Volume 79 June 2016 No. 12 INSIDE Events announced … Franklin Cool Springs Marri-ott in Franklin,...

No. 12Volume 79 June 2016

INSIDEFrom Your Presiding

Reporter

Page 2

Industry NewsPage 3

Just Saying: Exit strategy

needs years of prep

Page 4

Seven tips to grow your

Facebook audience

Page 6

TracksPage 7

By Design: Consistency

trumps creativity

Page 8

NNA: New OT rule could

handcuff newspapers

Page 9

Gibson: Recap of 2016

legislative session

1

News Guru: 3 common

questions asked onsite

Page 12

Events announced for TPA Summer Convention July 21-22 in Franklin

Tennessee Press Association

members should plan now to

attend the TPA Summer Conven-

tion, scheduled for July 21-22 at

the Franklin Cool Springs Marri-

ott in Franklin, Tenn. This event

is for publishers, editors, con-

tests entrants, advertising and

circulation personnel. Awards

in the Ideas Contest and State

Press Contests will be presented,

along with educational sessions

and membership meetings.

State Press AwardsAwards for the Tennessee

State Press Contests, sponsored

by the University of Tennessee

and TPA, will be presented on

Thursday, July 21 at an evening

banquet. Sessions for editorial

staff will also be offered on

Friday. (NOTE: Winning news-

papers were notifi ed of awards,

but not placement, on May 23.)

One-On-One Consults with Kevin Slimp

At the TPA convention in

Franklin, Kevin will be on hand

for one-on-one consults with

publishers and editors to look

over their papers and discuss whatever is on their minds from technology review to workfl ow to design to pre-press or other aspects of publishing. These 20-minute consults are popular with newspaper conventions around the country.

Newsroom SessionsKevin Slimp, director of the In-

stitute of Newspaper Technology, will share what he has learned visiting more than 100 news-rooms across the U.S. and Cana-da this year. Slimp will also pres-ent Getting the Best Results from Your Printed Photos—editing and color correction in Photoshop. He has tested newspaper presses from California to Rhode Island over the past months in an effort to determine what newspapers can do on the pre-press side to get optimum results. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn what he has learned to make your pictures even better.

Additional newsroom sessions will be announced for the 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. time slots.

Advertising & Circulation Conference

The 2016 Advertising & Circulation Ideas Contest Awards will be presented at the breakfast on Friday, July 22, followed by sessions for advertising and circulation per-sonnel throughout the day.

Advertising ProgramAdvertising sessions will focus

on sales training presented by Tim Smith of Tim Smith Con-sulting. Smith has been in the training and development fi eld for more than 30 years, and he worked in the newspaper and print industry for more than 12 years. He started out in circula-tion, worked in production and later worked on the sales side of the business. He was pro-moted to sales manager for the results he delivered, especially

ROBYN GENTILE Member Services Manager

TPAF-owned building sold in April

Tennessee Press Association fi le photo

The Tennessee Press Association Foundation-owned building at 435

Montbrook Lane in Knoxville was sold on April 15 to Apex Bank. The

property, dedicated in April 2005 and built to house the operations

of TPA, Tennessee Press Service and the Foundation, served as head-

quarters for the organizations for a decade. At 8,000 square feet, the

building was too large after Tennessee Press Service downsized op-

erations in 2014. The three corporations have been housed in 3,600

square feet of leased space in downtown Knoxville since April 2015.

Prior to the construction and occupation of the Montbrook Facility,

the Foundation built and owned a smaller building on Office Park

Circle from 1991 until 2005.

in revenue, repeat business and new-business development.

The training will be divided into four sessions: Sales questions and how to set up an appointment; bundling and selling print in a digital world; selling to different personalities; and handling objections and closing skills.

Circulation Program

Circulation sessions will begin by combining with advertising for the segment on sales ques-tions and how to set up an appointment. The circulation

program will then break out into three sessions: Single Copy—Sell-ing them one at a time, present-ed by Steve Learn, The Daily Herald, Columbia; Ideas from the Southern Circulation Managers Association conference, presented by Daniel Trent, Citizen Tribune,

See CONVENTION Page 11

Visit Franklin/Williamson Co. CVB

Historic downtown Franklin is a

hub of shops, galleries, restau-

rants and other attractions.

Visit Franklin/Williamson Co. CVB

Nashville is known as Music City, and that

nickname extends to surrounding commu-

nities, such as Franklin.

The Tennessee Press is printed on recycled paper

and is recyclable.

The Tennessee Press can be read on

If it wasn’t blowing already, the full gale of the political season soon will be upon us, with the Republican National Convention starting July 18 in Cleveland and the Democratic National Conven-tion taking place the following week in Philadelphia.

Here in Tennessee, the federal and state primaries and local general elections will be Aug. 4, meaning early voting begins July 15.

Many of us will be meeting soon with candidates to weigh political endorsements.

As in years past, some skeptics will ask: Why bother?

Years ago, that question wouldn’t have come up. Newspa-pers were partisan organs. It went without saying that they would back candidates in news columns as well as on opinion pages.

That started to change after the 1800s, thanks in part to a man who cut his teeth in newspaper-ing in Knoxville and Chattanooga then went on to buy the failing New York Times and build it into the nation’s leading newspaper: Adolph Ochs.

Ochs believed in objective jour-nalism, which became the stan-dard for reporting in American newspapers. Still, throughout the 20th century, almost all papers published editorials, too, erecting barriers between their opinion and news departments. Those editorials included endorsements.

Some newspapers wary of hyper-partisan views

More recently, though, some newspapers have backed away from the practice.

Columbia Journalism Review reported the wave of newspapers abandoning endorsements two years ago, including the Portland Press-Herald in Maine, the Mid-land Reporter-Telegram in Texas and the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin, which announced it was ending the practice be-cause “we want to be an inde-pendent voice amid the growing clamor of voices espousing hyper-partisan views.”

That, according to the maga-zine, followed a retreat in 2012 that included the Chicago Sun-Times and more than 30 papers in the Halifax Media chain, including the Sarasota Herald-Tri-bune, Gainesville Sun and Wilm-ington Star-News.

So some newspapers seem to believe endorsements don’t matter, and in this year’s GOP presidential primaries they’d have been right.

Kasich racked up many endorsements, to no avail

John Kasich was the darling of the editorial boards in the fi rst half of 2016. In South Carolina, for instance, both of the state’s largest papers – The State, and The Post and Courier – endorsed the Ohio governor for the Feb. 20 primary. He came in fi fth. That didn’t stop other newspa-pers from backing Kasich. His endorsers included The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, the Boston Globe, The Ari-zona Republic, the Seattle Times, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Clari-on-Ledger, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Indianapolis Star and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, won the backing of the National Enquirer, the New York Post and the New York Observer.

Newspaper endorsements “don’t sway people,” Todd Gitlin, a professor of journal-ism and sociology at Columbia University, told USA Today earlier this year. “The era when the endorsements mattered was before talk radio, was before Fox News, was before the more severe polarization” of the na-tion’s political discourse.

Well, maybe. After the 2008 elections, my paper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, stopped endorsing in presidential elections. We de-cided that, with no more knowl-edge or access than an average citizen, a presidential endorse-ment was merely an expression of partisanship by the newspaper that provided no added value to our readers.

Endorsements still im-portant for local races

But in local races, endorse-ments are different.

First, those races often aren’t partisan. School board and mu-nicipal elections may be entirely nonpartisan, and primaries match candidates of the same party. Only a fraction of local elections

pit Republicans against Demo-crats in competitive face-offs.

Also, our newspaper editorial boards have the opportunity to interview candidates face-to-face and examine their positions and backgrounds in-depth, something that’s much tougher for individu-al voters.

At the News Sentinel, we invite all candidates in contested races to meet with our editorial board before every election. During these interviews, we represent our readers and their interests. But we also take the opportunity to watch out for the newspa-per’s interests, too, questioning candidates about their attitudes toward open government and a free press.

In making our endorsements, we consider many factors: What is the candidate’s experience, in life and public service? What level of honesty or political courage do they demonstrate? How committed do they seem to be? Are they rep-resentative of their communities? What will they bring to the mix of perspectives on a legislative body? Do their positions refl ect special interests or the broader interests of the citizenry?

In some races, we fi nd two or more candidates who would make fi ne public offi cials. In others, we may not like any. But we endorse in every race. The electorate, after all, has to make a choice, and it would be a cop-out if we didn’t.

Many people disagree with our recommendations — of course — and we’re perfectly happy if they do. All of our editorials are intended to foster public debate and discourse. That’s an essen-tial duty a newspaper owes to its community, never more so than during elections.

Happily, most Tennessee news-papers still make endorsements, following procedures like those at the News Sentinel. I encour-age all to continue the practice in the upcoming elections and beyond.

Sure, we might irritate some people, and even make a few enemies. But if we carry out the practice with fairness and integri-ty and remain focused on serving our communities, we’ll come out ahead.

We’ll also remain engaged with the politicians who will wield power after the elections are over.

Jack McElroy is the president of the Tennessee Press Association and editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel.

www.tnpress.comOFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION

(USPS 616-460)Published monthly by the

TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION, INC.625 Market Street, Suite 1100Knoxville, Tennessee 37902

Telephone (865) 584-5761/Fax (865) 558-8687/www.tnpress.com

Subscriptions: $6 annuallyPeriodicals Postage Paid At Knoxville, TN

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Tennessee Press, 625 Market Street, Suite 1100, Knoxville, TN 37902.

The Tennessee Press is printed by The Standard Bannerin Jeff erson City, Tenn.

