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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER
Governments have money for tourism ads. Page 3
November 2018
Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
Honors roll out at 131st annual meeting of WNPA
Archipley is Turnbull award recipient; Luna accepts Dixie Lee Bradley award The 131st meeting of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association was a memorable affair at the venerable Yakima Red Lion Oct. 11-13. It started with a wakeup call from Keynote speaker Bill Ostendorf of Creative Circle Media Solutions. He paced in the dining room, he shouted, he pleaded, he slapped his forehead and he challenged newspaper editors and managers to do better. He said most newspaper editors will tell you they are indeed “reader-centric,” but Ostendorf disputed that assumption, citing statistic after statistic that showed newspapers often ignore facts and instead rely on time-worn, disproved truisms. Newspapers staff members spend hours on stories no one will read and only a few minutes on the things everyone will read and consume – like photos, headlines, captions and subheads. He encouraged editors to flip that process on its head. He said doing that will result in much stronger and more highly read content. Giving short shrift to photos is one of the deadliest
sins, Ostendorf said. Papers are being foolish when they cut photographers to save money. And he skewered the age old idea that type must touch an ad for the ad to be read, resulting in the all too familiar stair step ad stack. Every piece of research done over decades proves that system doesn’t increase ad readership. “Which ad gets read? The big one!” Ostendorf thundered. Ostendorf also led workshops following his keynote and they proved to be enlightening as well. “Great pacing, high energy, lots of info,” one workshop participant said. Another simply said: “Bill is Godlike. More please.” Also presenting workshops were Jim Elsberry of Elsberry Consulting, Doug Schust of Hagadone Digital, and photographer Amanda Rey of the Yakima Herald-Republic, all of whom got high marks for their presentations. At the awards luncheon on Friday, Paul Archipley, of Beacon Publishing, a former WNPA President and a 40
See WNPA, Page 4
Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
Janice Nesamani from the Northwest Asian Weekly was on hand to pickup awards for staff members at her newspaper from WNPA President Michael Wagar, including News Writer of the Year for Carolyn Bick. At the microphone is WNPA Executive Director Fred Obee.
Paul Archipley of Beacon Publishing speaks to the crowd after accepting the Miles Turnbull Master Editor/Publisher award.
Jeanie Luna of the Northern Light in Blaine collects the Dixie Lee Bradley award.
Big ad buy goes out to WNPA members Update your rate cards with RAMP WNPA member newspapers all received a fullcolor, full-page political ad opposing Initiative 1611, a carbon tax initiative that failed at the polls Nov. 6. While we manage the 2X2 or 2X4 Impact Ad placement here in the WNPA office, when people want to place larger ads, or place ads in select newspapers, we contract with the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association for that service. The division of ONPA that handles the ad sales is called RAMP, which promotes, sells and markets WNPA papers to regional and national clients. Here’s how that ad system works. When RAMP sells an ad into your paper, RAMP will take a holdback of 15 percent on your open rate and 10 percent off of ratecard contract/volume
discount rates. ONPA then shares the a portion of that holdback with WNPA. When RAMP sells an ad into your paper, they will require you to return a tearsheet as proof of publication. The quicker you return a tearsheet, the quicker you will be paid fo the ad, as RAMP needs that tearsheet when they invoice their customers. PDF tearsheets can be emailed to tearsheets@ orenews.com. If you are sending physical tears, please mail them directly to ONPA, Attn: tearsheet coordinator, 4000 Kruse Way Place, Bldg 2-160, Lake Oswego, OR 97035. Finally, because RAMP is only as good as its knowledge of your paper, please provide RAMP with new rate cards as your rates change.
