NewsClips June/July 2017 by Ontario Community Newspapers Association

newsclips

JUNE/JULY 2017

Proposed Changes To Ontario Employment Standards Act By Ron Guest, Senior Partner, TwoGreySuits

The Ontario government has proposed some wide ranging changes to the Employment Standards Act. The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 includes broad ranging amendments to Ontario's Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act. This piece of legislation is meant to protect workers, especially within precarious (temp, casual, contract, etc.) work, transition the Ministry of Labor (MOL) to an enforcement and policing body as well as target small companies. Below are some of the changes that have been proposed. The effective dates is dependent on the passing of the legislation as written. Minimum Wage increase: • $14 per hour effective Jan 1, 2018 • $15 per hour on Jan 1, 2019 • Ongoing will be adjusted by annual inflation Proposed Changes to Employment Standards Act: (Equal Pay for Equal Work: Casual, Part-time, Temporary & Seasonal Employees - effective April 2018) • Ensure individuals in the above classifications are paid the same as the full-time employees when performing the same job for the same employer • Enable employees to request a review of their wages and the employer must respond to the request with either an adjustment or written explanation for any differential (employer may take seniority system, merit system, or systems based on quantity and quality of production into consideration) • Protection for employees from inquiring about their wages or asking other employees for their wage

employee of the client • THA employees scheduled on assignment for 3 months or longer will require at least one weeks notice of the termination of the assignment. Either pay or working notice (Scheduling - Effective Jan 1, 2019) • Give Employees the right to request schedule or location changes after having been employed for three months without fear of reprisal • Employees who are regularly scheduled for three hour or greater per day, must be paid for at least three hours per day if they report to work • Employees can refuse shifts if the employer makes the request with less than four days’ notice • If employee's are ‘on-call’ and are not called in to work, they must be paid three hours at their regular pay, for each 24 hour period they are on call (Overtime pay - Effective Jan 1, 2018) • If an EE holds more than 1 role within a company, overtime must be paid at the rate for the role when the overtime was worked (Paid Vacation - effective Jan 1, 2018) • A minimum of three weeks’ vacation pay after five years of service (Public Holiday Pay - Effective Jan 1, 2018) • The government is simplifying formula for calculating holiday pay to the average regular daily wage. No details on the exact calculations as of yet

(Equal pay for equal work: Temporary Help Agency (THA) employees - effective Jan 1, 2018) • THA employees are to be paid equally to permanent employees when performing the same job • THA employee would be protected from repercussions for inquiring about their wage rate or the wage rate of an

WHAT’S INSIDE:

NATIONAL NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL UPDATE Confronting digital media concerns.

See Page 4

Continued on Page 3 >>>

EXPECTATIONS ARE LIKE ICEBERGS “Expectations can be our best friends or our worst enemies.”

See Page 8

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES TwoGreySuits provides several ways to give your team a motivational tune-up.

See Page 9

MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE ONTARIO1 COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION June/July 2017 www.ocna.org

ASSOCIATION NEWS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! October 3: Queen’s Park Day Join us for Queen’s Park Day on Wednesday, October 4 and meet with politicians of all stripes to discuss issues currently affecting the community newspaper industry. The OCNA will arrange afternoon meetings between MPPs and publishers or editors. The association’s annual Publishers’ Reception will follow in the evening. Watch for your invitation.

NEWSCLIPS VOLUME 06, ISSUE 06 37 Front Street E, Ste 200 Toronto, ON M5E 1B3 P. 416-923-7724 w. www.ocna.org e. info@ocna.org

OCNA BOARD PRESIDENT

Ray Stanton

VICE PRESIDENT

Rick Shaver

SECRETARY/ TREASURER

John Willems

PAST PRESIDENT

Dave Adsett

DIRECTORS

Craig Barnard Gordon Cameron Abbas Homayed Alicia McCutcheon Darren Murphy Margaret Zwart

November 3 - 4: Independent Publishers’ Retreat Independently owned community newspaper publishers are invited to join the OCNA for a two-day retreat filled with informative sessions, networking opportunities, food and fun! For more information contact: Karen Shardlow at k.shardlow@ocna.org or 416-923-7724 x 4432.