Vacant .................................................................................................................................................... Editor Mike Towle .................................................................................................................. Managing EditorRobyn Gentile .......................................................................................... Production Coordinator

• The Tennessee Press • June 2016

TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION

Jack McElroy, Knoxville News Sentinel ..................................................................................PresidentW.R. (Ron) Fryar, Cannon Courier ...............................................................................Vice PresidentEric Barnes, Th e Daily News, Memphis .......................................................................Vice PresidentJohn Finney, Buff alo River Review, Linden ...........................................................................TreasurerJoel Washburn, Th e McKenzie Banner ...................................................Immediate Past PresidentVacant ............................................................................................................................. Executive Director

DIRECTORS

Keith Wilson, Kingsport Times-News ...................................................................................District 1Carl Esposito, Th e Daily Times, Maryville ............................................................................District 2Chris Vass, Chattanooga Times Free Press ...........................................................................District 3Scott Winfree, Carthage Courier .............................................................................................District 4William Mitchell, Shelbyville Times-Gazette . .....................................................................District 5Carol Daniels, Th e Leaf-Chronicle, Claksville ....................................................................District 6Keith Ponder, Th e Daily Herald ................................................................................................District 7Joe Hurd, Th e Courier, Savannah .............................................................................................District 8Scott Critchlow, Union City Daily Messenger .....................................................................District 9Daniel Richardson, Crockett County Times Alamo .......................................................District 10

TENNESSEE PRESS SERVICE

Victor Parkins, Th e Milan Mirror-Exchange ......................................................................President Jana Th omasson, Th e Mountain Press, Sevierville ................................................. Vice PresidentRalph C. Baldwin, Jones Media Inc., Greeneville ................................................................ DirectorDavid Critchlow Jr., Union City Daily Messenger ............................................................... DirectorW.R. (Ron) Fryar, Cannon Courier ........................................................................................... DirectorDave Gould, Main Street Media, of Tennessee, Gallatin .................................................... Director Vacant .................................................................................................................. Executive Vice President

TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION

Gregg K. Jones, Th e Greeneville Sun .......................................................................................PresidentVictor Parkins, Th e Milan Mirror-Exchange ............................................................Vice PresidentRichard L. Hollow, Knoxville ......................................................................................General CounselVacant ............................................................................................................................ Secretary-Treasurer

CONTACT THE MANAGING EDITOR

TPAers with suggestions, questions or comments about items in The Tennessee Press are welcome to contact the managing editor. Call Mike Towle, (615) 293-5771; send a note to 117 Township Court,Hendersonville, TN 37075, or email [email protected]. The deadline for the August issue is Tuesday, July 5.

Political endorsements still play vital role in campaign coverage

YOUR

PRESIDING

REPORTER

JACK MCELROY

June 2016 • The Tennessee Press •

JUNE 2016

12-14: 69th World News Media

Congress 2016, Cartagena,

Colombia

16-19: Investigative Reporters

and Editors Conference, New

Orleans Marriott, New Orleans,

La.

JULY 2016

21-22: TPA Summer Convention,

Franklin Marriott Cool Springs,

Franklin, Tenn.

AUGUST 2016

3-7: National Association of

Black Journalists Convention

and Career Fair, Washington

Marriott Wardman Park,

Washington, DC

4-7: Association for Education in

Journalism and Mass Commu-

nication Annual Conference,

Hilton Hotel, Minneapolis,

Minn.

9-12: Newspaper Association

Managers Annual Meeting &

Summer Conference, Pepper-

mill Resort, Reno, Nev.

SEPTEMBER 2016

8-10: National Federation of

Press Women Annual Conven-

tion, Wichita, Kan.

22-24: NNA’s Annual Convention

& Trade Show, Cool Springs

Marriott, Franklin, Tenn.

30-Oct. 1: APME News Train,

Middle Tennessee State Uni-

versity, Murfreesboro

OCTOBER 2016

2-8: National Newspaper Week

5-8: Institute of Newspaper

Technology, Knoxville

31: Deadline for nominations for

Tennessee Newspaper Hall of

Fame

FOR YOUR CALENDARINDUSTRY NEWS

Times publisher receives national recognition

Manchester Times publisher Josh Peterson has been select-ed by the National Newspaper Association (NNA) as part of the country’s “Top 30 Under 30” of newspaper professionals. The award groups Peterson with 29 other newspaper professionals across the country under the age of 30 who have demonstrat-ed “professional excellence” in their fi eld throughout their careers.

“I really have no words to respond to such a great honor,” said Peterson, who has been with the Times since November of 2005 and has been publisher since May of 2015. He is 29.

“Anytime your name is

mentioned alongside some great, up-and-comers in the newspaper industry, it is both humbling and reassuring,” Peterson said. “We have a great staff here at the Times and we all come to work every day with the intent to do what’s best for our readers and this community.”

Peterson started working at the Times as a part-time sports writer, was promoted to sports editor and was later named editor of the paper in June 2010. The Times won the Tennessee Press Association’s General Ex-cellence Award for the fi rst time in the paper’s 135-year history in 2013 thanks to 15 editorial contest awards, including fi rst place photography by John Coffelt and column writing by Peterson.

“Great news and communi-ty-minded folks have done truly great things at this newspaper; and that is a history and tradi-tion that I hope to live up to,” Peterson said.

Jeff Fishman, president of Lakeway Publisher’s Middle Tennessee Division, which is parent company to the Times, offered his congratulations. “There are few who surpass the impact on a community like a newspaper publisher. Josh has once again been appropriately recognized for his commit-ment to our industry and the communities served,” Fishman said. “The award honors young industry leaders by showcasing their energy, innovation and vitality.”

Manchester TimesApril 27, 2016

Daily Times earns three fi rsts at TAPME awards

The Daily Times, of Maryville, received three fi rst-place awards during the 2016 Tennessee AP Broadcasters and Media Editors News Excellence Awards in April.

The awards, presented by Middle Tennessee State Uni-versity School of Journalism, honored excellence in tele-vision, newspaper and radio journalism in 2015. The Daily Times competed in Division

II for state newspapers with a circulation between 15,000 and 50,000 including The Jackson Sun, The Bristol Herald Couri-er, The Johnson City Press and The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, among others.

“All of our award-winning journalists have certainly earned this recognition and the congratulations that go with it,” Daily Times Publisher Carl Esposito said. “It’s especially pleasing to see awards in two

areas we’ve placed increasing focus on in the past year, busi-ness coverage and our expand-ing digital audience.”

The Daily Times website, www.thedailytimes.com, ad-ministered by Wesley Miller, was a fi rst-place winner.

The Daily Times staff was recognized with a fi rst place in daily deadline for its breaking and follow-up coverage of the CSX train derailment, of which the judges said, “... an excellent

job of covering the story from all angles for its readers.”

City Editor Robert Norris won fi rst place in business coverage for his story “Cir-rus Thunders

into Alcoa” that detailed Gov. Bill Haslam’s offi cial announce-ment that Cirrus Aircraft’s Project Thunder was locating its Customer Experience Center in the West Aviation Area.

Business writer Melissa Erickson gave The Daily Times two of the three places in busi-

ness awards with her story “The Big Bang,” which followed the Advanced Mu-nitions Interna-tional decision to build its new campus in Alcoa rather

than Texas. Wes Wade and Joel Davis were recognized with an honorable mention in daily deadline coverage for “Accident Kills Five Family Members.”

In the other writing cate-gories, Sunday Life Editor Linda Albert received a third place in sports/outdoors writing for “Let’s Talk Tur-key.” Weekend editor Steve

Wildsmith received an honor-able mention in feature writing for “The Long Goodbye,” and the editorial team of Norris and editor Frank “Buzz” Trexler received third in opinion page editorials.

Among the awards that were given out in the category for photogra-phy, The Daily Times photog-raphers earned a second, two thirds and an honorable men-tion. Mark A. Large took

second place in photojournal-ism and a third place in sports photography. Joy Kimbrough earned a third-place award in spot news photography and earned an honorable mention in feature photography.

The Daily Times, MaryvilleApril 11, 2016

Daily Times wins 9 fi rst-place awards at Golden Press Card banquet

The East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists recently held its an-nual Golden Press card awards banquet for 2015, and staff members from The Daily Times were recognized in a number of categories.

The Daily Times received fi rst-place “awards of excel-lence” in nine categories, including an award for the entire staff in the category of news reporting for coverage of the 2015 CSX train derailment in Maryville.

Also, receiving awards of ex-cellence were Steve Wildsmith (for general reporting, “The Long Goodbye,” and feature writing, “The Running of the

Wolves”); Lesli Bales-Sherrod (for series writing, “Wal-Mart Zoning and Development Issues”); Linda Albert (for per-sonal columns, “Where I Came From”); Marcus Fitzsimmons (for headline writing and for information graphics, “Who Has the Ball?); and Daryl Sulli-van (for deadline photography, “Man Found Not Guilty,” and for feature photography, “Pie in the Face”).

The staff received seven second-place “awards of merit,” including one for the news-paper’s entire sports team for its coverage of the Universi-ty of Tennessee vs. Georgia

football game. Also receiving awards of merit were Melissa Erickson (for general report-ing, “DuPont Closing Vonore Refi nery”); Melanie Tucker (for feature writing, “A Leader Among Men”); Steve Wildsmith

Kimbrough

Peterson

NorrisMiller

Erickson Albert

Trexler

Davis

Bales-Sherrod

Wade

Wildsmith

Large

Fitzsimmons

Sullivan Tucker

See NEWS Page 5

When I got my fi rst newspaper job in 1976, my dad, a creative craftsman, took a 14-inch-high metal sculpture he had inherited from his dad, another innovator, and turned it into a desk lamp for me.

The sculpture, which resides proudly in my offi ce, is of a newsboy hawking his wares, a paper labeled “Evening News,” and the nameplate at the base reads: “6 p.m.”

I recently retired from what will be my last newsroom job, and I’ll spare you the math problem: That’s a 40-year career in newspapers, a span in which our industry has faced mortal peril.

What, I’ve been asked, is the biggest difference between reporting today and reporting in the 1970s and 1980s?

