Arkansas Publisher Weekly: March 28, 2019

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Guest Column:

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APA Legislative Review

Newspapers are delivery experts

By Peter Wagner

ARKANSAS

PRESS

Ar kansas

Publisher Weekly

ASSOCIATION

Vol. 14 | No. 13 | Thursday, March 28, 2019

Serving Press and State Since 1873

Foundation’s summer internship program gives newspapers opportunity to cultivate good talent The Arkansas Newspaper Foundation (ANF) will again offer a summer internship program to benefit Arkansas Press Association member newspapers and student journalists throughout the state.

The ANF covers half the cost of the paid summer internship, with the newspaper providing a match.

The program benefits newspapers directly by providing real-world experience to students interested in the newspaper industry. The $1,500 grant from ANF and match from partner newspapers should cover an internship of about six to 10 weeks on a schedule that fits the newspaper’s temporary employment criteria.

Grace Talley interned at the News-Leader in Nashville last summer.

The ANF notified colleges and universities across Arkansas about the program. Recent high school graduates are also eligible to serve as interns, as long as they provide proof of college admission with their internship applications.

The successful program has placed about two dozen interns at APA newspapers since 2011.

One of last year’s interns, Grace Talley, worked in design at her hometown newspaper, The Nashville News-Leader.

“My time at the News-Leader has taught me valuable skills and lessons that I will use for the rest of my time as a graphic designer,” Talley wrote. “I’m thankful that Continued on Page 2

APA Editorial Contest open for entries, due soon Arkansas journalists, photographers, copy editors and page designers are encouraged to submit entries for the 2019 Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Awards. The annual contest showcases the best work at APA member publications.

The entry deadline is April 19.

“We already know Arkansas journalists are among the best, and the APA contest offers an opportunity for the newspaper industry to highlight the best of the best,” said Ashley Wimberley, APA executive director. “The Better Newspaper Editorial contest is a way to

have good work measured against other good work from across the state, and to see other examples about how our great newspapers are having a positive impact on our communities.”

Winners will be announced at an awards luncheon on June 29 at the Hotel Hot Springs in Hot Springs, site of the annual APA convention.

The contest is open to employees of APA member newspapers, and entries must have been published from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2018. To enter, visit www.newspapercontest.com/Contests/ ArkansasPressAssociation.aspx.

Entries are accepted in five different divisions, smaller weeklies, medium-size weeklies, larger weeklies, smaller dailies and larger dailies. Contest categories include news stories, sports, humor, general interests, photography, layout and design and community coverage.

Entries will be judged by members of an out-of-state newspaper association. The website contains a complete set of rules.

Visit the website to enter or to learn more, or contact Terri Cobb at (501) 374-1500 or terri@arkansaspress.org

Industry Quote of the Week “I don’t believe newspaper reporters can substitute for a district attorney, but a newspaper has a very valid investigative role. Newspaper reports on corruption in government, racketeering and organized crime conditions can be very helpful to your communities and the whole country.”

Foundation summer internship program Continued from Page 1

I had the opportunity to spend a small amount of time in the journalism world and will treasure the memories I made this summer for the rest of my life.”

Talley is a graphic design and mass communications double major at Ouachita Baptist University.

Host newspapers in 2018, in addition to the News-Leader, were the Carroll County News in Berryville, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the Times-Dispatch in Walnut Ridge.

-Robert Kennedy

Let’s Get Social

“Seems like every time I pick up a newspaper – and I pick one up, and read it carefully, every day – there’s news about a labor shortage in both the state and nation,” Fellone wrote. “No doubt you, too, have some trouble finding qualified candidates to fill your open reporting, photography and advertising positions.

The Arkansas Newspaper Foundation offers an opportunity to solve this problem over the summer, and cultivate an employee who may come back to work for your newspaper after graduation from college.”

Potential interns will be required to complete an application, which will be sent to selected newspapers for review and acceptance.

Follow Us on Facebook & Twitter

@ArkansasPressAssociation

In a letter to APA publishers and editors, ANF Board President Frank Fellone wrote that newspapers may view the program as a way to find a talented student that eventually becomes a full-time employee.

Newspapers interested in the program must also complete an application form by April 19.

For more information, contact Terri Cobb at (501) 374-1500 or email terri@ arkansaspress.org.

@ARPressAssoc

Facebook launches journalism project pilot program Facebook has announced the creation of a new initiative it says will “support projects aimed at building community through local news.” The social media network starting in May will seek applications for grants for its new Facebook Journalism Project Community Network.

sharing the information it’s obtained with academic professionals in order to study “news deserts.” Its goal is to document its work and share it with the public in order to “help fuel innovation and transformation,” especially in areas where journalism is most at risk.

The program comes after Facebook’s announcement that it cannot find enough local news to online to launch its platform, Today In, which provides local news and community information.