IN THIS ISSUE...

OCNA STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Caroline Medwell

..........................NATIONAL NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL UPDATE

CONTROLLER

Corey Blosser

........................ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT BACKUPS

MEMBER SERVICES

Kelly Gorven Karen Shardlow

....................................EXPECTATIONS ARE LIKE ICEBERGS

ACCOUNTING

Lucia Shepherd

.......................................TUNE UP YOUR TEAM FOR ACTION

AD*REACH

.............USING A DOMINANT PHOTO FOR SPORTS DESIGN

Erica Leyzac Pam Portt Carolyn Press

.................UPCOMING ONLINE MEDIA CAMPUS WEBINARS

June/July 2017

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

Employment Standards Act Changes, Continued

OCNA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

>>> Continued from Front Page

(Leaves: Eff Jan 1, 2018) • Personal Emergency Leave: All employees must provide at least 10 Personal Emergency Leave days which will include two paid days. This eliminates the current threshold of employers with 50 or more employees • Leave for death of a child and for crime-related disappearance – unpaid leave up to 104 weeks • Family medical leave: increase from eight weeks in a 26-week period to 27 weeks in a 52-week period • Physician notes for absences: Employer will be prohibited from requesting a sick note from an employee requesting Personal Emergency Leave (Employee Contact: Jan 1, 2018) • Employees would no longer be required to contact their employer prior to filing an ESA claim • All claims will be investigated as the Director of Employment Standards would no longer be able to refuse to assign an officer to investigate a claim due to insufficient information from the claimant (Penalties for non-compliance: Jan 1, 2018) • Increase maximum administrative penalties from $250, $500 and $1,000 to $350, $700 and $1500 • Officers given greater flexibility as to what penalties they will impose • Publishing (including online) of names, of individuals issued a penalty, including description of the contravention, date and the amount of the penalty The government also announced that they will be hiring an additional 175 officers to ensure they are inspecting 1 in 10 workplaces in Ontario. They will also focus on small to mid-sized business to ‘educate’ and provide compliance assistance.

RON GUEST has twenty-five years of business and HR experience as a practitioner and an executive, and most recently as a consultant to small/ medium sized businesses in recruitment, management development, HR policy design and performance management. He has held executive positions in the Telecommunications, Computer, Hi Tech and Printing industries. Ron is a pioneer in behavioral interviewing and has interviewed over 7,000 candidates in his career. Ron has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University. Ron can be reached at rguest@twogreysuits.com June/July 2017

NEW STAFF JOIN METROLAND MEDIA KAWARTHA REGION Bill Hodgins has been hired as a fulltime reporter for the Brock Citizen and Kawartha Lakes This Week. A long-time writer and editor for the Peterborough Examiner, Bill has freelanced and worked on contract for the paper since 2015. He will focus on covering municipal councils in both communities, plus other duties. Taylor Clysdale has joined the Peterborough This Week newsroom as its City Hall and political reporter. He just graduated from the GuelphHumber journalism program, which included an internship in the summer of 2016 at This Week.

LONG-TIME BOOKKEEPER RETIRES FROM MORRISBURG LEADER On July 21 - after 28 years - Wanda Dawley retired from her position as receptionist and bookkeeper for the Morrisburg Leader. She plans to spend her free time touring with her husband Tom, on their motorcycle and visiting the Caribbean Island of Roatán during the cold weather months. In addition, she can now become a full time mom to her new dog Luke.

Want to contribute to NewsClips? If you have news you would like to share about your paper, please send information to newsclips@ocna.org. Photos are always welcome!

