Arkansas Publisher Weekly: July 15, 2021

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APA 2021 Annual Convention is one week away Guest Column:

Now we have to make people want local news

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By Al Cross

Vol. 16 | No. 28 | Thursday, July 15, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Convention presenters to offer time management advice In an era when efficiency and time management are as important as ever, two newspaper industry leaders have some fascinating ideas about how news organizations and journalists can make better use of time and resources.

While management consultant Doug Phares argues that efficiency starts by “doing less with less,” journalism trainer Val Hoeppner says reporters ought to view their smartphones as a type of Swiss Army Knife equipped with the tools they need for better reporting.

Phares and Hoeppner are the featured speakers on Day 2 of the 2021 Arkansas Press Association convention. They’ll make presentations to attendees at the virtual, online-only convention on Friday,

Doug Phares

July 23.

Phares cut his teeth in the newspaper business and was publisher of a newspaper by the time he was 29. A former CEO of Sandusky News Group, he now runs a consulting agency for communitybased businesses. His presentation will focus on how to “get things done” with fewer resources and limited staff.

“You don’t do more with less. You do less with less, but you do it wisely,” said Phares, who added he will advise convention attendees about “what strategies you can employ and how you can really identify where not to put resources because you’re not getting enough return, and where the biggest bang for your buck will be.”

Val Hoeppner

Time-management and efficiency aren’t specific to the individual, he said. Rather, newspapers must take an organizational approach. Strategies might start with the newsroom, but they don’t end there.

He won’t share a punch list of time management strategies, he said, since most companies and workers have already tried and implemented the most popular and easiest ways to improve efficiency.

Instead, Phares looks to transform newspapers on an organizational level.

“A newsroom is the integral, vital, beating heart of a news organization, but the entirety of a news organization is out there supporting it,” he said. “You can’t have a management approach that just works in the newsroom.”

Continued on Page 2

Convention presenters to offer time management advice Continued from Page 1

Phares is based in Florida, where he is managing director of Silverwind Enterprises, a consulting service that includes a tourism business and an international trade association. He is a regular columnist for Editor & Publisher magazine.

“My career was rebuilding things that are broken, making it work, and like every other exec I’ve had to learn how to get more done with fewer resources,” he said.

Phares’s presentation begins at 10 a.m. on July 23.

Following him is Hoeppner’s seminar on the best smartphone apps for journalists to enhance their reporting. That session begins at 11:15 a.m. that day.

Hoeppner, a digital journalist, trainer and media strategist, became interested early in her two-decade newspaper career in digital and multimedia journalism, and she became multimedia director at the Indianapolis Star. She has trained

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journalists in the United States and Canada, and is currently director of the Center for Innovation and Media and the executive director of WMOT, a National Public Radio affiliate station at Middle Tennessee State University.

Hoeppner said over the last few years, journalists have had to rely more and more on audio and video in their storytelling, and she’s discovered multiple apps that can assist reporters.

recordings that are easily reproduced in print or online. She’ll discuss those apps and more at the convention.

Over the years, she’s downloaded hundreds of apps in order to identify which could be the most effective for journalists.

Her recommendation, though, is that reporters find just a handful of apps that boost productivity.

“I think of my phone as a sort of Swiss Army Knife,” she said. “That’s what I try to teach. It’s more than a phone. It’s a device you can shoot and edit video on or manage social media or capture photos from video. You can report from the field without even having a laptop if necessary.”

“A lot of people talk about reporting and about ‘50 apps for your mobile phone,’ but who needs 50 apps?” Hoeppner said.

“You need (just a few) solid apps to be an efficient and effective reporter. … I encourage people to pick really just three or four things they think can help them, use those apps and work them into the reporting workflow.”

As an instructor, she’s most often asked by reporters whether they should use their phone for photos or videos. She’s discovered apps that allow you to do both, she said, by capturing frames from video

The Friday presentations are part of two full days of seminars and recognitions for APA. Registration is now open for the convention.

To register, visit arkansaspress.org/ event/2021APAVirtualConvention.

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July 15, 2021

APA 2021 Annual Convention is one week away Arkansas Press Association members and others who haven’t yet done so are encouraged to register now for next week’s APA convention. The annual convention will be held in an online-only format again this year because of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. The event is set for Thursday, July 22, and Friday, July 23.

The registration fee is $50 for the virtual event. This year’s theme is “Reflect.

Refocus. Reignite.”

“As our newspapers begin to recover from the unprecedented challenges of a global health pandemic, we’ve planned our convention to focus on how we can re-energize as community leaders and reengage with our audiences,” said Ashley Wimberley, APA executive director. “As with last year, the registration fee is just $50. That provides our newspapers with exceptional professional development

INDUSTRY QUOTE “A good journalist is not the one that writes what people say, but the one that writes what he is supposed to write.”