The answer is easy: urgency.I was lucky that the two

papers I worked for as a full-time reporter were PMs, which meant when my workday start-ed, usually at or before 7 a.m., everything I was doing was in a hurry, an effort to squeeze out a story (or sometimes, more than one) in a very com-pressed time.

That meant if my editor said, “Hey, Stasiowski, we need

(whatever) …,” I had no choice but to start dialing the phone before he or she fi nished the sentence.

That sense of urgency never left me. In my 14 years as a full-time reporter, I can’t recall a moment that I wasn’t chasing stories. I either had a telephone in my hand or my fi ngertips on the keyboard.

And that wasn’t true of only me; my colleagues, too, always were racing for another source, another fact, another story.

The culture has changed, however. First of all, there are so few PM papers that young reporters don’t often have the same right-from-the-start dead-line pressure that disciplined me. The morning-paper deadline is such that many reporters can arrive at a reasonable hour and spend time getting settled before the chase begins.

Second, there is that Inter-net. A reporter who gets an assignment – “Hey (you), we need (whatever),” – can justify waiting on the fi rst phone call by Googling for background on (whatever).

I do see the value in seeking out background; it helps report-ers ask better questions when the phone calls start.

But that seeking from the Internet has a drawback: If we wait to start calling, we risk not reaching the sources crucial to our stories.

(And Internet research has its built-in drawbacks. Websites for organizations or people often are misleading because they haven’t been updated, or their information is vague or self-serving rather than accurate or enlightening.)

Third – and this is a person-al observation rather than any kind of scientifi c conclusion – younger reporters of today are so accustomed to the electronic marvels of email and texting, they don’t grow up enjoying the more competitive effort involved in either phone-call or in-person interviewing.

Here’s a small example: Whenever I’m in a newsroom, I hear reporters who call a

source, and the fi rst thing they say is, “Do you have time to talk right now?”

That is a polite approach, but it also gives the source a perfect opportunity to say, “No, I don’t. Let’s talk later.”

My advice: Don’t waste a con-nection with a source. His or her agreement to “talk later” may be sincere, but it’s still risky, as a million distractions may inter-vene, including the completely plausible “I forgot” excuse.

Obviously, there are circum-stances that dictate a different approach. If the source is for a feature and he or she is not me-dia-savvy, offering a later inter-view is perfectly reasonable. But if the source is a public offi cial or hard-to-reach newsmaker, I opt for launching right into the interview.

Even when the reporter doesn’t offer the “Do you have time …?” option, a source can say, “I’m really busy right now, can we do this later?”

My response is automatic: “I really have only a couple of quick questions.” I say that even when I know I’ll need more than a minute or two for the interview. I consider that an excusable ruse because often, the source who pleads “really

busy” will stay on the line for as long as necessary to get his or her points across.

Urgency is important not merely in chasing down sourc-es. As an editor, I always needed to know, as soon as possible, whether a story really was going to come through. If I know early enough that a reporter’s story is unlikely, I can shift him or her to something perhaps less-re-warding but more of a sure thing.

THE FINAL WORD: I seem to be seeing the phrase, “For his (or her) part, … etc.,” more often than before.

It almost always precedes a section in which the source is disagreeing with what came immediately before: “For his part, Nichols refused to … .” The three-word phrase usually is superfl uous, the kind of brief introduction that fi ts in speech but merely takes up space in serious writing.

Writing coach Jim Stasiowski, retired managing editor of the Rapid City Journal, welcomes your questions or comments. Call him at (775) 354-2872, or write to 2499 Ivory Ann Drive, Sparks, Nev. 89436.


Reporting basics have evolved over 40 years

Exit strategy needs at least 3 years’ lead time

WRITING

COACH

JIM STASIOWSKI

Many smaller publishers who are part of the aging U.S. popu-lation are counting on the sale of their business as part of their retirement. Usually, those publish-ers’ expectations are based on a multiple of the publication’s an-nual revenues. In today’s market, unless the publication has extraor-dinary cash fl ow, that multiple to revenue paid will be between 50 percent and 100 percent. The weighting of the multiple is tied to several factors, including revenue trends, household penetration, print competition, general health of the economy in the markets served, the stage in development of a digital strategy and the growth potential.

More importantly, today’s buyers place much heavier weight on the newspaper’s generation of cash fl ow. In today’s market, buy-ers are typically paying 3.5X-5.5X adjusted cash fl ow (available cash fl ow after all expenses including owner compensation, with add backs for any interest, amortiza-tion, depreciation, expenses that would not accrue to a buyer, and owner perks). Weighting is tied to

the same factors mentioned above, with cash fl ow trends taking cen-ter stage. In the sale of a newspa-per to a strategic buyer, operating and sales synergies may kick into place, driving cash fl ow upward. To a strategic buyer, a higher mul-tiple paid at closing may translate into a much more conservative multiple once those synergies kick into place. A newspaper will not typically sell for a price beyond what the debt service will require. And a bank is certainly not going to fi nance a transaction where there is not enough cash, day one, to cover the debt service.

There are several steps pub-lishers can take to potentially increase the value of their publi-cation. Putting these into action

over a three-to-fi ve-year period should set the stage for a smooth and rewarding transaction.

1. Specify goals and objectives.Achieving optimal value begins by clearly articulating goals and ob-jectives. These will be both fi nan-cial (liquidity, sale price, taxation/estate planning) and non-fi nancial (succession, legacy and reputation, employee and stakeholder con-cerns, and other special interests). Sellers need to ask: To whom do I want to sell/transfer the business (owner-operator, strategic buyer/competitor, fi nancial investor)? How long do I want to work/be involved? Do I want to maintain some upside/risk? Are there em-ployees or others whom I want to protect/reward?

2. Determine the right time to sell. Value is optimized when a sale is proactive rather than reac-tive. A three-to-fi ve-year timeframe allows the company to demon-strate consistent growth that will optimize its appeal to buyers.

Beyond fi nancials, this time-frame enables the company to demonstrate long-term relation-ships with customers and ven-

dors. It also provides suffi cient time to ensure that an effective support team is in place long before a potential transaction.

3. Have all records ready be-fore you go to market. Automate your accounting systems and make sure you can provide de-tailed profi t & loss statements and balance sheets for the past three years and as far into the present year as reasonable. Get your tax-es in order and your fi lings up to date. Maintain detailed advertiser and subscription lists, as well as records for newsstand sales.

4. If a key member of your staff has left, replace them. Especially in ad sales. There’s no sympathy from buyers if sales are down because you are under-staffed. Positive revenue trends are very important. Don’t retire before you sell, run your business as if it were “Not for Sale.” Continue to promote your business, actively pursue new advertising accounts and subscribers. Keep your cir-culation audits up to date. Buyers are looking for predictability and avenues for growth, not a static or declining business.

5. Implement those cost-cutting moves now. If there are some log-ical steps you can take to bolster your bottom line, without hurting the quality of your pub or your household penetration, implement them. These steps could include re-bidding your printing, elim-inating your in-house printing operation if it is no longer-cost effective, cutting circulation to ar-eas where you are not generating signifi cant advertising support, further automating your opera-tions. It might also mean partially revamping your staff.

6. Be competitive. Consider bolstering your household pene-tration to a level advertisers will embrace while keeping your com-petition at bay. Mine your data (assuming you have collected it – it’s never too late) and work with advertisers to develop digital and mobile marketing campaigns that reach your subscriber base.

7. Merchandise within your pages. Are there key advertising categories you can secure by adding content within your pages

JUST

SAYING!

LEWIS FLOYD

See FLOYD Page 8

(personal columns); Mike Sisco (headline writing); Joy Kim-brough (deadline photography,

“Felon Up the Creek”); and Tom Sher-lin (feature photography, “Water Balloon Explodes”).

Receiving third-place awards at the Golden Press Card ceremo-ny were Lesli Bales-Sher-rod for “Vet’s T-shirt Goes Vi-ral,” and Mark A. Large in feature photog-raphy for “Plan Bee.”

The Gold-en Press card

awards are given every year to journalists in East Tennessee to recognize outstanding personal achievement and service to the community.

The Daily Times, MaryvilleApril 25, 2016

Herald Courier wins 35 awards combined over two state contests

The Bristol Herald Courier won 26 news and advertising awards in Virginia, and nine more in Tennessee in April – in-cluding fi rst-place honors for its website, heraldcourier.com, and its new magazine, Bristol.

Bristol, the magazine, earned a fi rst-place honor in the 2015 Virginia Press Association Awards competition, in the publications category, with the judges praising the magazine’s “great use of art and graphics” and “great writing.”

The VPA Awards, delivered during a banquet in Richmond, included fi ve fi rst-place awards in news and fi ve fi rst-place awards in advertising.

During a banquet in Nash-ville, the Herald Courier received nine awards in the Ten-nessee Associated Press Media Editors contest, including two fi rst-place honors.

“There is rarely a day that goes by when we don’t receive feedback from readers about the stories we cover,” Bristol Herald Courier Publisher Jim Maxwell said of the honors. “Literally, more than 99.9 percent of the time that feedback is positive. Much more than that, and most importantly, we get our stories right.

“The awards we received from the Virginia Press Association

further validates the fact that we have exceptional journalists on our staff. Good reporting, writ-ing and photography are more than a tradition at the Bristol Herald Courier; it is a legacy. ... I couldn’t be prouder of our team.”

The Virginia contest was judged by members of the South Carolina Press Association.

The Herald Courier’s awards included:

AdvertisingDesigner Carol Sue Repass

took a fi rst-place honor in the real estate advertising catego-ry for “Thomas and Well Real Estate,” which appeared in the Floyd Press. She also won a third place in lifestyle advertising for “Holston Hills Community Golf Course,” which appeared in the Smyth County News & Messen-ger.

