The annual PNNA meeting is just around the corner

PNNA members will gather Nov 7-9 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel to discuss challenging issues and new opportunities facing our member newspapers. The conference begins with the Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 7 and ends with the PNNA annual business meeting on Friday, Nov. 9. Thursday will feature sessions dealing with the changing newspaper landscape and some interesting suggestions for product development and structural change to the historic departmental tableau. The Associated Press staff will give an update on their array of services. On Friday, Bob Hale, publisher of the Juneau Empire in Alaska, will lead the Great Ideas Roundtable, which precedes the PNNA business meeting.

Awards presented during this meeting include: the C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Reporting; the Dolly Connelly Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism; the Print Quality Awards; the Ted M. Natt First Amendment Award; and the Association Press Staffer of the Year Award.

There should be something of value for every newspaper executive and staff member to take back to their newspaper: ideas for new products, changes to accommodate the transitioning newspaper business model and awards for excellence. 

Call the Seattle Sheraton at (888) 627-7056 or reserve your room online by Wednesday, Oct. 3 to receive the group rate of $179. A registration form for the meeting is here and the schedule of events can be found here. For more information, contact Jack Bates.

Calling for entries in the 2007 PNNA 
Print Quality Contest

Each year, PNNA recognizes the best in quality newspaper printing. All newspapers are invited to join in the competition. New this year is that all of the Print Quality entries will be judged by the Graphic Communication Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, led by Dr. Harvey R. Levenson. The winners will be announced Nov. 7-9. For more information on how to enter, click here.

NEWS:

Google's new deal to host AP and other syndicated content could cut traffic to newspaper sites

Editor & Publisher reports that Google Inc. last week began hosting material produced by the Associated Press and three other news services – Agence France-Presse, The Press Association in the United Kingdom and The Canadian Press – on its own website instead of only sending readers to other destinations. Google negotiated licensing deals with the services during the past two years to resolve disputes over whether the search engine had been infringing on their copyrights. The new approach won’t change the look of Google News or affect the way the section handles material produced by other media. Google also said the material from the AP and other services won’t be elevated in the pecking order of its search results. Google doesn’t have any immediate plans to run ads alongside the news stories or photographs hosted on its site, but company officials aren’t ruling out the possibility in the future. Google said it isn’t paying anything extra to host the material. With the new approach, Google reasons that readers won’t have to pore through search results listing the same story posted on different sites, which should make it easier to discover other news stories at other websites that might previously have been buried, said Josh Cohen, the business product manager for Google News. The AP intends to work with Google to ensure readers find their way to breaking news stories on its members’ websites, said Jane Seagrave, the AP’s vice president of new media markets.

Wenatchee World buys Quincy Valley paper;
Allen takes helm as Quincy publisher

The Wenatchee World has purchased The Quincy Valley Post-Register in Washington, from Jim and Joan Kadyk, effective Aug. 31. World Publisher Rufus Woods said The Post-Register will continue to be managed independently of The World with all editorial decisions in the hands of its new publisher, Chuck Allen, who has been the newspaper’s editor for more than two years. Allen, 36, has been the editor of The Post-Register since February 2005. He was the editor for The Othello Outlook for five years before coming to Quincy. He has also worked at the Daily Evergreen newspaper at Washington State University, the Whitman County Gazette in Colfax, and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in Moscow, Idaho. Allen has an associate’s degree from Big Bend Community College and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Washington State University.

The Oregonian offers early retirement deal

Fred A. Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian announced in August an early retirement offer for newsroom employees. The retirement offer is needed to keep the company payroll in line with revenue, Stickel told the newsroom employees. The offer is voluntary and is available to 32 full-time employees with at least 20 years with the company. Oregonian policy guarantees that regular full-time employees will not be subject to layoffs. Any staff reductions take place through normal attrition or an early retirement offer, Stickel said. The Oregonian last made an early retirement offer in October 2005, which was accepted by 12 in the newsroom and nine in the pressroom. The newsroom has a staff of 405 full- and part-time employees. 

News Tribune writer earns SEJ award for 
Reporting on the Environment

Twenty-seven entries in 10 categories were designated as finalists in the Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting on the Environment, the world’s largest and most comprehensive awards for journalism on environmental topics. Judging panels of reporters, editors and journalism educators combed through nearly 200 entries to choose the finalists representing the best environmental reporting in print, television, radio and the Internet. Winners were revealed and finalists honored Sept. 5 at Stanford University. Susan Gordon from The News Tribune in Tacoma. won second place for Outstanding Beat Reporting in Print. The judges’ comments included: “Susan Gordon is a solid beat reporter, prowling the waterfront of her city to document new and lingering sources of the pollution, inadequate cleanup, misspent funds and inadequate state oversight. She goes deep and it shows in a great body of work.” For a full list of winners, click here.

