October 12, 2006

More programming was added to this year's convention. In addition to the traditional general session programs on Monday and Tuesday mornings, we have added a workshop on Sunday afternoon on how to create a constructive newspaper culture.

We have eliminated the traditional committee meetings on Monday morning, and substituted roundtable discussions for newspaper publishers broken out by circulation size.   For associate members, we’ve added a concurrent session to talk about how SNPA can address the needs of vendors and suppliers.  Both President-Elect Andy Anderson and I plan to be in that session.

We have moved the golf tournament from Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon – after the official adjournment of the convention – and we’ve added a full afternoon of programming on Monday at the new media center at the Naples Daily News.

In addition to adding more programming, we also addressed the concern that many of our members have about the cost of attending the convention, offering alternate hotels that members may choose if they want to come to the convention but avoid the higher room rates at the Ritz-Carlton. 

More importantly, we feel strongly that over time, these kinds of changes will address the perceptions among many of our publishers that the annual convention is too short on programming and too expensive to provide real return on their investments.

You'll also see a number of significant enhancements to the services that SNPA provides its members in the coming year.   These changes will have a positive impact on the long-term strength of the association. Many of these changes will be the result of a year-long effort by SNPA’s Strategic Planning Committee, chaired by Donna Barrett, president and CEO of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Birmingham, Ala.  You will hear about her committee’s report at the convention next week and we will follow-up with a report in next week’s eBulletin.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Naples this weekend for SNPA's 103rd Annual Convention!

If you haven't registered yet for the convention but would like to do so, follow the links below:

• Online Registration.
• Faxable registration form.
• 2006 Annual Convention Program

• Louisiana: Douglas L. Manship Jr., publisher of The Advocate, Baton Rouge. Manship was appointed to the board last year to fill the unexpired term of David Paxton, who was elected treasurer. This year, Manship is being nominated to a full three-year term.
• Mississippi: Todd H. Carpenter, president and chief operating officer of Boone Newspapers. Carpenter succeeds Wanda Jacobs, publisher and CEO of The Mississippi Press in Pascagoula, who has served two terms on the board as the Mississippi director.
• North Carolina: J. Stephen Buckley, publisher of the Burlington Times-News and regional vice president of Freedom Communications. Buckley joined the board a year ago to complete the term of former North Carolina director Peter Ridder, who retired. He now is being nominated for a full three-year term.
• Tennessee: Tom Griscom, publisher and executive editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Griscom succeeds Dan Nausley, president of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, who has served six years as the Tennessee director.
• West Virginia: Norman W. Shumate, vice president and chief financial officer of Charleston Newspapers. He succeeds William O. Nutting, vice president of Ogden Newspapers in Wheeling, who served six years as the director from West Virginia.
• At-Large: Lester T. Simpson, publisher of the Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News. Simpson succeeds James M. Moroney III, publisher and CEO of The Dallas Morning News.

The Nominating Committee also announced two additional appointments.

Clint Shelton, general manager of the Decatur (Ala.) Daily, was appointed to complete the last two years of Donna Barrett's term as the director from Alabama. Barrett has been nominated as SNPA treasurer.

Mary Jacobus, president and chief operating officer of the New York Times Regional Media Group, was appointed to complete the last year of P. Steven Ainsley's term on the board. Ainsley resigned from the board last month after being named publisher of The Boston Globe and head of the New England Media Group.

Each year, the terms expire for three of the nine members of the SNPA Foundation Board of Trustees. The nominees for three-year terms are:

• John J. Fish, president and publisher of the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. He succeeds Gregg K. Jones, co-publisher of the Greeneville (Tenn.) Sun.
• William O. Nutting, vice president of Ogden Newspapers, Wheeling, W.Va. Nutting succeeds Kathleen Waltz, president and publisher of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.
• Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock. Hussman is being nominated for a second three-year term.

The SNPA Board of Directors elects the Foundation trustees. The nominations will be placed before the Board at its meeting on Oct. 15 during the SNPA Convention. The Board of Trustees, in turn, elects its own officers.

The Nominating Committee has nominated the current Foundation officers for re-election to an additional one-year term. The nominees for re-election are:

• Chairman: Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
• Vice-Chairman: Derek Dunn-Rankin, president of Sun Coast Media Group, Charlotte Harbor, Fla.
• Treasurer: D. Jordan Whichard III, publisher of The Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C.