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

National NewsMedia Council Update

A letter from NNC President and CEO, John Fraser These past few weeks, the administration and directors of the National NewsMedia Council have been wrestling with a growing conundrum in our business. The conundrum comes with a whole bunch of names: ‘unpublishing’, deindexing, right to privacy, right to be forgotten, and probably a half dozen other labels. At the root are two seemingly incompatible issues: the crucial responsibility of the news media to report and retain the public record set against a growing public sense in the digital age that innocent people caught out either by legal proceedings or a particular political situation need a means to recover their good names. Why has this become more urgent in the past few years? Simple. The digital age. In an earlier era (like barely two decades ago), if a person was charged with a criminal offence but subsequently exonerated, a newspaper would have printed a story saying so and the entire saga – from accusation and indictment to hearing or trial and final verdict – would end up in a newspaper’s sleepy clipping file and ultimately largely forgotten. But it would nevertheless have been retained and the principle of an unsullied public record would not have been broken. Now, thanks to the Internet and powerful search engines that can travel faster than a speeding bullet, the situation is dramatically changed. Let’s say, for example, someone is charged with a sexual abuse crime, is tried and found not guilty, that initial story has now become immutable regardless of a verdict of ‘not guilty’. We are not talking Jian Ghomeshi here. A public figure in a hugely and notoriously covered trial, such as the former CBC radio host was involved in, is stuck with the consequences regardless of a verdict. On the other hand, we may well be talking about Julie Payette. The Governor General-designate is, at the time of writing, dealing with two incidents in her past in which she was (a) cleared of the charge of second degree assault in Maryland in 2011 (and which the record was subsequently expunged); and (b) found faultless in a tragic accident which resulted in the death of pedestrian a few months earlier. At the time of writing, she seems an almost outsized example of how difficult it is to change public perception once any sort of trouble is out on the Rialto and, who knows at this point, it may even cost her her new job. This column, however, is mostly about ordinary people caught out by either bad luck or coincidence or both. Back with this imaginary case cited above, suppose that the person lost employment in the whole messy and lengthy business of trying to prove innocence and then, fresh verdict in hand, tried to get the old job back or just find a new one. Prospective employers go straight to the internet, and in this imaginary case the whole saga would emerge once the name of the candidate is entered into the search engine. And now put yourself in the shoes of that employer. You need a short list of three good candidates, and just guess which is the first application to be eliminated? You might even have accepted that indeed the person is innocent, but you don’t really feel up to taking chances on an employee traumatized by the ordeal of proving innocence, or run afoul of public pressure about a ‘labelled’ employee, although you would never say so out loud because such discrimination is against the prospective employee’s human rights. But who would ever June/July 2017

know the reason? There are variations on this theme which I trust I don’t need to enumerate. The dilemma has been around for a while. The public editor at the Toronto Star for example, the estimable Kathy English, did a study of the issue in 2009, and the Star – to its credit – continues to examine the issue. ‘Deindexing’ a story is another possible solution, wherein a story is retained within a news media’s website but does not show up with a general search engine inquiry. Deindexing is an imperfect remedy that stops a step short of unpublishing, although the equally estimable public editor of The Globe and Mail, Sylvia Stead, doesn’t really see the difference. At the NNC, journalistic standards and ethics are our main concern. We also realize most news platforms, print or digital, do not have the luxury of public editors. Our job is to look at each and every complaint that comes in on an individual basis: What is the specific human story involved? What is the particular issue? What would be the immediate effect of a council decision on a publishing institution, either digital or print? The NNC has already dealt with a case in which an innocent person was identified as an abuser. The flawed story that so harmfully misidentified him turned out a combination of less than thorough reporting and inadequate editing. The complainant just wanted his good name back and removed from the internet trail leading to this story. The newspaper, in this case, agreed. It knew the law of libel even better than the complainant and was grateful for a chance to fix a problem in a nonlitigious fashion. A more recent case brought before the NNC was different but just as fraught. At the root was an innocent complainant unable, so he claimed, to find work and asking that articles about his case be deindexed. In this case, NNC directors did not have consensus on a decision. This was unsatisfactory to almost everyone involved in the matter: the administration of the NNC, various council members and –not surprisingly, the complainant himself. This has led us to feel that we need to consult our large membership in as thorough a way as we can. Consequently, we are in the process of (a) creating a short survey request of all our members (now cresting at around 800, and in every

