July 2018 Editor & Publisher Digital Edition

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A Section

Features

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UNBIASED NEWS

Innovation Matters

CRITICAL THINKING

10 ways news media companies can move into a profitable future . . . . . p. 32

Beyond the Banner Ad

If you had the opportunity to question Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook’s mishandling of user data, what would you ask him? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 15

To get ahead, newspapers are offering more creative digital services . . . . p. 38

DATA PAGE

Knowhere is a journalistic effort between humans and machines to present the full picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 8

DESIGN THINKING

Philly newsrooms conduct user-centered meetings to understand readers’ needs p. 9

COMMUNITY TOOLBOX

Newsday provides a forum for Long Islanders to understand and debate important local issues . . . . . . . . . . . p. 12

Newspapers Get a Makeover Data, technology and digital readers are shaping how the printed newspaper looks today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 44

Best and worst countries to be a reporter, Twitter and bots, Americans and information freedoms, Facebook and Google users’ concerns . . . . . . p. 18

PRODUCTION Combining our print product and digital offerings will guarantee success . .p. 26

PROTECTING JOURNALISM

Reporters Without Borders and its partners launch initiative to fight misinformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 13

NEWSPEOPLE New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 51

CHANGING NEWSROOM CULTURE

Press Forward wants to create safe and healthy workplaces for men and women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 14

SHOPTALK Where have you gone, Woodward and Bernstein? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 58

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Ed Murray/NJ Advance Media . . . p. 16

Columns INDUSTRY INSIGHT

BUSINESS OF NEWS

DIGITAL PUBLISHING

Can a re-bundling of news and advertising help save journalism? p. 20

How do we stop newspapers from fading into obscurity? p. 22

Fight fake news on social media with these simple, but effective suggestions p. 24

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editorial

An Education

D

o you remember your first byline? Mine was in the eighth grade in the Grandparents Day Newsletter. I was one of three students selected to have their essay published. To be honest, I still consider it one of my proudest moments in my writing career, and it gave me my first taste of seeing “By Nu Yang” in print.

I got the same thrill seeing my byline over the next couple of years, writing for my high school newspaper and a few guest articles for my local daily paper. I always knew I wanted to be a writer as a kid, but after I had the opportunity to job shadow an editor, journalism became my dream career.

In college, I studied English and journalism, and started writing for my college paper. I was a sophomore when 9/11 happened, and my editor tasked me with talking to students in my dorm and reporting their reactions. It wasn’t easy, but I knew I had a job to do. That day taught me how to ask the right questions, empathize and listen. It was also the first time I felt like a real journalist.

These memories came back to me as I read a Columbia Journalism Review special report titled “Do We Need J-Schools?” The article presented three different points of views: “Yes, more than ever” by Bill Grueskin, a Columbia Journalism School faculty member; “No, and they should not exist” by Felix Salmon, a financial writer and editor; and “Maybe, but cost is key” by Alexandria Neason, a CJR senior staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow.

All three presented good arguments, and I have to say none of them are wrong.

“A strong journalism program will help young reporters challenge their presumptions and prejudices, will encourage them to meet people and go to neighborhoods outside their comfort zone, and will force them to develop the resilience that journalists need, especially now,” said Grueskin.

Looking back, it was the school system that helped me become a better reporter.

Faculty members pushed me to go into writing and helped opened doors for me. And there were the valuable lessons, skills and habits I learned from teachers and profes4 |

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I believe there’s no right way or wrong way to learn journalism.

CORPORATE OFFICES (949) 660-6150 FAX (949) 660-6172 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jeff Fleming jeff@editorandpublisher.com MANAGING EDITOR Nu Yang nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com GRAPHIC DESIGN Meredith Ewell ASSISTANT EDITOR Rachael Garcia

sors (who often used to work for newspapers) in a classroom setting.

Salmon, on the other hand, feels differently. “The best and simplest way to move toward that goal would be to abolish the graduate journalism degree entirely. That would help to level the playing field, while saving students billions of dollars in tuition.

Better yet, it would bring the industry back to a model of on-the-job training. People wanting to enter the profession would get paid to learn the ropes.”

I agree that there’s nothing better than newsroom training. I “learned the ropes” as a staff writer for a small weekly newspaper.

It was where I learned to develop sources and contacts in the community, where I learned how to work under a deadline, and where I learned that creating a newspaper was a business.

“Journalism school (has) real benefits to offer. But you shouldn’t go unless you can secure significant funding to pay for it,” Neason said.

That’s a fair point. With more young people drowning in student loan debt, is a journalism degree even worth it? It seems like it still is. MarketWatch recently reported a jump in applications at J-schools like Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, proving that the profession is still a sought-after one.

In the end, I believe there’s no right way or wrong way to learn journalism. Many of us graduated with a degree from a J-school; many of us ‘”learned the ropes” working in the newsroom. But I think we can all agree that what we need are more journalists and more bylines, no matter how they got there.—NY

rachael@editorandpublisher.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Rob Tornoe, Tim Gallagher Matt DeRienzo SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT Wendy MacDonald, ext. 231 wendy@editorandpublisher.com CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SALES Jon Sorenson (800) 887-1615 FAX (866) 605-2323 classifieds@editorandpublisher.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES (888) 732-7323 MANAGER OF FULFILLMENT Rick Avila rick@editorandpublisher.com CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Emily Wells Horneff Dustin Nguyen PRODUCTION Mary Monge TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR David Kelsen OPERATIONS MANAGER Jennifer Chen, ext. 214 jennifer@editorandpublisher.com

DUNCAN MCINTOSH CO. FOUNDED BY: PUBLISHER Duncan McIntosh Jr. CO-PUBLISHER Teresa Ybarra McIntosh (1942-2011)

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING MAILING ADDRESS 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 www.editorandpublisher.com Editor & Publisher is printed in the U.S.A.

America’s Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry With which have been merged: The Journalist, established March 22, 1884; Newspaperdom, March 1892; The Fourth Estate, March 1, 1894; Editor & Publisher, June 29, 1901; Advertising, June 22, 1925.

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6/18/18 1:31 PM

Explore, Educate and Engage at the 2018 NNA Convention & Trade Show in Norfolk, VA

NNA convention: An opportunity to explore the friendly, modern port-city of Norfolk and transform your organization! Get excited to enjoy the harbour, family-friendly attractions and take part in a cruise in the heart of Virginia’s Waterfront. Flash sessions and the idea exchange are events you won’t want to miss! Hop on board! Visit nnaweb.org/convention for more information!

“The 2017 NNA Conference in Tulsa, Okla. was a great experience...I have already made some changes to our products, made our classifieds readable again and taught the sales team about creating better emails. It’s the best three days I have spent in a long time.”

-Amy Johns, Publisher, McAlester News-Capital

comments ))) employees stay in touch with one another, strive to develop cooperative relationships with media that use freelance/contract work, offer certain types of insurance, and build solidarity between freelancers and staff employees.

RICHARD KNEE

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

NIE Program Can Bring in New Revenue

Downsizing Hurts Local Newspapers There is a massive centralization of local newspapers occurring in Southern California. (“Adjust Accordingly,” May 2018) Digital First has downsized so deep that all of its many newspapers here look the same. Just look at the front pages each day with the Newseum app: All of the stories and photos are the same, and the same largely holds true on the inside pages other than one or two articles. The Press-Enterprise does not even have an editor, instead relying on a regional editor. Everything has been centralized with one regional editing operation.

This is the only way the newspapers can still function after nearly all of the editors were let go along with most of the reporters and photographers. I recently restarted my Press-Enterprise digital subscription, but if anymore layoffs occur, there won’t be much of a reason to subscribe. I admire the local journalists for what they are still able to accomplish, but it has been heartbreaking to see what has happened to local journalism in Southern California. Digital First has been the worst thing to ever happen to local news.

ALLAN

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Alt-Weeklies Are Thriving You seem to ignore grown-up alt weeklies? (“Adjust Accordingly,” May 2018) As 6 |

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the daily shrunk, we continued to grow and expand, and we reinvested in our website to cover more breaking. It’s prohibitively expensive in most communities to produce content for print, go to press and physically deliver quality journalism seven days a week.

Even if you try, it’s “yesterday’s news today.”

But a robust daily website and one hyperlocal print edition a week while making a profit? It’s doable.

JUDY HODGSON Publisher North Coast Journal Eureka, Calif.

Submitted on editorandpublisher.com

Consider This For Unions Relevant considerations (“Safety Net,” May 2018): 1) Get to know who owns your news outlet and his/her/their long-term goals and objectives. What is happening at the Alden Global Capital/Digital First Media properties underscores that lesson. AGC/ DFM has made it abundantly clear through its actions that it cares more about padding its owners’ wallets than about broad, deep news coverage and decent pay, and benefits and working conditions for its employees.

NewsGuild locals can and do play a vital role in rallying community support for high-quality journalism. 2) A number of NewsGuild locals have formed freelance units that, among other things, help laid-off

Thank you for Jerry Simpkins’ thorough and informative article (“STOPP or Go?” May 2018). I would like to offer another view on one of his cost-cutting recommendations—reducing the distribution of NIE copies. I have worked as an NIE manager, content provider and NIE corporate consultant for the past 20 years: working with papers to make their NIE programs and sales to schools both a revenue and subscription growing program. When I was a corporate NIE consultant to Freedom Communications, I oversaw an increase of corporate-wide NIE revenue from $140,000 a year to more than $3 million a year. This is the time to add innovation in a popular and proven literacy program and get the community support needed to pay for the program as well as classroom copies of the newspaper. The beauty of a strong, educational and revenue-focused NIE program is that it allows a newspaper to tap into new revenue—not moving revenue from one part of the paper to another. And, in this day and age when, because of so many cutbacks, community members are unhappy with their local papers, it is a meaningful way to make a positive impact on the community and the newspaper’s bottom line. And, did I mention that with a quality NIE program, you are reaching future readers and their families?

VICKI WHITING

Kid Scoop

Send us your comments nu.yang@editorandpublisher.com “Comments,” Editor & Publisher, 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 Please include your name, title, city and state, and email address.

Letters may be edited for all the usual reasons.

editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 1:28 PM

2018 CALL FOR ENTRIES

Honoring the Best in Digital Media The EPPYTM Awards, presented by Editor & Publisher, honor the best in digital media across 31 diverse categories, including excellence in college and university journalism. Now in its 23rd year, this international contest has broadened its scope and also includes categories for investigative features, mobile apps,

videos, webcasts, advertising/marketing, photography and community service.

Entries to the EPPYTM Awards are judged by a panel of notable figures in the media industry, chosen by the staff of Editor & Publisher.

For more information, please contact: Entry deadline: Aug. 24, 2018 Martha McIntosh at martha@editorandpublisher.com eppyawards.com

editorandpublisher.com

the A section VOLUME 151

FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2018

ISSUE 7

> Look Ahead

Unbiased News Knowhere is a journalistic effort between humans and machines to present the full picture

By Rachael Garcia

} Knowhere publishes news with three “spins:” the Left, the Right and impartial.

W

hile artificial intelligence in newsrooms is not a new concept, San Francisco and Londonbased news publication Knowhere wants to produce original news content using humans and AI to deliver unbiased news. This is done through the use of neural natural language processing. Using AI technology and a human editorial team made up of nine members, Knowhere creates articles centered on topics like politics and current events, and not just statistic-based articles or sports news, which is what journalists primarily use AI for in newsrooms.

The AI technology scans through a vast amount of sources around the world— something that would take humans an unreasonable amount of time to accomplish—synthesizes the information and writes three “spins” to the story: the Left, the Right and impartial. The three articles } Nathaniel Barling 8 |

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differ in word choices and the way the information is presented, which is meant to show biases in reporting.

“We have to embrace the things machines are good at, like handling robust amounts of information, if our journalistic process is going to provide truth,” said Nathanial Barling, Knowhere co-founder, CEO and editor-inchief. “Our editorial team uses technology to produce articles that are a truer, more accurate view of the world for our readers.”

Even though the technology can process a volume of information that humans can’t handle, Barling said the algorithms are still held accountable by them. With that said, all the articles are edited by (human) editors to check for errors and style, along with the validity of sources before they are published.

“It’s a merger of the two; initial copy is written by AI and the human editorial team double checks sources and performs a common sense check—we believe this enables us to move much faster, with fewer resources,” Barling said.

He added that AI is part of the solution to delivering stories and is the future of journalism, and it’s not an argument for technology replacing reporters because newsrooms still need human editorial expertise.

“We will always have insight on the human world that technology will never have. This is a combined effort, not an effort to replace one with the other,” said Barling.

Knowhere’s goal is to have an international push next year where they can transform political, racial and gender boundaries and be a global home for news. They also hope to be the largest news publisher in the world, and the largest employer of journalists. The company launched in April with $1.8 million in funding.

“When we founded the company, we set out with a very clear goal, establishing a new source everyone can trust,” Barling said.

For more information, visit knowherenews.com.

editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 1:50 PM

the A section

Design Thinking

Philly newsrooms conduct user-centered meetings to understand readers’ needs

} The Philadelphia newsrooms held their first user-centered meeting, where journalists interviewed three guests, and organized their observations into attitudes, behaviors, motivations and goals to develop new story ideas. (Photos by Eric Ulken)

I

n order to stay innovative and relevant, newspapers are trying new ways to capture their audiences and search for gaps in the market. One of them is design thinking, a methodology that starts with understanding the audience based on answers to questions like: Do you know who your target audience is? What are their needs?

What ecosystem do they live in?

In Philadelphia, the Inquirer, Daily News, and philly.com, conducted a design thinking experiment last year that helped the newsrooms better understand and address their audience’s needs. Working together on the project were Kim Fox, managing editor of audience development, Eric Ulken, former managing editor, digital operations (Ulken is now an independent consultant), and Patrick Kerkstra, managing editor of digital content. } Eric Ulken } Kim Fox

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According to Ulken, analytics weren’t telling the newsrooms enough about their core audience demographic. “We wanted to find out something that we could solve for them, and create new content that we weren’t doing.”

With that, they recruited three guests off social media to spend half a day with journalists, where they were interviewed about their daily habits like their morning routine. As a result, the newsroom learned who their target audience was, what the audiences needed, and what stories audiences would be interested and not interested in reading.

From there, they created solutions until they matched the needs of the participants.