Reserve Ad Space Now in Next Membership Directory – at Early-Bird Rates
Discounted ad rates and premium placement opportunities are available for the 2007-2008 SNPA Membership Directory, but they won't last. You can reserve your preferred space now and we won't bill you until January.

The 2007-2008 book, to be published in late fall 2007, will move beyond a "membership directory," and become a valuable resource for SNPA conferences and services. As such, it is the perfect place for supplier companies to advertise equipment and services that they offer...as well as a chance for newspapers to honor their employees and highlight the roles they play in their local communities.

The SNPA Membership Directory is the ideal publication for your targeted message.

For an advertising insertion form, click here or contact Cindy Durham in the SNPA office.

Talladega Paper Moves into New Home
The Daily Home in Talladega, Ala., moved into a new office building on Sept. 11. The old office space is being demolished and replaced with a parking lot. The previous parking lot will become a landscaped park.

"There is plenty of green space in this project," said Editor and Publisher Carol Pappas. "We hope that The Daily Home will be an anchor for revitalization in this area of town."

The new building is an almost 8,000-square-foot facility that houses the news, circulation, advertising and business departments. The Daily Home staff also produces the St. Clair Times, Coosa Valley Advantage, Coosa Marketplace and Hometown Marketplace, with a reach of nearly 70,000 households across five counties.

In addition to its Talladega headquarters, the newspaper also maintains fully staffed offices in Sylacauga and Pell City.

The newspaper's printing and distribution facilities moved to Anniston four years ago when its parent company, Consolidated Publishing, built a new headquarters for The Anniston Star and a centralized printing facility for all of Consolidated's publications.

In addition to its daily newspapers, The Anniston Star and The Daily Home, Consolidated owns four weeklies – Jacksonville News, Cleburne News, Piedmont Journal and St. Clair Times.

Back to Top of Story

Heartland Publications Acquires Logan Banner
Heartland Publications, LLC has purchased The Logan (W.Va.) Banner and The Coal Valley News (Madison, W.Va.) from Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. of Birmingham, Ala. The acquisition brings the number of newspapers owned by Heartland in West Virginia to six. The Point Pleasant, Williamson, Pineville and Gilbert, W.Va., newspapers also are owned by Heartland.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"It's always a difficult decision to sell newspapers in the communities we serve," said Donna Barrett, CNHI president and CEO. "While no longer strategic to CNHI, we are fortunate these papers fit nicely with Heartland’s plans."

Heartland Publications, LLC, based in Old Saybrook, Conn., now owns and operates 31 paid daily and weekly newspapers in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company's owners are the Wicks Group of Companies, LLC and Wachovia Capital Partners. The Wicks Group of Companies, LLC is a New York-based private equity firm focused on selected segments of the communications, information and media industries. Wachovia Capital Partners, based in Charlotte, N.C., is the principal investing arm of Wachovia Corp.

Back to Top of Story

Starting Monday, Oct. 16, the Times will launch a new weather report that will feature a seven-day local forecast provided by Bay News 9. The weather report also will include an “ask the weather experts” feature, in which Bay News 9’s meteorologists answer questions from Times readers. The Bay News 9 logo will appear at the top of the weather report adjacent to the forecast.

In return, Bay News 9 will routinely feature Times’ journalists on the air and frequently highlight stories from the newspaper in news broadcasts.

The partnership is not exclusive – Bay News 9 has arrangements with other newspapers and the Times will continue to place its journalists on other broadcast outlets locally and nationally. And while the two news organizations will collaborate on news and weather, they remain completely independent and in full control over their own news reports.

This is the third formal partnership between Bay News 9 and the Times. The two organizations collaborated successfully on a hurricane guide earlier this year. They are currently partners in the Sunday current events talk show, Political Connections.

Back to Top of Story

Back to Top of Story

• The New York Times has signed an order for a new Goss Colorliner double-width press for its production facility in Queens, N.Y. The new press, with 12 towers and 96 printing couples, is scheduled to be installed in early 2008. The agreement also calls for Goss International to complete web-width reduction projects on five existing Colorliner presses at the facility.
• Every year, defined contribution plan sponsors must make sure their plans meet certain compliance requirements, Fisher & Phillips reminds clients in its Fall 2006 Benefits Update. The checklist contained in this report will help newspapers that have defined contribution plans. Click here for the report by Callan Carter of Fisher & Phillips' Atlanta office.