Designer Kathy Guy won several awards for work appear-ing in the Herald Courier and in the Wytheville Enterprise. Guy’s awards were fi rst place in online advertising for “Christianburg Aquatic Center” for Wytheville; second place in fashion and personnel care advertising for “About Face Boo-Tox Party” published in the Herald Courier; fi rst place in real estate adver-tising for “Prestige Homes: We’ll help you fi nd your dream home” in the Herald Courier; and fi rst place for home and garden advertising with “Boulder Look Stone Co.” in the Herald Courier.

Designer Missy Hale was recognized as the designer for the Bristol magazine, which took fi rst place. She also won fi rst and second places in the educational and churches advertising cate-gory for “Apostolics of Abing-don-Ketchup” and “Apostolics of Abingdon-Bad Hair Day,” both published in the Herald Courier.

Former Herald Courier de-signer Ginger Mullins received a second-place award in online advertising for “Woltz Auctions.”

The Wytheville advertising staff took a third-place honor for “Southwest Virginia Health Fo-cus” in the publications category.

And the Herald Courier adver-tising staff took a fi rst place in special sections for “Irwin Tools Race Night.”

Writing and designDesigner Robert Allen took a

fi rst place in headline writing.The Herald Courier sports

staff, including Jim Sacco, George Stone, Tim Hayes, Nate Hubbard and Allen Gregory, took fi rst place in the sports pages category.

Editor Christine Uthoff earned a second-place award for column writing. Reporter and feature columnist Joe Tennis took a third place in critical writing

with reviews titled “Bonnie Sage,” “Sages of Southern Rock” and “Author’s Survival.” Tennis also received a third-place award for a feature series, titled “Haunt

Hoppin’: Let’s Go.”

Reporter Tammy Chil-dress took second place for feature writing with a story on a man who escaped a Nazi concentration camp titled “Holocaust Sur-vivor.”

Reporter David McGee received a sec-ond-place honor for continuing story with a series on the “Growth of Bristol’s New

Birthplace of Country Music Museum.”

Former reporter Allie Gibson took second place for business and fi nancial writing, and a third place for health, science and environment writing.

Sports reporter Allen Gregory took third place in the sports

column writing category.Former sports editor Jim

Sacco earned a second-place honor for sports column writing.

PhotographyThe Her-

ald Courier photography staff swept the sports photog-raphy category, earning the fi rst-, sec-

ond- and third-place awards in the category. The photo team,

images editor David Crigger and photogra-phers Andrew Teague and Earl Neikirk also took second place for online slideshow or gallery.

Crigger took the fi rst-place

honor in sports feature photog-raphy with a photo titled “Young Pit Crew.” He also took fi rst

place for a pho-to illustration titled “Bible Cities,” and second place in pictorial photo for “Bristol Refl ections.”

Teague took the second-place honor in sports feature photog-

raphy, with a photo titled “Base-ball Shadows.” He also earned third place in the general news

photo category, with a photo ti-tled “Super Bowl Math.”

Neikirk took the third-place honor in sports feature photogra-phy with a photo titled “Speedway Golf.”

Bristol Herald CourierApril 10, 2016

Times Free Press winstop honor

The Chattanooga Times Free Press received a top honor in the Tennessee Associated Press 2016 journalism awards.

The Times Free Press was honored for its coverage of the July 16, 2015 mass shooting in Chattanooga, receiving the Outstanding News Operation award in the Tennessee Associ-ated Press Broadcast and Media Editors annual contest.

The Times Free Press also received fi ve fi rst-place awards, three second-place awards, two third-place awards and an hon-


Sisco

Sherlin

Hubbard Gregory

Stone

McGee

Crigger

Hargis Strickland

HenryJett

Teague

Neikirk

Uthoff Tennis

Allen Sacco

Hayes

Childress

Gibson

NEWS, from Page 3

Spotlight submissionsGive recognition to your employees in The Tennessee Press! Send Staff Spotlight content to [email protected]. Staff variety encour-aged. Include high-res color photo, bio, and answers to three or more of these six questions. Aim for about 400 words: 1. How and why did you get into the newspaper business? 2. What do you like most about your job? 3. What’s been your most interesting experience on the job? 4.What can newspapers do to stay successful? 5. How has the newspaper business changed since you’ve been in it? 6. Tell us about a book you read recently.

orable mention.The fi rst-place awards were in

the categories of:* Daily deadline reporting, for

coverage of the July 16 shooting that killed fi ve military members.

* Multimedia, for “Death on the Highway,” a project on the June 25, 2015, crash on Inter-state 75 that killed six people.

* Video, for “Chattanooga Strong,” a video following the July 16 mass shooting.

* Sports-outdoors reporting, for a collection of stories by Stephen Hargis.

* Sports photography, for a photograph by Doug Strickland of the end of the 2015 Ironman, the closest fi nish in the triath-lon’s history.

Second-place awards went to Tyler Jett for feature writing; Doug Strickland for individual achievement in photography; and timesfreepress.com for best website. Third-place awards went to Dan Henry for sports pho-tography; and the newspaper’s digital team for multimedia. Doug Strickland received an honorable mention for feature photography.

Chattanooga Times Free Press,April 11 2016

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Held each fall on the campus of The University of Tennessee (Knoxville), the Institute offers basic and advanced class-es in InDesign, Photoshop, Social Media, Improving Customer Service & Sales, Writing & Editing, Layout & Pagination, InCopy, Attracting Younger Readers, Cloud Technology, Color, Digital Journalism, Photography, video production, network management and much more.

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INSTITUTE OF NEWSPAPER TECHNOLOGY

Seven lessons on how to grow your Facebook audienceWhen The St. Louis American

went from only sharing its web-site links on Facebook to active-ly engaging with its Facebook audience, the weekly newspa-per’s social platform and website audience numbers took off.

In May 2010 the newspaper had between 7,000 and 8,000 Facebook fans, according to Ishmael Sistrunk, The St. Louis American’s website, IT and promotions coordinator. That number has since grown to more than 44,000. Sistrunk spoke about the paper’s social media efforts during the 2016 Walter B. Potter Sr. Conference for community journalism.

When Sistrunk arrived in 2010, the newspaper’s social me-

dia posting strategy was an RSS feed. Story links were automat-ically generated and posted on Facebook and Twitter as soon as a new story was published to the website. Sometimes the paper would repost a story if there were typos or errors, resulting in multiple Facebook posts. The automation led to very little interaction with the news audi-

ence, says Sistrunk.Under Sistrunk, The St.

Louis American began posting manually but still only shared headlines and links back to stories. They saw growth but it was slow, says Sistrunk.

“We knew that Facebook was growing at this much bigger rate, so we were trying to fi gure out what are we doing wrong,” he says. “How can we grow our audience? Just posting head-lines really wasn’t doing it.”

A large part of their growth came from engaging with users, Sistrunk says. He also started attending editorial meetings so the newsroom could see who was sharing and commenting on sto-ries on Facebook and the impact

GUEST

COLUMN

JENNIFER NELSON

this activity was having on pro-moting the newspaper’s content.

What we can learn from The

St. Louis American’s strategy:

1. Preach to your news staff about the importance of becoming a daily news oper-ation with a social media and website presence.

The St. Louis American is a weekly newspaper but it became a daily news producer via its website and social media channels. An online presence allows weeklies to share break-ing news before the print news-paper comes out, says Sistrunk.

“News often goes viral because it’s timely,” says Sistrunk. “Everything was available on Facebook and Twit-ter instantly. If you’re waiting on a big story for the paper to come out, it might be too late.”

2. Use Facebook’s free In-sights feature.

Each business page includes analytics information that sheds light on audience demo-graphics and engagement sta-tistics. Click the Insights tab to learn when people are viewing your content and what content is performing well.

3. Share outside content.The St. Louis American team

regularly shares content and photos from other sources. These posts include viral videos, celebrity photos and articles that would resonate with the local audience. Sistrunk says this is an opportunity to just engage with folks on social media.

“That’s something that doesn’t drive people to our web-site directly but it keeps them engaged on our page,” he says.

For example, The St. Lou-is American shared a photo of Sasha Obama on her 13th birthday along with birthday wishes. The post went viral on Facebook with more than 1,000 shares, 2,300 comments and 44,000 likes.

The St. Louis American also

shared well wishes to local business owners who were re-tiring after several decades. The post was popular and people posted their favorite memories in the comment section.

He suggested social media ed-itors look at their own personal Facebook sharing habits for inspiration: Step into the shoes of an online consumer and consider what you share, click or comment on, and then adapt some of those behaviors to your strategy. Staff should have a clear understanding of what can and cannot be posted.

4. Just engage. Don’t worry about always sharing links.

The St. Louis American also shares local photos and videos without linking back to the website. Sometimes news au-diences see posts with links as advertisements and avoid them, says Sistrunk. “People are used to being sold to. They know how to ignore that.”

5. Find out what’s working for competitors.

Follow your competitors on Facebook by clicking the Insights tab in Facebook. You’ll fi nd a feature called Pages to Watch, which will give you feedback on how your page compares to similar pages.

6. Realize not every post will go viral.

Some posts will do better than others, says Sistrunk. It’s a matter of experimenting and seeing what resonates.

7. Be social when promoting advertisements on Facebook.

The St. Louis American mon-etizes some of its social media efforts including posting ads on its timeline.

Recently they sold a Facebook post to a promoter for an upcom-ing music festival. The post in-cluded a St. Louis American pho-to from a previous festival and a question – What’s your favorite memory from this festival? – to encourage comments. Sistrunk says these types of paid posts resonate with their audience.

Digital analytics also demon-strate to advertisers how well the post performed, Sistrunk says.

