3 PNNA papers go to Knight Ridder

The (Boise) Idaho Statesman, and two newspapers in the state of Washington, The (Olympia) Olympian and The Bellingham Herald are now part of Knight Ridder after an Aug. 2 exchange with the papers’ former owner, Gannett, which got Knight Ridder’s Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat and an undisclosed cash consideration in the swap. The three papers had been owned by Gannett since 1971. The Idaho Statesman has circulation of 64,815 daily, 85,552 Sunday; The Olympian 33,808 daily, 41,677 Sunday; and The Bellingham Herald 23,928 daily, 30,230 Sunday. The Democrat circulation is 51,095 daily, 66,828 Sunday. Knight Ridder said that the Boise newspaper will report to Senior Vice President Hilary Schneider. The two Washington state newspapers will report to Paula Ellis, vice president/operations. At the same time, Knight Ridder announced these executive changes at the papers: Mike Petrak, Knight Ridder vice president/marketing, will become president and publisher in Boise. John Winn Miller, senior vice president/marketing in Tallahassee, will become president and publisher in Olympia. And Glen Nardi, senior vice president/operations at the San Jose Mercury News, will become president and publisher in Bellingham.

Post-Register celebrates 125th anniversary

From Rutherford B. Hayes to George W. Bush, Idaho Falls’ Post-Register has chronicled the lives and times of the world for the past 125 years. What started as a slim publication in a town with only a couple of hundred people has grown to a daily circulation of 26,000. The paper officially became the Post- Register in the 1930s, a merger of the two dominant papers of the time. To celebrate its 125th anniversary at the end of July, the Post-Register treated readers to two nights of free movies. The theme? “Newspapers in the movies.”

PNNA Print Quality Contest set for August

PNNA’s Print Quality Contest is coming up in August. Watch your mail and go to http://www.pnna.com/extras/pqcontest.html where information will be available shortly about the dates to pull copies and where you can download the entry form. The print quality contest awards will be presented at the PNNA Annual Conference at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Wash., in November.

Call for judges: Print Quality Contest

John McKinney, production director at The Oregonian, has issued a call for print quality judges for this year’s PNNA Print Quality Contest. Judging criteria for entries are: Ink density and laydown, halftone and color separation quality, color registration, page alignment and page count, and overall appearance. If you’re interested in serving as a judge, please contact John McKinney at (503) 221-8184 or by e-mail at johnmc@prod.oregonian.com. Your help in making this one of the best print quality contests is greatly appreciated, and the experience will be rewarding.

PNNA training conference: Oct. 25-26

PNNA’s training conference is set for Tuesday-Wednesday, Oct. 25-26, at the DoubleTree Hotel Seattle Airport. Full details and registration are coming your way in the mail, but save the dates for these valuable workshops. On Tuesday, Advertising Sales covers skills for newer front-line sales staffers, and Intermediate InDesign Users covers technical skills for news and ad designers who have used InDesign. On Wednesday, the Storytelling through Collaboration workshop shows reporters and graphic artists how to work together to tell compelling stories. And Copyediting: Beyond the Basics, helps copy desk staff sharpen their skills. An Advanced InDesign workshop focuses on the power of PDF. Fees range from $125 per person for daylong seminars to $65 for one afternoon seminar. Location: DoubleTree Hotel Seattle Airport, 18740 International Blvd., Seattle. Hotel rooms: $139 single, $149 double, plus tax. Booking deadline: Oct. 14. Information.