Facebook identified the same lack of local news in most areas of the country. It said 35 percent of Americans in the Midwest, Northeast and South and 26 percent in the West don’t have enough access to local news.

Facebook said it is unable to identify enough local journalism in almost onethird of the country to launch the Today In platform. For Today In to launch, Facebook must locate at least five articles per day that are directly related to a community. In about 30 percent of the United States, the company has been unable to find those articles consistently. Facebook said it is Arkansas Publisher Weekly

To help remedy that, grants will go to publishers “trying to build a new business around memberships, report in an underserved community or build a tool that helps local story tellers find and engage new audiences,” the company said as an example. The Lenfest Institute for Journalism will provide grant review 2

and support the grantmaking process.

Facebook along with other digital media companies can shoulder much of the blame for the decline of print advertising revenue, so the announcement of the program was met with some criticism.

One columnist, Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News, said sarcastically “Facebook has a solution to the problem that it helped cause in the first place.”

March 28, 2019

Greenwood Democrat transitions to monthly magazine The Greenwood Democrat, a GateHouse Media-owned weekly newspaper in Sebastian County will move to a new, monthly format starting next month. The new magazine, “Greenwood Life,” will publish its first edition on April 14.

every month. Current subscribers to the Greenwood newspaper will receive the Times Record on Sunday for free for a year.

See and Be Seen: Photos of local residents at each month’s biggest events Lifestyles: Anniversaries, weddings, engagements, births and other social events

The newspaper’s publisher, Summer Aina, announced that the new format will provide readers a more in-depth look at important topics such as education, government, social events, community life and sports.

Education: School coverage, including features about outstanding students and information about school board meetings.

“Greenwood is a growing, vibrant community with a unique spirit that is sometimes difficult to capture in a traditional, weekly newspaper format,” Aina said in an announcement about the new magazine. “This change allows us to focus more on highlighting these attributes that make Greenwood special. We’ll still provide coverage for city government and local elections, but our stories will be in the form of top highlights, feature narrative and in-depth reports.”

Aina said in the announcement that the magazine will feature “movers and shakers” from the Greenwood area on each month’s cover

The Times Record in Fort Smith will continue to cover news items of interest in Greenwood daily, Aina said. Subscribers to Greenwood Life will receive a copy of that magazine inside the Times Record’s Sunday edition on the second Sunday of

Sports: Profiles of players and coaches and updates on the month in sports

Aina said in the announcement that the magazine will contain regular sections, including: City Government: Highlighting the activities of each municipal department in Greenwood Community/Entertainment: News and events submitted by readers and nonprofits, plus a community calendar

“Ultimately, we expect to provide more quality content and coverage than ever before,” she said. “A big part of what we want to emphasize are the people who are helping to shape our community and bringing positive attention to our growing community.”

Subscriptions to Greenwood Life will be $30 a year in Sebastian County, $38 in Arkansas or $42 out-of-state. The magazine will be available for free at certain locations throughout Greenwood.

Mark Your Calendar 2019 APA Convention June 26-29, Hotel Hot Springs

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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March 28, 2019

Guest Column: Newspapers are delivery experts

By Peter Wagner Have you noticed that all the really successful online retailers offer free delivery? Amazon sets the bar high with Amazon Prime two-day delivery of everything from A to Z. Their product inventory includes everything from a difficult-to-find book to necessary groceries for dinner that night.

Target has purchased a start-up delivery firm, Shipt, that recruits part-time workers to pull and fill a customer’s order from shelves in the store and then deliver the items to the customer’s home or business in their personal vehicle.

Want a new car? According to the television ads, there’s no need to deal with a “pushy” dealership salesperson anymore. Carvana will process your new car or truck order over the phone or online. Within days a Carvana truck will deliver the exact brand, model, color and accessory package you want right to your door. They’ll even offer a no obligation seven days to test the vehicle before you buy. Plus, they’ll be happy to take your used car or truck in trade and pick it up when they deliver your new vehicle.

Women’s fashion centers go one step further. Nordstrom and other leading national retailers even enclose a pre-paid FedEx label so the customer can easily return the item if it doesn’t fit or otherwise “just isn’t right.”

Here in Sheldon, Iowa, where we have our newspaper office, I have a shoe store owner who claims he’s making more money selling shoes on the internet than in his Main Street brick-and-mortar store.

The UPS truck stops every day to pick up two dozen or more pair of shoes to be delivered to buyers all over the country.

Finally, there are a growing number of women’s boutiques popping up all over the country. Most are working to build a mail-order business with their products delivered by UPS or Fed-Ex to the customer’s home rather than sold out of a traditional showroom.

Newspapers and shoppers were the first to “deliver.”

Delivery to the home has always been a key part of our newspaper and shopper story. Local papers were delivering wonderfully designed ads promoting what was available to buy long before there was an internet. Paid circulation or free distribution, the local paper delivered all the Arkansas Publisher Weekly

important information local buyers needed to make wise and easy buying decisions.

