NIE Conference next week in Tacoma

Registrations are still being accepted at www.pnna.com for the May 3-5 joint Western States CNIE/PNNA NIE Conference at The News Tribune in Tacoma. Click on Upcoming Events – NIE Conference – and you can register online, see all of the great conference sessions and speakers, sponsors and details about Tacoma and links to the conference hotel – The Sheraton Tacoma. David Zeeck, executive editor of The News Tribune and newly named president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, will speak on "Why Young Readers are Our Future" on Thursday morning following a welcome from Cheryl Dell, publisher of The News Tribune. Delegates will hear the latest from the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the NAA Foundation. Special events include the Opening Night Reception on Wednesday and dinner Thursday at the Tacoma Art Museum hosted by The News Tribune. So do not delay – sign up and register and enjoy a great conference. Contact Jim Henderson at The News Tribune at (253) 597-8791 with any questions.

Discounts for Inland newsroom management course

Staff members from PNNA newspapers may attend the Inland Press Foundation's Editorial Management Workshop, June 15-16 in Seattle, at the Inland member rate, a $75 savings. At the event, instruction and discussion will emphasize building readership, encouraging creativity and innovation, and using the Web to strengthen newspaper performance. David Daugherty, vice president of research for Gannett's newspaper division, will discuss using news content to enhance marketing and aid newsrooms in attracting new readers. Kathy Schenck, assistant managing editor for copy desks at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, will lead a session on "skeptical editing."  Eva Hamilton, an organizational psychologist from Seattle, will provide instruction on handling stress and problem situations in the newsroom, and Tom Hallman, The Oregonian, Portland, a 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winner, will share ideas for better storytelling. The two-day workshop will be held at the Paramount Hotel in Seattle. Discounted fee is $275 per person for the first registrant, $250 for additional registrants. Download the brochure on the PNNA conference page.

Other upcoming Pacific Northwest training events

Newsroom Leadership Group's Leadership Development (June 5-6) and Women and the Newsroom (June 7) workshops in Portland, hosted by The Oregonian. Society for News Design's New Media Quick Course Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at Gonzaga University in Spokane, co-hosted by The Wenatchee World.

Oregonian wins Pulitzer for editorial writing

The Oregonian, Portland, was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in the 2006 contest for a series of editorials about crowded and understaffed conditions at the Oregon State Hospital, the state's main facility for treatment of the mentally ill. The 15-part series, "Oregon's Forgotten Hospital," was written by associate editors Doug Bates and Rick Attig. As reported in The Oregonian, "The editorials helped prompt action by state officials to remove adolescents from the hospital. It also helped lead to passage of a mental health insurance parity measure that prohibited group health insurers from putting limits on treatment or imposing financial requirements for coverage." It is the newspaper's sixth Pulitzer Prize (1939, 1957, 1999 and two in 2001) and its second for editorial writing.

Harris named publisher of Kodiak Daily Mirror

Richard Harris will take over as publisher of Alaska's Kodiak Daily Mirror on May 30, replacing Amy Willis, publisher since 2000 who announced her resignation last week. Harris, 36, will leave his job as general manager of Digital Express, a division of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, parent company of the Mirror. Willis will stay on until June 16 to help with the transition.

2 PNNA members are EPpy finalists

The efforts of two PNNA newspaper websites have been honored as finalists for EPpy Awards for excellence in interactive media in this year's contest sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Media Week. The Seattle Times – seattletimes.com – is among three finalists in the Best Internet Sports Service (over 1 million unique monthly visitors) category. Mike Sando's Seattle Seahawks blog from TheNewsTribune.com (The News Tribune, Roseburg, Ore.) is a finalist for Best Media-Affiliated Sports Blog. Winners will be announced May 19.

McClatchy growth reshapes newspaper landscape

Eric Pryne writes in today's Seattle Times about how the growth of The McClatchy Co. with the purchase of Knight Ridder reshapes the newspaper landscape in America. He details how the deal will affect newspapers in Washington. The transaction increases McClatchy's dailies in Washington from two to four, turns over Knight Ridder's 49.5% share in The Seattle Times Co. to McClatchy and ups the number of copies of McClatchy papers distributed in the state each week to nearly 500,000.

Will Seattle become a one-newspaper town?

Writing in Editor & Publisher, Joe Strupp says it may take up to a year for a final decision to be made about what will happen with The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer Joint Operating Agreement if it goes to arbitration as planned. "That could mean another year of uncertainty and stress for both newsrooms, especially those in the P-I, which would be the most likely to fold if the JOA is ended." The judge overseeing the litigation between the two Seattle dailies was set to hear oral arguments today on whether The Seattle Times Co. and Hearst Corp. can take their dispute into private binding arbitration.

Times, Post-Intelligencer talk separately to unions

The Seattle Times reported on April 25 that it and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will negotiate with their largest union separately this year, breaking a nearly half-century tradition of joint or coordinated bargaining of new labor contracts. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild represents about 750 employees at both papers, and their contracts expire July 21.