Jennifer Nelson is the senior information specialist at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Previously, she was the news editor of the weekly Osceo-la (Iowa) Sentinel-Tribune. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Sistrunk

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New revenue for your newspaper: don’t take my word for it!Network month was a smash-

ing success. A quick recap - all Tennessee Press Association members had the opportunity to upsell the Network ads to their existing clients and keep a hefty commission. In addition to the extra commissions, sales reps received an added bonus from Tennessee Press Service. The Network ads are TnSCAN Statewide Classifi ed ads, Tn-DAN small display ads, TnQPN quarter-page ads, and TnNET online banner ads.

Network month brought in new revenue for members and expanded the advertisers’ mes-sages affordably and effectively.

“Selling TPS ads are super easy and convenient when you have the right client,” says

Emily Chapin, classifi ed phone sales manager for the Citizen Tribune. One newspaper, one contact, one bill and LOTS OF AD-VERTISING. Our customers that have tried this program have had great success and

continue to use this program when the needs arise. Our customers see results thanks to the Tennessee Press Services offered.”

Word gets around with TN Network ads

Bethany Hargis, Advertis-ing Manager for The Camden Chronicle, had this to say about selling the Network ads:

“The main area I have had success with the TPS Network ads is by offering it to custom-ers who are promoting special events. Many of our clients have ended up using this year after year, and as their events grow, the areas they want to reach grow, too! Once an event

uses TN Network ads, it doesn’t take long for word to get around to other event planners about how easy and affordable it is to use. On my end, as the sales person who is setting this up, I can’t say enough about how easy Beth Elliott and everyone at TPS makes it on me. I highly recommend that if you are not currently offering TN Network ads to your customers, start today!”

The Camden Chronicle and Citizen Tribune are just two ex-amples of TPA members taking

full advantage of participating in Tennessee’s Advertising Networks and that’s by active-ly selling the Network ads. Contact TPS today to fi nd out how your newspaper can bring in new revenue, 865-584-5761 ext. 117.

Beth Elliott is the networks advertising manager for Tennes-see Press Service. In 2000, she took on the Statewide Classified program as the network adver-tising manager. This program has grown into four Networks that remain strong and viable due to the participation of the TPA members.

NETWORKS

ADVERTISING

MANAGER

BETH ELLIOTT

Model Citizen Horn Has ‘Heart of Gold’

In a world fi lled with fi ght-ing and division lines being drawn, it is a blessing to fi nd an individual who genuinely loves

people and always strives to show others compassion. For more than 27 years, such has been found in the advertising department of the Pulaski Citizen, where Martha Horn

has worked, a place she has fi t perfectly.

“She came to work soon after my parents purchased the paper and moved our family here,” Pulaski Publishing Vice Presi-dent and former Pulaski Citizen Publisher Steve Lake said at a surprise party for Horn, who retired effective April 1.

“When I started working there, she immediately took me under her wing to learn the ins and outs of advertising,” Lake said. “Unlike me though, she was a natural, a downright social animal who thrived on working with people. She took a genu-ine interest in the people and businesses she worked with, and served them well.”

Pulaski Citizen Editor Cary Jane Malone shared that Horn has a real heart for people, par-ticularly children and animals.

“Martha has been far more than a co-worker to me — she

nearly 20-year career in newspa-pers, she has worked for publi-cations through Ohio, including papers in Bellville and Mount

Vernon.She is a

self-described country girl, having grown up in Ohio around horses and 4-H involve-ment. “I picked up snakes and salamanders and toads,” she

said, “but I also like a healthy dose of performing arts.”

Bletner said The Mountain Press will continue to be focused

on Sevier County.“Our focus should be and will

continue to be on this commu-nity,” she said. “I look forward to getting to know the people who read us and the people we cover.”

Bletner lives in Sevierville.“I’ve always been a part of the

community in which I’ve lived,” she said. “I plan to be an integral part of Sevier County life.”

Bletner replaces Jason Davis, who left to become director of Keep Sevier Beautiful.

The Mountain Press, SeviervilleApril 29, 2016

is a friend, confi dante, sound-ing-board. Her experience, knowledge and wisdom have been invaluable to me, and to the Citizen,” Malone said.

Common threads of love, kind-ness, grace and lessons learned ran through statements many made of Horn at her retirement party.

“Working with Martha has been a joy,” said advertisement representative and friend Donna Yant. “I will always be grateful for what she has taught me about the newspaper, but also the many life lessons.”

Horn’s friends say that her friendship and impact on lives extends beyond her occupation and into the community.

“People gravitate to Martha, both in the good and the bad, and are encouraged by her,” Jane Foster said. “She is a beautiful person inside and out and her humble, honest, genuine Chris-tian spirit has rendered her more friends than anyone I know.”

“Martha is like no other,” Pu-laski Mayor Pat Ford said. “She is a wonderful, loving woman who cares for others and always puts them fi rst. Her big personality and heart of gold always shine through. Martha is a model citi-

zen for our community.”Although she is retiring, Horn

promises she’ll be no stranger to the paper or the community she loves.

“Martha’s dedication and passion for her co-workers, her community, her family and most importantly her Lord will lead her to something amazing,” said Pulaski Citizen Publisher Scott Stewart. “She will be missed here, but I know she can’t wait to fi nd out what God has in store for her next.”

Bletner joinsThe Mountain Press

Rhonda Bletner has been named editor of The Mountain Press.

“We are delighted to have someone of Rhonda’s talent, experience and newspaper back-ground join our team,” said Jana Thomasson, publisher of The Mountain Press. “She is a strong believer in community journal-ism and putting local news fi rst. That will continue to be our phi-losophy as we move forward.”

Bletner, 57, was managing editor of the Richland Source in Mansfi eld, Ohio, a digital daily newspaper, before joining The Mountain Press. During her

See TRACKS Page 10

Horn

Bletner

TREA DUNNAVANTPulaski Citizen March 30, 2016

Hargis

Chapin

TRACKS

Thanks to these individuals for volunteering to complete the judging of the Mississippi Press Association’s Contest.

Don Foy & Jack McNeely, Herald-Citizen, Cookeville Frank Gibson, TPA

David Plazas, The Tennessean, Nashville

Christine Uthoff, Bristol Herald Courier

Thank You for your help!

Gus is an advertiser who has

dealt with ad representatives

from a variety of media fi rms.

“One thing that a lot of them

have in common is that they

like to present new ad ideas in

the beginning,” he said. “It’s

nice that they make the effort

to create spec ads, but most of

those ideas are way off target.

When I point out the reasons

why certain ads are not right

for me, they seem to lose

enthusiasm.

“On the other hand,” he

said, “one person really stood

out from the crowd. Instead of

focusing on a spec idea, he put

a couple of my recent ads on the

table and built his presentation

around that. It was a good way

to learn about my business and

my advertising objectives. He

wasn’t judgmental, and he didn’t

have a know-it-all attitude.

Instead of trying to talk me into

buying an idea, he simply helped

me see some things that could be

done differently. Needless to say,

I placed a lot of advertising in

his paper.”

That is an interesting alterna-

tive, isn’t it? Instead of pre-

senting spec ads which haven’t

run yet, why not focus on ads

which have already appeared? It

can be an effective way to gain

information And as we all know,

knowledge is power.

If you try this technique, here

are some open-ended questions

you can ask:

1. Who were you trying to reach in this ad?

This can lead to a discussion

about target audiences and buy-

ing styles. Does the ad focus on

a specifi c audience, or does it try

to appeal to everyone?

2. What was your main mes-sage?

This question can help you

understand the advertiser’s

products and services – and the

relevant features and benefi ts.

Does the objective match the

message?

3. What was the thought pro-cess in choosing this particular picture?

Is it a stock photograph of a

generic group of people? A cut-

away diagram of a new product?

A photo of the founder of the

company? The answer can reveal

where the advertiser turns for

new ideas.

4. I notice this ad features a sale. What kind of results did you get?

This opens the door to a

discussion about expectations.

Along the way, you can ask

how they decided to feature

that particular deal. Was it

based on market research or a

hunch?

5. What kinds of special offers have you made in other ads?

Sometimes the best way to

develop a new strategy is to ana-

lyze old strategies. For example,

have they relied on sales? Do

they use coupons? Are the offers

seasonal or year-round?

6. How long you have run

this particular campaign?This can reveal the adver-

tiser’s willingness to explore

change.

7. What kind of help did you have with this ad?

This is a good way to hear

about the advertiser’s infl uenc-

ers. You may learn that a differ-

ent decision maker should be

included in future meetings.

Yes, sometimes current ads can

create better conversations – and

more sales – than spec ads.

(c) Copyright 2016 by John

Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust has conducted

training programs for thousands of

newspaper advertising profession-

als. Many ad departments are us-

ing his training videos to get quick

results. E-mail for information:

[email protected].


An alternative to spec ads might open new doorsAD-LIBS®

JOHN FOUST

Over the years, I’ve heard quite a few arguments against design consistency, with some dragging out a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds…”

Wrong. Emerson never said that.

What he said was “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…”

When it comes to newspaper design, consistency is more than just important. It’s critical.

Consistent design tells your readers and advertisers that yours is a newspaper that is planned and put together with purpose.

Some may argue that they

need to be creative with the design, that creativity is more important to them than consis-tency. That may be so, but it is not the mission of a newspaper to satisfy the creative urges of any of its staff.

Rather, it is part of the mis-sion of a newspaper to deliver the news and doings of its

community in a manner that is clear, concise and comfortable to read.

That’s where consistency comes in. Here’s how:

COMFORT. Readers fi nd it eas-ier to get through a newspaper that wears the same look from page to page, section to section.

CARE. Consistency reinforces the feeling that yours is a news-paper that cares about the de-tails. When it comes to design, you sweat the small stuff.

CREDIBILITY. If you’re care-ful with your design, it stands to reason that you’re also careful with your reporting and your editing, your ads and all the other things you do.

CLASS. Consistency brings a higher level of sophistication to your newspaper, giving your readers and advertisers a sense that you offer them a high-quali-ty product. “Sophistication” does not mean “snooty.” It means a level of skill and care that’s above the norm. Nothing wrong with that!