Judge: City Must Pay The Clarion-Ledger $13,000
A Hinds County chancery judge issued an order Tuesday that could bring to an end to a battle between the city of Jackson and The Clarion-Ledger over public documents. Chancery Judge Denise Owens ordered the city to pay nearly $13,000 in fees to cover more than half of The Clarion-Ledger's legal costs in its lawsuit against the City Clerk's office, City Council members and Mayor Frank Melton. To read the full article from The Clarion-Ledger, click here. To read the open records judgment, click here.

Online Ethics: The Beginning of the End of the Ad Hoc Era?
During a recent conference at The Poynter Institute, participants discussed ethical issues surrounding online ethics in five main areas: voice and tone; revenue and content; credibility and accuracy; resources and capacity; and user-generated content. Rick Edmonds, an observer at that conference, reports his impressions in "Online Ethics: The Beginning of the End of the Ad Hoc Era?

Mark Cuban: Newspapers Should be More Expensive
In a keynote address before the Online News Association, Dallas Mavericks owner and HDnet founder Mark Cuban said he doesn't understand why newspapers aren't more expensive. "The value proposition is much better than what you're having to pay for," he said, adding that he thinks newspaper owners "just don't have the guts" to charge more. To read the online article from Editor & Publisher, click here.

Reader's Corner contains, from time to time, links that require registration on another site. Registration rules and requirements are established by the host site and participation by eBulletin readers is entirely voluntary. Articles cited here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SNPA or its Board of Directors. Links refer the reader to the source material.

Entering Contests Can Save Papers Money, Talent

By Randy Hines

What’s your newspaper's most powerful workplace motivator?  No.  It's not cash.   Surveys continually say employees want recognition.

We're talking about personal recognition beyond bylines for editorial and commission checks for advertising.  Entering state press association and SNPA contests is one way to let employees receive a pat on the back from their peers for excellent work.   

Some papers still put great work on bulletin boards or in newsletters (or e-newsletters) for all to see.  Mentioning outstanding performance before peers is always a good motivator.  Meetings are great venues to point out quality work by employees or whole departments.

Recognition programs produce good returns on investments. Many can be rather low cost, which should make them attractive to newspapers.  In a recent management questionnaire, two-thirds of 3,000 employers said they use or plan to use special recognition awards for their workers.

Promotional products are often distributed by companies to their staffs as an incentive.  Printed with the newspaper name or slogan, the product becomes a subtle billboard throughout the workplace and community if worn or used in public.

Employee improvement programs often have been built around such incentives.  Many publications, for example, have reduced their insurance rates or worker's compensation claims through a concerted effort stressing safety in the pressroom.  Newspapers typically provide such items as polo shirts, T-shirts, baseball caps, mugs, umbrellas and even jackets for deeds well done. 

Workers who leave their positions cost SNPA papers dearly – beyond missing a great writer or copyeditor.  The American Management Association estimates that losing employees costs 50 percent to 200 percent of their annual salaries.  Filling a job vacancy takes on average from six to eight weeks.  Just take a look at the SNPA employment site on the web and you'll see how much is at stake.

Randy Hines is an associate professor at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He writes frequently on media topics and is coauthor of The Writer's Toolbox: A Comprehensive Guide for PR and Business Communication (2005, Kendall/Hunt). He can be reached at randyhinesapr@yahoo.com.

eBulletin Archives Now Available
Can't remember when you saw it in the SNPA eBulletin Find it in the eBulletin archives.All of the SNPA eBulletins from November 2000 to the present are just a few clicks away. Here's how to access them:

• Log on to the members section of the SNPA web site – www.snpa.org.Choose "eBulletin" from the menu on the left rail of the home page.Enter your search term and press "Enter."Links to all the eBulletins in which that term appears will be listed. If you'd like to see all of the eBulletins, enter "eBulletin" as the search term.
• Have more questions Contact anyone on the SNPA staff at (404) 256-0444.

List Newspaper Job Openings on the SNPA Web Site
SNPA member newspapers can post job openings free of charge on the SNPA web site. To post your job, send the text of the ad to jobs@snpa.org. Most announcements will stay on the site for a month, but you can request shorter or longer runs. Click here to access the SNPA Jobs Board.