“Understanding the audience allows for discovering what the problems really are and how to use data and analysis to find solutions, rather than assuming what the issues are,” said Ulken.

Fox stated that not only were they empowering the community, but all levels of the newsroom were involved in the decision-making process.

“Everyone was immersed in the step-by-step process of the consumer as they showed us what is important to them and engaged with them to better understand their frustrations with current products, and to get their thoughts on how things could be better,” she said.

Many story ideas came out of the meeting, and some ended up as actual stories. Reporter Stephanie Farr developed a “We the People” series, profiling ordinary Philadelphians, and reporter Tommy Rowan wrote several stories on the local history of old buildings.

Next up, creating a newsletter for women in the community, where they will again use the design thinking approach to learn more about the demographics in the area and what topics women want to read.—RG

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the A section OF THE MONTH Once a year, the Valley Independent Sentinel, a nonprofit news site serving lower Naugatuck Valley, Conn., does a live video stream from its newsroom for 36 hours straight on their website and on Facebook. The goal is to not only engage with readers, but also to raise money for the newspaper. This year’s live stream ran from May 1 to May 2 and surpassed their $10,000 goal, raising a total of $13,738 from 145 donors. Funds will go toward next year’s operating budget.

Over the course of the live stream, the two-man newsroom consisting of editor Eugene Driscoll and reporter Ethan Fry interviewed about 20 nonprofit leaders and newsmakers as part of the Great Give, a community-wide giving event benefiting the nonprofits in the Greater New Haven area. In one of their more popular segments, about 2,700 people watched Fry attempt to eat “suicide hot wings.”

The success of the donations and the live stream could be attributed to the paper’s willingness to listen to readers. For example, this year someone emailed the Valley Indy declaring he would not be donating because the newsroom did not return a phone call.

“I talked about this several times during our live stream, saying that we make mistakes, and we probably published an article that made (him) angry.

But I asked people to consider us as a whole,” said Driscoll. “The person who was angry at us eventually donated $100 again.”

Having the community’s support has shown Driscoll one thing: “Both Ethan and I feel like we have to work harder to pay our readers back.”—RG

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45

The United States fell two spots this year from 43 to 45 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom Index, a report that tracks media freedom and harassment.

LEGAL BRIEFS Wisconsin Newspaper Files Lawsuit to Identity Police Chief Candidates

As reported by the Green Bay Press Gazette, after weeks and multiple attempts to obtain the names of the final two candidates interviewing for the open police chief in the city of Oconto, Wis., the Oconto County Reporter filed a lawsuit seeking information. The lawsuit named the Oconto police and fire commission along with city administrator Sara Perrizo as defendants. After both candidates interviewed with the city’s police and fire commission, Perrizo announced the final candidate, but did not disclose the other person they were considering for the position. In the lawsuit, the newspaper cited an email in which Perrizo revealed that city attorney Frank Calvert decided that the city should not release “names/other information of those who were interviewed.” But hours after the lawsuit was filed, the city released the second candidate’s name. The Reporter’s lawsuit also asked the court to order the city to pay “reasonable attorney fees, actual costs and damages,” though it did not specify what those might be.

Building Owners Sue Chicago Tribune Over Signage

According to the Chicago Tribune, a joint venture of Los Angeles-based CIM Group and Chicago’s Golub & Co. has filed a lawsuit against Tribune, alleging that they will be “irreparably harmed” if Tribune removes the newspaper’s exterior sign from the tower. The lawsuit came as the newsroom and the corporate offices of Tribune parent company, Tronc, prepared to vacate the building ahead of the June lease expiration.

The lawsuit alleges that as the tower’s owner, CIM and Golub has the right to buy the sign or any roof installation for $1 and keep it displayed due to a provision in a lease Tronc signed five years ago with the building’s previous owner. Tronc stated that the sign is protected by trademark and it wasn’t a roof installation under the lease, according to the lawsuit. CIM and Golub purchased the property from Tribune Media for $240 million in September 2016 with the expectation that the sign would remain. As of press time, it is still unclear whether Tronc plans to move the sign to its new location. editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 1:50 PM

the A section > Wise Advice

Tornoe’s Corner

“What challenges did you face with digitally transforming your newsroom, and what solutions did you find?”

We’re still making changes, still trying new things and still learning from mistakes. We’re doing that because we  Erica Smith don’t have all of the answers.

Getting people comfortable with (and to embrace) that has its ups and downs.

I look at it as opportunities to test new things, but someone else correctly sees chaos. It’s difficult to work in an environment that’s constantly changing, but it’s made us better at connecting with our audience. We attack that in little ways every day and have made some big incursions in the past year too. We launched Ginny, a Facebook Messenger virtual assistant that can help readers learn of new and interesting news and report tips to our newsroom. We launched Glad You Asked, which is powered by our readers, where they ask questions and we track down the answers. We also participated in Trusting News to explain how and why we do things, and to be more accessible to readers. Make this year about your audience. Get out and talk to people for more than a quote in a story. Explore different story formats. Figure out what works and keep building on it.

Erica Smith is the online editor and director of digital strategy at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. She was recently named Local Media Association’s Digital News Innovator of the Year. editorandpublisher.com

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From the Archive

 AP and UPI machines were transmitting missile pictures simultaneously when a Kalamazoo (Mich.)

Gazette photographer snapped this picture. Though both vertical views, the pictures came horizontally and in reverse of one another. This photo originally appeared in the Dec.16, 1961 issue of E&P.

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the A section

Community Toolbox Newsday provides a forum for Long Islanders to understand and debate important local issues

 Amanda Fiscina, Newsday research and digital production manager, opinions

L

aunched by Newsday, nextLI is a new website designed to offer Long Island residents a platform to learn and debate important issues, to connect them by interests and views, and foster a better understanding of the challenges of the region. The free forum, found at next.newsday.com, will focus on issues of public policy that can be informed by original research and will be a destination for Long Islanders to gather and problem solve. nextLI is the next phase of the Long Island Index, a research report published annually to help local leaders devise solutions to regional problems. The project originally belonged to the Rauch Foundation before they decided to seek new ownership, and it is now managed by the Newsday opinion department.

Sam Guzik, editor for strategy and platforms, and Amanda Fiscina, research and digital production manager, said, “We were actually looking up data they compiled when we saw an invitation for new leadership. We immediately realized there was an opportunity to extend their work and strengthen our connection with our community,” While there were a lot of qualified proposals, Newsday was the only one that offered to build a digital community to allow Long Islanders to take action and be involved in the discussion. Whether it’s discussions about the affordability crisis in the housing market, traffic on the freeways and issues with public transit systems, Guzik and Fiscina hope that nextLI becomes the destination for collabora-

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 Sam Guzik, Newsday editor for strategy and platforms, opinions

tive problem solving.

“We’re particularly excited about what we bring to the table as the region’s paper of record. Our editorial board has been a voice in defining the future of Long Island since it was founded more than 75 years ago and this is a new phase in that mission,” they said. “We would like nextLI to be the region’s town square where the editorial board would convene and inform the public policy debate, not shut it down with a singular viewpoint.”

To aid with the discussions, nextLI will publish a mix of original research, aggregated data and first-person accounts of how public policy intersects with the community.

The first iteration of the site is live, and the first research report is expected to be published this fall.

A week after nextLI launched in April, hundreds of individuals had already signed up for the email list and dozens expressed interest in joining the community advisory board.

Guzik and Fiscina said they want nextLI to be a critical part of the future of Long Island’s civic infrastructure. “Just as Levittown on Long Island was the nation’s first suburb, we hope nextLI can be a model for other regions looking to engage their entire community in envisioning the future.”–RG

“We would like nextLI to be the region’s town square…”

editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 1:50 PM

the A section

Protecting Journalism Reporters Without Borders and its partners launch initiative to fight misinformation

T

o face the challenges of distinguishing “fake news” from non-biased, factual information, Reporters Without Borders and its partners, Agence France Presse, the European Broadcasting Union and the Global Editors Network, have launched the Journalism Trust Initiative, a media selfregulatory initiative designed to safeguard journalism and fight against misinformation.

The initiative was set forth at a Workshop Agreement of the European Committee for Standardization, which opened in April to interested stakeholders and held a kick-off meeting in May. It requires a commitment to a set of trust and transparency

™

editorandpublisher.com

standards agreed upon by media outlets, professional associates and unions, self regulatory entities, as well as digital platforms, advertisers and consumer interest representatives. The project plan published on the European Committee for Standardization website (bit.ly/2uL3EGS) will be discussed and collaborated over a time period of 12 to 18 months, and is expected to be finalized by the end of 2019.

The resulting standards are expected to reflect transparency of media ownership and sources of revenues, as well as enhance journalistic methods and ethics. They are intended to become a voluntary, leading benchmark of media self-regulation and good practices for all those who produce journalistic content, ranging from individual bloggers to international media groups.

Adopting the standard will pave the way toward a certification process. Other benefits include preferential distribution and treatment by algorithms of search engines and social media platforms. Google has also announced they will participate in the initiative. –RG

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JULY 2018 | E & P

+1 (706) 750-0016 | info@mirabeltechnologies.com | www.newspapermanager.com

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the A section

Changing Newsroom Culture Press Forward wants to create safe and healthy workplaces for men and women

} The National Press Club and Press Forward recently hosted a panel discussion about sexual harassment in the industry. (Photo by Cheriss May/Ndemay Graphics)

A

s more sexual harassment victims come forward as part of the #MeToo movement, Press Forward wants to develop solutions for the media industry.

Launched in December 2017, Press Forward is a nonpartisan and independent initiative, created to stop sexual harassment and assault in newsrooms. The goal is to explore the root causes of such behavior and address the unintended consequences, such as why women are leaving the industry. The initiative also wants to produce an industry blueprint that can offer recommendations across the board and a code of conduct that can be scaled to other professions.

Carolyn McGourty Supple, technology strategist and management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in San Francisco and

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} Carolyn McGourty Supple (Photo by Bruce Guthrie)

Press Forward chair, said, “We have data to support this isn’t just a network news issue; we know toxic cultures and sexual harassment are occurring in national and

local newsrooms across mediums, and it changes the trajectory of the careers for both women and men. We need to study it further to understand the extent and total impact to individuals, and put forward thoughtful solutions.”

Many of the Press Forward founders have their own stories about sexual harassment in the workplace, which motivated them to team up with groups like the International Women’s Media Foundation and TIMES UP, to tackle the issue.

Dianna Burgess, founder of Pierce Burgess Media Group in London and a cofounder of Press Forward, said, “The status quo does not cut it anymore. We have new norms as a society, in terms of what is acceptable, and the way with which we are conducting ourselves in the workplace.”

The founders, along with an advisory board made up of media professionals, such as Gretchen Carlson, Ted Koppel and Jake Tapper, came up with a five-point plan of attack: new training programs and guidelines, an industry blueprint, thought leadership, a six month cultural assessment in newsrooms, and an online presence at thepressforward.org. The group also wants to raise awareness and education through town hall discussions, design sexual harassment training specifically for newsrooms, and work with TIMES UP to raise funds for a legal defense fund.

“If journalists are reporting on these issues and holding other industries to account, we hope news organizations will take leadership and show how they’ve dealt with it,” McGourty Supple said.

“That will hopefully show the public that the media will indeed serve them and live by the transparency they call for with other democratic institutions. We understand that we won’t be the change, news organizations will be. So we really want to partner and work with them to explore solutions.” –RG editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 1:50 PM

critical thinking

If you have a question you would like to see addressed, please send it to rachael@editorandpublisher.com.

J-school students and industry vets tackle the tough questions

“Recently, Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress regarding Facebook’s mishandling of user data. If you had the opportunity, what questions would you ask him, and what solutions would you want to see?”

A:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to ensure Facebook’s user data is heavily guarded and kept away from those who crave it.

Zuckerberg admitted to Congress during a hearing in April that his company allowed Cambridge Analytica, a private Cresencio Rodriguezpolitical research firm, to obtain inforDelgado, 22 mation of tens of millions of Facebook senior, California State Univerusers since 2014, according to Reuters. sity, Fresno That firm, now under investigation by Rodriguez-Delgado is editorthe Justice Department and the FBI and in-chief of the Collegian, the soon shutting down, was then hired by student-run newspaper at CSU Fresno, and is a print the 2016 Donald Trump presidential journalism major. campaign—with the potential to provide useful information about American voters without their knowledge.

Facing criticism for allowing the data to be misused, Zuckerberg apologized to Congress. But the lack of responsibility by Facebook is extremely worrisome. Consider that Facebook also was not aware that a Russian troll farm engaged in online influence operations to divide Americans during an already-heated 2016 presidential election.

Mr. Zuckerberg, what will change? Was Facebook meant to grow as fast and as widespread as it has? Did you anticipate privacy issues of this scale? If so, did you decide that company profits outweighed the security and privacy of its users? What reassurance can you give users that their data will not be used for nefarious purposes?

Millions of people across the world willingly give intimate data to Facebook. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not they truly understand where it goes. But Facebook needs to keep user information private. The recent mishandling of data proves the company does not have the desire to do so. It is frightening that a media company so big and powerful can invite users to share their most sensitive information and yet tougher safety mechanisms to protect that data do not appear to be in place. Or, Mr. Zuckerberg, would you place the blame on the users for willingly surrendering their private information to Facebook?

Cambridge Analytica misled the Facebook company and the motive may have been to target voters politically. But what if next time, a foreign enemy or power manages to breach Facebook’s security mechanisms with more harm in mind? The experts at Facebook should be aware of these possibilities. Can we trust Zuckerberg to do the right thing moving forward? editorandpublisher.com

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A:

In his testimony before Congress and in media interviews, Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook is in an “arms race” when it comes to protecting users’ privacy and security, which seems like an admission that it’s really beyond the company’s control.

But I’d love to ask him whether his profile is more secure than other profiles on the platform—after all, Levi Sumagaysay, 43 the company admitted recently that it tech writer and editor, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from some users’ inboxes. Also, does he use Sumagaysay is in charge of the SiliconBeat technology blog any third-party apps on Facebook? and Good Morning Silicon That would get at whether he trusts Valley newsletter. She has also app developers with his informaserved as assistant business editor, business copy chief and tion. The Cambridge Analytica mess copy editor for the Mercury involved users handing over their News. information to a developer—Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan—and that developer turning around and selling that data to a political consulting firm. Now Facebook says it has stricter rules about what data developers can collect. So does this mean he would feel perfectly fine letting his daughters use Facebook if they were a little older?

