perfect training for the new account executive or the seasoned person who’d like a good review of the
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SNOW COVERED TRAIL
This winter scene from Eastern Washington of a horse and rider is among the entries in the 2018 Better Newspaper Contest. It was taken by Jesse Mullen of the Statesman-Examiner in Colville.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Looking ahead to this fall’s annual convention By Sandy Stokes As August rolls on, the days are becoming noticeably shorter – a sign that fall is not far off. And guess what happens in the fall? That’s when the state’s community newspaper folks get together for the annual convention and the best networking and social gathering of the year. Our convention this year is at the Yakima Red Lion, where WNPA Executive Director Fred Obee and Member Services Director Janay Collins went on a torrid July day to make sure arrangements for our very fun time are perfect. Registration is already open and the full package for $250 includes the Stokes Thursday night reception, three meals on Friday and breakfast on Saturday and all workshops. Friday, Oct. 12 features a smorgasbord of programs to help keep our skills sharp and to help us train our young staff members. Our industry is evolving and to stay relevant each of us must evolve with it. Our convention, themed “Navigating the Future,” is packed with speakers and presenters to help us maintain the community newspaper’s position as the public’s most reliable information source. In this age of 24-hour news with messaging coming at us on TV, our car radios, our phones and across the internet, local newspapers are still the best source of
Officers: Sandy Stokes, President; Michael Wagar, First Vice President; Don Nelson, Past President. Trustees: Tom Mullen, Patrick Grubb, Colette Weeks, Eric LaFontaine, Caralyn Bess, Roger Harnack and Scott Hunter. 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 August 2018
information that affects people’s real lives. “Print isn’t dead! (and what you can do to keep it that way)” is the title of our keynote address by Bill Ostendorf of Creative Circle Media Solutions. Ostendorf will also present two workshops – one on content strategies designed to keep readers engaged and the other on making advertising pop for today’s media consumers. Another workshop for sales staff will be led by Jim Elsberry of Elsberry Consulting, who will demonstrate “the anatomy of a sales conversation.” Later in the day, Elsberry will lead a roundtable discussion focused on training designed to achieve company goals. Doug Schust of Hagadone Digital will present ways to improve our digital products and the Yakima-Herald Republic’s chief photographer Shawn Gust will share his secrets to producing riveting photo art. Of course, for our staff members, the big draw is being recognized in the awards ceremony – the main event of the Friday night dinner. If you can’t wait to see who the winners are, the list of honorees is online at wnpa.com. Click on “for members” click “documents” click “2018 annual convention” and then “2018 BNC winners” and up pops a PDF of the winners list. As always, the best way to learn exactly which awards each winner will receive is to attend the Friday banquet, which is $75 per person for people who attend the dinner only. For a reduced WNPA room rate at the Red Lion, make your reservation by Sept. 10. Olympia News Bureau Please come to the convention prepared for a financial shakedown to fund our Olympia News Bureau during the upcoming 2019 state legislative session. We need nice merchandise for our silent auction as well as big packages like trips and sporting events for our live auction. And if you can’t wrangle an auction donation
for us, bring money for cash donations to the WNPA foundation’s internship program. The legislative session is 105 days long this year, and the non-profit WNPA foundation voted to fund three intern reporters again this year at $3,000 each and will pay an additional $1,500 for one to stay on for the extra 45 days. I will stay on as the Olympia bureau chief, and this year the foundation has agreed to fund my train commute and lodging up to $3,000 and a $1,000 stipend. I’m pretty happy to have a budget this year since it means I’ll be able to stay in a hotel with no holes in the bath towels. I plan to spend two days a week working in person with our reporters and the rest of the week working with them in live time on Google docs and through various electronic communications including Skype. Last year our energetic crew kept me busy full time as they churned out 92 stories and a passel of photos during the “short” 60-day session. Also, for the upcoming session I have pressed some of our editors, including Mike Wager, Pat Grubb, Scott Hunter and Mark Baumgarten to help with reading copy when they have time. I think this gives our young’uns experience with different editing styles and shows editors what their raw copy looks like. If you’re an experienced and patient editor who can spare a little time to help develop our next generation of journalists by giving a story a first read once a week or so, please email me at sstokes.onb@gmail.com. Be warned, our young reporters are on deadline every day and sometimes need coaching, but you’ll make an impact on them that will last their entire careers. Mike Wager and Mark Baumgarten squeezed out time to work with the reporters several times last year, and I kept hearing the young journalists share tips they’d learned from them with the rest of the newsroom. Sandy Stokes is the Bureau Chief of the Olympia News Bureau, former owner of the La Conner Weekly News and this year’s WNPA president.