EFFICIENCY. Consistent design elements are part of a design system. Those who as-semble pages at your newspaper don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to creating a new standing head or column sig. They just follow the style that’s already in use. There’s no leap of faith involved.

if you want your design to appeal to more readers—and to more advertisers—make it clean-er and more comfortable. One of the fastest, easiest ways to do that? Make it more consistent.

Want a free evaluation of your newspaper’s design? Just contact Ed: [email protected] or 803-327-3322. You may be interested in Ed’s books: Hen-ninger on Design and 101 Hen-ninger Helpful Hints. Find out more about his books by visiting Ed’s web site: www.henninger-consulting.com. Ed Henninger is an independent newspaper consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting.

BY

DESIGN

ED HENNINGER

Consistency trumps creativity in page design

(print & digital) or via special sections that will draw readers to their product and services?

8. Move beyond the PDF. You need a digital strategy. Your readers ages 18-40 rely on much of their news and actionable in-formation to be received digitally (tablets, phones, laptops, car dash-board). Buyers are placing higher value on operations with the makings of a well-rounded digital strategy. If the average visitor to your site is spending less than three minutes per visit, they’re scanning, not reading. It is time for a re-set. If your ads are static and there is no merchandising within your digital pages, chances are your advertisers are not get-ting much bang for their buck.

9. Get your receivables and payables in order. And clean up any legal issues. You can’t deliver title to your property unless liens can be satisfi ed at closing, there is a plan in place to pay off that long past due printing bill, and any litigation is behind you.

10. Understand the market value of your publication. Take all emotion out of the valuation. Have an objective third party assess the re-sale value of your publication.

11. Good tax planning is essential to a successful sale. Consult with your accountant, fi nancial planner and attorney to explore the optimum way to potentially structure your trans-action. However, these advisors will have little to any knowledge of newspaper operations or com-parable transaction data.

FLOYD, from Page 4 12) Use a broker! Selling a pub-lication requires an ever-increas-ing level of sophistication and a great deal of your time. Most publishers have neither. Choose a broker as part of your exit strat-

egy planning team (three years before you are ready to list).

Lewis Floyd is Senior Associate with W.B. Grimes & Company, with responsibility for Southern

States. Established in 1959, Grimes has represented publish-ers in the sale and acquisition of more than 1,500 media proper-ties. (850-532-9466) lfl [email protected]


New overtime rule could mean less news and fewer jobs

A new rule governing over-time pay for employees will create disruption at small news-papers and likely lead to more job cutbacks, says National Newspaper Association Presi-dent Chip Hutcheson, publisher of The Times-Leader in Princ-eton, KY. Hutcheson expressed his disappointment that the U.S. Department of Labor had rejected calls by many small businesses to introduce a more modifi ed and gradually-rising threshold that sets overtime-el-igible employees apart from professional staff.

Ruling makes more employees eligible for overtime

The new rule, which will go into effect Dec. 1, sets the threshold for overtime eligibil-ity at $913 a week or $47,476 a year. The Labor Department reduced the threshold slight-

ly from its original proposed rule last summer, which was proposed at $50,440. Employees earning an annual wage under the threshold will be required to report their time on a week-ly basis and employers will be required to pay time-and-a-half for hours over 40 each week. The fi nal rule did not change the so-called “duties test,” which spells out what sort of work employees must do to qualify as overtime-exempt.

Many newspapers already feel fi nancial pinch

NNA represents 2,400 mem-bers across America, primarily small-town and family-owned newspapers. Many are already under fi nancial pressure from weak local economies and they can’t afford to pay additional overtime. For them, the unin-tended consequences include lost jobs and less news coverage. For the editors and sales manag-ers and other professionals who

will be forced to begin punching a clock, the new threshold will result in less fl exibility in terms of when and where they work and how they perform their jobs, and less opportunity to advance their careers.

Hutcheson said he regretted that the Labor Department was forcing community newspapers and their small-town employ-ees and customers into a bind, where employee hours will be restricted by budgetary neces-sity. The impact upon news coverage will be felt immediate-ly, he said.

“NNA agreed that it was past time to adjust the salary levels,” he said. “The Labor Department failed to do its job for a decade by creating more graduated adjustments that small busi-nesses could live with. Then it decided to try to force the small business economy to leap the whole chasm in a single bound. Its ruling fails to recognize the realities of a slow-growing busi-ness climate. It also ignores the

big differences between costs of living and earnings potential in small towns and major cities. We asked the department to create a regional scale, and ob-viously our concerns have fallen on deaf ears.”

Common practice of ‘fl ex time’ for some staff ers could be aff ected

NNA provided comments to the Labor Department’s propos-al, pointing out that newsrooms have diffi culty managing a 40-hour week, and that legal barriers for private sector enter-prises to offer meaningful fl ex time meant that news and sports staff could not take advantage of time off during slow seasons to compensate for extra hours spent on breaking news and sporting events. NNA requested consideration of a regional scale and joined the Newspaper Asso-ciation of America in suggesting that thresholds should be set at a level of twice the annual

earnings of a minimum wage earner. The minimum wage index would have given states and cities the ability to effec-tively set the overtime-eligibility standard.

Now, Hutcheson said, NNA will consider the industry’s options as it completes analysis of the new rule. It has expressed support for HR 4773, which would require the agency to carry out a more effective anal-ysis of the effect of its rule upon small businesses, nonprofi ts and public employers.

“In the end,” he said, “we agreed with the Labor De-partment’s goal of improving the income of workers. We disagreed mightily with the manner in which it is pursuing the goal, and we believe in the end it will hurt our workforce, our newspapers and newspaper readers.”

From a press release submit-ted by the National Newspaper Association

A mayor takes issue with an ed-itorial that criticized a city council action, calling your facts into question. Irate parents challenge your decision – your right – to re-port their son didn’t dress for the basketball game because he was suspended for violating school policy. A pastor is critical of an ad you accepted for publication, saying it was in poor taste.

Hardly a week passes that a newspaper’s policies and practices aren’t called into question. Many complaints are fi elded in private conversation.

In other instances, though, read-ers want to share their opinions with a wider audience with a letter to the editor – which often spurs additional conversation both pro and con on the newspaper’s deci-sion. The exchange soon dwindles, and the newspaper likely wins high marks for allowing readers to toss brickbats as well as bouquets.

There are cases when editors feel compelled to add a P.S. to a letter. I urge you to think twice – even three times – before doing so. Postscripts may give you a “feel good” sensation in the short term, but they can have long-term conse-quences in relationships with your readers, and rarely for the better.

Don’t get me wrong. Some let-ters warrant a response. I’m a fi rm

believer in having a dialogue with readers. That includes writing col-umns to explain news decisions, especially when an issue is raised in your newspaper. But there are some important considerations.

First and foremost, don’t blind side the writer. It’s always best to have a conversation with the au-thor. Explain your decision-mak-ing and your wish to explain your reasoning to the broader audience. Gauge the reaction; the conversation may dissuade you from writing anything. If you proceed with a column, the author deserves a heads-up. You may well view the column as an explana-tion; the writer will likely view it as a rebuttal. That’s all the more reason to connect.

The process is fairly straightfor-ward when dealing with the person who feels mistreated by a news-paper decision and pens a letter. It becomes more complicated with a “third party” complaint. Consider

the woman who criticized a news-paper headline: “Drug defendant dies at 19; cause unclear.” She wrote, in part, “What you did was not responsible journalism. It was callous sensationalism.”

In this case, the more import-ant consideration in any editor’s response is the family of the youth that will be drawn into additional limelight through no fault of their own. The letter itself will likely generate more atten-tion; you’re in a diffi cult position to stop additional exchange. A column also may prolong the de-bate, and you do have a choice in that regard. A conversation with the family, at minimum, gives you an opportunity to explain your decision in private.

Those conversations can be diffi cult. Individuals may refuse to talk and might hang up. But the calls also might pay you dividends in the long run. I speak from expe-rience. I made many a call to indi-viduals when our news decisions were questioned. Some remained a private conversation; some resulted in a column. In all instances, the readers – our customers – gained a better understanding of the hows and whys behind our decisions, even if they did not agree.

If you write a column, don’t be afraid to say that, upon refl ection

after the crush of deadlines, you may have handled the circumstanc-es differently – if that is the case. Showing that you are human, too, strengthens your credibility.

Requisite to writing any column is having a conversation with the author and/or affected individ-uals. In contrast, many editors tack a P.S. on letters without ever connecting with the author. From the writer’s perspective, editor’s notes are just an example of the newspaper having the “last word” and diminishing the impact of the letter. Do so, and it’s a good bet the authors will be hesitant to submit another letter. They will be

unafraid to express that sentiment to friends, too. In the end, you lose with the author and your readers.

Jim Pumarlo writes, speaks and provides training on community newsroom success strategies. He is author of “Journalism Primer: A Guide to Community News Coverage,” “Votes and Quotes: A Guide to Outstanding Election Cov-erage” and “Bad News and Good Judgment: A Guide to Reporting on Sensitive Issues in Small-Town Newspapers.” He can be reached at www.pumarlo.com and welcomes comments and questions at [email protected].

COMMUNITY

NEWSROOM

SUCCESS

JIM PUMARLO

Think carefully before posting the ‘fi nal word’

SUBMITTED May 19, 2016


To share your news, please send your items to [email protected] and [email protected]

How to manage sales in tough environmentIn today’s struggling retail en-

vironment, selling newspaper ad-vertising — whether online or in the newspaper or special sections or niche publications — contin-ues to be an ongoing challenge. Coupled with the evolving and changing advertising media ( ... consider the internet’s impact on other media!), your sales territo-ry or account list management strategies need to change, too!