Utah governor opens records on incentives

Just hours after the Utah Records Committee denied a request by The Salt Lake Tribune for names of companies offered financial incentives by the Governor's Office of Economic Develop to relocate in the state, the governor released a new policy making details of such offers public.

Deseret News loses bid for county records

The Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City, lost a bid earlier this month for an investigative report into allegations of sexual harassment in a Salt Lake County office. At issue was a lawsuit by a former county clerk alleging she'd been sexually harassed. The case was settled, and the alleged harasser resigned his position. The newspaper sued for access to the report, but was denied by a Third District judge who wrote that releasing a sexual harassment investigative report would have a "chilling effect" on victims and witnesses in the future.

Legislature may close some sessions in Idaho

The Idaho Supreme Court rejected an argument by the Idaho Press Club that the state's constitution requires that all lawmaking proceedings be conducted publicly. The Press Club sued the Legislature in 2003 for closing some meetings of official committees. But in a 3-2 decision, the state Supreme Court upheld a district judge's ruling that the framers of Idaho's Constitution intended only the general sessions of the House and Senate always to be open, not the committee hearings.

Idaho Statesman now offers quick read on Page 1

The Idaho Statesman on April 19 launched a redesign that comes in three regional editions and offers readers a heightened focus on local news and a 5-minute update on what's going on in the world on Page 1. The changes had reportedly been in the works since the fall when the newspaper was bought by Knight Ridder.

Herald launches Spanish newspaper in Puget Sound

The Herald, an Everett, Wash., daily owned by The Washington Post Co., will launch a weekly newspaper on April 28 for the rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population in the Puget Sound area – La Raza de Noroeste (The people of the Northwest). The free Spanish-language paper launches with 20,000 copies distributed free at Hispanic grocery stores and other retail outlets. Jorge Rivera is publisher of the weekly, which focuses primarily on first-generation immigrants and the information they need to cope with life in America. The tabloid taps a market of about 300,000 Spanish-speaking residents, with some 80% coming from Mexico. Rivera expects the paper to turn a profit by year's end.

News Tribune expands NIE program for Super Bowl

The Newspapers in Education program at The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash., expanded its distribution of newspapers to classrooms beyond those that normally participate in the NIE program. Newspapers leading up to Super Bowl XL, which featured the Seattle Seahawks, went to more than 20 different school districts and 30 private schools to allow students to follow the coverage. Teachers received educational activities geared to the Super Bowl and covering such subject areas as geography, math, history and language arts. In total, 33,000 newspapers were delivered to 160 South Sound schools. Jim Henderson, from The News Tribune's NIE program, reported receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from school principals, administrators and teachers.

4 big newspaper groups among top 20 news websites

According to Nielsen//NetRatings for March, Gannett, Tribune, Knight Ridder and Hearst were among the websites most frequently visited for current events and global news. Gannett Newspapers was No. 5, with more than 14 million unique visitors; Tribune Newspapers was No. 8 with more than 12 million; Knight Ridder was No. 9 with more than 11 million; and Hearst Newspapers Digital came in at No. 15 with more than 8 million unique visitors. The top four were: Yahoo! News (29 million); MSNBC (27 million); CNN (24 million); and AOL News (16 million).

WSJ: General Mills, Kraft shift ads to Internet

Consumer packaged goods brands are some of the largest advertisers worldwide; increasingly, they too are shifting large portions of their ad budgets to the Internet, according to the Wall Street Journal. Companies like General Mills and Kraft are expected to more than double their online advertising efforts this year, underlining the Web's threat to traditional media revenues. These kinds of products spent an average of 1.6% of their 2005 budgets on the Web, compared to the 5.8% of total spending for the average U.S. advertiser. If others were to follow a similar path to PepsiCo, the resulting sea change in CPG spending would have huge implications for the entire industry – as the category accounted for more than 11% of the $145 billion spent on advertising in the U.S. last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

NYTimes.com redesign so good he’s canceling print

Jack Shafer writes in Slate that the redesign of NYTimes.com launched recently is so good that he's canceling his print subscription. "Ever since newspapers took to the Internet, most have straddled a wobbly design space that was neither print nor Web. The NYTimes.com redesign elegantly melds the two worlds," Shafer wrote. He details what works and why in the article.

People:

Holst is new media manager in Wenatchee

Svend Holst joined The Wenatchee World, Wash., as new media manager. For the past four years, Holst has worked as online service manager for The Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. Previously he was online editor at the Avalanche-Journal in Lubbock, Texas, and a reporter at the Juneau Empire, Alaska.

Keplinger named ad director of Columbian

Teresa Keplinger was named advertising director of The Columbian, in Columbia, Wash., responsible for all ad departments. She took over on March 20. She most recently was advertising director for the Salem-Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., for six years. Before that, Keplinger spent 21 years with The Mail Tribune, in Medford, Ore., working her way up from a classified telephone sales representative to advertising director.

Schaefer named to head ad department in Kodiak

Sara Schaefer last week was named advertising manager, heading the department at the Kodiak Daily Mirror in Alaska. She replaces Lynn Devlin, who had been ad manager for the previous six years. Schaefer joined the Daily Mirror’s advertising department 3 1/2 years ago.

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