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

province), and (b) struggling towards some sort of ‘Good Practices’ concept that can guide us all in future cases. The one thing we can’t do is hide from the challenge of the elongated life of online news. It clearly causes heated concern on all sides and there has to be a better guide than is currently available. Of course, the NNC is not advocating opening the floodgates to unpublishing or deindexing. Rather, we are acknowledging the increasing pressure news media face and are looking for journalistically sound and ethical ways to examine the rare cases where a complaint may reasonably be considered. The European Union has already established Right to be Forgotten legislation in response to public demand for control over internet content. In Canada, the complaints will keep coming because this is exactly the challenge the internet poses to the news media business. It won’t go away, and as much as the NNC’s predecessor press councils were established to forestall legislation over the media, we had best forthrightly tackle the issue – and be seen to do so – with a certain sense of urgency. With that said, we hope you will respond to the questionnaire when it comes your way and don’t hesitate to let us know your views. The NNC is here for both the news media business and the public. This issue is one that troubles both sides intensely. If we work away forthrightly, we have a chance to get ahead of the game on this issue.

John Fraser, President and CEO of the National NewsMedia Council, is a Canadian journalist, writer and academic. He was editor of Saturday Night magazine from 1987 to 1994, where he pioneered the use of mixed circulation. He is the recipient of multiple national journalism awards, and was chair of the Canadian Journalism Foundation until 2008. The National NewsMedia Council was established in 2015 with two main aims: to promote ethical practices within the news media industry and to serve as a forum for complaints against its members. The Council deals with matters concerning fairness of coverage, relevance, balance and accuracy and represents the public and the media in matters concerning the democratic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the media. June/July 2017

Community Newspapers Circulate Roughly 19 Million Copies Each Week In Canada As of June 2017, more than 1,000 community newspapers in Canada circulate almost 19 million copies, according to News Media Canada latest Snapshot. The fact sheet highlighting key facts on the community newspaper industry is now available online in both Excel and PDF formats. Visit: www.nmc-mic.ca/about-newspapers/circulation/community-newspaper-snapshot/

SNAPSHOT 2017

CANADA’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS Every week in Canada, over 1,000 community newspapers circulate almost 19 million copies in key metropolitan areas, rural and remote regions, and all areas in between.2 Community newspapers and their websites are hyper-local. They effectively represent the neighbourhoods they serve. And they are able to target these communities like no other medium.

REASONS FOR READING PRINTED COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER1

91%

65%

Local Information*

55%

Advertising*

Classified/Employment/ Real Estate

Printed community newspaper readers are reading for local information as well as advertising. Two thirds of readers (65%) want to see advertising in their printed community newspaper.

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER READERS RESPOND TO ADVERTISING1

Action Taken as a Result of Advertising Exposure

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING REVENUE 20163 PRINT

Print Advertising Revenue $834,386,000

DIGITAL

68%

54%

Became aware of product, service, sale

51%

58%

Gone online to find more info on product/service

44%

45%

Looked for more offline info on product/service

60%

53%

Visited a store in person or online

57%

53%

Bought a product or service

45%

53%

Referred an ad to someone else

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER READERS4 83% of Canadians are local Community Newspaper Readers BRITISH COLUMBIA 88%

PRAIRIES

Online Advertising Revenue $39,843,000

National

Inserts

22%

Classified

Total Advertising Revenue

Retail

61%

$873,576,000

MULTIPLATFORM READERS1 44% of printed community newspaper readers are multi-platform readers. They access content across ALL platforms.

QUÉBEC

84% ONTARIO

81%

82%

ATLANTIC 87%

82%

Newspaper Adults 18+, Read a local community newspaper in past month or longer ago

73%

Desktop/ Laptop

71%

Smartphone

60% Tablet

For more information, go to www.newsmediacanada.ca Source: 1 - Community Newspapers Drive Results 2017, Totum Research Base: Printed and/or digital community newspaper readers 2 - News Media Canada database, July 2017 3 - News Media Canada Revenue Survey 2016 4 - Vividata 2016 Q2 Readership and Product Database (July 2015 - June 2016 Fieldwork) * Local Information=Local News, Editorial, Sports, Entertainment, Events; Advertising=Advertising in the paper, Flyers/Inserts