No matter the size or scope of your account list or sales territo-ry, the following strategies will serve you well in managing and helping you achieve your selling goals. These recommendations are based on my experience both in meeting the revenue goals of a newspaper and enhancing and maximizing an individual’s resources.

But fi rst, let’s step back and clarify our defi nition of a sales territory or account list. Your account list or sales territory should be defi ned in terms of objectives (What is to be achieved?); potential (type, where, from whom, volume); designed, organized, or struc-tured so that results will be achieved (timeframe and plan of attack); coverage (Will you be able to contact who you need to, to get the business?); plus, in

the case of a geographic terri-tory, what determines physical size or location of the area to be covered?

But wait, you love to sell. You would rather sell than manage your accounts. So do you sell fi rst then manage later, or do you manage fi rst in order to sell your accounts?

Ideally, you should manage to sell. So, let’s examine some strategies to help you chart your course to sales success:

• First and foremost, focus your managerial aims. Or put another way, what exactly is it you are trying to manage or achieve? Increased revenue? More ad count? Adding or enhancing online campaigns? Greater special section partici-pation? Expanded geographic or specifi c retailer (e.g. shopping center) growth? New business or category growth?

• Enhance your selling time ... by regularly scheduling those activities that allow greater sell-ing time while reducing overall expenses. Remember, the best selling situation is face-to-face client contact.

• Realistically rate your ac-counts. Regularly review your account list or sales territory and prioritize each account potential both on a short term (30-60-90 day) and long term (6-12-18 month) basis, and on a more rev-enue (+), fl at revenue (0), or less revenue (-) growth basis. Don’t overlook those accounts that are at risk (due to credit limitations, personnel changes, competitive changes or market impacts). Note them and give them the ‘kid glove treatment’ to save or maintain the business. What additions do you plan to make to your account list or sales territory, in terms of NEW busi-ness? Grow your online revenue from BOTH new AND existing accounts? Much like retailing, if you remain stagnant, 15 percent to 25 percent of your business will go away in a year.

• Practice time management. Fine tune again and again. Stop procrastinating and wast-ing time. Know yourself and understand the value of time,

using your most productive time during the day to be with your clients! Don’t allow your email to become a major distraction. Tell your clients and discipline your-self to check-in with your email only at selected times throughout the day.

• Say NO! Don’t allow time to be thoughtlessly given away by you. Good customer service does NOT mean never saying NO.

• Organize your information. How? By developing a pitch book. A pitch book ideally is a three-ring binder and/or its elec-tronic equivalent that contains information on your market, your newspaper, your competi-tion plus any data you need to tell and sell your newspaper’s story. Make sure your informa-tion is accessible and presentable ... AND CURRENT.

• Delegate and use all avail-able resources. EVERYONE at your newspaper is part of your sales and marketing team, from top to bottom and bottom to top. Remember, no one can do it all. Keep all your newspaper resourc-es in the selling loop, enhance and use them!

• Insure your personal and professional growth. Don’t overlook or abuse your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual

needs. Take time for YOU.Maintain a positive attitude,

don’t dwell on past failures or rejections - use them to build on future successes. Network and build professional friendships in your market and adjacent com-munities. Develop peer relation-ships with other salespeople and newspapers throughout the state. Reward yourself by taking care of yourself - Have FUN!!!!!

Keep fi ne tuning. Learn from others. Look for those opportuni-ties to excel. Keep changing and challenging yourself to take the time to plan and manage so you will achieve selling success. ... AND REMEMBER, SOMETHING GOOD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TODAY, LOOK FOR IT!

Copyright Murray & Nau, Inc Chuck Nau of Murray & Nau, Inc. is a Seattle area based publishing consultant and sales and man-agement trainer. He has been a speaker for and conducted adver-tising, marketing, management and sales training workshops with newspapers throughout North America.

Comments and questions are welcome and may be directed to Chuck via email to [email protected] or at (425) 603-0984.

SIMPLY

PUT

CHUCK NAU

Willett new editor at Roane County News

After an eight-month wait, the Roane County News has a new editor. Loudon County native Hugh Willett started his new position April 4. He will be working closely with Assistant Editor Cheryl Duncan, who had served as interim editor since Terri Likens left the newspaper in August 2015.

Willett’s responsibilities will also include overseeing the Mor-gan County News and LaFollette Press as regional editor. All three newspapers are owned by Landmark Community Newspa-pers LLC.

“I love community newspa-pers,” Willett said. “I hope to become part of the Roane Coun-ty community and an active participant in [local] affairs.”

The Roane County News is just the latest step in Willett’s extensive journalism career,

which has encompassed a mul-titude of professional positions, locales and publications. He

worked for The Boston Globe and copy-edited the Knoxville News Sentinel before moving to and writing about his dream location – Cali-fornia’s Silicon Valley.

“I was always fascinated with computers and personal computers from the beginning,” he said. “From the fi rst time I learned about it, I was dying to get there.”

In California, Willett worked as a contributor, writer, reporter and editor for a number of pub-lications. His interest in tech-nology, coupled with the cutting edge of the entire industry, took him to many Asian countries. He served as editor-in-chief for Electronic News, the weekly newspaper that coined the term “Silicon Valley,” and later found-

ed the Semiconductor magazine SEMI.

Along the way, Willett also dabbled in public relations and teaching before returning to East Tennessee in 2004. He then founded Knoxville Garden and Home Magazine, edited South-ern Business Magazine and pro-duced a cable television series, Southern Business Now.

He also became a frequent freelance contributor to the Knoxville News Sentinel and wrote for other publications before coming to the Roane County News.

Roane County News, KingstonApril 8, 2016

Matlock rejoins States-Graphic staff

Megan Davis Matlock has rejoined the staff of the Browns-ville States-Graphic as the news editor.

Matlock worked at the newspa-per from July 2013 until January 2015. She served as a staff writ-er/graphic designer.

She graduated from the Univer-

TRACKS, from Page 7 sity of Tennes-see at Chatta-nooga with a bachelor of arts in English and a minor in com-munications.

“I’m excited to have Me-gan back on staff,” Publisher

Scott Whaley said. “She is an outstanding story teller and a stickler to detail. She will be a familiar face around Hay-wood County at local events in

addition to covering government meetings.”

Brownsville States-GraphicApril 21, 2016

Willett

Matlock

Tennessee Press Service

Advertising Placement Snapshot

ROP: Networks:

April 2016 $270,420 $35,305

Year* as of April 30 $1,509,678 $149,185

*The Tennessee Press Service Inc. fi scal year runs Dec. 1 through Nov. 30

Please share

The Tennessee Press

with your colleagues!


Legislation raises question of who pays for transparencyMy friend, Frank Trexler at

The (Maryville) Daily Times, opined after the legislature ad-journed in April, speculating on whether the outcome of certain legislation “was a Win, Loss or Draw” for the “principle of open government” and for the public.

Buzz worked off a list of 15 bills that TCOG executive direc-tor Deborah Fisher had reported about on her www.tcog.info blog. That list represented about a third of the bills TPA’s public policy team with TCOG and its partners tracked during the 109th General Assembly.

We faced 25 separate bills alone, in this the second half of the session. I do not remember a more challenging lineup in my years of minding this stuff. Some bills were deadly serious and others were downright goofy. You can decide which is which.

We worked hours on bills that should not have been fi led. I hate making excuses, but that did not leave adequate time to devote to bills that normally would be a higher priority.

With respect to Buzz’s spec-ulation, it gets harder year after year to assess the difference be-tween wins and losses. The sheer volume, tight and rushed com-mittee schedules, and consider-ably shorter sessions combine to deny adequate effort on every bill. It forces compromise where none should be warranted.

Sometimes all you can do is mitigate damage because you cannot stop some of them. Every time a bill dealing with public records, open meetings and pub-lic notices is fi led, you expect the only way to handle it is through compromise within reason.

The 2016 session started better than most. HB315, the bill to impose fees to inspect public records, was withdrawn three days into the session. That was the sponsors’ response to over-whelming public opposition to the state School Boards Associa-tion’s proposal in public hearings by the Offi ce of Open Records Counsel and Advisory Commit-

tee on Open Government.It was a prime example of

good things that can come when important issues are examined in a more comprehensive setting -- away from the heat of rushed legislative proceedings. It was the reason the legislature created the Advisory Committee eight years ago and why more bills were sent there this session.

After the “fees-per-view” records bill went away, for this year anyway, things went down-hill. A senator from East Tennes-see had two bills that targeted newspapers by trying to get to the journalism side by attacking the business side.

SB1909 would have shifted public notices, required to be in-dependent by being published in newspapers, to government web-sites. The second bill, SB1846, would have removed newspapers from a list of business and pro-fessional entities that are exempt from sales tax on sales. It singled out “periodicals” from a long list of exemptions.

The sponsor was upset with the way one TPA member news-paper had covered his part in a political controversy last year involving the Haslam admin-istration’s proposed Medicaid expansion.

Both bills died in separate state Senate committees – Fi-nance Ways and Means, chaired by Sen. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge, and State and Local Gov-ernment, chaired by Sen. Ken Yager of Kingston.

The sponsor’s nefarious intent – taking aim at journalists for doing their job -- was patently obvious.

Following that ill-advised legislation came three bills

dealing with the use of police body cameras. Each approached the problem of dealing with the public records produced by those cameras in different ways.

None of them dealt well with the issue of transparency, which as I understand it, is the ratio-nale for spending billions of dollars to deploy body cams in the U.S.

There are any number of issues and implications involved in deciding whether law enforce-ment should implement body camera programs, factors that should to be balanced against others in the equation.

There are privacy concerns, but there is also a huge question of who should bear the cost of transparency the programs os-tensibly are designed to provide. Taxpayers should not have to pay twice – once to acquire the technology that can serve to pro-tect offi cers and again to get to see the records that make police agencies accountable.

These factors were not in the three bills we saw this year. In fact, one amendment proposed going back and closing down police dash-cam video.