Idaho Press Club to host talk on journalistic ethics 
by SPJ's Becky Tallent

Becky Tallent of the Snake River Society of Professional Journalists chapter will discuss journalistic ethics when the Idaho Press Club conducts its fall conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 22 at the University of Idaho Commons in Moscow. The keynote speaker is Peter Kovacs, managing editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. There will be sessions on the future of journalism and a workshop for students on what employers want. For more information visit the Idaho Press Club website.

SPJ to host weekend workshop 
at University of Oregon

The Oregon Pro and Southwest Washington Pro SPJ chapters and the University of Oregon SPJ Student chapter will host student and professional journalists Oct. 6-7 for a weekend of workshops, networking and improving skills at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Visit the Oregon Pro website for information and registration.

Singleton: 'It's not a dying business, 
it's a changing business

The Denver Post reports that at a recent Aspen forum, executives in media new and old say papers are staying relevant by changing their mind-set about delivery. MediaNews Group chief executive William Dean Singleton and other industry leaders attending the Aspen Institute’s annual Forum on Communications and Society said that people shouldn’t feel sorry for the industry. “It’s not a dying business; it’s a changing business,” said Singleton, who was part of a panel that discussed the future of newspapers. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, said technology has allowed the paper to become “ubiquitous,” with people getting news from The Times in print, on the Web and on cellphones. “We are where you want to find us. We don’t define ourselves as print,” he said. “We’re getting out of the mind-set that we snap a picture of the world (at a certain time) and present it to you (the next day).” To read more on the forum, click here.

Latest Pew findings show low opinion 
of media by general public

Phil Rosenthal with the Chicago Tribune reports that the latest survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is in on what Americans think of the press. According to the 1,503 adults it consulted last month, 53 percent of Americans believe news organizations are biased, inaccurate and insensitive to the people they report on. But let’s not sugarcoat things. That figure shoots up to 68 percent among the one in four Americans – usually younger and better educated – who rely on the Internet for national and international news, with 53 percent of that group thinking U.S. news organizations are too critical of this country, compared with 43 percent for the general public. Only 39 percent of the public think the press gets its facts straight.

Hearst-Argyle launches highschoolplaybook.com

Mediaweek.com reports Hearst-Argyle Television announced last month the launch of highschoolplaybook.com. The scalable, local and national brand will be Hearst-Argyle’s online, on-air and mobile brand for station coverage of high school sports, combining social networking with high-definition video, stats and new YouTube pages. Within days of each other, three media companies, including Hearst-Argyle, launched Web brands aimed at high school sports. Earlier this week, Emmis Communications, partnering with the Indiana High School Athletic Association launched a statewide brand, IHSAAsports.org. Belo launched hsgametime.com in six of its markets, with plans to roll out the site out to all of the company’s markets by the end of this month. One of the main signatures of Playbook are the specially trained student sideline reporters, at least 10 in each market, who will not only contribute video coverage but serve as the face and voice of the community. The student journalists are equipped with Canon HV20 high-definition camcorders, provided by Canon, the first sponsor of the site. The site is also heavy on social networking with MySpace- and Facebook-like community.

Hyper-local Tribune site spawns new print papers

Mediapost.com reports that the Chicago Tribune last month launched two weekly print editions spawned by its four-month-old venture in hyper-local citizen journalism, triblocal.com. The new papers, covering Chicago’s West and Southwest suburbs, include photos, stories and other content posted by readers on the website, as well as content from Triblocal’s own editorial staff. Published by the Tribune’s Chicagoland Publishing Company subsidiary, the papers will be distributed with more than 23,000 copies of each Thursday’s Tribune in the nine local communities.

Study: J-school administrators mostly white males

Findings from a new survey of journalism and mass communication administrators by Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, say that the people who run the nation’s journalism and mass communication schools are overwhelmingly white, and two-thirds of them are male. The study was released by ASJMC at its annual meeting in Washington. The purpose of the survey was to take a snapshot of the nation’s JMC administrators and learn more about some of the key issues and pressures they face – among them the growing expectations to raise private funds, adaptation of their schools’ curricula in a digital world, and faculty hiring challenges. Of responding deans, directors and department heads:
- 90 percent are white.
- 64 percent are male.
- The average age is 55.
- 73.5 percent hold a doctoral degree.
- 48 percent said journalism is their area of experience or expertise (the rest cited advertising, public relations, media studies and other areas of mass communication).
- 40 percent said they had at least a decade of professional experience in their field prior to becoming an academic head, and another 22 percent said they had between five and 10 years of working experience.
For more on the study, click here.

