Valuable apps for newspapers 5
Guest Column:
By Kevin Slimp
Arkansas Press Association PUBLISHER WEEKLY
Third Annual Press Freedom Gala is celebration of democracy
The third annual APA Press Freedom Gala was held last night in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
Honored at the event were the Arkansas Foodbank as Headliner of the Year, Professor Larry Foley as APA Journalism
Educator of the Year and James L. “Skip”
Rutherford III, who received the Arkansas Press Association Distinguished Service Award.
Rex Nelson, senior editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was emcee for the evening. Guests were treated to a cocktail
reception featuring music by Arkansas Symphony Orchestra trumpeter Rodney Block prior to the dinner and awards ceremony.
More photos and complete coverage will be in next week’s Arkansas Publisher Weekly
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Don’t delay: ArkLaMiss room reservation deadline is today!
Today is the room block deadline for next month’s 2024 ArkLaMiss Circulation, Marketing & Audience Development Conference in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The conference will be held November 7-8 at the scenic Ameristar Casino Hotel on the banks of the Mississippi River. To get the special rate of $89 per night, call 601-638-
1000 and reference code 1107ARKLAMISS.
This year’s keynote presenter is popular sales and marketing trainer Ryan Dohrn His focus is personal growth, leadership, sales, marketing, and team performance development and will speak on marketing your publications, customer service and more.
ArkLaMiss is co-sponsored annually by APA and Mississippi Press Association, with MPS organizing this year’s schedule. Conference registration is separate from room reservations and may be done online at mspress.regfox.com/arklamissconference.
Arkansas journalists win at Carmage Walls Commentary Awards
Three journalists from two Arkansas newspapers were announced as winners of the 2024 Carmage Walls Commentary Awards contest at the America’s Newspapers Senior Leadership Conference this past Monday.
Pine Bluff Commercial Editor Byron Tate was awarded second place in the editorial writing category for newspapers of 35,000 or less circulation. The award includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $1,000.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Senior Editor Rex Nelson received third-place honors in the opinion column writing category for newspapers with more than 35,000 circulation. His award includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $500.
Additionally, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Editorial Page Editor David Barham was named a finalist in the editorial writing category for newspapers with more than 35,000 circulation.
The Carmage Walls Commentary Awards are named for the late Benjamin Carmage Walls, whose newspaper career spanned seven decades. Walls primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership. Monday’s awards were presented by his daughter, Lissa Walls Cribb, CEO of Southern Newspapers.
Read the full announcement of the 2024 winners, with links to their entries, at newspapers.org/commentary-prize/
Byron Tate
David Barham
Rex Nelson
Thursday, October 31, is deadline to volunteer for KPA editorial contest judging
Additional volunteers are needed from APA member newspapers to judge submissions in the Kentucky Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Contest.
Categories to be judged include News Writing, News Columns, Feature Writing, Editorial and Opinion, Sports Writing, Best Lede, Sport Photos, News or Feature Photos, Best Video, Social Media and Best Website. Newspaper employees from all departments are encouraged to sign up to judge.
Judges will work online, at their own pace, beginning in early November. All judging will be completed before the week of Thanksgiving.
Members of the Kentucky Press Association will reciprocate by judging APA’s Better Newspaper Editorial Contest in 2025. Please volunteer by Thursday, Oct. 31 by filling out the secure form at https://forms. gle/Leyxp1RX8ax96bPEA. If you have any questions, email Terri Cobb at terri@ arkansaspress.org or call (501) 374-1500.
-30Dan Brawner
Daniel Macon Brawner, of Wynne, died on Monday, October 21. He was 74.
Dan Brawner
A native of Eupora, Mississippi, Brawner was born to the late Macon and Justine Killon Brawner in 1950. Following his family’s move to Wynne, Brawner was a graduate of Wynne High School and of Christian Brothers University in Memphis.
He was a former editor of the Poinsett County Democrat-Tribune in Trumann, and also served as a staff writer for the Wynne Progress, at which he was a consistent winner of the APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest.
Known to many as “Brother Danny,” Brawner was the current pastor at Pine Tree Baptist Church in Colt. Over his career he also taught English literature in the Forrest City School District, and wrote a book, “The Ridge: The Whisper of the Leaves,” under the name D. Macon Brawner.
He is survived by his wife of more than 55 years, Janie Brawner; his brother, Ronnie “Chub” Brawner and wife Lora of Wynne, a nephew and a great-nephew.
A memorial service will be announced at a later time.
River Valley DemocratGazette in Fort Smith applies for APA membership
The River Valley Democrat-Gazette, a Sunday newspaper covering Fort Smith and the Arkansas River Valley area, has applied for full membership to the Arkansas Press Association. The APA Constitution and Bylaws require three notifications of the application to APA membership. This is the third of those three notifications.
The River Valley Democrat-Gazette is owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. and published by Eliza Gaines. Brent A. Powers is president, Dave Perozek is managing editor and Randall Seyer is the editor. It was first published in July 2021, and having now been published weekly for more than two years is eligible for full APA membership.
Any APA member who objects to the River Valley Democrat-Gazette’s membership in APA may provide a written letter of objection to Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley, 411 S. Victory St., Little Rock AR 72201.