I also wonder why Joseph Chancellor, who was Kogan’s business partner, continues to work for Facebook. The company says it’s investigating his work with Kogan, but won’t confirm that Chancellor has been placed on leave. Has the company fired anyone over all this? Zuckerberg suggested during his testimony that no one at the company has been held accountable.

Facebook recently suspended 200 apps and are looking into whether they misused data. How many employees are devoted to this effort? How long will it take? How often is Facebook finding security gaps on its own vs. finding out through media reports?

On another note, Facebook is reportedly looking into providing a paid version of its service. How would this work? Would such a version be ad-free and come with a greater guarantee of privacy and security? Even paid services collect user data—and get hacked.

Given Facebook’s track record, how would the company convince people it can be trusted to be better stewards of their information to the point that they would pay for its services? 

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photo of the month

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editorandpublisher.com

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Send us your photos! E&P welcomes reader submissions for our Photo of the Month. rachael@editorandpublisher.com.

DOG SHOW READY ď ˝â€… Ed Murray/NJ Advance Media (Woodbridge, N.J.) A dog has his hair curled as more than 1,500 dogs competed at the March Madness Circuit dog show competition over three days in March at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, N.J.

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data page Best and Worst Countries to Be a Reporter Out of 180 countries

The 10 Best:

The 10 Worst:

1

Norway

Equatorial Guinea

171

2

Sweden

Cuba

172

3

Netherlands

Djibouti

173

4

Finland

Sudan

174

5

Switzerland

Vietnam

175

6

Jamaica

China

176

7

Belgium

Syria

177

8

New Zealand

Turkmenistan

178

9

Denmark

Eritrea

179

10

Costa Rica

North Korea

180

Source: 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders

Americans Favor Protecting Information Freedoms Based on a survey of 4,734 respondents

U.S. Government

Tech Companies

39%

U.S. government should take steps to restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information

58%

Freedom of information should be protected, even if it means false information can be published

56%

Tech companies should take steps to restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information

42%

Freedom of information should be protected, even if it means false information can be published

Source: “Americans Favor Protecting Information Freedoms Over Government Steps to Restrict False News Online,� Pew Research Center, data collected Feb. 26-March 11, 2018

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editorandpublisher.com

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Twitter and Bots Based on an analysis of 1,220,015 tweeted links to 2,315 popular websites

Share of tweeted links to popular websites in the following domains that are posted by automated accounts Adult content

76%

Sports

50%

Twitter.com

66%

News and current events

53%

Organization or group

73%

Commercial product

62%

Celebrities

90%

66%

Total

Source: “Bots in Twittersphere,” Pew Research Center, data collected July 27-Sept. 1, 2017

Facebook and Google Users’ Concerns Based on a sample of 785 Facebook users and 1,106 Google users

When asked, “How concerned are you about each of the following when using Facebook/Google—very concerned, somewhat concerned, not too concerned or not concerned at all? How about—” Very Concerned

Somewhat Concerned

Not too/not concerned

Facebook

Google

Your personal information being sold and used by other companies

Your personal information being sold and used by other companies

25%

55%

19%

Invasion of privacy

26%

Internet viruses

36%

30%

33%

Unsolicited messages or ads

33%

35%

32%

Being attacked or shamed by others

15% 13%

17%

Having Google track location/history

31%

43%

25%

57%

72%

26%

44%

30%

Invasion of privacy

35% Internet viruses

34%

30%

35%

27%

39%

Having Google send you targeted ads

26%

29%

44%

Spending too much time on Facebook

13% 17%

68%

Getting upset or feeling bad about yourself because of things you see others post

9% 11%

80%

Source: Gallup, survey conducted April 2-8, 2018 editorandpublisher.com

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industry insight

Let’s Get Together Can a re-bundling of news and advertising help save journalism?

By Matt DeRienzo

T

he story goes that programmatic technology’s “unbundling” of news and advertising made it impossible for most publishers to build a sustainable business model on digital advertising. When ads started following individuals across their travels on the web, inventory exploded, CPM rates plummeted, and Google, Facebook and ad tech brokers started taking a huge share of what was being spent.

So everyone should just pivot to reader revenue, right? Which, of course, presents its own challenges.

More likely, the advertising situation, especially for local publishers, is not as dire as it looks, and while almost everyone should be looking at some form of reader revenue, publishers will need a healthy mix of both to 20 |

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survive.

With a growing backlash against programmatic, the timing is right for publishers to make a renewed case for the old-fashioned concept of ads being sold based on their adjacency to quality journalism.

First, there are “brand safety” concerns. After the 2016 election, companies were embarrassed to find that their ads were appearing on (and financially supporting) fake news sites, and next to racist rants and violent imagery. An exodus of major advertisers is forcing YouTube, for example, to make major changes in how it screens and recommends content.

Second, there are privacy issues.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal rocked Facebook and the ad tech world at-large.

The use of ad blocking software had already

been on the rise, in part, because of users’ concerns that tracking of their browsing history and the kind of targeting that resulted was creepy and invasive. We found out from the Cambridge Analytica story that it was way creepier and pervasive than most assumed.

And the European Union’s passage of its General Data Protection Regulation is having global consequences. GDPR requires companies to gain consent from users in order to access some personal data, and gives users more power to ask that they not be tracked or that such data be deleted. “...The largest impact will be on firms whose business models rely on acquiring and exploiting consumer data at scale,” according to The Guardian. That’s programmatic advertising in a nutshell.

Third, there’s fraud. A recent Adobe study found that more than 28 percent of all web traffic was “non-human”—produced by bots or “click farms” aimed, in part, at defrauding advertisers using programmatic technology. And even if a human is visiting the page where your ad appears, how long are they on that page, and is your ad even viewable to them? Few uniform standards on viewability exist, and the likelihood that editorandpublisher.com

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they’d be enforced across a programmatic buy is unlikely even if they did.

Anyone with knowledge of the media business who has scrolled through Facebook and seen how many videos they weren’t interested in autoplayed can see the potential issues with “viewability� across the web. “Advertisers are more concerned that they are wasting money on Facebook than they are about the platform’s privacy lapses,� Seb Joseph wrote in Digiday recently. “They are unhappy about how expensive it’s gotten to advertise on a platform that has openly admitted it hasn’t always charged the correct amount for ads. Combine that with lower-than-expected return on investment from pricey inventory like video, and some of those companies are starting to question why Facebook dominates so much of their media plans.�

Finally, there’s evidence that ads appearing in a “trusted editorial environment� get significantly bet-

ter results than ads that appear on any random web page. Recent research

by World Media Group (a consortium of media companies including Bloomberg, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Post and Reuters) found that readers were far more likely to click on ads that appeared alongside quality journalism or some other form of quality content, and that those ads were viewable 51 percent longer due to time spent on a page and other factors.

In a guide to 10 advantages magazine and hyperlocal publishers have in selling digital advertising, Kenny Katzgrau of Broadstreet Ads argues that local publishers can offer a lot that programmatic networks and big platforms can’t—a direct relationship with advertisers, flexibility in pricing, custom placement, creative ad formats, and greater assurances and transparency on traffic and viewability.

In short, that cheap CPM rate advertisers pay for programmatic advertising campaigns is actually pretty expensive if you account for fraudulent traffic, non-viewable ad impressions, potential damage to a company’s brand, and basic ineffectiveness.

Paying a higher CPM with a trusted local publisher could provide the same or higher basic return on investment, and support the existence of a fundamentally important community institution in the process. ď Ž

Matt DeRienzo is executive director of LION Publishers, an organization that supports local independent online news publishers from across the country. He is a longtime former newspaper reporter, editor, publisher and corporate director of news.

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Gary Greene

Â?Â?reene@Cribb.com 434.227.0952Čą

Randy CopeČą

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JULY 2018 | E & P

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business of news

Save This Industry How do we stop newspapers from fading into obscurity?

By Tim Gallagher

A

t a popular retail corner in the city closest to where I live, once sat a Blockbuster video store. High Noon in the little town of Camarillo, Calif. came the day Hollywood Video leased the storefront directly across the street. Each Friday my wife and I faced the existential question: Which store was more likely to have the new release movie we wanted to rent?

Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are no more, and we no longer worry about when or how we are going to see that new release. We will stream it on any one of several services. The content aspect of the movie business has not changed one bit.

In fact, it has multiplied in size—more companies than ever (big ones to tiny 22 |

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independents) are making content that they can deliver to us. All the industry has done is eliminate the cost of making the VHS cassettes, then CDs, then DVDs, then Blu-Ray. There is a lesson for us in the newspaper business.

We make great content. And while we used to think the big newspaper down the road was the competition, or the free weekly—we were wrong. All along, the competition has been ourselves and our inextricable tether to the cost structure of printing presses and delivery systems. We could afford that cost when we owned 40 percent to 60 percent of the advertising market. It cannot be supported when we own 10 percent of the market and digital

gets nearly 40 percent, according to the global management consulting firm McKinsey.

Netflix came along to challenge Blockbuster. It offered home delivery of the DVDs (even if you had to wait your turn).

Blockbuster tried to compete until Netflix got rid of delivery cost. It streamed those movies. No waiting.

There are industries that “got it.” Industries that understood technology would consume their model and they had better get used to it. Netflix learned to create content in addition to delivering it.

Around 2005 at the Newspaper Association of America (now the News Media Alliance) convention, an executive at Pac Bell shared they were already planning to editorandpublisher.com

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abandon their home telephone business and instead were focusing 100 percent on delivering data digitally. (Now this was 2005; YouTube had just been launched.)

Many of the publishers were puzzled but PacBell had it right. It recognized that its business was delivering content—be it in voice, which was fading, or in data, which was just starting to rise.

The road is littered with industries that did not get it. Knitting mills. Directory businesses such as the Yellow Pages.

The savings and loan industry. Recording studios.

But for every 10 of those that die, there is one that succeeds by shifting away from its roots. (Consider that Ray Kroc never became a billionaire until he stopped worrying about hamburgers and started leasing real estate.)

Kenneth Lerer, the co-founder of Huffington Post and chairman of BuzzFeed, is one of those who’ve said of media leaders,

“You have to fix the plane while you’re flying it.”

Notice something. He did not say “fix the airline industry.” He said “fix the plane.”

The newspaper industry is not a monolith.

Within the business, there are so many models, and some will fail.

I am not the first to claim that the Digital First model of cutting your way to profitability is not going to work, except that it will make some executives very rich and newspaper people very unemployed.

You cannot make your product more desirable by making less of it unless you have a corner on the market—and we don’t.

There are ways to fix this. The newspapers that succeed will accept lower profit margins; will shed legacy costs in favor of technology; will focus on building richer and deeper content from journalists who are studious, fair and inventive; and will hire advertising people who sell deep relationships with audiences. Their human

D V M & A

resource departments will not oversee employment law compliance; they will seek and hire the smartest and best.

The question is whether you will fly straight into the ground with the airline industry that could not fix itself or be the engineers who fixed your plane.

Remember the old saw: “What got you here, will not get you there.” 

Tim Gallagher is president of The 20/20 Network, a public relations and strategic communications firm. He is a former Pulitzer Prizewinning editor and publisher at The Albuquerque Tribune and the Ventura County Star newspapers. Reach him at tim@the2020network.com.

THE BYRD FAMILY HAS SOLD

WINCHESTER (VA) STAR 16,000 daily circulation 18,000 Saturday circulation

HARRISONBURG (VA) DAILY NEWS-RECORD 22,000 daily circulation

and four weekly newspapers

TO

OGDEN NEWSPAPERS We are pleased to have represented the Byrd family in this transaction.

Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April Santa Fe, NM t: 505.820.2700 www.dirksvanessen.com

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digital publishing

Prepare your newsrooms with these simple, but effective suggestions

By Rob Tornoe

I

n May, eight students and two teachers were killed after a gunman opened fire in a high school in southern Texas, just the latest mass shooting involving children to plague our country.

But as reporters, producers, and editors at media companies across the country were scrambling to keep their readers updated with the latest developments (mass shootings, especially at schools, have sadly become local and national stories), crackpots, partisan hacks and fake news purveyors were also hard at work spewing misinformation into the media ecosphere.

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to combat these brazen attacks on the truth, according to a report late last year released by the American Press Institute (API).

According to Daniel Funke, who covers fact-checking and fake news for Poynter Institute, the most vulnerable time for a newsroom is during breaking news events, such as foreign attacks, transportation accidents and weather incidents. But by far, fake news trolls typically gravitate the most toward shootings, a trend Funke said can largely be attributed to the partisan opinions about gun control in our society.

“Reporters don’t really know the details until officials tell them, which fosters an

information ecosystem of uncertainty where people like to speculate,” Funke said. “This environment makes it really easy and profitable for hoaxers and fake news writers to push false narratives. This happens literally after every shooting.”

Take what happened during the aftermath of the Santa Fe, Texas shooting. As reporters waited for confirmation about the identity of the shooter, there were several fake Facebook profiles created under the name of the suspect almost immediately, including one false profile that featured a cover photo of the campaign of President Tr ump.

Another issue that arose during the aftermath were claims that the survivors were in fact “crisis actors” whose involvement was faked by liberals hoping to press for tighter controls on guns. It’s something Funke said “literally happens” after just about every mass shooting, and this time around, one video even made it to the top of YouTube’s “Trending” list.

Sometimes, the fake news can be repetitive. After many shootings (including the one in Santa Fe), websites like 4chan pushed out a fake photo and identity of the shooter as comedian Sam Hyde. Even CNN fell prey to the hoax after a November 2017 shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez identified the gunman on national television as Hyde.

“Sometimes it can be politicians and public officials themselves that unintentionally spread rumors and fake news,” Funke said.

In other instances, fake news is more difficult to spot, making it much more problematic for both reporters and readers.

Following the Valentine’s Day massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris was targeted by trolls with doctored tweets making it appear as though Harris had asked a victim for photos or videos of dead bodies and asked if the shooter was white.

Regardless of Harris’ repudiation of the tweets, they quickly went viral, flooding his inbox and making it much more difficult for Harris to actually do his job of reaching out to victims online in order to tell their story. editorandpublisher.com

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Making matters worse was Twitter’s refusal to take down the tweets because they didn’t violate the company policy on impersonation.