News Media Canada Médias d’Info Canada

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TECHNOLOGY

A Look Inside My Inbox

Answering Questions About Backups And Text On Four Plates By Kevin Slimp Convention season has been a lot of fun for me this year. I just returned from visits with associations across the Midwest US and Western Canada and there is a definite intensity brewing among community newspaper publishers. There were more publishers wanting a private moment to discuss their thoughts, and longer lines of folks waiting to talk to me after sessions. As I entered the ballroom at the Illinois Press Association Convention, I couldn’t help but smile. Scheduled to speak on the topic, “What’s Going on at Newspapers Today,” it was inspiring to see every seat filled and more chairs brought into the room as I spoke. Still, a dozen or so folks stood in the back area to hear what I had to say about the mood of the industry. In the vendors area at the same convention, I was greeted by Virginia publisher Matt Paxton and Wisconsin publisher Andrew Johnson, both representing the National Newspaper Association. We could have talked for hours, but time was limited as I had to lead a session. We continued the discussion, centered around the crucial need for more honest conversations about the state of the industry, during breaks over the next two days. Like so many places I visit, both Matt and Andrew are at healthy newspapers and weren’t surprised to hear that most of the papers I visit are reporting steady or improved health over the past three years. I have a feeling we will meet together soon to continue that discussion. Stan Schwartz, editor of Publishers’ Auxiliary was also in the audience in Illinois. At one point, while helping me distribute some materials, he said, “You know what people like? They love your Question & Answer columns.” Stan knows what he’s doing. If he says readers like Question & Answer columns, I believe him. Here are some of the questions I’ve received from readers and friends recently:

computer starts up, you should see the OS X utilities menu. Select ‘Disk Utility’ and click ‘Continue’. Select your start up disk and click ‘Repair Disk’. Then reboot your Mac. From Mark in Ohio We have ‘lost’ an important folder of InDesign pages on our Mac server. This is the only thing missing. We do use the Amazon backup service every night. We were using the folder four nights ago, but now it has vanished. Is there any ‘back door’ way to find this file? Or anything else you can think of? I’m glad you have the daily backup, Mark. As long as the folder is there, you’ve lost a few hours at the most. My conversation with Mark highlights the importance of running Time Machine, which creates an hourly backup of your Macs, and the importance of having an off-site backup. There are many good cloud backup services out there, and most cost approximately $5 (US) per month per computer or even less if you subscribe for an entire network of computers. From Ken in Manitoba What’s the best way to backup our e-mail? If we ever lose it, we’d be in a bind. If you take a look at Mark’s question, you’ll find your answer. It’s important to use Time Machine or some other local backup, in addition to an off-site backup. Many cloud (off-site) systems offer both off-site and local backups (to a USB drive or other device). Carbonite (carbonite.com) is one of many such systems. From Buddy in Georgia I’d like to pick your brain for a moment. Many of our printing customers are having a similar problem: black text printing on all four plates. Do you have any suggestions to help with this issue? Yes, Buddy, I do. Most folks see a file like this and think the problem was caused by using ‘registration’ instead of black in the text. That’s usually not the case. This happens primarily when the text has been converted to RGB. This can happen in two places, but usually happens when converting the file to PDF. Check the settings in either InDesign or Acrobat and make sure nothing is set to convert to RGB. The safest setting is ‘Leave Color Unchanged’.

From Janet in Tennessee I know you’re on the road, but we really need your help. Our production Mac has a white screen and we’ve tried restarting it. Nothing seems to work. Please help. In the old days, Janet, it seemed like restarting a computer fixed most problems. It still fixes some, but in this case it takes a little more work. When restarting a computer doesn’t work, unplugging the computer for several minutes, then restarting, sometimes does the trick. Both Macs and PCs sometimes need to be unplugged. These are the steps I sent to Janet that got her computer up and running: Turn off the computer for several minutes, then restart while pressing the Option+R keys immediately after hearing the Apple chimes. When the June/July 2017