WNPA: Breakfast program with Pulse Research replaces Saturday morning workshops this year Continued from Page 1
fundamentals of an effective sales call; and Managing, Coaching, Training, which will focus on the keys to practical management. This workshop will be great for anyone responsible for managing even one person. Doug Schust, COO of Hagadone Digital, will present a workshop
guaranteed to open doors to digital sales, and unveil a program specifically geared to WNPA members. This isn’t about selling banner ads on your website. Attend and you will get the tools you need to start making real money in the digital realm. We’ll also welcome Shawn Gust, Chief Photographer for the Yakima
Herald-Republic, who will talk about his approach to news photography. We won’t have Saturday morning workshops this year, but following breakfast and a raffle drawing, we will present a breakfast program with John Marling of Pulse Research. He will send you home thinking about the “Five things community newspapers
can and must do right now to increase readership and revenue!” To register, go to wnpa. com. Scroll down to the home page convention tile and follow the prompts to register. A complete convention brochure is also available for download at wnpa.com. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Yakima!
Tariffs: Contact reps Continued from Page 1
caused or threaten to cause material injury to U.S. newsprint producers. Newspaper publishers, Canadian newsprint manufacturers and 19 Members of Congress expressed opposition to these tariffs at an ITC hearing last month. The Teamsters and the Communications Workers of America also oppose these tariffs. The newsprint market is highly regional. West Coast and East Coast mills – whether in the US or Canada – do not compete with one another. A majority of the domestic paper industry firmly believes that the tariffs will harm U.S. newsprint producers, as newspapers and printers reduce their consumption of newsprint in response to higher costs. In short, the tariffs will hurt the very industry that they are supposed to protect. This is not how Congress intended the trade laws to be used. The ITC must reverse these tariffs to prevent
future harm to publishers, printers and domestic paper producers. If the ITC does not reverse these tariffs on Aug. 29, these duties will continue to cause harm in the marketplace, unless Congress stops them. Action Requested: We encourage you to contact your representatives and senators and ask that they co-sponsor the PRINT Act (S. 2835 / H.R. 6031), which would pause the collection of newsprint tariffs until further study is done on the impact on publishers and printers. To date, 31 senators and 38 representatives have co-sponsored the legislation. Our goal is to reach 60 cosponsors in the Senate and 100 in the House before Labor Day. In the meantime, if you have any questions or have reports on any communications with policymakers, please contact Paul Boyle at paul@newsmediaalliance.org.
Mike Tom sells Pomeroy paper to Loyal and Charlotte Baker Mike Tom sold his 136-year-old East Washingtonian weekly newspaper to neighboring publishers Loyal and Charlotte Baker effective July 19. After graduating from the University of Oregon Tom spent several years in advertising prior to purchasing the East Washingtonian. After 31 years publishing Garfield County’s only newspaper Tom, 69, is retiring with his wife Galina to his native Hawaii. The Bakers publish the Dayton Chronicle located 37 miles southwest of Pomeroy. Plans are to
maintain offices in both communities. Mr. and Mrs. Baker both have deep roots in the region. Loyal graduated from Waitsburg High School in 1976. He later graduated from Eastern Washington University with a journalism degree. He spent six years as field editor with Cowles Publishing in Spokane prior to returning to Waitsburg as publisher of his parents’ weekly newspaper there. Charlotte Baker is a native of Dayton, graduating from Dayton High School. After graduating from Eastern Washington
University with a degree in music education she spent 35 years teaching at college and at high school and elementary schools. Additionally, she operated private piano and voice studios in Dayton and Spokane. For the past four years she has served the family’s community newspaper as publisher and managing editor. Charlotte will continue filling those positions while Loyal focuses on advertising sales. Dave Gauger with Gauger Media Service, Inc., a media brokerage firm in Raymond, Wash. represented the seller.
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The Washington Newspaper August 2018 3
Legislative task force forming to redefine state Public Records Act The following story was published Aug. 3, 2018 in The Spokane Spokesman-Review.