UA professor’s new documentary nominated for two Emmys
“Cries from the Cotton Field,” University of Arkansas Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences
Journalism & Strategic Media Professor Larry Foley’s most recent documentary, has received two Mid-America Emmy nominations.
The documentary is nominated in the categories of Best Director and Outstanding Editor. The Mid-America Emmy Ceremony is this Saturday, October 26, at Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, Kansas.
“Cries From the Cotton Field” tells the story of 19th century Italian immigrants who journeyed all the way to Arkansas to cultivate a new life and community in Tontitown. It made its broadcast debut on Arkansas PBS in September.
Over his career, Foley has garnered more than two dozen nominations and won eight Mid-America Emmys for his broadcast and documentary journalism work. He was honored at yesterday’s Press Freedom Gala as APA’s Journalism Educator of the Year.
“Cries from the Cotton Field” was also selected as an award winner in the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival, was an official selection and award winner in the Hollywood Hype Film Festival, and won Best in Show at the BEA - Broadcast Education Association On Location Conference. You can stream the documentary on Tubi at https://tubitv.com/movies/100027521/criesfrom-the-cotton-field
Twenty years ago, many days seemed like Christmas at my office.
That’s because I used to receive packages from dozens of software and hardware companies with their latest products, hoping I would review them in my syndicated columns.
I still receive software occasionally, but FedEx or UPS doesn’t deliver it; the applications come in emails with URL links and passwords, allowing me to download and install applications on my computer.
Now and then, I will test a product that would benefit my newspaper friends. Recently, I tested the latest versions of Markzware, a software developer based in Dayton, Nevada. I have used previous versions of two of these applications for years, while the third, OmniMarkz, was new to me. By the end of this column, I will suggest that most newspapers would be wise to have one, if not two of these applications available on their computers.
FlightCheck: Most publishers have likely heard of FlightCheck, even if they’ve never used it. That’s because larger newspapers and printers often use it to perform preflight quality control inspection on many common types of files. FlightCheck entered the market in 1995, allowing Markzware plenty of time to perfect the application.
Basically, FlightCheck examines and preflights many of the files we use in the publishing business, including InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, PDF, and Photoshop files to find printing issues before the files go to press. I tested FlightCheck on files from InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat and received a report of potential problems found in each file. Finding one error could save many of us more than the $399 perpetual license fee for FlightCheck. An annual subscription is available for $249, but I suggest that
Guest Column: Valuable apps for newspapers
By Kevin Slimp
those using FlightCheck purchase the perpetual version.
The list of checks would take more than my allotted space, but significant orienting issues, including harmful or missing fonts, text on multiple plates, and color issues are included.
A fully-functioning free 30-day demo of FlightCheck is available at markzware.com
IDMarkz: Trust me, IDMarkz is worth its weight in gold. Thankfully, a perpetual license can be purchased for $179. IDMarkz has many functions. A few include exporting InDesign files so they can be opened in Affinity Publisher, Illustrator, various versions of InDesign and many other applications.
Why is IDMarkz so valuable? I’ve often received frantic messages from publishers who could not open their page templates or files, even though the documents were fine just a few moments earlier. Even earlier versions of the files on their backup drives wouldn’t open. That is a sure sign of a corrupt file and usually means beginning from scratch to re-create the document. That’s where IDMarkz comes in. Even though an InDesign file might become corrupt, IDMarkz still manages to open the file and export it to an IDML file that opens perfectly in InDesign.
IDMarkz also allows users to extract InDesign text as RTF, TXT, or HTML files while preserving the original formatting. For newspapers using Affinity Publisher, IDMarkz will enable you to export an InDesign file to PDF without needing InDesign or Acrobat.
One use of IDMarkz to save a corrupt document pays for the cost of a perpetual license.
OmniMarkz: OmniMarkz is a newer application by Markzware. Think of it as IDMarkz on steroids. OmniMarkz combines
these three apps:
• IDMarkz,
• PDFMarkz, and
• QXPMarkz.
In a nutshell, OnmiMarkz allows the user to convert InDesign, QuarkXPress, and PDF documents to other formats.
Conversion possibilities include:
• PDF to InDesign,
• InDesign to Affinity Publisher,
• QuarkXpress to InDesign,
• Adobe Illustrator to InDesign, InDesign to previous versions of InDesign.
Yes, you can open PDF files and edit them in InDesign. If you have legacy QuarkXpress files, you can open them in InDesign. If you’re an Affinity user, you can quickly convert your InDesign files to open in Affinity Publisher. And you can quickly export just about any type of file to a highquality PDF. During export, OmniMarkz even runs a preflight to inform the user of potential font, link, and color problems.
OmniMarkz isn’t cheap. With a perpetual license of $599, it’s a tool larger newspapers or design centers should have. Small papers might be served as well by having IDMarkz on hand.
I’ve appreciated Markzware for two decades. They continue to create quality software while keeping the needs of newspapers – and other publishers – in mind. Visit markzware.com and find these and other apps and demo versions of many of their products.
Kevin Slimp is a popular consultant, advisor and trainer in the newspaper industry. From 1997-2018, Kevin directed The Newspaper Institute of The University of Tennessee. He currently serves as CEO of Market Square Publishing and Chief Guru at NewspaperAcademy.com. Email him at kevin@kevinslimp.com.