NewsU offers free online training for journalists

NewsU offers newsroom training to journalists and journalism students through its interactive e-learning program and links to other journalism education and training opportunities. Many of the courses are free; others are low cost. They span the spectrum of journalism training needs: leadership and management; reporting, writing and editing; broadcast; online; ethics; and visual journalism. The Newsroom University is a partnership between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation – which funded it with a five-year, $2.8 million grant – and The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Merrill Lynch: Advertising 'media malaise' to continue

Merrill Lynch says the "media malaise" that has descended upon traditional advertising won't improve much in the coming months and predicts slow growth ahead, MediaPost reported at the end of July. Analysts predict a slowdown in magazine advertising during the second half of 2005 and moribund advertising activity on the newspaper front. June advertising revenues for newspapers ended up on average in the 2 percent range, down from 3 percent in April and 2.5 percent in May. The report noted that B2B magazine ad revenues grew 3.6 percent in May on a 0.2 percent decline in ad pages. Radio revenue remained largely flat.

Business news readers not 'just old men'

According to an end-of-July Media Audit report, the business news sections of daily newspapers continue to consistently deliver an educated audience with economic clout. Across the 87 U.S. markets surveyed, business section readers have these characteristics: 57.7 percent male, 42.3 percent female; 54 percent have incomes over $54,000, 35.1 have incomes over $75,000, and 22.4 percent earn $100,000 or more; and 58 percent who read regularly are between age 18 and 54.

People:

Miller picked to lead The Olympian

John Winn Miller, 52, was selected as the next president and publisher of The Olympian, Olympia. He has been with the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat since 1999, serving as senior vice president of marketing since 2004. Previously, he was senior vice president/circulation, operations and human resources from 2003 to 2004, was executive editor and senior vice president/news and circulation from 2002 to 2003 and as executive editor/senior vice president/news from 1999 to 2002. Miller was executive editor and senior vice president/news of the (State College, Pa.) Centre Daily Times from 1996 to 1999. At the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, he was city editor 1992 to 1996, capitol bureau chief 1987 to 1992 and reporter. He was Rome bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in 1986, and worked for The Associated Press from 1979 to 1986 as a reporter and copy editor in Louisville, Ky., New York and Rome. He earned a bachelor of general studies from the University of Kentucky in 1977. He is a 2004 graduate of the Northwestern University Advanced Executive Program.

Nardi is new publisher in Bellingham

Glen Nardi, 54, was named president and publisher of The Bellingham Herald. He’s been in his current job as senior vice president/operation at the San Jose Mercury News since 2004. He served as vice president/operations for The (Columbia, S.C.) State from 1995 to 2004 and production director from 1988 to 1995. Prior to that, he was production director for Philadelphia Newspapers from 1984 to 1987, production manager for The Miami Herald from 1981 to 1984 and pre-press manager there from 1980 to 1981. He was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1973 to 1980. Nardi earned a master's degree in personnel management from George Washington University in 1979 and a bachelor's of science degree in management from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1973.

Petrak named publisher of The Idaho Statesman

Mike Petrak was named president and publisher of The Idaho Statesman, Boise. He’s been vice president/marketing for Knight Ridder since 2001. He served as executive vice president and general manager at The Kansas City Star from 1997 to 2001 and as vice president/marketing and advertising 1994 to 1997. He was director of marketing for Consumer Power Marketing from 1992 to 1994 and ad director for the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times from 1988 to 1992. Earlier, he worked in advertising and circulation at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and in the newsroom at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Petrak is chairman of Newspapers First, a co-founder of Newspaper Value Symposium, a member of the board of CityXpress online auctions company and a member of the Newspaper National Network Sales Advisory Committee and the Newspaper Association of America Postal Affairs Committee. He earned an M.B.A. in marketing from the University of Iowa in 1982 and a bachelor's degree in journalism there in 1980.

Peterson is ME for Tacoma's News Tribune

Karen Peterson was promoted to managing editor at The News Tribune, Tacoma, in mid-June. She had been senior editor for daily news and production for the previous three and a half years. Before that, she led the newspaper's suburban reporting and writing team for 18 months.

Vantosky named vp of advertising in Tacoma

Kurt Vantosky joined The News Tribune in July as the Tacoma newspaper's vice president of advertising. He served most recently as advertising director of the Anchorage Daily News and is a graduate of the University of Idaho.

CALL TO READERS : Send stories to the editor Nancy Brands Ward.

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