KEVIN SLIMP serves as director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology. He is a faculty member of the University of Tennessee College of Communication and Information. 6

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TECHNOLOGY

News Media Canada Teams Up With Newspapertraining.ca

00 OVERLS2!!! PANE

News Media Canada recently announced its partnership with the BC & Yukon Community Newspapers Association to offer members an online training platform called Newspapertraining.ca. The hub is created by community newspapers, for community newspapers and has been built with all staff in mind, including editorial, sales, design and management. The training modules are offered in a variety of different formats, including webinars, audio files and articles. A variety of topics cover six categories: online, multimedia, sales, journalism, design and newspaper management. Members are invited to simply log in and access the training modules at any time. The goal of Newspapertraining.ca is to provide a forum where reporters, editors, sales teams and publishers can share innovative ideas that help make community newspapers the go-to source of information for Canadians.

r o r r Mi e g a m ICOMIC STRIP

L PANEACTERS E L G N • SI NG CHAR IENCE PEATI WIDE AUD E R O ED • N EALS TO MIND P T P E A G • • BUD

Contact: stephen.lay@sympatico.ca for media kit

CONNECT WITH US! @OCNAAdreach Follow us for frequent association updates, industry news, upcoming events and more!

June/July 2017

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ADVERTISING

Expectations Are Like Icebergs By John Foust Raleigh, NC

Saundra’s experience as a sales manager has given her a unique perspective on client relationships. “Most sales people in the advertising business are taught to discover problems and prescribe solutions to those problems,” she said. “Too often, a sales person hears about a problem and says, ‘We can fix that. Just advertise with us, and everything will be fine. It’ll be fantastic.’ I think that’s a flawed approach, because it sets unrealistic expectations. “A long time ago, I heard that expectations are like icebergs,” she explained. “Only ten percent is above the surface. It’s the ninety percent you can’t see that can sink your boat. The obvious things are above the surface: when the ads run, how much they cost, and copy that has been proofed for typos. The hidden expectations – the things below the surface – are their expectations on the results the ads are supposed to generate. “Expectations can be our best friends or our worst enemies,” she said. “When we meet – or exceed – advertisers’ expectations, they feel good about our product and want to run more ads. But when the ads let them down, they might move their ad dollars somewhere else.” Saundra went on to say that she teaches her team how to bring hidden expectations above the surface. “Advertisers are going to have expectations whether or not we bring up the subject. The key is to have some control over those expectations. We want our advertisers to understand that an image campaign is not going to make their cash registers ring right away. And we want them to know that a response campaign has to make the right offers in order to create immediate results.”

On the other hand, if a merchant’s ads in a particular media outlet produce disappointing results, he or she may think, “Ads in the Gazette don’t work.” When ads start running, there’s a lot riding on results.

2. Go for measurable outcomes.

The surest way to convey the value of running ads with you is to measure results. It’s hard to believe a statement like, “Car dealers get good responses from advertising here.” It’s more convincing to say, “Ace Motors ran a two-month campaign with us last year, and they generated x-percent increase in sales over that same period in the previous year.”

3. Look for comparisons. On one level, you can compare

ad response rates within your own paper. (When Advertiser A changed from image ads to weekly specials, their response rates increased x-percent). On a deeper level, you can compare results with other media outlets (“Advertiser B moved their ads from XYZ Media to us and generated x-percent increase in traffic.”) Selling requires us to manage expectations. That’s a good way to melt a few icebergs.

Here are some key points:

1. Ad results drive ad sales.

John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: john@johnfoust.com

An old friend in the advertising business once said, “When you’re catching rabbits, don’t move the box.” In other words, when an ad strategy produces good results, it makes sense to continue that strategy.

Affordable media insurance for Canadian Community Newspapers Service includes: Libel, Invasion of Privacy, Plagiarism, Piracy, Infringement of Copyright, Pre-Publication Hotline Contact us for a quote: 416-923-7724 ext. 4423

June/July 2017

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HUMAN RESOURCES

Tune Up Your Team For Action: How To Motivate Employees A TwoGreySuits Article By Ron Guest, Senior Partner

We’ve compiled several easy ways, other than money, to give your team a motivational tune-up. Keeping your employees motivated should be a key strategy for running your business today, and more importantly, for the future. Here is how we suggest you can do this:

or attending seminars), they are more likely to achieve their full potential and strive towards new goals and aspirations.