TownNews partners with ThePort Network 
to offer social media

TownNews reports that it will partner with ThePort Network (ThePort), a social media solutions provider. With ThePort Social Media Suite, TownNews.com’s customers can easily integrate branded “MySpace-like” communities into their existing websites. ThePort Social Media Suite’s community content publishing and social networking features allow readers to interact with existing editorial and contribute to it, as well as interact with each other. Community-building features include article-level commenting, profile creation, photo sharing, blogging, tagging and community forums. ThePort Network, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Ga., and has already partnered with Belo Corp. and Cox Newspapers. 

NAA career day to highlight opportunities 
in changing news industry

At the Newspaper Association of America’s eighth annual Newspaper Career Day, scheduled for Oct. 11, newspaper companies will highlight the many career possibilities that exist in their evolving industry. With newspapers expanding beyond traditional print publications, career opportunities in the industry are growing every day. The event will be held in conjunction with National Newspaper Week, Oct. 6-13. Visit NAA’s Career Day website for more information. As part of a special promotion, newspapers that use one of the provided Career Day ads in their paper or online can place five free job postings on the NAA Newspaper CareerBank. Additionally, students and job-seekers can find more information about careers in the newspaper industry at www.newspapercareers.org.

MTV series 'The Paper' to follow high school journos

Broadcastingcable.com reports that MTV has ordered eight episodes of “The Paper,” a reality series being produced by the network’s “News and Docs” division. The show follows the daily happenings at The Circuit, the school newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla. “With ‘The Paper’ we dive into a rarely seen side of High School life – showcasing the dynamic and surprisingly intense life of students working on their high school newspaper,” said Dave Sirulnick, executive vice president MTV News and Docs, in a statement. “The compelling and fiercely competitive personalities of these student journalists prove that the news doesn’t stop – even in high school.” The series, currently in production, will debut in the first quarter of 2008.

PEOPLE:

Seattle Times names Scheckler 
director of online operations

The Seattle Times Company has named Larisa Sheckler as director of online operations for the company’s new media division. Sheckler joined the company on Aug. 1. In her new role, Sheckler will oversee the quality assurance and customer service teams for the Seattle Times Company’s online network, which includes The Seattle Times’ website, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website and NWsource.com and its related sites. Sheckler has more than 16 years experience as a leader in business operations, process improvement, project management, quality assurance and control and supply chain management. Most recently she was the director of content operations at Onvia, where she was responsible for leading operations and technology in the acquisition, aggregation and delivery of Onvia content. Prior to her role at Onvia, Sheckler was vice-president of operations at Washington Mutual, vice-president of client services at Vioma International and director of operations at Eddie Bauer. She has a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Washington.

News-Review editor Smith named publisher 
in Colorado; Menard takes over in Oregon

Bart Smith, editor of The News-Review in Roseburg, Ore., for the past 14 years, last month was named publisher of The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune. Smith will also oversee La Tribuna, a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, as well as other print publications in the Greeley market. Smith came to The News-Review in 1993 after working as an editor and publisher on daily, twice-weekly and weekly newspapers in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The daily newspaper is owned by Swift Communications, the parent company of The News-Review. Vicki Menard, who has served as The News-Review’s city editor for the past eight years, succeeds Smith as editor. A native Oregonian, Menard first joined the staff of The News-Review as a college intern in July 1983. She became a full-time reporter upon receiving her bachelor’s degree in technical journalism from Oregon State University in the summer of 1986. She covered a variety of beats including the city of Roseburg, county government, education, lifestyles and more. She was also the newspaper’s food editor. She has won at least a dozen state, regional and national journalism awards. Stepping into the city editor’s position is Christian Bringhurst, who has been the newspaper’s assistant city editor and Web editor for the past two years.

Schmeltzer takes job as editor in Oregon

The Associated Press reports that Mike Schmeltzer, who has more than 30 years of experience in the newspaper business, is the new managing editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times in Oregon. Schmeltzer, 52, began his journalism career in Alaska with stints at the Juneau Empire, the Anchorage Daily News and the Anchorage Times. He was at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. for 23 years, as a features writer, copy editor and assistant city editor. Most recently, Schmeltzer has been the editor in California at the Hollister Free Lance and The Daily Triplicate in Crescent City.

Times-News names Wright editor

The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, has hired veteran journalist James Wright to lead the publication’s news staff as editor, beginning last month. Wright was raised on his parents’ farm near Hazelton, Idaho, and graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. As a reporter for the Moscow Idahonian – now called the Moscow Pullman Daily News – Wright was the subject of an Idaho Supreme Court case for refusing to reveal confidential sources. The court later ruled in his favor, concluding a landmark case that gives qualified privileges to reporters. Wright was most recently an assistant metro editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the assistant managing editor of The Times Union in Albany, N.Y., and an international media management consultant for The Journalism Development Group, for which he spent a year in Algeria. He also was a reporter at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado. Virginia Hutchins, who has led the newsroom this summer as interim editor, will return to her position as features editor after helping Wright through the transition.

CALL TO READERS : Send stories to the editor Kristen Lowrey.

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