“This was a really convincing fake. I probably would have fallen for it myself. It was really well-Photoshopped,” Harris said on NPR’s Morning Edition following the incident. “I think people should be very wary of screenshots. If you can find a link to a live tweet, that’s what you should look for.”

So, how can newsrooms combat this growing trend of social media networks like Twitter and Facebook being flooded with fake news? According to Funke, it all starts with preparation.

Funke suggested at the very least, coming up with a breaking news checklist for reporters, producers, and editors who are tasked with covering a lengthy live news event. That way, the focus can be less about the technical aspects of obtaining news information, and instead focus on verifying the information that’s coming in to your computer.

“I would encourage social teams to spearhead this stuff in their newsroom,” Funke said, a point echoed by Jane Elizabeth, the author of the API report that found most newsrooms structured in a way to make them susceptible to fake news.

“There really is very little leadership and very little strategic thinking about what the social media team should be doing and how they can help with the problem of fake news, misinformation,” Elizabeth told Poynter. “Which makes no sense because these people are on the frontlines of misinformation every single day. They are seeing these things more than anyone and they weren’t empowered to do anything about it.”

Here are some additional quick and practical suggestions Funke has for newsrooms to help combat the increasingly-annoying problem of fake news: yy Get your TweetDeck in order. If you’re covering an event from afar, say a national shooting or an international incident, TweetDeck’s ability to look at multiple curated Twitter lists at once is an essential tool. One of the first things on your to-do list when covereditorandpublisher.com

+e+p digitalpub.indd 25

ing an event is to create two new sets of lists—one populated by official sources, and one with legitimate news sources covering the same event. yy Install InVID and TinEye. Both programs are plug-ins designed to help easily debunk fake content that comes across social media. InVID is a useful tool when it comes to verifying the authenticity of videos, while TinEye is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to search online for older versions of an individual photo. But make sure you download, install and practice with both programs before turning to them in the middle of a breaking news situation. yy Sign up for either Signal or CrowdTangle. Both are owned by Facebook and both are free to use, but require you to request access through your newsroom. Signal essentially allows reporters to discover relevant content from across both Facebook and Instagram, while CrowdTangle tracks the performance of articles in your market across the most popular social media websites. yy Check the “joined on” date on suspicious Twitter accounts. “You can mostly determine whether a Twitter profile is authentic usually by the age of the profile,” Funke said, noting that fake Twitter accounts are generally on the new side and filled with random posts with no apparent rhyme or reason. “One thing we know about hoaxers is they’re lazy, and they like to maximize their reach while doing as little amount of work as they can.” 

Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor for Philly.com. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.

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6/18/18 2:24 PM

production

BY JERRY SIMPKINS

THE FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS Combining our print product and digital offerings will guarantee success

26 |

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6/18/18 3:56 PM

A

few months ago, I was asked to attend a conference to speak on the direction and future of newspapers.

Then, a month ago I was approached by a different association asking if I would consider being a keynote speaker for their convention; the subject was once again about the future of newspapers.

Regretfully my schedule didn’t allow me to participate, but the invitation prompted some serious thoughts and a bit of internal confusion. Seems like we all want to know where our future is heading. If anyone can tell me with any degree of certainty where our industry is going, I’d sure be interested in knowing! It’s a question that keeps a lot of us up at night.

Today, we are each determining the future of newspapers. We each have our own ideas and I believe that I, along with many others, may simply be approaching things from a monochromatic angle.

I’m a strong believer in running an efficient printing operation, seeking new opportunities and trimming the fat. However, in many of our newspapers we seem to have become so focused on trimming dollars that we’ve moved our attention away from new approaches to generating revenue.

Recently, I was reviewing a white paper published by Southern Lithoplate titled “25 Ways to Improve Your Print Products.” The opening teaser began with an introduction of “It isn’t time to abandon or undermine print. It’s time to reinvent it and reshape it.” This truly grabbed my interest.

Within the intro there was a very profound statement by Bill Ostendorf of Creative Circle Media Solutions that put my cost cutting approach into question: “Almost none of the decisions newspapers have made in the past decade had anything to do with our readers. All our decisions are based on cost savings and most are antireader. I would argue that we caused much of our decline, not our platform.”

This very astute statement reminded me of a publisher a few years back, who after a hard discussion on some difficult cost cutting measures, said to me: “Jerry, we’ll never cut our way to prosperity.” This statement and the thought behind it has stuck with me over the years, but as many of us feel more and more compelled by the fight or flight approach our properties are following, I may have gotten sidetracked and went down a one-way street the wrong way.

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In this article I’m wandering a bit off the operational platform I normally write on, but let’s keep in mind that in the end, without revenue to offset expenses and provide some margin of profit for our newspapers, all the cost cutting in the world isn’t going to be enough to sustain our business plan.

Who Wins the Battle: Print or Digital?

Recently, I was speaking with a publisher who was very pleased with the fact that he went into a coffee shop and two young ladies in their early twenties had a newspaper spread across the table reading it page by page. A few years ago this wouldn’t have come up in our conversation, but now it seemed like some amazing anomaly (dare I say a modern day miracle?) Was I pleased?

You bet. Was I surprised? Not one bit.

If we continue to provide interesting and relevant information, otherwise known as “news” that you can’t get elsewhere, we will be successful—it really is as simple as that.

Stop using age, economics, ethnic background, etc. as an excuse for our challenges and face the facts. Content is king.

The print verses digital controversy has been going on for some time, and I believe it will go on for awhile longer. How long?

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot by shifting print dollars to digital?

In the end, it really shouldn’t matter if you prefer your news on paper or electronically. What should matter is where you get news from and the only way to control that is to give the reader what they “need and want” and can’t get elsewhere. We can still be the leaders, the go-to place for strong, relevant local news content and useful advertising. I want to be certain that when the two young ladies are in the coffee shop getting their “news fix” that my advertisers are in their face and that the news they are reading, either on paper or in a digital format, is in my publication and that we are not only providing a service to readers and advertisers, but we’re doing so with a working business plan that returns a sustainable profit.

My love for print will not fade.

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My Sunday ritual is to sit with a newspaper for an hour and enjoy every last word.

But that’s my choice and not everyone else agrees with it. No matter how I attempt to sway her, my wife reads our local paper online. The digital age is here and unless we embrace it and figure out how to make the model work for our news gathering organizations we’re going to go the way of the VHS tape and Blockbuster Video.

For now, I’ll continue to speak out of both sides of my mouth.

I recently had a commercial print customer who reduced their print quantity and began to shy away from print (to save money) and moved their content to digital.

Personally, I felt they were forgetting their audience. The product was a “criminal lineup” type newspaper. It seemed people enjoyed going into the convenience stores, slapping down a dollar and seeing which one of their friends graced the pages that week, then sharing it with their other “associates.” Going online just didn’t provide the same satisfaction. After quickly realizing what their audience really wanted,

they have since returned to print. That’s just a small example of giving the people what they want and gearing product to audience.

Not all of my articles have been aimed at cost savings. Many of them have provided ideas on how to generate revenue through cross-departmental efforts and others have been focused on how to drive commercial revenue. I’ve written articles for E&P on topics like “Creating Revenue Streams through Innovative Thinking and Management of Operational Resources,” “How the Production and Ad Departments Can Team Up to Help Drive Revenue” and “Newspapers Should Partner with Commercial Customers to Build Revenue,” just to name a few.

Stepping down from my soapbox for a moment, let’s cover a few ideas on how to generate new revenue for your newspaper (or should I say news organization).

Classified/In-paper Techniques to Produce Revenue Some may disagree with the approach of

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“busying-up” the pages of your newspaper, but I believe the more variety you can offer customers and advertisers and allow them to stand out from their competition, the better. Some regard it as filling the classified pages with clutter, but I see it as yet another opportunity to generate revenue and provide services to customers.

THE LATEST FROM… Fake Brains

Color and Other Add-ons to Our Classified Pages This falls under the category of “every penny counts.” You’re not going to make a ton of money here but every little bit adds up, and more importantly, it builds readership.

The majority of our classifieds come in by phone, email or online. First, provide customers with unparalleled customer service.

After many years of cutting back service reps, compromising service and raising prices, it’s time to get our act back together.

Price color reasonably and train your classified reps to up sell color; better yet, simply teach them to “help the customer find the best solutions.” If full-color photos are impractical for small advertisers, sell them on spot color and make it affordable. Sell non-blended process colors like magenta and cyan, or yellow blocks over type. Additional unique graphics like boxes, shapes, colorizing logos, interesting typography and tying print to digital can help regain lost revenues. Again, keep the price point reasonable and sell volume.

Some of your larger classified advertisers, such as car dealers and realtors, may be interested in full-color in-line classifieds to market their vehicles or homes. This is where production comes in to ensure perfect registration and color quality that meets advertiser expectations.

Would your larger classified advertisers be more interested in running an ad if they knew your classified pages were the place people go to buy a car or home? Hopefully! The reality of it is our classified pages have died and efforts to resuscitate them have been poorly executed.

Free digital classified advertising such as Craigslist provides the search functions, the reach, multiple full color photos, etc. that you’re simply not going to get in a printed paper. But let’s face it, the big draw is that it’s free.

Yet our papers still scratch their heads and complain about those huge classified margins we used to enjoy. Guess what?

They’re gone. But, what’s wrong with fighting fire with fire? Let’s do something about it.

Many papers currently provide free ads to people giving away items; some provide free ads for items under a certain amount of dollars. I’ve always thought that providing super cheap $1 or free classified ads in print would draw folks back to our classified pages and then when the larger advertisers realize we are where locals go to look for used cars, jobs, homes, etc., it would in turn draw larger dollar advertisers to our pages.

Yes, this concept would cost us more newsprint, but the first thing it would do would be to knock any shoppers out of our

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What is AccountScout, and how does the latest version increase productivity for your customers?

AccountScout is the nerve center for newspaper publishing companies by making it effortless to share information within an organizations’ team. AccountScout makes it easy to communicate ad order information across your sales, accounting, composing and production departments, and it has helped to bill and collect more than a billion dollars in accounts receivable for our customers. Our production reports help our customers prevent thousands of dollars in lost revenues, while our sales tools help generate thousands in new revenue.

We recently launched AccountScout v2018, giving our customers access to the most up-to-date features that will increase productivity by visibly identifying factors that will lead to profit.

Of most interest in this release, AccountScout v2018 includes an Activity Manager Tool and other useful deadline solutions to better assist with communicating late ads for composing and page planning.

The Activity Manager Tool helps managers visibly see all activities performed by each user of AccountScout from the computer or the mobile app. With more outside reps documenting activities from their phones, the tool allows managers to see their sales reps’ progress throughout the day. Since staff members can assign tasks to other users, this tool makes communication easier and outstanding tasks more visible, and for past and future tasks. Users review tasks to help guide them through their schedule to completion. By tracking all open and closed activities, the managers can easily see the percentage completed and those outstanding by each user, which gives an idea of the productivity of each worker and how daily business is operating.

Lisa Pfeifer is a co-founder of Fake Brains Software. Fake Brains Software regularly updates AccountScout to fill the needs of its clients and publishers. The company has served the newspaper industry for 27 years.

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markets and return some volume and size to our anemic classified pages.

Next, we battle Craigslist through our own digital presence.

Sure this may be easier said than done, but isn’t that why we have salespeople? We’ve got to find a better way to pair digital and print advertising so they complement each other instead of fighting each other. Craigslist doesn’t have a printed product that touches local/ community non-digital individuals and strange as it sounds, I feel that’s a shortfall we can capitalize on. If we successfully pair print to digital at a price point that the small advertiser is comfortable with, we just may be able to build-up volume and our classified presence to bring larger advertisers back to those pages.

I firmly believe that after a terrible landslide in our circulation and classified advertising, things have leveled off, and now is the time to not only secure our place but to undertake a complete rebuild.

Take Risks Same old, same old really hasn’t worked too well and unless we introduce some bold new ideas and take some calculated risks I believe our obit is being written.

Digital isn’t where we should be turning our focus, nor is print, it should be a combination of the two. We need to concentrate on

pairing both to present a united front that provides readers and advertisers a must-have product they can’t get anywhere else.

We need to focus on the relevancy of our publications in the market and what we can provide to readers and advertisers that no one else can. There are plenty of digital options out there, and unless ours provides unique local and regional content we’re going to blend into the background with dozens of other contenders and they will continue to remove our revenue little by little. If we provide something others can’t, regardless of if that’s with ink or electronically, we then become relevant in our communities, grow our brand and stand out from the crowd.

No one—absolutely no one—can be what we are in the local markets.

I sincerely hope that somewhere an advertiser who is questioning the value of newspapers is reading this article and is able to take away the message that newspapers, through their combined printed products and digital offerings, still provides local eyes and credible quality news coverage that won’t get lost in the barrage of untrustworthy and undependable web pages.  Jerry Simpkins is vice president of the West Texas Printing Center, LLC in Lubbock, Texas. Contact him on LinkedIn.com or at simpkins@tds.net.

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Innovation Matters 10 ways news media companies can move into a profitable future

By Dietmar Schantin

T

he news media is at a crucial juncture. The digital portion of the industry is fighting against fake news, fake ad clicks, and news aggregation by social media platforms like Facebook and Google—and even virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa.

Traditional media companies, meanwhile, are facing even tougher challenges, such as millennials not reading print publications and advertisers who no longer want to buy ads.

Though this is a difficult environment, there are still many opportunities for success. As the industry shifts, media companies are left with two main assets: Trust in their brands, and their relationships with consumers and advertisers.

Any strategy needs to play to these advantages.

As founder of the Institute for Media Strategies, we’ve aided media companies worldwide with their digital transformation strategies since 2012.

Our work has identified 10 points that can serve as starting points to change traditional mindset for what we call the “post-integration” era, where the focus was in bringing together print and digital operations.

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Innovation Matters

1

We as an industry need to finally fully acknowledge that our traditional business models are dead. Let’s face the truth: Newspapers can no longer put advertisers’ messages next to journalism and hope to reach readers. That idea does not work in the digital age.

Traditional digital display advertising will never compensate for the losses in print ads. Facebook, Google and Co. have already won the digital advertising game by taking reportedly around 98 percent of the digital advertising, leaving the scraps for media companies.

