Schedule set for 85th annual PNNA meeting

An exciting lineup is set for the 85th annual meeting of PNNA to be held
Nov. 9 and 10 at The Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Wash. The meeting kicks off Wednesday with the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington Luncheon, followed by a meeting of that organization’s board and the meeting of PNNA’s board of directors. Panels on Thursday include Best Circulation Practices with Mark Henschen, circulation director of the North County Times in Escondido, Calif.; an examination of the investigative coverage of the online activities of Spokane's mayor led by Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith; a panel on shield laws with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna and others; and a discussion with Associated Press Seattle Bureau Chief Nancy Roberts Trott about the AP’s new efforts to attract young readers. Lunch on Thursday features winners of the C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards. Awards for environmental journalism, First Amendment, Washington AP staffer of the year and print quality will be presented at dinner Thursday evening. Visit PNNA's website for more detailed information and to download a registration form.

The Oregonian , Portland, Ore., launched a significant redesign for Sundays, using the paper's slogan, "High-Definition News." It's meant to make the newspaper more modern, more interactive and more transparent. There's major promotion of reporter blogs and "Online Connections: OregonLive.com plays a prominent role in virtually every section of The Oregonian's all-new Sunday edition. Blogs, chatrooms and links to additional information add dimension to your news coverage and keep the conversation going."

News-Review enlists readers as e-mail advisory board

In a mid-August column, Bart Smith, editor of The News-Review in Roseburg, Ore., noted that the paper's " fledgling e-mail reader advisory board has grown quickly to 72 members, and is gaining a member or two each day." Smith noted that half are primarily print readers, the others primarily Web readers or a combination of print and Web. The advisory board offered suggestions and feedback and were asked to serve as sources for coverage of the anniversary of 9/11. Smith also reported that the ability of readers to post comments directly on stories is "a wildly popular addition to our Web site." The feature had generated significant online discussion, and many of the unedited reader comments had been "thoughtful and caring," though one racist comment was posted.

Salt Lake publisher buys
'Home Town Values'

Utah Media Partners – a company owned by Deseret News Publishing Co. and MediaNews Group – bought "Home Town Values" at the end of July. The coupon magazine is delivered free to an average of 480,000 Utah households every other month. Utah Media Partners purchased national rights to the coupon book. The purchase, according to a report in the Salt Lake City Enterprise, "is the first of several ventures that will allow Utah Media Partners to offer media solutions in Utah and beyond." Deseret News Publishing Co. publishes The Deseret Morning News. MediaNews Group owns The Salt Lake Tribune.

Twin Falls paper adds 'Life,' makes other changes

The Times-News, Twin Falls, ID, in mid-August announced it would include "Life" magazine on Fridays, moved its television book from Fridays to Sundays and made Southern Idaho Business, which it had published monthly in tab format since the late 1990s, a Web-exclusive publication.

Tacoma News Tribune joins Learning Newsroom

The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., is the eighth newspaper selected by the American Press Institute and the American Society of Newspaper Editors to join The Learning Newsroom, a program that works to help newspapers improve readership by improving newsroom training and culture. The News Tribune's yearlong, on-site training partnership with The Learning Newsroom begins in October. Once that is concluded there is a second year of follow-up monitoring. The paper was selected in part because of its existing commitment to improving workplace culture, including its long history as a team-based newsroom. Newsrooms already participating are: The Bakersfield Californian; The Citizen-Times in Asheville, N.C.; the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times; The Hamilton Spectator in Ontario, Canada; The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Ind.; The Journal Star in Lincoln, Neb,; and The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H.

The Gannett Foundation and The Idaho Statesman awarded grants totaling $30,300 to 13 area nonprofits in August. The grants support projects ranging from culinary training for at-risk youth to a history exhibit at the Black History Museum to dental care for low-income children. With ownership of The Statesman moving from Gannet to Knight Ridder, these were the last grants given to area nonprofits by the Gannett Foundation.

Montanan named ‘J’ teacher of the year

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund named Great Falls (Mont.) High School’s Linda Ballew its National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. Ballew, who oversees student publications at the high school, is the 47th award recipient and the first Montanan to win the honor.

Faced with an unsolved financial crunch after 10 years of losses, the board of directors of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association in September eliminated the position of executive director. George Smith leaves that job after nine months, and longtime staffer Bill Will is the new WNPA general manager.