Community papers have always been the preferred means of learning the local news and business specials. The depth of coverage and design of the hometown paper has changed over the last 50 years, but the message has always been local.

That local connection is the reason smaller community publications have thrived while many larger metro publications, with their attention to national and statehouse coverage, have declined.

I have a difficult time understanding why so many local businesses choose to advertise on the internet rather than in their hometown paper. Those small community stores and service firms simply can’t compete online with the larger national firms favored by Google’s marketing experts and analytical expertise.

Take the community automobile dealership for example. There is no way that traditionally family-owned dealership is going to have Google analytics place their message higher than the giant- inventory metro dealer down the road.

Community newspapers and shoppers offer a huge advantage to local new and used car dealerships. For one, and perhaps the most important reason, larger metro competitors aren’t overpowering the local dealer’s message with bigger display ads listing hundreds of vehicles at lower prices. Smaller local dealers can be easily overlooked when placing their deals online.

Here are more reasons the dealer should put his ads first in the hometown paper: · The local printed advertisement is delivered right to the subscriber’s front door where the family has a healthy respect for the paper’s credibility. Many online sites lack that credibility. · The printed paper still reaches more potential buyers within the dealer’s sales and service area than any other form of electronic media. · The hometown paper is desired and looked for by the immediate area carbuyer who knows and appreciates the no pressure, easy-to-understand deal the dealer offers every customer. · Because the dealership is close by, often right in town, it is ready and able to provide 4

quick service whenever it is needed.

Studies have shown that 75 percent of any businesses sales are to customers within 25 miles of the front door. Our smaller community auto dealerships exist because most of the dealership’s customers don’t want to drive 60 to 100 miles whenever they need to have something serviced on their car or truck. It seems ridiculous that community dealerships prefer to advertise on the world-wide web when their most important prospects are the ones reading the local paper.

Print salespeople have to tell their story.

Local print salespeople need to learn to clearly tell their unique and specific story.

If they want to sell more print advertising, sales consultants must be coached and regularly reminded to share their paper’s benefits, value and stories about how their publication can deliver results and increased sales. Print advertising salespeople need to tell ad buyers over and over again why their printed paper, delivered right into the home of the local family can truly deliver sales and success for them.

They need to explain the demographics and depth of their readership, the paper’s impact on local buying decisions, the reach of both their paper and website, the creative ability of their ad designers and an endless list of success stores from other local businesses.

Advertising sales people too often turn away from conflict and fail to stand up for their product. Those same salespeople often fail to make any effort to get to know the advertiser and the advertiser’s business.

Too often, they fail to bring the advertiser exciting new promotion and advertising ideas. Worst of all, they sell one-time ads instead of long-term advertising programs.

Local print advertising can out-perform online ads every time. But the publication’s sales team needs to make it happen by becoming salespeople instead of simply order takers.

Peter W. Wagner is longtime newspaper and shopper publisher and an internationally recognized print advertising sales trainer. You can contact him on the internet at pww@iowainformation.com or on his cell at (712) 348-3550.

March 28, 2019

92nd Arkansas General Assembly

Legislative Report

APA is monitoring the following filed bills of interest to our industry and the public: Bill No. / Author

Short Description

APA Position

Current Status

HB 1003 Rep. Gazaway

An act to add antibullying measures at schools, to allow school boards to meet in executive sessions for bullying investigations

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in House Education Committee

HB 1015 Rep. Mayberry

Requires journalism to be offered as an elective course in public high school

Supports

Failed in House Education Committee

HB 1041 Reps. Ladyman, Eads

Raises the threshold for municipalities to competitively bid projects from $20,000 to $50,000, thus abolishing public notice requirements for municipal expenses between $20,000 and $50,000

Opposes

Passed the House; did not receive recommendation from Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee

HB 1343 Rep. Hawks, Rep. Mark Johnson

Requires a county’s annual financial report to be published on the county website as well as in the newspaper

Neutral

Signed by the governor as Act 564

HB 1382 Rep. Sorvillo

Exempts lottery winners’ identities from the Freedom of Information Act

Opposes

Failed in House

HB 1404 Rep. Speaks

Allows for publication of a school district’s budget in a newspaper published in or with a bona fide circulation in the county or counties where the school district is located

Neutral

Passed House; awaits hearing in Senate Education Committee

HB 1417 Rep. Gray

Establishes a Freedom of Information Act exemption for the identities of confidential informants

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in House State Agencies Committee

HB 1432 Rep. Mayberry

Protects rights of high school student journalists and adds protections for student media advisors

Supports

Passed House; awaits hearing in Senate Education Committee

HB 1440 Rep. Ferguson

Establishes the Maternal Mortality Review Committee and exempts the committee from the Freedom of Information Act