For circulation revenues, digital subscription revenue will have to compensate the losses in print subscriptions (and print advertising), or at least provide substantial revenues. There are examples where this works very well such at the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. For the majority of media companies though, these success stories will be difficult to follow, especially when we talk about regional media houses.

Therefore, we need to fundamentally rethink how we see our business. Many media companies are already heading down this road. Die Zeit, a German weekly newspaper, is one example.

Known as the newspaper for well-educated people, Die Zeit began long ago to capitalize on its deep base of intelligent, erudite readers. It now offers books, career services, conferences, classes for young and old alike, and even luxury goods that the prosperous can afford, such as wine and art. Today, Die Zeit is a trusted source not only for journalism but also for other products and services, and most importantly, people pay premium price.

The more focused the niche, the more publishers have an opportunity to capitalize on readers’ interests.

immediately cancel any subscription if the regional and local focus is lost.

The more focused the niche, the more publishers have an opportunity to capitalize on readers’ interests. Another example is F&W Media who, until a few years ago, were a publisher of special-interest magazines on topics ranging from poetry writing and numismatics to guns and cars. Now they are a full-service

2

There is no longer such a thing as mass media in the context of traditional media.

Today, the only real mass communication platforms are Facebook and its social-network, online-platform brethren. Every traditional media brand is now a niche publisher: geographically, by topic, by target audience. But this is a hard thing to take on board. Most publishers still believe they must appeal to everyone and struggle to truly identify their audience.

Media houses must know where their niche is and fully embrace it. Focus on what you are good at doing. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, is a world-class business newspaper that concentrates on reporting markets and deal-related news, as well as news important to executives and the business minded. Trying to be anything other than that will only serve to dilute the power of the brand and confuse their audience.

Austria’s Kleine Zeitung (“Little Newspaper”) is a very successful and well-read regional newspaper that serves residents of just two Austrian counties. Because the paper has made itself invaluable to its readers in the regions, it was able to adopt a paywall with a “freemium” business model with little trauma. They also know very well what they stand for, where their strengths are what their niche is. And the readers made it very clear in a market insight project a few years ago where the readers indicated that they will 34 |

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provider around these topics with events, shops, paid content and many other offerings.

When you have found your niche, set the agenda without following the fashion. This holds true for content, services, commercial offers, advertisers, and technology. Don’t wait until something happens before you react; shape the future yourself by proactively creating it.

3

One question that seems to be very hard to answer by media executives is “Why is your media company in existence?” And no, it is not for making money and making shareholders happy.

Creating a very clear understanding across the company of why and how the company creates value, and jettison any activities that don’t lead you in this direction is a crucial task. For instance, media companies have for many years chased web traffic. The digital advertising model obviously required high reach and the goal was to grow unique users and page impression.

While this model is very successful, more for some media brands such as the Daily Mail in U.K., it was a distraction for many others, leading them into areas that didn’t contribute value for the audience and, potentially more damaging, lured them into, for instance, publishing stories that had no connection with the brand.

The next step of understanding the value of your products is to put a price tag on everything the media house creates that has value. And if it doesn’t add value, it should not be produced anyway. Interestingly, stopping doing things is in many cases far more

The next step of understanding the value of your products is to put a price tag on everything the media house creates that has value. difficult than to starting new things.

When it comes to added value, it is also important to not only see the journalism or the ad campaign for the advertiser as value adding. Looking at, for instance, Amazon, the added value is apart from a huge selection of products at competitive prices in addition to a fast delivery and easy transaction. Now let’s think about how many clicks a reader need to subscribe to a newspaper’s newsletter email list or book an ad campaign on the digital channels? For the latter LinkedIn, Facebook and Google have demonstrated how easy it can and should be.

4

A media company should not understand itself only as a content company, but also as a service and experience company. This opens up new aspects and way of thinking and therefore new opportunities and revenue sources if a company with its products can make itself indispensable to your audience life or advertising customers’ business strategy. Expansive offerings can include conferences, events, tours, e-commerce, advisory and consulting services.

Media companies around the world are trying to reinvent themselves in this fashion. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a conference and consulting arm of the British financial magazine, is one example. In the U.S., the Wall Street Journal has a sizeable conference business, and partners with National Geographic to offer guided adventure tours. Forbes Magazine has long offered “investor cruises” on which its editors and Forbes family members set sail with readers to discuss finance topics at sea. It’s the opposite of content marketing: thinking beyond content, and using content to provide a service. While not all ventures might be successful, experimenting and learning is part of the journey. editorandpublisher.com

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Innovation Matters

The vast majority of media companies’ expenses are spent on people, and also the most challenging part in media transformation to get right.

Hiring for aptitude and attitude, and training for specialization is a modern way to approach it. Don’t expect people to be experts in nearby fields without extra training, however; you can’t ask a journalist to take over social media or data analytics without proper education.

In many organizations, mediocrity is accepted and tolerated, which in today’s environment can be a dangerous habit. Avoid those, especially in leadership positions, who are just good enough for the job; they should be the best person for the job, which was one of Steve Jobs’ mantras.

In a recent transformation project in an U.S. media company, the entire leadership team of the editorial and commercial department was changed. Positions were partly filled by internal candidates who applied for the jobs, as well as external candidates.

Bringing “fresh blood” is a very important ingredient for any change, otherwise it could become quickly a people recycling or “reshuffling deckchairs on the Titanic” exercise.

And when you decide to let certain people go, it is in the interest of the organization to make those decisions quickly and implement them properly.

7

5

To survive and grow, media companies need to establish a direct, deep relationship with their audience of readers or users. If you truly understand who consumes your products, why and how, you can present them with tailored offerings of both journalism and other services.

On the business side, a similar relationship is crucial between the media company and its business partners, advertisers, and sponsors. Direct customer contact allows a company to think and act more like an advertising agency and to use a consultative sales approach, i.e. working with a customer to help solve their business problems, rather than pushing a product, like print or online ad inventory onto them.

It will take some training for your sales staff to reimagine themselves as working with customers on solutions instead of selling products. If you find that their new “solutions” seem to involve simply buying online ads, you may need different salespeople.

6

Putting the right people in the right jobs. If your staff has legacy skills and attitudes, they need to change rapidly, or leave. Investing heavily in good people who stay or join is paramount. Investment in this context is not only monetary but also offering attractive working environment, culture and infrastructure.

The vast majority of media companies’ expenses are spent on people, and also the most challenging part in media transformation to get right.

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A digital transformation that is taken seriously and is sustainable has to address the entire firm, not just single departments. It affects all areas from marketing to products, workflows, structures, technologies, and people across the company, which must be addressed simultaneously and in a coordinated way.

This means a comprehensive change approach. For instance, a few years back, the New Zealand Herald started their project with six parallel subprojects that addressed all relevant aspects of their editorial operation, from market insight, products, workflows, technology, HR and architecture. A similar approach was taken by the Wall Street Journal and more recently, an Austrian national news media company. In all cases, it is about rethinking the entire operation in a structured way and not implementing isolated solutions for single departments or business areas.

8

A media company in transition needs to use the right technology and tools to support and drive the future strategy.

Inadequate software and infrastructure very quickly holds the organization back and is often a welcome reason for excuses for people struggling with change not to participate.

In many cases, off- the-shelf applications are not the answer anymore. These rarely adapt to the environment changes quickly enough, it often forces you to compromise on your needs as the solutions is supposed to cater a wide range of requirements of different customers. Understandably, software companies have their own business and selling goals, where keeping the solution as standard as possible is often one of them.

The best solution usually is to design, and possibly build, your

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The emotional connection to a brand and loyalty has become key for a successful media business.

own solutions in a modular and flexible fashion. That does not mean a media company should or needs to become a technology firm. But clever partnerships, investments, and M&A can provide the required skills. However, the core know-how and expertise for the solution development and system architecture should be built and kept within the company.

9

Although media companies aren’t generally very good in consumer and B2B branding, customer and membership management, marketing, or public relation, these have become crucial skills in today’s world. The emotional connection to a brand and loyalty has become key for a successful media business.

Clever communication with consumers or business partners through available on- and offline touch points and accepting, that both the consumer business partners have far more choices to spend their time or money, require the development or acquisition of new skills. Some companies, for instance, hire sales and communication professional from internet retailers or branding specialists from the FMCG industry to make sure that the media brand moves beyond subscription stalls at fair and bottles of water editorandpublisher.com

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that come for free with newspaper copies.

10

And finally: The outcome of transformation is not a new, stable status quo that will last for the next 10 years. What you’re aiming for instead is a culture of organizational flexibility, with staff comfortable enough and willing to constantly reinvent themselves and adapt to new demands and opportunities.

The insight that the only thing that is constant is change by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus is about 2,500 years old, but truer than ever. The good news is that after the initial revolution, the evolution that follows does not require cataclysmic amounts of energy.  Based in Austria and the U.K., Dietmar Schantin has helped transform the editorial and commercial operations of media brands around the world: from the Telegraph Media Group, Ringier, the Hindustan Times, New Zealand Herald and Dow Jones. He founded the Institute for Media Strategies in 2012 after serving as executive director of WAN-IFRA, the global association of news publishers. He can be reached at ifms-ltd.com and at d.schantin@ifms-ltd.com.

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Beyond the Banner Ad To get ahead, newspapers are offering more creative digital services

By Peter Suciu

D

igital advertising isn’t new. The first banner ad dates back to 1994 when AT&T placed one on Wired’s website. Soon after those ads appeared, search engines and directories alike cashed in on the ads as did the newspapers that launched their respective websites in the mid-to late1990s. However, all these years later, some contend that the use of banners was flawed from the beginning.

“The problem with an ad online is that people don’t come to the New York Times wanting to buy something from Amazon.com,” said Christopher Guess, residential fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. He is also the creator of Push, an open-source mobile news app.

The issue back then was that ads often took users to a different website, and that was vastly different from how ads in print newspapers or even on radio/TV functioned. Ads in the non-digital world also weren’t editorandpublisher.com

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about promoting rival content or offerings—as many of those early banner ads did.

However, the banner has proven to be versatile even all these years later.

“Banner ads and display advertising generally both evolved into a variety of formats with different kinds of effectiveness,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA Advisory Services.

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Beyond the Banner Ad

 J. Brian Monihan, vice president, Pamplin Media Group

their ability to annoy consumers.

“Web browsers offered tools to prevent these pop-up ads, much to consumers’ relief,” he said. “Publishers evolved their pricing for banner ads from offering rates for click-throughs to charge for the value of impressions. For example, a typical banner ad may be seen by 10,000 people but only give a few click-throughs. The value of the other 9,995 impressions of consumers seeing that banner ad is not zero, so publishers offered an impressions-based pricing model as well as the pay-per-click model.”

The times have changed, and today’s digital offerings are vastly different.

“Comparing the digital advertising of 20 years ago to the digital advertising of today is like comparing the Chevette I had as a kid to a Tesla today,” said Seth Rogin, president and CEO of Nucleus Marketing Solutions. “Both are cars, but that’s about where the comparison ends…Today’s digital advertising is powered by deep data-powered insight and is held accountable for performance through clear ROI reporting. These days, nearly every other advertising platform is working to perform at current digital performance standards.”

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 Rick Ducey, managing director, BIA Advisory Services

 Seth Rogin, president and CEO, Nucleus Marketing Solutions

Beyond Driving Traffic Digital advertising is much more than just driving traffic, and this can even be about making a meaningful impact with the viewer.

“The goal isn’t always traffic, but rather effectiveness for the advertiser,” said Mat Zucker, partner at media research firm Prophet. “This is more than just clickthrough rate.”

Today’s ads in all formats may look little changed, but these are far more effective as the messages of the ads have become vastly more targeted to the viewers.

“The rise of video, mobile, social and native display ad formats and using data-driven consumer segmentation and tracking cookies to retarget website visitors all became very successful refinements to the original banner ads in terms of effectiveness and consumer acceptance,” said Duecy. “Now targeting has been extended to cross-platform and devices using different kinds of methods to build identity graphs. Advertisers now have the ability to much more precisely identify strategic consumer segments and target them on digital publisher sites with ads that are relevant in context, timing, and purchase

“Comparing the digital advertising of 20 years ago to the digital advertising of today is like comparing the Chevette I had as a kid to a Tesla today.” editorandpublisher.com

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} Brock Berry, founder and CEO, AdCellerant

} Deb Fellows, founder, GeoTix

across digital platforms so it would be impossible not to run into fake news.”

There is also the issue of what exactly is, or is not technically fake news that advertisers may have to address.

“What some call ‘fake news’ is actually just objectively critical reporting,” Rogin said. “The actual ‘fake news,’ inflammatory content posing as news to drive divisions in our society, has a megaphone in television and digital media in a way that it never has before. It would be easy to say that brands shouldn’t support this kind of content. I’d rather build a business model that outperforms for advertisers so that supporting that misinformation makes as little financial sense for a brand as it does for any citizen to read it.”

AI and Machine Learning

journey stage.”

To the viewer/reader however these ads may look little changed at first or even second glance.

“This is happening on the back end,” said Rogin. “It isn’t just the pixels on the screen that is so important in how digital ads are changing. The back end algorithms allow us to deliver better targeted ads to our clients.”

Addressing Fake News and Ads One area where advertisers may be especially cautious when it comes to digital publishing is the proliferation of “fake news,” something that won’t be easily solved anytime soon.

“These are legitimate concerns, as it is the publisher’s job to address ‘fake news’ as it relates to content, but in some cases— such as Facebook and other social media sites—it is the platform’s job to tackle the problem,” said Brock Berry, founder and CEO of AdCellerant. “And if you are an advertiser, it is your job to avoid being connected to fake news. That is the least responsibility, but it is still a concern. The truth is that we’re running billions of ads editorandpublisher.com

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“It is all about connecting with the audience, because in the end you are essentially selling eyeballs.”

Technology is allowing for the ads to be far more targeted to those with specific interests and also more engaging—sometimes even at the same time.

“It is all about connecting with the audience, because in the end you are essentially selling eyeballs,” said Patrick Bingle, owner and business partner at SPARK Digital Sales Group. “We’re still very successful with banner ads in part because newspapers are reaching more people than ever.”

That reach is however just part of the equation, added Bingle. It is still necessary to engage with the audience and get a reaction. “We offer our clients a bundle so that their ads are part of a Google ad words campaign or a Facebook campaign, and this allows us to reach as many people as possible.”