AP offers multimedia feed for the young

On Sept. 19, The Associated Press launched a "younger audience service," dubbed asap, which offers articles and "experiences" in multimedia formats, with audio, video, blogs and wireless text aimed at readers between 18 and 34 years old. More than 100 newspapers have signed up for asap and will decide on their own how to make it available to their readers. Many are expected to use the service for their online editions, while some will use it for print editions or both print and online.

Free Hurricane Katrina photos available

DigitalGlobe is making its Hurricane Katrina satellite images available to the media to use for free. The rights restrictions are listed on the left part of the page.

Federated shifts spending from newspapers

An April 20 report in MediaPost cites a Merrill Lynch report that Federated, the largest department store company in the United States, has started to shift spending from newspapers to electronic media, such as television, and direct mail. The spending shift by Federated, whose advertising accounts for roughly $900 million of newspaper ad spending, or 2 percent of newspaper industry ad revenue in total, could help account for the quick reversal in August that sent newspapers' ad revenue heading south after months of steady growth – down 1 to 2 percent last month, the report said.

Target, Wal-Mart exclusive shoppers differ

Scarborough Research released an analysis of exclusive shoppers of Wal-Mart and Target on Sept. 19 revealing that they attract distinct customer bases with different household shopping patterns. Target-exclusive shoppers are much more likely to have household incomes over $100,000, to be avid shoppers and to also shop at such high-scale stores as Macy's and Nordstrom. Wal-Mart-exclusive shoppers were more likely than average to shop other discount stores, including Dollar General, Family Dollar, Big Lots and Kmart. Learn more at Scarborough Research online.

WSJ introduces section-front advertising

The Wall Street Journal in its new Saturday issue carried for the first time an ad – for Barclays Capital – on the front page of its Money & Investing section. Media Buyer Planner says it's the first time the Journal has used the front of a section for an ad. It has also sold the space on weekdays through the end of January.

Resistance softening to paying for online content

Consumer resistance to paying for content online remains high, though adoption is up slightly, according to a JupiterResearch report released in mid-September. The New York market researcher found adoption is up from last year, albeit 64 percent of adults still said they wouldn't pay for content to avoid online advertising. However, 31 percent of online adults paid for content over the Internet, up 5 percentage points from last year.

NAA offers minority fellowships

The Newspaper Association of America will award fellowships for 18 programs conducted from January through June 2006 by the American Press Institute, Society for News Design, Inland Press Association, Poynter Institute, Asian American Journalists Association, Northwestern's Media Management Center, National Association of Minority Media Executives, National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting, Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, the NAA Marketing Conference/Connections(10) and NEXPO. These fellowships for people of color cover tuition, lodging, airfare and most meals at each program. Applications are at the NAA's website. Application deadline is Oct. 31.

Ad spending outpaces economy

According to a recent TNS Media Intelligence report, total ad expenditures for the first half of 2005 increased 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year, to $70.5 billion. Advertising in local newspapers was up 1.7 percent, while advertising in national newspapers rose 2.8 percent. Local magazines (24.4 percent) and direct response (19.9 percent) posted the highest gains in advertising in the first half of 2005.

Study: FOIA delays on the rise

The Society of Environmental Journalists reported that a survey of 55 of its members shows that government compliance with the Freedom of Information Act has worsened considerably since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The journalists surveyed reported significant delays – some up to a year – before receiving the information they requested under FOIA. Many reported that the information was of poor or incomplete quality, with paragraphs or entire pages blacked out. Most sluggish in their response times were the Labor and Defense Departments, the Food and Drug Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

People:

Executive editor leaves Idaho Statesman

Idaho Statesman Executive Editor Carolyn Washburn left that job to become vice president and editor of the Des Moines Register in early September. Washburn, 42, had been executive editor of The Idaho Statesman since 1999. She previously served as managing editor of that newspaper from 1993 to 1995. The Des Moines Register – a Gannett newspaper – has a circulation of more than double the 65,000 daily circulation of The Statesman. Gannett traded The Statesman to Knight Ridder in a four-newspaper swap announced Aug. 3. Publisher Mike Petrak in a Sept. 1 story said that Managing Editor Cherrill Crosby will be in charge of the Statesman newsroom while the paper searches for a new executive editor.

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

Copyright © 2005 PNNA, All Rights Reserved