Davison named publisher of Daily Record

Matt Davison, a 10-year newspaper advertising veteran, was named publisher of The Daily Record in Ellensburg, Wash. Davison, who has been advertising director for the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, Idaho, takes over the 5,700-circulation Ellensburg daily on Feb. 6. He succeeds Steve Miller, publisher for the past 2 ½ years, who will become managing editor of the Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore. The three newspapers are owned by Pioneer Newspapers, a family-owned publishing business. Davison came to The Press-Tribune from The Mail Tribune in Medford, Ore., where he was an advertising manager.

PNNA training set for March 21-22 in Portland

Ken Sands	Russell Viers
Bob Bobber	Mike Zinser

PNNA's one-day seminars March 21-22 in Portland will cover online content and revenue, Adobe Creative Suite and single-copy circulation. The PNNA Spring Training Conference, at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport, will feature Ken Sands, online publisher of The Spokesman-Review's award-winning web site, with a morning segment on content and an afternoon on revenue; Russell Viers, an Adobe-certified trainer, with a day on advanced InDesign, PDF workflow and other Creative Suite applications; and Bob Bobber with Mike Zinser covering single-copy circulation and legal issues. All seminars are $125 and include continental breakfast, lunch and materials. Registration will open next week. Watch your mail and PNNA listserv for more.

Knight Ridder meets potential buyers week of Jan. 9

Knight Ridder is set to meet with potential buyers this week, according to a Jan. 7 report in the San Jose Mercury News – one of 32 daily newspapers owned by the San Jose-based newspaper giant. Preliminary bids were received in early December. The report said an initial bid has come from The Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It also cites the following as possible bidders: Gannett Co.; the McClatchy Co.; MediaNews Group teamed with one or more private equity partners; and several other private equity companies. “A final round of bids and a decision by Knight Ridder’s board is at least two months away,” the Mercury News reported.

Seattle papers publish citizen cell-phone photos

Both The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published photos taken by a passenger with his cell-phone camera inside an Alaska Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at a local airport in late December, according to a report on Poynteronline. Video shot by another passenger was aired at a local TV station.

Casey Medals honor coverage of families, children

Apply now for the 2006 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism honoring distinguished coverage of children and families. First-place winners in 14 categories receive $1,000 and are honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Award categories include newspapers, magazines, television, radio, photojournalism and online. Work must have been published or broadcast between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2005. Entries are due on March 1, 2006. Download the rules and an entry form. The Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan program of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Oregonian wins Meyer Award for meth series

The Oregonian won the top prize in the Meyer Awards competition, which recognizes the best uses of social science methods in journalism. The Oregonian's series, “Unnecessary Epidemic,” showed how Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration could have stopped the growth of methamphetamine abuse by aggressively regulating the import of the chemical necessary to make it. Lead reporter Steve Suo’s work included sophisticated statistical analyses of data on hospital and treatment center admissions, arrests, meth prices and purity, and chemical imports. The awards are administered by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting and Arizona State University.

Deseret Morning News wins for meth series

“Generation Meth” by Deseret Morning News reporters Dennis Romboy and Lucinda Dillon Kinkead was honored with a Nancy Dickenson Whitehead Award honoring excellence in reporting on substance abuse. The comprehensive six-part series examined methamphetamine use among single mothers in Utah and the ramifications on their families and the judicial, child welfare and drug treatment systems. Winners received $10,000.

SpokesmanReview.com is finalist for 2 Edgies

SpokesmanReview.com – the website of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. – is a finalist in two categories for the 2006 Digital Edge Awards sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America. Winners will be announced on Feb. 19, but SpokesmanReview.com is up for Edgies in the Best Overall News Site and Best Entertainment Site categories (circulation 100,000-249,999).

Cameroon editor to do fellowship at Seattle P-I

Franklin Bayen, news editor of Cameroon’s Weekly Post, will spend his five-month Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Under the international program, fellows participate in a two-week orientation in Washington, D.C. in March. They next spend five months on the staff of newspapers throughout the U.S. and finish up the training in August with a journalism seminar back in Washington, D.C.

Idaho Falls paper buys 22-hopper Goss

Editor & Publisher reported that the Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho, bought a 22-hopper shaftless Goss Magnapak to meet expanding volume and zoning requirements. The new equipment will go in the newspaper's packaging operation in a new production center set to be built this year. According to the late November E&P report, the 22,731-circulation newspaper has seen double-digit growth in preprint volume over the past five years.

Coeur d’Alene to expand production facility

Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Press, which in its own report calls itself “the fastest growing newspaper in America,” plans to expand its production capabilities this year by constructing a new 22,000-quare-foot production facility next to its current facility. The early December report noted that The Press will also buy a new press and other printing and packaging equipment.

Watch the ad, read premium content free at Time.com

Time magazine is experimenting with making premium online content freely available to those who agree to view a multi-paged, full-screen interactive Chrysler ad that uses technology from Ultramercial, thus far used extensively by Salon since early 2003, wrote ClickZ on Dec. 27, 2005. Visitors to Time.com have gained access to the "Person of the Year" cover story and the magazine's articles archive of articles for 24 hours.