Here is where buzzwords such as “artificial intelligence” (AI) and “machine learning” are being slung around.

“AI and machine learning are the same thing, but we have to make it clear that these aren’t really magic,” Guess said.

“These are statistics, and a lot of people miss this in the conversation. The people utilizing this technology are trying to make it seem like it is magic and that it is special.”

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Beyond the Banner Ad

As with anything, data has to be understood for it to have any meaningful impact for publishers and advertisers alike.  Patrick Bingle, owner and business partner, SPARK Digital Sales Group

 Christopher Guess, residential fellow, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute

 Mat Zucker, partner, Prophet

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usage models and this can in turn predict how future users might react. This can include the size of the ad, where it is placed on the page and even down to the colors.

But as noted, the not-quite-magic actually happens in the algorithms behind the scenes.

“What computers can do is handle this on the scale of millions of people,” Guess explained. “This then creates a demographic.

This can be very good for online retailers and other vendors, but it can also reinforce bias including those on age, race and culture.”

As with anything, data has to be understood for it to have any meaningful impact for publishers and advertisers alike.

“Right now, there are some people who are trying to predict future behavior, but we have to understand that we’re both in a golden age of technology yet in a stone age when it comes to using the data,” Rogin said. “AI will play a lot in the next wave of advertising offers, but what we are doing at the present is still just reading behavior and demographics.”

While the analytics and insights generation from huge data bases can be used to develop strategic consumer segments that can be matched to digital publisher audiences to aid in ad campaigns, AI can be used in other ways to help engage the audience.

“There are many rich possibilities including developments with interactive chat bots that rival humans these days in terms of carrying on ‘conversations’ with users,” Ducey said. “It can also be used for matching and optimizing ad creative executions by a large number of factors to generate literally millions of ad campaigns instead of just a handful, all driven by data, business process and logic rules.”

This is where AI or machine learning will converge with another tech industry buzzword, namely “big data.”Algorithms can take all this information and do in minutes what would take humans months and months to do to make sense out of it.

“In terms of technology, there are a ton of things that are being put in place that will improve the campaigns and make them more effective,” said Berry. “We’re looking at terabytes and terabytes of editorandpublisher.com

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ad data and we’re starting to determine which targets don’t deliver no matter the industry or campaign objective. It is has everything to do with boiling down an ocean of data.”

Yet, the downside of relying too much on today’s hot buzzwordworthy technology could be that sometimes the buzz proves to be unfulfilled hype. AI is just a new spin on determining past successes from data and statistics.

“To me, we see a new thing every year,” said J. Brian Monihan, vice president of the Pamplin Media Group, owner of the Portland (Ore.) Tribune. “Everything now is about AI, and it makes me wonder how legit this is or is it just one more thing to drive? There is the danger of technology fatigue setting in.”

“To (small businesses), the issue is simple: Did it make the cash register ring?”

Think Locally While AI is about reading big data, there are those who are preaching the argument of thinking smaller or at least more locally while trying to be as targeted to the audience. Instead of a “Super Bowl” moment to reach as many eyeballs as possible, today’s digital advertising can be aimed to be far more precisely focused.

“In the past, we were chasing our tails trying to use Google or Amazon products on our site,” said Deb Fellows, founder of GeoTix, a company that offers consumers the ability to purchase tickets for events in their respective market. “This was really a conflict with our brand, and even when consumers clicked on ads it was taking them away to a large national retailer like Amazon instead of supporting a local business. We saw that was driving a lot of money out of town.”

With GeoTix, the company instead developed an ad portal selling tickets for those specific local events.

“This allows the reader of a news story for a local or regional paper online to support the community in the process,” Fellows said.

“We believe the local media is very important like never before, and as advertisers, it is important to think of the audience as more than eyeballs.”

Focusing on local media is also the core business model behind Pamplin Media Group, which launched a program just four years ago to maximize its advertisers’ exposure within a specific company.

“Until we launched this program, we had only sold banner ads with very limited success and not much revenue,” said Monihan.

“Our company is built around the small mom and pops, people who have a budget of just $250 to $500 to spend on advertising.

If what they’re paying for isn’t working, that is a lot of money to them.”

By targeting locally, the small businesses are connecting directly with local customers, and that has proven to be a win-win for the smaller media outlets and the smaller businesses alike.

“One point is that analytics don’t mean a lot to these advertisers,” Monihan said. “To them, the issue is simple: Did it make the cash register ring?”

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role.

“National banner ads might have a .01 to .03 percent click through,” said SPARK’s Bingle. “We’ve seen that local ads have a higher click through rate. AI has allowed us to narrow down the targeted audience so this has even more impact.”

New Reality for Ads One other hot technology that could change the way ads are experienced is augmented reality (AR). This technology, which has been used on the editorial side, has a potential for advertisers as well.

“These types of executions with AR and even VR (virtual reality) are more effectively leveraged for events and big moments, but there is potential for these to be used with ad campaigns,” said AdCellerant’s Berry. “The frequency and consistency will have to be determined but this innovative technology can make ads become more creative and immersive.”

AR/VR could even help bridge some of the gap between media advertising and experiential advertising, according to Ducey.

“Generally, the more engaging, more creative, and the better targeted it is at consumers in different parts of their purchase journey, the more effective the advertising will be,” he said. “AR/ VR brings a new set of creative capabilities for enhanced storytelling and engagement. We’ll have to see how consumers adapt to and what the take-up rate will be for AR/VR devices and technologies. This tech requires behavior changes, adoption of new devices, and acceptance of new types of narrative conventions.”

This new technology, just like AI or other applications, won’t change the fundamentals of how ads are presented. After more than 20 years, banners are the still the billboards of the information superhighway.

“I don’t see banner ads going away, they’ll evolve,” said Guess.

“Google has made its fortune from it, but we can expect to see these ads improved to be better targeted and more compelling in the years to come.”  JULY 2018 | E & P

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Data, technology and digital readers are shaping how the printed newspaper looks today

By Gretchen A. Peck

I

f newspaper design had a motto, it might be: “Stick to the format. The design and layout is the brand.”

And that remains true today with iconic titles of newspapers rendered in familiar fonts and layouts that are distinctive in their own right.

Think of how familiar and distinctive a title like USA Today is when you flip through the pages. The color, the layout, the way the headlines grab your attention—all part of the brand.

Newspaper publishers, by and large, have always understood this. But the notion that printed newspapers’ design should never deviate from the template is being challenged, and it’s because of digital and mobile publishing and the rising cost to paper. Still, that hasn’t stopped publishers from experimenting with their print product.

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When to Redesign “One of the first things we thought about was that our newspaper is delivered by mail, and we wanted to explore whether there was a way to change where our mailing label appears,” said Josh Bergeron, managing editor of the State Journal in Frankfort, Ky. “Originally, the mailing label appeared vertically, right next to our flag, and we wanted to reorient it to be horizontal, so it didn’t intrude down the side of the page.”

Bergeron was instrumental in rolling out the newspaper’s redesign, which was unveiled in May. The new aesthetic for both the print and digital titles is “clean”— an adjective you’ll hear a lot from designers tasked with freshening the look and utility of their newspapers.

Logos, text and photos all got “facelifts,” according to the publisher at the time of the debut. There’s more white space now, though the luxury of white space may be challenged by the rising costs of newsprint and distribution.

As the redesign was announced, Bergeron cited cost concerns as one of the considerations in the redesign.

“Frankfort and Franklin County deserve a newspaper that strives to continuously innovate, and our redesign attempts to maintain its laser focus on local news in a time when newspapers are coping with challenges, such as tariffs on newsprint and increased costs in our business,” Bergeron explained in a statement.

There are fewer pages, and two sections were combined: Opinions and Spectrum (a local lifestyle section).

“Those sections used to be separate, but for the Opinion section, we’d been running a lot of syndicated content, especially when the legislature isn’t in session,” Bergeron said. “Opinion content can run dry then, and because we wanted to run mostly local opinion columns, we felt that we weren’t really hurting anything by getting rid of some of the syndicated content. We still run them, but fewer now since we have fewer pages.”

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} Josh Bergeron, State Journal managing editor

content that leads there. When Opinion was its own separate section entity, the publisher didn’t run advertising opposite those columns. The result was that more advertising went into the paper’s first section, and the layout was “tight,” Bergeron said.

Now, with the combined sections and the cost and space savings associated with it, the paper has added additional pages to the first section, allowing for a less cluttered vibe and a greater concentration on local news, which had often been edited to fit the crowded columns. Abbreviated stories would appear in print, while the full versions were displayed online.

Content and audience obviously played a part in the design choices they made to the State Journal. They added a handy calendar of events, a police blotter, and a new way to “jump” to articles.

“Some newspapers have a one-word jump on the jump page, but we decided that what we would do is give readers another entry point to a story. That one word became a short sentence,” Bergeron said. “So let’s say readers open up a page to read the obituaries, and they see a jump to an article, and the jump is a sentence that gives them the context of the article,

} Kenn Rodriguez, Albuquerque Journal designer

“How can we create a more attractive newspaper that resembles more of what people are used to seeing online?” so they can enter the story that way, even if they’ve missed the first paragraphs on the earlier page.”

Bergeron sees newspaper design as fluid.

A decade without some retooling of the design is too long, and there are lessons that can be learned from digital audiences, along with what they expect in terms of white space, fonts and font sizes, and editorandpublisher.com

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saving drive.

The format change created an opportunity to rethink the graphics and layout of the pages, as well. The familiar bold blue banner behind the paper’s name went away.

Before, that name had been rendered in lowercase. Now it reads as The Guardian. While column inches remain a coveted commodity, white space is more abundant even in print.

Back in the U.S., the Chicago Sun-Times didn’t just freshen the look of its newspaper and website, it took the opportunity to reintroduce its mission, too. Since April, the print and digital titles have carried a new title graphic and motto: “The Hardest-Working Paper in America.”

Though the editorial mission largely remains the same, the publisher’s mandate to leverage “emerging technologies” in order to better serve readers and reach new ones likely prompted the redesign and re-launch.  The redesigned State Journal included changing where the mailing label appeared. Originally, the mailing label appeared vertically and now it appears horizontally, so it doesn’t interfere with the side of the front page.

There were also questions about how best to communicate information for readers who are accustomed to larger point size at the behest of readers, simple navigation from page to page and multi-platform reading experiences today, and the obituaries have been given a more section to section. He also said it was imand how to still maintain the newspaper’s generous amount of space even with the portant to think about what was attractive self-proclaimed “fiercely urban character.” combined sections. to readers now and ask the question, “How The publisher opted for “cleaner” pages— can we create a more attractive newspaper both in print and online—with more white that resembles more of what people are Rebranding the Brand space and a decluttered layout. used to seeing online?”

In the U.K., The Guardian debuted In Medellin, Colombia, it took several To date, much of the feedback rea new print design in January. It was years to completely reimagine El Colombiceived from readers has been positive and prompted by the publisher, and according ano, a newspaper with a 100-year history. encouraging, though some have offered to a press release, the reason was due to a According to an article on the Knight constructive criticism about content and move from its Berliner newspaper format Center for Journalism in the Americas design, such as the jump sentences had a to a smaller size as part of a major costeditorandpublisher.com

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website, an ECOLab was created by publishing consultant Martha Ortiz, and it consisted of nine newspaper team members, representing all the major disciplines within the organization, including the newsroom, photography, design and advertising. The ECOLab spent six months redesigning El Colombiano’s print title and almost three years reinventing its mobile apps, website and companion magazines.

Given autonomy and the greenlight by the media group’s leadership, the team endeavored to get a grasp on what the newspaper’s strengths and weaknesses were; what other newspapers around the globe were doing with their design and content; and conducted surveys with locals.

As a result, the newspaper’s format was changed—from broadsheet to a saddlestitched tabloid; sections got new names; and navigational directives were revamped to be more effective.

For example, the Opinion section (one of the more popular sections with readers) was expanded in order to include more and differing perspectives. Photography was given greater emphasis in the layout, and global news was messaged in the way that it offered local context to readers.

Page Designers Have Also Had to Adapt The design of newspapers across the country—and how they may be changing— may also be a reflection of the evolving roles of newspaper designers.

Kenn Rodriguez is a designer with the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico. He began his career in graphics when he was still a fledgling newspaper guy finishing up his college studies. He spent some time working in graphics before transitioning to more traditional reporting roles. When he came to work at the News-Bulletin (a publication owned by a subsidiary of the parent company that also owns the Albuquerque Journal) back in the mid-2000s, his title became “lead sports designer,” though it wasn’t a reflection of the work expected of him.

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The Chicago Sun-Times didn’t just freshen the look of its newspaper and website, it took the opportunity to reintroduce its mission, too. personnel, designers and photographers— the sports section had a more fluid design style and an expectation that the section’s lead reporter and editor would manage its layout.

“For example, when I’d cover a football game, I was expected to be on the sidelines, where I’d take notes, take photos, post in real time to Facebook and (Twitter), all while keeping track of the game stats, which I’d have to publish later as part of the coverage in the newspaper,” Rodriguez said.

That may be a familiar scenario to journalists who are increasingly tasked with “doing more with less,” thanks to fewer bodies in the newsroom.

In Rodriguez’s more recent role as a designer for the Albuquerque Journal, his focus is narrower now, where he is able to concentrate on laying out the newspaper pages for the statewide and regional editions.

Though he misses the challenges of reporting, Rodriguez appreciates that focus and credits the graphic design he amassed at the beginning of his career with landing him the job as a designer today. He’s also

grateful for the leaps and bounds made in design and workflow software. He recalls all too well the fledgling days of pagination software—from Quark and then now with Adobe InDesign—when software “glitches” sometimes overcomplicated or stalled the workflow. Gone are the days when designers were asked to be programmers to fill in software potholes. Designers don’t need to know how to write code like they did back then. At the Albuquerque Journal, Adobe’s Creative Suite works seamlessly and makes the designer’s job easier than when they spent an exorbitant amount of time playing “technological whack-a-mole,” said Rodriguez.

Designing Today’s Newspaper How much has digital design influenced the way the print product looks today?

“Not enough,” said Bill Ostendorf, president and founder of Creative Circle Media Solutions, a consulting, training, design and software firm with a 30-year history of working with newspapers.

