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ARKANSAS
FOIA Coalition to meet Monday, March 4
Ar kansas
PRESS
Publisher Weekly
APA Legislative Report
Vol. 14 | No. 9 | Thursday, February 28, 2019
ASSOCIATION
Serving Press and State Since 1873
APA Ad Conference speaker Diane Ciotta sells sales with integrity Even if Arkansas advertising sales professionals don’t get Diane Ciotta’s New Jersey sarcasm, they’ll get her message, the New Jersey-based sales coach and trainer said.
Diane Ciotta
Ciotta will visit Arkansas for the first time
in her 30-year training career on March 7 as the keynote speaker for the Arkansas Press Association’s annual Advertising Conference. In a telephone interview this week, Ciotta said she intersperses her brand of New Jersey humor with lessons learned in her own sales career to craft informative and enjoyable seminars. Her sales training over the past three decades has focused mostly on advertising professionals, but the techniques and methods she discusses relate to all manner of sales.
professional development. The conference is scheduled for Thursday, March 7, and Friday, March 8, at the Embassy Suites, 1130 Financial Centre Parkway, Little Rock. The deadline to register for the conference is Friday, March 1.
“(Participants) will walk away with a clearcut direction and a system they can follow and if they do, they’ll be successful,” Ciotta said.
Ciotta speaks during two sessions Thursday, March 7, followed by a reception and group dinner. On March 8, ad conference attendees will participate in a Hot Ideas roundtable and panel discussion. Also Friday, the conference concludes with the Better Newspaper Advertising Contest awards luncheon. Ad contest winners were selected from almost 900 entries.
While she hopes that advertising professionals are energized and motivated by her presentations, she noted that she isn’t necessarily a motivational speaker. Instead, Ciotta’s goal is to provide “concrete, techniquebased” suggestions for sales growth and
Ciotta’s main focus as a speaker is to help advertisers grow their sales, and she stresses during her presentations the importance of integrity throughout the sales process. She encourages sales professionals to focus more on their clients’ specific needs than their own Continued on Page 2
Ronnie Bell named General Manager in Batesville Newspaper industry veteran Ronnie Bell has been named general manager of The Daily Guard in Batesville, the newspaper announced.
on the work laid down by those who have gone before and to create the best community newspaper possible.”
Bell had been general manager of the El Dorado News-Times.
Bell said in the announcement that he would be looking for ideas about how to improve local news coverage.
“I very much look forward to getting out into the community and hearing from our readers and advertisers,” Bell told the newspaper. “Our goal will be to build
Bell, who was responsible for operations, budgeting and direction at the El Dorado newspaper, led that publication in a redesign and added Southern Style
magazine. Before working in El Dorado, he was a consultant in Heber Springs. He’s also worked at the Times Record in Fort Smith, where he was marketing and sales manager for three years before being named advertising director. He left Fort Smith to become publisher at the Daily Herald in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. After 12 years in North Carolina, he returned to Arkansas as pubisher of the Harrison Daily Times and Newton Continued on Page 2