Splogs: The next new thing

Here's a new word for you: splog. It's a blog that's actually spam. And Umbria Communications recently reported that of the 80,000 blogs created each day, about one in five is spam. "Spam blogs are sites created only for marketing purposes," wrote AdWeek.com reporting on Umbria's research, "often using stolen content via RSS feeds to trigger keyword-based ads from Google's AdSense and other contextual ad programs."

Older adults using Internet more, reading less

More than 60 percent of adults 55 years and older – the heaviest users of offline media – who use the Internet say they use it more than they did a year ago, according to Burst Media survey results reported on Marketing Vox on Jan. 3. Just under 50 percent said they spend time "surfing for news, sports and weather information," though "gathering information for personal needs" and "communicating with others" were the top reasons they gave for their Internet usage. The same survey found that 36.6 percent said they spend less time reading magazines than a year ago; 44.1 percent spend less time reading newspapers; 44 percent spend less time listening to the radio, and 43.6 percent spend less time watching TV.

Podcasts have limited exposure

Media Week reported results of a Podtrac survey on Dec. 29, 2005, that only about one-third of Internet users had heard the term “podcasting.” Of those, only 32 percent had listened to a podcast. Most listeners – not surprisingly – were men.

Bush directs agencies to improve disclosure

An executive order signed by President George W. Bush on Dec. 14 directed federal agencies to take steps to streamline the handling of requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The directive requires agencies to create service centers and designate public liaisons. The order left in place a four-year-old policy on release of government information that's more restrictive than a Clinton administration policy that encouraged agencies to err on the side of releasing, not withholding, information in determining whether to grant FOIA requests. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called the presidential directive "a good first step."

National 'citizen journalism' website launches

iTalkNews.com, a website providing a place for everyday citizens to read, write, discuss and publish new stories, launched on Dec. 13. The site added several new features that were not available in its beta mode: a voting system for iTalkers, enhanced iTalker community interaction and the ability for iTalkers to edit each other's articles. Edits must be accepted by the original writer before posting to prevent abuse of the system. The site is distinguished by its focus on national and international stories. It also carries stories from The Associated Press.

U.S. ranks 6th among countries jailing journalists

Quoting a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the New York Times said that the United States has tied with Myanmar, the former Burma, for sixth place among countries holding the most journalists behind bars. Each country is jailing five journalists. The U.S. is holding four Iraqi journalists in Iraq and a Sudanese cameraman for Al Jazeera at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. China, which has 32 journalists in jail, topped the list for the seventh year in a row. Cuba ranked second with 24, Eritrea was third with 15, Ethiopia was fourth with 13 and Uzbekistan ranked fifth with six.

People:

Miller named ME in Klamath Falls

Steve Miller, publisher of The Daily Record in Ellensburg, Wash., since August 2003, will become managing editor of the 17,500-circulation Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Ore. on Feb. 6. Miller, 49, came to the Daily Record from the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello, where he was managing editor. Before that he was editor of two newspapers in Nebraska. The Daily Record, Herald and News and Idaho State Journal are owned by Seattle-based Pioneer Newspapers.

In Memoriam:

Patrick L. Marlton, 78

Patrick L. Marlton, who as circulation director of The Oregonian led a daily circulation increase of more than 100,000 during the 18 years he headed the department, died Dec. 5, 2005, after complications of surgery. He was 78. Marlton started at The Oregonian in 1946 as an order verifier in circulation. He held every other position in the circulation department and became circulation director in 1978. He was assistant to the publisher when he retired in 1996. He is survived by his wife, Dolores; daughters Cindy Marlton, Debbie Meinhart and Laurie Marlton; sons, Steve and Pat Jr.; sisters, Darlene Ierulli, Jackie Maier and Mary Theros; and six grandchildren.

Dwight Schear, 83

Dwight Schear, a writer for The Seattle Times for more than 33 years, died in his sleep from complications from cancer on Dec. 5, 2005. He was 83. After serving in World War II, Schear left the Army and wrote for The Star, a Seattle daily newspaper. He moved to Europe where he was a correspondent and bureau chief for Stars and Stripes. Schear returned to Seattle and joined The Seattle Times, serving first as a reporter for five years then as a writer of editorials. He is survived by his wife, Helga; brother, Rillmond; and two sisters, Nancy Horman and Sally Mackey.

Jerry Tippens, 74

Jerry Tippens, whose career as a reporter, columnist and editor spanned more than 40 years in Oregon, died Nov. 28, 2005, of cancer. He was 74. Tippens joined the former Oregon Journal as night city editor in 1962 and was editorial page editor when the Journal merged with The Oregonian. He retired from The Oregonian in 1991 as associate editor. He was also a longtime columnist for The Daily Astorian, Astoria, Ore.

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