Respect - The Golden Rule applies at work — treat your employees the way you would want someone to treat you: be courteous, professional, considerate and fair. A high standard of workplace behaviour will help to retain the best employees.

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES FOR SUCCESS: KEY MOTIVATORS Compensation - The first thing we usually think of to motivate

employees is compensation (money and benefits). It is one of the main issues people consider when deciding to join an organization. However, recent studies suggest that money is well down the list of things that are important to employees these days. However, it is still very important to know where you are paying relative to market, because employees paid well below market are at risk of leaving.

Equality - Ensure managers treat their employees equally

New employees are motivated by the challenges of their new job and the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to prove their worth to their new boss. Existing employees who are well entrenched in their position may be less inclined to apply themselves as much to their tasks and responsibilities. They know they won’t be seeing an increase in pay anytime soon. Therefore, you need to find additional ways to motivate employees.

necessary tools to do their job effectively. This may involve supplying the latest technology or simply giving them a better work station with adequate lighting. The proper tools and resources will go a long way to stimulate better employee performance. Many companies underestimate this.

regardless of their gender, marital status, job title and status, etc. Adhere to the relevant provincial or federal employment standards acts to avoid non-compliance issues. Ensure you have an updated HR Policy guide so all employees and managers know the meaning of equality in the workplace.

Tools and Resources - Make sure employees have all the

Feedback and Recognition - This is very effective and costs nothing! Sometimes just a simple comment such as “Great job!” or “I appreciate your input and feedback” can go a long way to keep employees motivated. Make employees feel appreciated and valued for their efforts and opinions.

Here are eight other ways employers can motivate their staff:

Management Training - Make sure managers are well trained. The number one reason why an employee quits their job is unhappiness with their manager (supported by extensive research). Exit interviews may not reveal this, but it is true! Poor people management is poor business! Give your managers the training to effectively motivate and develop employees.

Listen to Employees - Allow employees the opportunity to share their opinions and make their voices heard. After all, these are the individuals who are supporting your company from the ground up. They deserve the chance to share their viewpoints.

Goal Setting/Challenge - Employees want to have goals for

While many employees are self-motivated, the above suggestions will help to boost someone who requires it. Implementing various retention and incentive programs within your workforce will help employees to maintain a high level of motivation. Although receiving a salary, health benefits and vacation time off is sufficient motivation for some employees, in the long run you can find other ways to continually inspire and motivate employees. With these simple techniques you can help your employees to stay energized and enthusiastic about their work. Companies that are successful in the future will have figured this out. ONE FINAL WORD - Giving employees positive and constructive feedback can truly motivate them to strive for success. The absence of feedback gives an employee the feeling that you don’t care about them, or that everything is OK, which may not be the case. Communicate well, and you shall be rewarded!

which they can strive. They want to know expectations and their specific responsibilities…and they want their performance to be evaluated accordingly. They earn a sense of accomplishment when they reach these goals or performance objectives. Setting goals is often overlooked as a way to motivate employees. If the job is very routine, it can become demotivating and uninspiring, resulting in low morale and higher turnover rates. Also important is to avoid unattainable goals. They don’t work because employees will develop a sense of helplessness, which is also demotivating. Good managers will properly challenge employees and help them become more competent as they reach their goals.