Two Spokane-area representatives were named to a group trying to develop rules for records the Legislature long believed could be kept private but a judge has ruled should be open to the public. Reps. Matt Shea, of Spokane Valley, and Mike Volz, of Spokane, are the House Republican Caucus choices to sit on a Public Records Act task force. That group is part of a compromise that followed a contentious few days in February during which legislators passed a controversial bill to exempt themselves from parts of the state Public Records Act, but many later asked Gov. Jay Inslee to veto it. The compromise was announced along with the veto. Shea and Volz both voted for that bill. Shea – a sometime critic of the news media – was one of two House members who spoke in favor of it during an unusual legislative process that took less than an hour for the bill to pass both chambers. The bill was roundly criticized by the state’s news media, with rare front-page editorials in many Washington newspapers. Shea accused opponents of the bill of having “for-profit” motives. Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate each selected two members to the task force, which also has three members
representing the news media, three representing the general public and a longtime advocate for open government. Shea and Volz are the only members from the Spokane area. The final approval of members and a schedule for meetings is expected to be released next week, with recommendations due in December. The task force was part of an agreement between the Legislature and the news media after lawmakers lost a court fight over an exemption they had long claimed from the state’s Public Records Act. A coalition of news organizations, led by the Associated Press and including The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, Allied Daily Newspapers, Sound Publishing, The Seattle Times, The SpokesmanReview and others, sued after reporters’ requests for documents sent to all 147 legislators and their leaders were mostly denied. The requested records included calendar entries, text messages related to legislative duties and complaints and investigative reports about claims of improper conduct. Although a few lawmakers released calendar information and texts, most refused to release anything. They claimed they were exempt from the Public Records Act initially approved by voters because of amendments the Legislature made in 1995, 2005 and 2007. Thurston County Superior Court Chris
4 The Washington Newspaper August 2018
Lanese ruled in January, however, that individual lawmakers’ offices can’t keep those records secret. The case was appealed to the state Supreme Court, but in late February, the Legislature moved with record speed to change the law and make some of its records public while creating broad exemptions to keep others secret. A bill was introduced and came to the Senate floor one day after it was announced. It had no hearing, and only supporters spoke in favor of it before the vote. It passed 41-7, then moved to the House about 20 minutes later where Shea urged members to vote yes. He said the Legislature was at its most transparent and open time in history and criticized Lanese’s decision and the news media that was seeking legislative records. “We are having to respond to a court twisting the plain meaning of the law,” Shea said. “We are a separate branch of government and this bill, very clearly, restores the separation of powers. “Some that are raising the most consternation about this bill are forprofit companies … This bill protects the people.” House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, of Yelm, said Shea was selected because he’s a member of leadership and one of its members who is an attorney. Volz, who is also chief deputy treasurer for Spokane County, was chosen because of his long experience in local
government. “I don’t think our caucus has an anti-press theory,” Wilcox said. “Our direction is going to be for far more openness.” The concerns revolve around protecting the identity of whistleblowers and others who contact members with private concerns, Wilcox said. But front-page editorials in newspapers across the state and a flood of emails, calls and letters by opponents prompted many legislators to change their minds. Five days after it passed with huge margins, 16 Senate Democrats and 40 House Democrats wrote to Inslee urging a veto and the entire House Republican Caucus sent a letter calling a veto “a good start.” The Legislature and news organizations said they would try resolving the dispute and agreed to a stay of Lanese’s order and to work together on a task force to resolve their differences, said Michele Earl-Hubbard, the attorney representing the news organizations. Inslee vetoed the bill March 1. The Legislature adjourned on March 8 and appointments to the task force have been made in the interim. It is expected to hold meetings through December before making its report. TWN Editor’s note: To date no member of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, a nonpartisan group dedicated to government transparency, has been invited to be part of the committee.