“News consumption is changing dramatically with the spread of digital options,” he continued. “Too many newspapers only publish online after their print editions go to bed. That’s nuts. And print is far too backward looking. It is literally yesterday’s news. Content has to be rethought more than design. Print should be forward looking. And rather than being the ‘paper of record,’ we should think of print as our premium product with the best presentation.”

Part of finding the right formula for “the best presentation” is in taking a hard look at reader behaviors and content effectiveness.

“Fewer than 25 percent of readers read any of the body type on stories they look at, but photos can be read at a rate of 92 percent more, which means captions can get 40- to 60-percent readership,” Ostendorf said. “Ditto for pull quotes and breakout boxes. And headlines get 60- to 80-percent readership. And all of these things are read before the reader sees any copy, so we teach our clients how to focus more of their editorandpublisher.com

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“Content has to be rethought more than design. Print should be forward looking.”

} Bill Ostendorf, Creative Circle Media Solutions president and founder

limited resources in these items.”

In general, today’s printed newspapers are not as easy to read as they could be.

“Columns of text are so narrow now, they are deadly to readership and reading speed,” Ostendorf said. “Type is badly set, too, which makes the problem worse.

All newspapers are far from the optimum column with 15 to 18 picas. Broadsheet newspapers should all be going to a fivecolumn format. Wider columns increase reading speed dramatically. And you can’t say anything in a one-column ad or headline anymore.”

While graphics and layout may come to mind when you hear the term “redesign,” it’s too narrow a definition.

Ostendorf explained, “Our redesigns today are not about fonts and branding and packaging—although we can often dramatically improve all of those things—they are about giving the newsroom a new and more reader-oriented focus. We overhaul the news planning and editing process, change the kind of content newsrooms cover, and upgrade the presentation of that content. That can move the needle. By giving the newsroom a new focus, it can also improve morale and give news staffs the feeling things can get better.”

Ostendorf also suggested that being editorandpublisher.com

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“pro-print” doesn’t mean a publisher is “anti-digital.”

“I spent most of my career in print, and I still see a lot of potential in print. It’s possible to understand, love and promote both mediums,” he said. “In fact, one of the mistakes the industry made was keeping a lot of print people who had no passion for digital and hiring a lot of digital people who misunderstood or had outright disdain for print. The arrogance on both sides did a lot of damage at many companies.

You shouldn’t be running a newspaper company if you don’t have a passion for both mediums.”

The Precarious Power of Paper The saying is, “Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,” and that’s the case for the printed newspaper. In its form, a printed paper carries with it a sense of purpose, tactile proof of the labors of journalists and editors, graphics and production professionals. By its nature, it offers assurances that the content on its pages has been carefully curated.

Politicians and political influencers know this, of course, so it should surprise no one that these types of publishers and rhetoricians co-opt newspaper design in order to lend credibility to their messages.

Take, for example, the case of The Idahoan, a conservative campaign literature disguised as a newspaper and mailed to Idaho voters across the state. And that isn’t the only one. Publications of this kind are becoming more prevalent as political tools because they mimic the design and style of actual newspapers. The question remains: Are they effective in duping readers into believing that the content in them has endured the same due diligence and editorial challenges that are inherently part of the process of journalism?

Because these propaganda publications aren’t required to disclose their funding, they may not be as vulnerable to the rising costs of newsprint and printing stocks.

This, however, is a serious concern for traditional newspapers across the country.

Ostendorf expects the print tariffs currently affecting the industry to have a sweeping impact. “With the tariffs putting more pressure on newspapers, we’re getting more calls about redesigns again that reduce frequency, page size or page count. It’s distressing, because we can only cut the product so much and still have a viable product. There is a floor, and some newspapers are passing below it. To do so risks a collapse of the franchise, which could be catastrophic. Papers now have little margin for error.”

Many publishers are calling on Congress to get involved—and some members are.

A recently proposed “Protecting Rational Incentives in Newsprint Trade (PRINT) Act” is garnering support from senators.

A public hearing is scheduled for later this month, and a final determination is expected by mid-September.

Until then, you can be assured that more publishers will be taking a hard look at design and format, while making hard decisions about what content is essential to communicate in print, and what will go away or be relegated to digital.  Gretchen A. Peck is an independent journalist who has reported on publishing and printing for more than two decades. She has contributed to Editor & Publisher since 2010 and can be reached at gretchenapeck@gmail.com.

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E&P is a staunch supporter of the newspaper industry and is dedicated to promoting its success and well-being in the years to come. From time to time, we will print full-page ads such as this, to inspire advertising and marketing ideas — touting the importance of ethical journalism and its value to democracy.

By Rachael Garcia rachael@editorandpublisher.com

AP Photo

Alicia Chang has been promoted to deputy editor for storytelling on the health and science team with the Associated Press. She has served as a writer for the health and science team since 2017.

She joined the AP as an intern in Detroit in 2000 and has held a variety of positions with AP since, including working 10 years as a science writer in Los Angeles.

Jamie Stockwell has been named deputy national editor for the New York Times. Previously, she was the managing editor of the San Antonio ExpressNews and also served as the paper’s deputy metro editor. Stockwell started her career at the Washington Post, where she covered criminal justice.

Tim Williamson has stepped down as president of the NOLA Media Group after two years. He will not be replaced. Vice president of content, Mark Lorando, and vice president and chief revenue officer, editorandpublisher.com

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Alison Smith has been named editor of the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, after serving as interim editor. She replaces Matt Christensen, who took the executive editor position at the Quad-City (Iowa) Times. Smith has also served as managing editor at the Times-News. She joined the Times-News in 2011 as breaking news, crime and courts reporter.

Alisha Owens, will now handle news and sales operations.

Sharon Wilmore has been named editor at the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun and chief of Cox Media Group Ohio’s Clark County Bureau.

She has served as a managing editor for the Dayton Daily News since 2014. Wilmore joined CMGO as a copy editor in 2010 after serving 12 years as an editor for the Detroit Free Press.

Sara April has been named partner with Dirks, Van Essen, & Murray, As a result, the firm has been renamed Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April. April joined the firm 12 years ago after serving as director of operations for HomeWorks Media Group. She also worked as an assistant manager for the New Republic magazine.

Lindsey Wiebe has been named Canada audience growth editor with the New York Times. She recently served as an online engagement manager for Rogers Media and is chairwoman of the Toronto chapter of the Online News Association.

Previously, Wiebe worked for the Winnipeg Free Press, Maclean’s and CBC Radio.

Dustin Weaver has been named Congress editor with the Associated Press. His new role is a leadership position in the Washington D.C. bureau.

Weaver previously served as news editor, and business and lobbying editor at the Hill. He also held editing positions at the Washington Post Express and the Washington Examiner.

AP Photo

Terry Kroeger has been elected chairman of the board of directors for the News Media Alliance. He succeeds Michael Klingensmith, publisher and chief operating officer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Kroeger is president and chief operating officer of BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, and previously served as vice chairman. In addition, other Alliance officers elected were: Mark Aldam, president, Hearst Newspapers (vice chairman); Anna Sedgley, COO & CFO, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (secretary); and Kevin Mowbray, vice president and COO, Lee Enterprises (treasurer). Elected to initial one-year terms were Dr. Dietrich von Klaeden, Axel Springer SE; Debby Krenek, Newsday Media Group; and Grant S. Moise, A. H. Belo.

NewsPeople

Brian Clutter has been named operations director of the Intelligencer and Wheeling (W. Va.) News Register.

Clutter will oversee all aspects of the newspapers’ advertising and production departments. He began his career as an advertising sales representative for newspapers in Wheeling. He has also worked for the Observer-Reporter in Washington, Penn. and the Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder.

Clutter also served as publisher of three West Virginia publications: the Green Tab, Wetzel Chronicle, and the Tyler Star News.

Francesco Marconi has been appointed research and development chief and head of media science lab at the Wall Street Journal. Francesco joins the Journal from the Associated Press, where he served as strategy manager and was co-lead on artificial intelligence. In his new role, Marconi is responsible for developing media science JULY 2018 | E & P

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NewsPeople ACQUISITIONS Seaton Publishing has purchased the Junction City (Kan.) Daily Union from Chris Walker, who purchased the paper in 2016. The sale price was not disclosed. With the purchase, Seaton also acquired the 1st Infantry Division Post weekly newspaper at Fort Riley and the Wamego Smoke Signal and Wamego Times weeklies in Pottawatomie County. Seaton Publishing is affiliated with other family-owned newspapers in Winfield and Arkansas City, Kan.; Hastings and Alliance, Neb.; Spearfish, S.D.; Sheridan, Wyo.; and Grand Junction, Colo. The family also owns the Manhattan Broadcasting group of radio stations in Manhattan, Kan. GateHouse Media has acquired the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftan from the Star Journal Publishing Corp., which is owned by the Rawlings family. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The Pueblo Chieftan has served the community for 150 years and is the oldest daily newspaper in Colorado. Jane Rawlings, president of the Star-Journal Publishing Corp. and publisher of the Chieftain, took control of the newspaper in October 2016.

Tronc has purchased the Virginian-Pilot from Landmark Media Enterprises, which is controlled by the Batten family, owners of the paper for more than a century. The sale price was $34 million, and as part of the deal Inside Business and Style Weekly were also acquired. The sale also included the Pilot’s properties such as the downtown Norfolk headquarters and the printing plant in Virginia Beach.

Paxton Media Group has purchased the Batesville (Ark.) Daily Guard from the Jones family. The sale price was not disclosed. Based in Paducah, Ky., Paxton Media Group is a family-owned company and owns more than 36 daily newspapers, a television station and numerous weekly publications across Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.

methods to produce innovative forms of journalism.

AP Photos

The Associated Press has named Sarah Rafi as deputy director of newsgathering and Delano Massey as deputy director of storytelling. Rafi was most recently the deputy editor for the U.S. Central Region, while Massey was AP’s news editor in Ohio. In Rafi’s new role, she will work closely with the region’s journalists to cover breaking news and create enterprise stories. Massey’s responsibilities will include managing the integrated editing 52 |

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desk. Rafi has held a variety of positions with the AP since 2009; and prior to joining the AP in 2016, Massey was the digital director at WEWS in Cleveland.

Both will be based in Chicago.

A.M. Sheehan has been named managing editor for all of Sun Media Group’s Western Main weekly newspapers. In her new role, Sheehan will oversee eight newspapers in the area. Most recently, she served as editor of the Advertiser-Democrat in Norway, Maine. She has also served as executive editor of the Chatham (N.Y.) Courier, managing editor of the Journal Scene in Summerville, S.C., and executive editor of three weekly newspapers in Georgetown, S.C. Chris Rush has been named regional publisher and revenue director of four Eastern Oregon publications: the East Oregonian, Hermiston Herald, Blue Mountain Eagle and Wallowa County Chieftan. He succeeds Kathryn Brown, who will launch a magazine for EO Media Group called The Other Oregon, which focuses on rural Oregon issues. Previously, Rush was publisher of the Daily World in Aberdeen, Wash. and the World in Coos Bay, Ore. Terry Ward has been named vice president of Sound Publishing, Inc. He also will continue to serve as publisher of Sound’s newspapers in Washington, which include the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette, Forks Forum, and newspapers in Kitsap

Elias Lopez has been named senior editor for international opinions for the Washington Post. In this role, Lopez will oversee the strategy and operations for the opinion section and spearhead planning of new international opinion projects. He joins the Post from the New York Times, where he held positions on its national, foreign and opinions desks for more than 10 years. He most recently served as editorial director and founder of the New York Times en Espanol. Before joining the Times, he was a reporter and editor at the Miami Herald.

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NewsPeople County and Aberdeen. Most recently, Ward was regional publisher of the Olympic Peninsula News Group. Prior to that, he was the CEO of KPC Media Group and served as the director of sales and digital for GateHouse Media’s community newspaper division.

Matt Lindberg has been named managing editor of Nebraska papers: the Columbus Telegram, the David City Banner-Press and the Schuyler Sun. Prior to this position, Lindberg served as the managing editor of the Montrose (Colo.) Daily Press. He has also served in a variety of positions with newspapers in North Carolina and Colorado.

Peter Yates has been appointed publisher of the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. He replaces Rob Jiranek, who left the company to pursue other opportunities. In addition to the Daily Progress, Yates will serve as publisher of the News Virginian, the Orange County Review, the Greene County Record and the Madison County Eagle. Yates has been publisher of daily newspapers around Virginia, including Culpeper, Danville, Woodbridge and Manassas. He also served as editor and general manager of the Harrisonburg (Va.) Daily News-Record and president of Page-Shenandoah Newspaper Corp.

Ruby Bailey has been named executive editor of the Columbia Missourian. She is the first woman to lead the Missourian’s coverage in the newspaper’s 109 years. In addition, she will also hold the Missouri School of Journalism’s Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair, where she will work with community newspapers to help improve their coverage and operations. Most recently, editorandpublisher.com

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Josh O’Connor has been named president/publisher of Sound Publishing, Inc. He succeeds Gloria Fletcher, who is now publisher of Tulsa World in Oklahoma and vice president of the Southern Newspaper Division for the Berkshire Hathaway Media Group. In his new role, O’Connor will be responsible for Sound Publishing’s operations and will continue to be publisher of the Daily Herald in Everett, Wash. He most recently served as vice-president of newspaper operations for Sound Publishing, where he was responsible for five community newspapers and the Sound’s press and mailroom operations.

she worked at the Sacramento Bee, where she served as a local news editor. She has also been a staff member of the Detroit Free Press, where she was a business and enterprise reporter and served as a Washington correspondent.

Debbie Hemmer, publisher of the Grant County (S.D.) Review, has been elected president of the South Dakota Newspaper Association. Hemmer served as a sports reporter, office manager, news reporter and editor of the Review before purchasing the publication. The South Dakota Newspaper Association represents the state’s 125 weekly and daily newspapers.

Dan Cotter has been named publisher of the Vermont Standard in Woodstock, Vt. Previously, Cotter spent 20 years serving in a variety of leadership roles with the Pulitzer Publishing Co., including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and as publisher of Santa Maria Times. He has also served as Urban & Associates’ chief operating officer, where he helped newspaper companies increase their audience reach and advertising market share. Most recently, he was the director of sales development and training for GateHouse Media New England.