—Todor Zhivkov Arkansas Publisher Weekly

training at a reasonable price.”

Presenting this year’s convention in an online-only format ensures participant safety and prevents additional lodging and travel expenses, Wimberley said.

The 2021 convention begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 22, with two presentations from ad sales expert Ryan Dohrn. He will lead discussions about how to reignite post-covid advertising sales and how to respond to some common objections advertisers may have to buying newspaper ads.

On Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., a panel of APA members will talk about tools they’ve used to maximize their total audience. Following that, there will be awards presentations for the 2021 Distinguished Service, Educator of the Year and Freedom of Information award winners, as well as a virtual “passing of the gavel” from former APA presidents to the

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incoming APA president, Ellen Kreth of the Madison County Record in Huntsville.

On Friday, July 23, the annual APA business meeting is at 9:45 a.m. Following that, at 10 a.m., Doug Phares of Silverwind Enterprises will offer recommendations for better time management in a session called “Do Less Wisely: Strategies for Thin Staff and Tight Resources.” At 11:15 a.m., Val Hoeppner of Val Hoeppner Media and Consulting will present “Apps for Journalists,” identifying some important apps that reporters can use to enhance their reporting.

The convention concludes that afternoon with the annual APA Better Newspaper Editorial Awards.

To register for the convention, visit arkansaspress.org/ event/2021APAVirtualConvention.

For more information visit arkansaspress.org or call (501) 374-1500.

LET US KNOW We want to know about your new hires, retires and promotions!

Send your staffing changes to info@arkansaspress.org to be updated online and included in the Arkansas Publisher Weekly.

July 15, 2021

ARKANSAS PRESS ASSOCIATION 2021 VIRTUAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE ARKANSAS PRESS ASSOCIATION 2021 VIRTUAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE Thursday, July 22 10 – 11 am

Session: “Re-Igniting Post-COVID Sales Conversations to Get Advertisers Back”

Friday, July 23 9:45 am

Rusty Turner, APA President 10 – 11 am

Presented by Ryan Dohrn, Brainswell Media 11:15 am – Noon Session: “How to Handle the 10 Most Common Advertiser Objections”

Panel Discussion: Maximizing your Audience

11:15 am – Noon Session: Apps for Journalists Presented by:Val ValHoeppner, Hoeppner, Val Hoeppner Media & Consulting 12:30 – 2 pm

Moderator: Ellen Kreth

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

APA Better Newspaper Editorial Awards Presentation Emcee: Rex Nelson, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Panelists: Kelly Fruedensprung, Eliza Gaines, Jennifer Allen, Mitch Bettis 3:15 – 4:15 pm

Session: “Do Less Wisely Strategies for thin staff and tight resources.”

Presented by:Doug DougPhares, Phares, Silverwind Enterprises

Presented by Ryan Dohrn, Brainswell Media 2 – 3 pm

APA Business Meeting

Gavel Passing, Installation of APA President and Special Awards Presentation

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July 15, 2021

THANK YOU TO OUR 2021 ARKANSAS VIRTUAL CONVENTION SPONSORS! Headline Sponsors

Breaking News Sponsors

Special Section Sponsors

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July 15, 2021

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America’s Newspapers publishes advertising report America’s Newspapers and the research firm Borrell Associates have partnered to create a comprehensive research study to give newspaper publishers information about the future of local advertising.

The study is available to America’s Newspapers members, and it “takes an in-depth look at advertisers’ perceptions of newspaper print and digital solutions and what their budget plans are for the future,” according to the organization. In addition, it offers insights about what sales managers and executives think about training, compensation and strategy.

According to Dean Ridings, America’s Newspapers CEO, the research “provides a wealth of data including a comprehensive overview on what local advertisers feel about newspapers’ sales effectiveness and how their budgets will be spent in the coming year.”

Visit newspapers.org to obtain the 36page white paper or apply for membership to the organization.

NNA to convene Webinar hits on revenue growth in Florida A free webinar called “How to

engage with your customers and grow revenue” for members of America’s Newspapers is scheduled for Tuesday, July 20, at 11 a.m.

The National Newspaper Association hosts its 135th annual convention and trade show this year Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in Jacksonville, Florida.

The webinar will be presented by Al Getler, vice president of sales and business development at Advantage Newspaper Consultants. Guest presenters will also be a part of the seminar.

The event will address the pressing business objectives of community newspaper owners, publishers and senior staff with educational sessions and peer sharing activities.

The convention will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Jacksonville. Registration is $435.

The webinar is recommended for publishers, advertising management and advertising salespeople. Participants receive a free eBook.