As we said in our legislative alerts to TPA members, if infor-mation gathered by these camer-as is summarily made confi den-tial before the records are made, the purpose of the government spending millions is defeated.

The bills were assigned to the House State Government Commit-tee, chaired by Rep. Bob Ramsey of Maryville. The leadership of that committee wisely referred all of them to the Advisory Commit-tee on Open Government and the Open Records Counsel for more thoughtful examination.

Chairman Ramsey, a member of ACOG, remembered and spoke of how well the OORC and ACOG dealt with the fee-to-inspect-re-cords bill last year.

Then there was the bill that started out mandating that the TBI be called in to investigate all police-involved shootings. The House sponsor said he was

seeking independence and “more transparency.” The problem is that most TBI records are protected from disclosure by an almost absolute exemption so the transparency might have been lacking.

In the end, nothing in the offi -cer-involved shooting bill passed. That was probably a good thing because dealing with an array of law enforcement record issues was complicated by having four bills spread around multiple, dif-ferent committees in the House and Senate.

The motive and impetus for each of the three body cam bills was different. One was fi led in 2015 by two Democrat lawmak-ers, including one African-Amer-ican, as a response to police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere.

The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony during an in-tra-session “study” of that bill, but transparency was given only cur-sory consideration. TPA general counsel Rick Hollow and TCOG’s Fisher were given less than fi ve minutes between them to present the public and press perspective. On the other hand, a representa-tive of the Arizona-based purveyor of the body cameras got consider-ably more time.

Another bill came from Sen-ate Judiciary Chairman Brian Kelsey, a Germantown Republi-can, who subsequently handed off his bill to the sponsors of the 2015 bill. The City of Mem-phis police department, which reportedly is having problems deploying more than 1,000 al-ready-purchased body cams, has been pushing for legislation to protect the video.

A third body cam bill didn’t surface until halfway through the 2016 session, in mid-March. It came from the City of Frank-lin, and, in its original form, gave law enforcement agencies total discretion on what could be released.

The common problem with the body cam and TBI bills was they made short shrift of public

transparency.The Franklin bill would have

turned the public records act on its head by requiring court action to open any record to any-one but made no provision for the press and public to petition to force the release of the records.

Decision makers need to be more proactive when creating this whole new set of public records. The cost of providing transparency – an essential piece of a body cam program – needs to be factored into the decision to use cameras.

Other legislation requires all government entities to establish written policies on handling pub-lic records requests and to make them available to the public by July 1, 2017. The OORC in con-sultation with ACOG is to create a model public records policy and best practices.

The bill said a local entity can-not impose requirements in its policy that are more burdensome than state law. It must include the name and the contact infor-mation of the records coordinator and custodian of that particular entity. The policy also must outline the process for making requests.

One of the wackiest bills of the year made confi dential the names of vendors supplying the state with electronic equipment and software used to protect state property, employees, and citizens doing business with the state. The Haslam administration argued that knowing the name of a vendor somehow aids and abets computer hackers.

Who can argue with that? Rep. Bill Sanderson of Kenton, chairman of the House State Government subcommittee, did. He made sure the nonsense did not fl ow downstream to local government by keeping vendors names public at that level.

Frank Gibson is TPA’s public policy director. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected] and on his mobile at 615-202-2685.

PUBLIC

POLICY

OUTLOOK

FRANK GIBSON

Morristown; and a Best Ideas ex-change with cash prizes awarded for the top three ideas, moderated by Don Lovelace, TPA Circulation Committee Chairman, Citizen Tribune, Morristown.

Presidential Installation Lun-cheon & 50-Year Club Honors

TPA will install a new president, slated to be W.R. (Ron) Fryar, publisher of the Cannon Courier,

Woodbury. Fryar is a past presi-dent, having served in 1996-97. He currently serves as TPA vice presi-dent for non-daily newspapers.

50-Year Club honors will be presented during the luncheon to nominees who have achieved 50 or more years of service in the newspaper industry.

TPA/TPS/TPAF BusinessThe TPA Board of Directors

will meet Thursday afternoon,

followed by the TPA Business Ses-sion, the Tennessee Press Service Annual Stockholders Meeting and the Tennessee Press Association Foundation Board of Trustees.

Free circulation newspaper membership discussion planned

The TPA Bylaws Review Com-mittee will propose to the Board of Directors changes to the TPA Constitution and Bylaws that would allow free circulation news-

papers to join TPA as members. The discussion will be open to all members. Additionally, a proposed restructuring of the Board will be recommended. The committee is chaired by Eric Barnes of The Dai-ly News, Memphis. If the changes are approved by the Board for consideration by the membership, a vote by mailed ballot will be conducted in August.

Convention hotel

The Franklin Marriott Cool Springs is 16 miles from downtown Nashville. The convention room rate is $134 plus tax, per night. The hotel offers complimentary parking and wireless internet. For reserva-tions call (800) 228-9280 or (615) 261-6100. The reservation deadline is Friday, June 24.

TPA registrationRegistration information is

online at www.tnpress.com.

CONVENTION, from Page 1


If a person hangs around long enough, he’s bound to get noticed. That’s my theory anyway.

When asked why I receive so many requests for help from newspapers, I simply mark it down to longevity. I’ve been around the business long enough for most publishers, and others, to know me.

On a recent Tuesday, I received requests to visit fi ve newspapers in four states. For some, the most pressing need is training. A few seek advice concerning the over-all structure of their operations. Still others are hoping I can fi nd the solution to problems which have plagued their newspapers for too long.

Ten or 15 years ago, I would worry a bit before hop-ping in my car to visit Selmer, Columbia or Johnson City. Concerned there might be bigger problems than I could solve, it was always a relief to head back to Knoxville.

Those days are past. I don’t stress or worry about upcoming trips. One reason is there’s simply no time for worry while visiting two or three papers each week. A more likely explanation is there’s not much I haven’t seen after 20 years of consulting, so issues that might be huge in the eyes of a client often have simple solutions when seen through the eyes of experience.

Here are some of the most common questions I’m

asked while on-site at newspapers:Question 1: Is there a better way to produce my news-paper?

The topic of production comes up a lot during my vis-its. This particular question is one of the most diffi cult, because there’s almost always someone who doesn’t like my answer.

Ponder this: How often do you visit some type of business and think, “There’s got to be a better way?” If you’re like most, the answer would be, “That happens a lot.”

That’s what makes this a diffi cult question. It’s not

that I don’t know the answer. Usually, within just a few min-utes, I’ve noticed several potential improvements to the workfl ow. It’s natural for people to resist change. So I tread this question gently, hoping to gain the trust of most everyone on staff before sharing my thoughts.

For instance, most people enjoy designing pages. The truth, how-ever, is it’s important to have good designers working on pages and good writers writing stories. Sure, photographers sometimes like hav-ing total control of their photos, but there’s often someone on staff who is particularly skilled at color editing, leaving the photographer more time for what they do best, shooting photos.

As an adviser, I use experience to guide me in knowing when to advise changes, and when to realize, for the time being, things might work better as they are.Question 2: Why are we having so many problems with ads clogging up the system or printing incorrectly?

I don’t like bringing up issues with PDF fi les. Some-times it seems like I’ve spent my life dealing with them. But the truth is I haven’t visited a paper in a long time that didn’t have issues with PDF fi les.

Most don’t realize their trouble is coming from PDF fi les. A pressman might ask, “Whey do fi les coming from advertising cause errors when go-ing through the RIP (raster image processor)?

A publisher might ask, “Why are we losing so much money because ads aren’t printing right in our paper?”

A page designer might ask, “Why are quota-tion marks turning to strange symbols?” or “Why are boxes appearing on the page where letters should be?”

As much as the good folks at Adobe want you to believe otherwise, the answer is almost always found in the method used to create the PDF fi les.

One of the most common messages I receive after visiting a client is, “We’ve already covered your cost in savings from ads printing correctly.”

It’s not rocket science. Ensuring those PDF fi les are error-free before sending them to the RIP will make everyone sleep better.Question 3: Will we increase profi ts and pro-duce better papers by centralizing production?

When approached with the idea of moving the productions of multiple newspapers to a central offi ce, I’ve found it wise to do more listening than talking.

Most clients are already hoping I will say, “Yes, that’s a good idea,” before I arrive.

I fi gure, however, they’re paying me good money and want objective answers, rather than having me placate their egos – improving my chances of being invited back.

Sometimes the answer is “yes.” If they own three papers in one county with a total circulation of 1,600, it probably doesn’t take three full-time design staffs to lay out the pages.

However, often the answer is “not so fast.”Research indicates often the best way to produce long-

term growth is improving the quality of the products. Moving to a central production facility often has more to do with reaching short-term cost reduction goals than achieving long-term growth.

As often as not, when faced with this question, I will have a serious discussion with a publisher, CEO or other manager, resulting in a decision to use current resources to improve the quality and profi ts of their newspapers, rather than cutting to grow, which rarely works in the long run.

I could write a column titled, “The 100 most-often-asked questions during on-site visits,” but the editor of this publication might not be pleased with such a topic. So, for now, let’s stick with these three.

What are the three most common questions I’m asked on-site?

PRESSING ISSUESTHE

NEWS

GURU

KEVIN SLIMP

One of my most common requests is to “get the color right” on the

printed page. Here, a pressman checks the dot gain right after this

page came off the press in Cambridge, Minnesota, while I looked on.

In Cambridge, Minnesota, the staff wanted to learn how to

get the best results on the printed page. That led to inviting

them to visit the printing plant to get a lesson on how a

press works and why dot gain, color settings and resolution

are so important.

“What caused those pages to crash when they went through the RIP?” That question

led to a new method of creating PDF ad fi les at the daily paper in Charles City, Iowa.

Volume 79 June 2016 No. 12 INSIDE Events announced … Franklin Cool Springs Marri-ott in Franklin,...

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