New York exec chosen to lead newspaper trade association PARK CITY, Utah— Michelle K. Rea, executive director of the New York Press Association, was elected president of Newspaper AssoRea ciation Managers (NAM) during the groups’ 95th annual summer conference in Park City, Utah. Rea, who has led NYPA since 1992, has nearly four decades in newspaper experience. She is also a former director of resource development for American Red Cross. In acceptance remarks, Rea urged conference attendees to take advantage of their collective market power to reposition their ad placement services and implement a media literacy campaign to remind the public that newspapers deliver the best obtainable version of the truth and consistently deliver the most highly principled version of journalism. “Our associations collectively represent more than 9,400 daily and weekly newspapers published throughout the United States and Canada,” Rea said. “Imagine what we can accomplish if we all get on the same page and deliver a unified message to our readers
and advertisers.” Association members voted to allocate money to study how newspaper associations can retool and better serve their members in a changing mareketplace. Others elected to leadership positions during the NAM conference were Vice President Steve Nixon, executive director of the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association, and Secretary Beth Bennett, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Brian Allfrey, executive director of the Utah Press Association, was elected to serve a three-year term on the NAM board. Continuing directors are Laurie Hieb, executive director of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and Mark Maassen, executive director of the Missouri Press Association. California News Publishers Association Executive Director Tom Newton becomes immediate past president. Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association, serves as the organization’s clerk. Founded in 1923, NAM is a coalition of North American trade associations serving the newspaper industry. The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association is a long time member of NAM.
WNPA JOB BOARD The following are some of the job opportunities available in the area. For full listings and more information, go to wnpa. com and click on Job Board.
in the Northwest through events, print and digital products, bringing credible, relevant coverage to readers and advertisers. Can you be a part of our team? We seek someone who is skilled in business developEDITOR Sound Publishing has ment, contract negotiations, communicates an immediate opening for Editor of the Federal clearly with an internal support team, thrives in Way Mirror. This is not a CRM driven environan entry-level position. ment and has outstanding Requires a hands-on proposal and presentation leader with a minimum of three years newspaper skills. There is a solid book of business, but the experience including writing, editing, pagina- primary goal is growth and territory development. tion, photography, and Do you have what it InDesign skills. Must takes? This position is understand how to lead, field-based (home office) motivate, and mentor a and requires a stronglysmall news staff. motivated person to We offer a competitive travel the territory daily compensation and benefits with regular overnights package including health insurance, paid time off (va- needed. Five+ years of sales experience are cation, sick, and holidays), and 401K with an employer required with a marketing or communications match. degree preferred. If you are interested Benefits include paid in joining the team at time off (PTO), a 401(k)/ the Federal Way Mirror, Roth 401(k) retirement email us your cover letter, plan, company car, resume, up to five of your expense reimbursement best writing clips to: caand insurances. Send reers@soundpublishing. resume and letter of com. Please be sure to include ATTN: EDFWM in interest to EO Media Group, PO Box 2048, the subject line. Salem, OR 97308-2048 Sound Publishing is an or e-mail hr@eomediEqual Opportunity Emagroup.com. ployer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace. Check out our OFFICE MANAGER Methow Valley News website to find out more about us! www.soundpub- is looking for a full-time office manager. Relishing.com. quirements: Attention to detail; ability to work TERRITORY MANAGER Exciting opportunity for under deadline; familiar with bookkeeping and a skilled sales and maraccounting using Quickketing professional with Books, Microsoft Word knowledge of and contacts and Excel; professional in NE Oregon and SE customer service; proofWashington. Capital Press Ag Media reading; computer skills; multi-tasking; plus other is the Northwest’s leading duties as assigned. Previous Ag media outlet. More accounting/bookkeeping than just a newspaper, Capital Press represents Ag experience required. To 5 The Washington Newspaper August 2018
apply, submit a cover letter, resume and references by email, mail or fax. No phone calls. Email: editor@ methowvalleynews.com. Mail: P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856, Fax: (509) 9973277. REPORTER The StatesmanExaminer and Deer Park
Tribune are seeking a full-time reporter based in our Colville, WA office. The reporter will handle general news assignments and some sports writing 7-10 stories a week. He or she will maintain our social media and web presence working closely with the
Publisher/Editor of the Statesman-Examiner and the editor of the Deer Park Tribune. Top candidates will have 2+ years experience in a professional daily or weekly newsroom. Applicants with college newsroom experience will also be considered. This position is
full-time, offers health, dental, vision, paid time off and a gym membership. Pay depends on experience. The S-E and Tribune are equal opportunity employers. Applicants should send a resume, 3 clips of their best work and references to publisher@ statesmanexaminer.com.