Register at nna.org/convention.

According to America’s Newspapers, topics for the webinar include; How setting appointments leads to success; how to be nimble and pivot; tips on maximizing your time; sales meeting scripts; how to measure success and suggestions on celebrating success.

Register at newspapers.org.

Al Getler

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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July 15, 2021

Guest Column: Now we have to make people want local news

By Al Cross In the last six years, interest in local news has declined, for several reasons.

Community newspapers can’t do much about most of the causes, but there are some things they can do. It starts with understanding the problem.

And what was going on during the study period? Donald Trump was getting elected, dominating news coverage with his unorthodox approaches, and attacking traditional news media as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”

Media reporter Jack Shafer of Politico wrote about it recently, first laying out the familiar arguments for local news, with references and links at https:// politi.co/3zRT9ij: “Local news makes representative government more accountable, scholars claim. Books and monographs extolling the virtues of local reporting on everything from public health to economic vitality abound. When local reporting goes south, researchers tell us, political polarization, civic corruption, lower voter turnout, reduced civic engagement and even authoritarianism follow.

That affected rural and community journalists even before Trump was inaugurated, as I wrote on The Rural Blog in 2017 (at bit.ly/35Mgi7V and bit. ly/3qnW1yV). The latter piece was about Walla Walla editor Brian Hunt’s “calm, respectful but strong defense of journalism and its essential role in democracy.”

Then he pointed out some hard facts: “A 2018 Duke University study of 16,000 local news outlets (including broadcasters) in 100 communities deemed only about 17 percent of articles as truly local (i.e., they took place in or were about the local municipality), and just over half were hard news. Another 2018 finding by Pew revealed that only 16 percent of Americans get their news ‘often’ from a newspaper, further lowering the status of the press.”

When Facebook looked last year for local news to include in its new ‘Today In’ section, “It found that one in three of its users lived in places where there wasn’t enough local news published to sustain the section,” Shafer wrote. As for TV news, most Americans’ main source of local news, Shafer cited a 2018 Emory University study suggesting that “lowcost, quality national news online . . . has siphoned off readers who might otherwise partake of local news.”

Surprisingly, Shafer did not mention the study’s top two findings. The researchers found “substantial increases in coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics,” and “a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage,” driven partly by Sinclair Broadcasting, which disproportionately serves TV markets with large rural audiences.

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In the last four years, some newspapers (notably those of Arkansas-based publisher Walter Hussman) have done a better job of regularly explaining how journalism is supposed to work, but I don’t think most news outlets do that well. They also largely fail to remind Americans of the differences in news media and social media. You’ve probably read the following elevator speech in this space before, but it’s worth repeating, so you can repeat it: News media practice a discipline of verification; we tell you how we know something, or we attribute it. Social media have virtually no discipline, and no verification.

Social media and the torrent of other online information leave readers with less time to consume local news. And that news is often not as interesting or entertaining as what they are getting from outside their community. Trump steered many people away from local news and toward national news, community editors and publishers have told me.

Mike Buffington, who publishes five Georgia weeklies, wrote, “During the Trump tenure, we saw a huge uptick of local interest in national news. When we’d write about local controversies, not much reaction. But when we’d write about Trump or national politics, all hell would hit. (All of our editors wrote mostly anti-Trumpism columns and editorials.)”

Mike also wrote that social media has “so distorted reality that a lot of people live more online than in their own towns.”

Those towns, communities of geography, are the basis for local news outlets.

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They now compete with social media’s communities of interest; the more time people spend with them, the less time they have for their geographic communities.

That drives down newspaper readership, which means fewer ads, which leaves less room for news, which further reduces readership and continues the downward spiral.

Stopping the spiral requires smart decisions about giving readers what they want, while also giving them what they need to be good citizens. The real trick is making them want what they need.

If your readers don’t seem to be interested in government coverage, maybe it’s because you’re not making it interesting. I read too many newspapers in which government coverage focuses on meetings. It’s an essential watchdog function, but covering a meeting is like watching a train pull into a station, discharge and take on passengers, and leave. You get glimpses of the passengers, but have no idea of how they may be interacting on the train.

There’s a lot more going on among members of local public agencies than among people on a train. Those members usually have different perspectives, and many like to share their views, which can produce good stories. They can also be good sources of fact – sometimes, facts that other officials would rather keep quiet.

Stories that go beyond meeting coverage are not only more interesting; they are testimony to the value of a local newspaper.

This is just one example of how we can get Americans interested in local news again.

We can’t just talk about why newspapers are needed. We have to prove it.

Al Cross edited and managed rural newspapers before covering politics for the Louisville Courier Journal and serving as president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is director of the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

July 15, 2021