Opposes

Passed House, Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee; awaits inital hearing in Senate

HB 1441 Rep. Bentley

Establishes the Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes Quality Review Committee and exempts the committee from the Freedom of Information Act

Opposes

Passed House, Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee; awaits inital hearing in Senate

HB 1499 Rep. Maddox

Changes public notice requirements for statutory foreclosures

Neutral

Placed on deferred list in Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee

HB 1500 Rep. Gazaway

Exempts cybersecurity threat assessments from disclosure under FOIA

Neutral

Passed House and Senate

HB 1551 Rep. Eubanks

Prohibits schools under the Freedom of Information Act from disclosing records of the arrest or detention of a student

Opposes

Passed House; awaits hearing in Senate Education Committee

HB 1556 Rep. House

Establishes a FOIA exemption for active, ongoing Arkansas Beverage Control Board investigations

Neutral

Signed by governor as Act 568

HB 1557 Rep. House

Establishes a FOIA exemptions for security plans and assessments of medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivation facilities and labs

Opposes

Passed House Rules Committee; awaits full House vote

HB 1630 Rep. Lundstrum

Gives active and retired law enforcement officeers the ability to keep personal contact information and tax records secret under FOIA

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in House State Agencies Committee

HB 1702 Rep. Speakes

Permits a school district to publish notice of bond sales in a newspaper published in or with a bona fide circulation in the county or counties where the school district is located

Neutral

Passed House; awaits initial hearing in Senate Education Committee

HB 1766 Rep. Collins

Increases the threshold amount for municipal sewer commission requirements for bidding from $20,000 to $35000 (companion bill SB516 in Senate is sponsored by Sen. Bond)

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in House City, County and Local Affairs Committee

HB 1896 Rep. Mickey Gates

Changes public notice requirements for establishment of a municipal improvement district to allow notice in either a newspaper or on a website

Opposes

Passed House; awaits hearing in Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee

HB 1904 Rep. Della Rose

Calls for a study on the adequacy of public notice and public participation procedutres for environmental permits

Neutral

Awaits initial hearing in House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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March 28, 2019

Health, Welfare and Labor Committee

92nd Arkansas General Assembly

Legislative Report

APA is monitoring the following filed bills of interest to our industry and the public: Bill No. / Author

Short Description

APA Position

Current Status

HB 1928 Rep. V. Flowers

Amends FOIA to require that all public meetings be audio recorded

Supports

Awaits initial hearing in House Satate Agencies Committee

SB 3 Sen. Garner

Requires reporting from physicians and healthcare facilities requiring detailed information about abortion procedure complications and exempts the required report from the Freedom of Information Act.

Opposes

Passed Senate and House

SB 230 Sen. Hammer

Creates a new civil action for invasion of privacy and allows a lawsuit against someone for intruding into private affairs or publicizing an individual in a false light

Opposes

Failed to advance in Senate Judiciary Committee

SB 231 Sen. Hammer

Expands the definition of “public records” in the Freedom of Information Act to include records of a private entity that spends a minimum of 20% of its time, resources and efforts supporting a government function

Opposes

Failed to advance in Senate State Agencies Committee

SB 277 Sen. Hill, Rep. Cameron Cooper

Removes public notice requirement for internet sale of certain surplus county property

Opposes

Awaits hearing in Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee

SB 306 Sen. Teague

Allows the winner of a Powerball or Mega Millions drawing to make his or her records with the Arkansas Lottery Commission confidential under the Freedom of Information Act

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in Senate State Agencies Committee

SB 409 Sen. Flippo

Allows public entities to publish notice to receive bids on a website rather than in a newspaper

Opposes

Failed in Senate State Agencies Committee

SB 411 Sen. Stubblefield

Exempts from disclosure any investigations or reports related to whether a municipality is a sanctuary city; prohibits sancutary city policies

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in Senate City County and Local Affairs Committee

SB 441 Sen. Bledsoe

Prohibits all advertising related to medical marijuana

Neutral

Passed Senate; passed House Rules Committee; awaits full House vote

SB 464 Sen. Hester

Exempts from disclosure under FOIA almost all information regarding letahl injection procedures; makes “reckless” release of information a Class D felony

Opposes

Passed Senate; awaits hearing in House Judiciary Committee

SB 521 Sen. Hammer

Expands the definition of public records in the Freedom of Information Act; protects identity of donors to private foundations

Opposes

Awaits initial hearing in Senate State Agencies Committee

SB 550 Sen. Stubblefield

Changes notice requirements for liquid livestock waste permits

Opposes

Passed Senate; moved to interim study

SB 560 Sen. Blake Johnson

Creates a Tax Appeals Commission but allows the commission to meet in closed session in some circumstances

Opposes

Passed Senate; awaits hearing in House Revenue and Tax Committee

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March 28, 2019