Continuous Improvement - When you give employees the opportunity to continue learning (on the job or by taking courses June/July 2017

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DESIGN

Dominant Photo Is A Basic Of Sports Front Design By Ed Henninger Henninger Consulting

Many community newspapers put strong effort into covering high school sports. They understand that their high school teams are a key ingredient in the glue that holds the community together. When designing their sports front page, however, many sports editors try to give all sports fair play. By doing so, they often create pages much like the one at left in the illustration. There’s only so much space on their front page (and sometimes less, to allow for ads), and they cram in too many photos. As a result, none of the photos is large enough to be the lead visual. When too many photos of like size are set on the page, it’s difficult for readers to know which of the packages is more important. There’s no focus—each package calls for attention with the same “visual volume” as those around it. What’s the lead? What’s the second most important report? What’s the third, and so on? Readers get no sense of hierarchy on a page with four or five likesized photos. The page at right works much better. It immediately gives readers a sense that the larger photo is part of a lead package. The other photos are no more than half Too many photos (left) and most are the same size, creating a cluttered, confusing page. the size of the lead photo, helping readers Photo use on the right is much better. to understand that those packages are not as important as the lead report. I answered: “You’re the sports editor. You’re paid to handle those calls. I appreciate that sometimes it’s difficult for us to decide which is the What if one of the teams you cover has a record of 11-1 and the other two lead item. What if the boys basketball team just lost in overtime to their are 3-9 and 2-10? Do you really think it’s good journalism to give them all cross-county rivals, but the girls volleyball team won a squeaker over the the same space?” same cross-county school? Hmmm…which gets the lead? Well, there you When I shared that story with the publisher, he just shook his head, may have to rely on the better photo. If the picture shows the winning grinned and said: “Yeah. That’s Bob.” spike by the girls volleyball team, I’d want to make that the lead. Don’t be Bob. Make choices on your sports front. And let the photos Another point: You can’t make everyone happy. guide you to making choices that will help your readers. I recall a sports editor years ago asking me: “report on three high schools. Can you design me a front page that gives them all equal play?” I thought that over for a moment and responded: “Yes, I can…but I ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director won’t.” “Why not?” the editor asked. “If I don’t try to give them equal of Henninger Consulting, offering comprehensive newspaper design services at: www.henningerconsulting.com. coverage, I get calls from upset parents.” June/July 2017

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TRAINING

ONLINE MEDIA CAMPUS WEBINARS: OCNA has teamed with the Online Media Campus to help the association fulfill its mission of providing affordable and relevant training to members. ▄▄

Friday, July 28 - Effective Prospecting: Five Steps to More Conversations

How would you like to get more appointments while making less calls? Contrary to popular belief, prospecting or cold-calling is not a numbers game. It’s a quality game. This session will teach you how to get more appointments by working smarter not harder. – How to decide who to call on – How to properly prepare before each call – How to customize your approach for each call

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– How to approach each prospect (in-person, phone, or email) – What’s it sound like Meet the Presenter: Mike Centorani is the co-founder of Sales Transformation Now, Inc. and the former vice president of sales training and development at Matchcraft. Sales Transformation Now offers sales training and sales management consulting for traditional media and search companies throughout the US and in 20 countries worldwide. He brings over 25 years of print media experience, combined with over 15 years of search engine marketing expertise. His company was chosen by Google to offer sales training to many of their Google Premier SMB Partners in 2011. Mike is known for his ‘real world’ approach to the sales call process and his ability to teach sales reps “how to speak the small business owner’s language” and ‘make the right sale’ based on their specific needs. ▄▄

Thursday, August 17 - Five Ways To Use Facebook Live (Plus A How-To)

Trying to draw in a new audience, or looking to boost numbers on your videos or podcasts? Give Facebook Live a try. Or are you familiar with the platform, but looking to step up your game? Jason Kolnos of the Cape Cod Times, joins Tim Schmitt of GateHouse Media to discuss the basics (sound, logistics, how-to), as well as some best practices. Hear how Kolnos got more than 61,000 people to watch traffic! Meet the Presenter: Tim Schmitt has spent decades in various newsrooms — some print, and some broadcast. He was a sports reporter, news reporter, and then managing editor of his hometown paper, the Tonawanda (N.Y.) News, where he led an award-winning editorial page. He’s worked as an editor, staffer or longtime contributor with the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, the Mesa Tribune, the Arizona Republic, the alt-weekly Buffalo Current, and the Niagara Falls Gazette, where he was executive sports editor over four dailies.

For more information and to register, visit: www.onlinemediacampus.com.

June/July 2017

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June/July 2017