Katie Duffey has been named editor of the Daily Reporter in Coldwater, Mich. She replaces Noelle Russell, who has taken a

job with the state of Indiana. In Duffey’s new role, she will oversee the Reporter’s news and sports coverage and its associated weekly newspapers and websites: the Fortville-McCordsville Reporter, New Palestine Press and the Pendleton Times-Post.

She has served as copy editor and designer of the Reporter for four years. Duffey has also managed the editing and design of other weekly and daily newspapers owned

by AIM Media Indiana, the parent company of the Reporter.

John Cox has been named business editor for the Bakersfield Californian. Cox has served as a staff writer covering business for more than 10 years. In his new role, he will oversee business coverage, including writing and editing content for publication online and in print.

Previously, he wrote for the San Diego Business Journal, Los Angeles Times, the Hispanic Business magazine and the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram.

Malcolm McGrory has been appointed senior vice president of sales with iPublish Media. McGrory previously worked with KnowledgeVision, PageSuite, Atex and Newscycle. He is also the founder of Hyphen, Inc. and Cascade Systems. He has sold media platforms in the United States, Asia, Europe, Australia and South America. 

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Fax: 866-605-2323

Equipment For Sale

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Publications For Sale

Publications For Sale

100 YEAR+ OLD TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR SALE in Piedmont North Carolina. Fast growing area. Huge potential. For more information, reply to jerryleedy@yahoo.com.

FOR SALE BY KAMENGROUP.COM: Equine magazines(NY, PA, TX) SC Maps, Tourist Guides & Women’s Magazine, Sierra County, NM weekly newspaper, National medical, holistic and fishing/hunting/outdoors magazines, NC Regional title, Washington eatery publication, NYC weekly newspapers (3). San Francisco niche magazines (2) and Oklahoma, Chicago, Wisconsin and Iowa cultural titles. Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama daily newspapers. Need to sell? Order your print and digital media financial valuation now! Confidential, accurate and comprehensive reports for all purposes. Kamen & Co Group Services - Media Appraisers, Accountants, Contract Negotiators, Brokers & Advisers. 516-242-2857 / info@kamengroup.com

Help Wanted

Help Wanted

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: News and Tribune Jeffersonville, IN The News and Tribune seeks an experienced, creative and results-oriented professional to be its next advertising director.

Our advertising director must have a keen understanding of print and digital advertising, as well as audience-based selling. We need a leader who can continue to challenge and motivate our talented sales and marketing team while successfully executing multiplatform strategies for our print, niche and digital products. Candidates must possess excellent organizational and communication skills, a creative approach to revenue development and a strong focus on customer service. We expect a skilled leader who will effectively manage our experienced and committed group of sales professionals.

The News and Tribune is an award-winning, six-day publication with a circulation of 10,000 daily. In addition to our newspaper, we operate an exceptionally robust website and several community magazines. We are also fully engaged in book publishing. Located across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY, Jeffersonville offers a wonderful lifestyle with a mix of rural and metropolitan cultures. The area boasts outstanding natural resources, first-class collegiate sports, excellent restaurants and easy access to great entertainment. This is a great opportunity to join a dynamic organization and its team of creative managers who are committed to operating the newspaper and related products with the highest ethical and professional standards.

Interested candidates should mail their resume and salary requirements to Publisher Bill Hanson at News and Tribune, 221 Spring Street, or by email at bill.hanson@newsandtribune.com.

The News and Tribune is a CNHI newspaper. CNHI is a leading provider of local news and information, offering a wide array of print and digital products in more than 130 communities in 22 states. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, CNHI is a Raycom Media company. For more information about CNHI, please visit www.cnhi.com.

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For info, call: 800-887-1615 editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 3:32 PM

Phone: 800-887-1615

Help Wanted

Fax: 866-605-2323

Help Wanted

MANAGING EDITOR – THE DAILY PRESS, MONTROSE CO: The Montrose Daily Press, winner of the Colorado Press Association General Excellence Award has an opening for a MANAGING EDITOR to lead our newsroom.

We are looking for a strong, hands-on leader with excellent organizational and people management skills. The ideal candidate must have a passion for quality community journalism, yet understand the newspaper’s critical role in the protection of open record laws and individual rights against governmental overreach. A strong knowledge of AP Style, excellent grammar and spelling skills, is required.

You will direct the newsroom, as well as columnists and stringers. This role includes control and leadership of our website, www.montrosepress.com, some special sections and magazines.

The successful candidate will understand both multimedia and print publishing strategies, have experience writing thoughtful editorials and have a strong attention to detail.

This position reports directly to the publisher and is a part of the executive team. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in journalism or equivalent and prior newsroom management experience. Ability to plan and manage a department budget and experience in page layout and design using InDesign are strongly desired.

The Montrose Daily Press is a six-day morning newspaper. It is a leader amongst its peers within Wick Communications, a family-owned multi-media company. Wick Communications is now in its third generation, with operations in community markets in 11 states.

As a part of Wick Communications, we offer a strong package of pay and benefits, including health and dental care benefits, paid vacation, and 401K retirement plan. This newspaper is located in a newer, attractive building filled with happy, team-oriented employees, which creates an inviting work culture.

Montrose, Colo., is a regional center for business and shopping, with a small-town lifestyle.

Montrose is situated within driving distance to a national park, national forests and four major ski areas. It offers an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities on Colorado’s beautiful Western Slope.

Send cover letter, resume, and electronic clips in one PDF, to tonyam@montrosepress.com PRESS OPERATORS: The Berksire Eagle, a locally owned newspaper group in Western Massachusetts is seeking experienced press operators. Our current equipment includes a 13-unit Goss Urbanite and 12-unit Goss Community. We require pre-employment drug screen. EOE.

Help Wanted

Help Wanted

REPORTER: The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World is seeking an experienced reporter who has a desire to practice enterprise journalism and understands the speed of today’s digital media business. The Journal-World operates a nationally-recognized digital news site — LJWorld.com — that attracts between 30,000 to 40,000 unique users per day, and publishes a seven-day per week newspaper that serves a growing population in northeast Kansas.

The Journal-World recognizes that finding and reporting valuable, important, interesting, and entertaining stories is the key to making community journalism work in today’s media environment. The successful candidate will be a talented journalist full of curiosity who can bolster our investigative and storytelling capabilities. There are a variety of beat possibilities available at the Journal-World, allowing the successful candidate’s skills to be matched with the best possibility. The position is well-suited for reporters who are ready to take that step from the entry-level stage of their careers to a more senior reporting position.

Lawrence is an exciting place to report news. Home to the University of Kansas, Lawrence offers reporters the chance to find important stories in the areas of higher education and college athletics. As a liberal college community surrounded by a politically-conservative state, journalists have opportunities to report on many of the idealogical clashes that are playing out on a national scale. With a population deeply interested in “green issues,” reporters can find meaningful stories about the environmental movement and the changes it is creating.

The community has a wealth of educated residents seeking important and interesting journalism on a variety of topics.

The position offers competitive pay and benefits, and is based in vibrant downtown Lawrence. To apply for the position, please send a letter of interest, three writing samples and a resumé to Editor Chad Lawhorn at clawhorn@ljworld.com.

VP SALES & STRATEGY: Lee Enterprises, a leading media company in the U.S., seeks a dynamic, enthusiastic, energized and focused Vice President Sales/Strategy to lead revenue growth within one of its top market groups. The VP Sales/Strategy will be responsible for developing and implementing best-in-class media plan practices across the organization, in an effort to solve our advertising partners’ business problems. We are looking for a strategic thinker with strong managerial skills who can work collaboratively as a team player along with content, operations, finance and various functions across the local brand. This individual should be an excellent communicator, detail oriented, can thrive in a deadline-driven, performance based environment and have a strong understanding of the digital space, online ad platforms and overall execution. Interested in learning more? Please email salesleaders24@gmail.com and tell us why you are best in class.

To apply, please visit www.berkshireeagle.com, email aswanton@berkshireeagle.com or call 413-496-6140 for more information.

REPORTER: The Daily Commercial, a daily newspaper in the heart of Central Florida, seeks an energetic reporter to cover schools and county issues. Ideal candidates will be committed to strong civic journalism, deciphering complex issues and writing strong narratives. Candidates should be comfortable pursuing public records and using social media.

Job Requirements: Candidates with a bachelor’s degree in journalism preferred. We require a strong knowledge of AP style, the ability to cover breaking news and the ability to generate enterprise journalism. Must be comfortable working with a variety of technologies. A valid driver’s license, motor vehicle insurance and access to a reliable vehicle are also required.

Other Information: This position is located in Leesburg, Florida. Owned by GateHouse Media, the Daily Commercial offers excellent benefits, 401K and more. Successful candidates will be required to pass a pre-employment drug screen, motor vehicle records check and background checks. Candidates from Florida are preferred.

How To Apply: If you are interested in joining an award winning media company, please submit a cover letter, resume and published clips.

Equal Employment Opportunity: The Daily Commercial is an equal opportunity employer that recognizes the value of diversity in our workforce.

If you are reading this, so are your customers!

To ad v er tise , c all 1-800-887-1615 editorandpublisher.com

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E&P PRINT & WEB CLASSIFIED AD SPECIAL Up to 100 words of text plus your company logo both in print and online for one low price!

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$125.00 2 months in print + 10 weeks online

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$300.00 For more information or to place your ad, call 1-800-887-1615 or email classifieds@editorandpublisher.com JULY 2018 | E & P

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6/18/18 3:32 PM

shoptalk /commentary Where Have You Gone, Woodward and Bernstein?

By Kent R. Kroeger

A

s journalism slowly dies in this country, the major news media organizations are gaining customers. These two trends are not

unrelated.

Television and digital news audiences for many media outlets have been steadily growing since the election of Donald Trump. He is their golden goose.

According to the News Media Alliance, “Newspaper websites in the United States have seen an increase in paid subscribers (in 2017) — The New York Times has grown to more than 2 million paid digital-only customers, while the Wall Street Journal passed the 1 million mark.”

On the television side of the news business, as just two examples, MSNBC is attracting its largest audiences ever and CNN posted record profits in 2017.

Say what you want about President Trump, he is good for the news business.

Unfortunately, the news media’s coverage of Donald Trump has too often been riddled with errors and falsehoods.

Trump-Russia collusion stories have too often violated basic journalistic standards. In a Dec. 7, 2017 article in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald listed the major reporting errors made in last year on the Trump-Russia story.

Reporting errors happen. But why do these reporting errors occur?

Perhaps a journey back to 1972 will remind us of what constitutes good investigative journalism.

It is June 18, 1972 a Washington Post headline reads: Five Held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here

By Alfred E. Lewis June 18, 1972 (Washington) — Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the

Democratic National Committee here... …They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor.

This is just crime-blotter reporting.

Enter Bob Woodward (who did the legwork on Lewis’ story) and Carl Bernstein— two young, ambitious Washington Post reporters who are given a story assignment that will change the course of history.

Their Aug. 1, 1972 Post story, three months before the general election, gives a glimpse into the future scope of their investigation.

The headline reads: Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds

By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward Aug. 1, 1972 (Washington) — A $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for President Nixon’s re-election campaign, was deposited in April in a bank account of one of the five men arrested in the break-in at Democratic National Headquarters here June l7.

The Watergate story is three months old when a Sept. 29, 1972 Woodward and Bernstein story carries the headline: Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund

By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward Sept. 29, 1972 (Washington) — John N. Mitchell, while serving as U.S. Attorney General, personally controlled a secret Republican fund that was used to gather information about the Democrats, according to sources involved in the Watergate investigation.

Woodward and Bernstein’s investigative work reaches its apex on Oct. 10, 1972. Citing conclusions from the FBI and Department of Justice investigations, the Post headline

reads: FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats

By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward Oct. 10, 1972 (Washington) — FBI agents have established that the Watergate bugging incident stemmed from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of President Nixon’s re-election and directed by officials of the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President.

On Aug. 8, 1974, Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency, more than two years after the Post’s initial break-in story.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is how highquality investigative journalism is conducted.

Unfortunately, we must return to present day journalism. The times have changed and journalists have been forced to change with it. The Post in 1972 wasn’t competing with 24/7 cable news networks. And is it fair to compare the journalism on today’s CNN with the Post or any other national-audience newspaper? They have different audiences and business requirements.

Nonetheless, we should all expect more from today’s journalists than what we getting in the coverage of the Trump-Russia connection. The use of anonymous sources is just one mechanism today’s journalists use to generate more stories faster.

However, anonymous sources are hurting today’s journalism. As “fake news” has set up a permanent encampment on the internet, news consumers need to remember the journalistic standards established by Woodward and Bernstein in 1972.  Kent R. Kroeger is a writer and statistical consultant with more than 30 years of experience measuring and analyzing public opinion for public and private sector clients. A full version of this article can be found at bit.ly/2Hx0xYc.

Printed in the USA. Vol. 151, No 7, EDITOR & PUBLISHER (ISSN: 0013-094X, USPS: 168-120) is published 12 times a year. Regular issues are published monthly by Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., 18475 Bandilier Circle, Fountain Valley, CA, 92708-7000; Editorial and Advertising (949) 660-6150.

Periodicals postage paid at Fountain Valley, CA 92708, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: EDITOR & PUBLISHER. P.O. Box 25859, Santa Ana, CA 92799-5859. Copyright 2018, Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Subscription Price: U.S. and its possessions, $99.00 per year, additional postage for Canada & foreign countries $20.00 per year. Single copy price $8.95 in the U.S. only; Back issues, $12.95 (in the U.S. only) includes postage and handling. Canada Post: Publication Mail Agreement No. 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 682.

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editorandpublisher.com

6/18/18 3:26 PM

SubscribeToLife16.qxp_Layout 1 10/14/16 9:38 AM Page 1

Subscribe to Life, Read a Newspaper

Newspapers give you more than just information.

They offer an in-depth, panoramic perspective of events, delivering a weird and wonderful diversity of arts, culture, sports, hobbies, and both local and world news.

Newspapers don’t tell you what you want to know; they turn you on to the stories and topics you should know. They inspire you to think deeper, see further and dream bigger — newspapers are where knowledge comes to life.

Newspapers strive to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. We fear no one.

E&P is a staunch supporter of the newspaper industry and is dedicated to promoting its success and well-being in the years to come. From time to time, we will print full-page ads such as this, to inspire advertising and marketing ideas — touting the importance of ethical journalism and its value to democracy.

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