Officers: Michael Wagar, President; Patrick Grubb, First Vice President; Eric LaFontaine, 2nd Vice President; Sandy Stokes, Past President. Trustees: Colette Weeks, Caralyn Bess, Roger Harnack, Scott Hunter, Steve Powell, Teresa Myers and Michelle Nedved. THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the offical publication of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly by WNPA, PO Box 389, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Staff Fred Obee: Executive Director: 360-344-2938 Email: fredobee@wnpa.com Janay Collins, Member Services Director: 360-344-2938. Email: ads@wnpa.com 2 The Washington Newspaper November 2018
FROM THE PRESIDENT
We would all be lost without ‘Jeanies’ helping support newspaper mission By Michael Wagar We all have them, the ones who work tirelessly behind the scenes. The ones who change the water coolers, stay another five or 10 minutes after hours to field phone calls, Wagar the ones who always lead the company potlucks, the ones who often go unheralded but are the glue to many of our weeklies. The ones who do the books. I was reminded of these essential people again last month, when I was voted in as president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association during the annual convention held in Yakima. It is a humbling honor, given past presidents, including Sandy Stokes, who I followed. After selling her La Conner Weekly News last year, Stokes
could have stepped away from her commitment to the WNPA. But she has ink in her bones, a devotion to local news. Stokes instead chose to finish her promise to the WNPA and headed up the Olympia News Bureau last year. She spent many hours in travel from her La Conner home to Olympia and she has agreed to do it again in 2019 when the Legislature resumes in January. It was the best Olympia News Bureau in my experience due to her mentorship. Thanks Sandy. As part of my new presidential duties (pretty much my only real duty thanks to the efforts of WNPA Executive Director Fred Obee), I gave a speech about the winners of the Dixie Lee Bradley and the Miles Turnbull Master Editor/Publisher awards (Fred, as related above, of course wrote the speech for me — I really do like Fred). Paul Archipley, a lion in the business and owner of Beacon Publishing, was appropriately honored
with the Miles Turnbull Master Editor/Publisher Award, a fitting choice given his commitment to community journalism ever since he stepped into the town of Mukilteo in 1991. With no job forthcoming, he started his own paper. He’s still at it 26 years later. The one honor that touched my heart deepest, however, is Dixie Lee Bradley Award winner Jeanie Luna. While reading from Fred’s script perhaps a tiny teardrop or two could be seen. For the past three decades I’ve worked with and deeply appreciated people such as Jeanie. She is the office manager of The Northern Light and Point Roberts Press located near the Canadian border in Blaine. She started work there in 1996 and soon was responsible for everything but the writing and designing. She organized circulation, ran subscriptions, entered classifieds and other editorial materials that came in the
door. She did the nuts and bolts work of invoicing, accounts receivable and payable, tax payments and making sure the coffee was brewing and water cooler filled. “I cannot speak highly enough about Jeanie. She is smart, she is funny, she is loyal, and she is caring,” said Publisher Patrick Grubb. “Her husband Joe may be the luckiest man alive but I’m the second luckiest. All of what we’ve gone through as a company starting basically from scratch, scaling up, introducing new accounting and CRM software systems, she’s been there and done it for us. She is a more than a worthy recipient of the Dixie Lee Bradley Award.” We all have our Jeanies. My request today is to thank them for all they do. We would be lost without them. Michael Wagar is the President of Lafromboise Communications and this year’s WNPA president.
Membership approves changes in bylaws Updates to the bylaws of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association were unanimously approved at the business meeting of the association Oct. 12 at the Red Lion Hotel in Yakima at the start of the annual convention. “The changes made by the bylaws committee and approved by the board mainly reflect our current way of conducting business,” said WNPA Executive Director Fred Obee. One of the more significant changes is allowing freelance writers, graphic artists, cartoonists, columnists, photographers and others who regularly contribute to the community press to join the association as Affiliate
members. WNPA currently has four levels of membership. Regular membership, which includes newspapers that publish at least every two weeks, Associate membership, which includes publications that come out monthly, and Affiliate membership, which includes businesses like printers, law firms, paper suppliers and others who are connected to the publishing industry. Freelancers are now added to this membership category. The fourth level of membership is Honorary Lifetime membership, awarded by the Board of Directors as a way of honoring people who over many years have contributed greatly to the organization.
Your local governments have money for tourism ads Selling statewide or regional 2x2 or 2x4 black and white Impact Ads is a big part of what helps fund your Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, and it’s a great option for advertisers seeking broader reach for their messages. It also is a perfect match for hotel-motel tax funds distributed annually by cities and counties to local non-profit groups. If you have not already, you should ask your city and county governments (each has separate funds) for a report on where the hotel-motel tax money is going this year. In most cases, the non-profit organizations that receive this money are supposed to spend it on marketing in outside markets that will draw people to your town. WNPA ads are a perfect match for this program because
• You charge your client for the full cost of the ad, and send an insertion order to WNPA. WNPA then invoices you for half the cost of the ad, splitting the revenue on the ad sale. The advertising sales person gets their regular commission on the sale. • WNPA uses our share of the money to provide your legal hotline, professional services, Legislative Day, the Better Newspaper Contest and annual convention. • We keep the cost to the client affordable by asking all Impact Ads can be sold statewide or to coastal, metro member newspapers to publish or eastern Washington regions. You can download sales the ads sold by other newspabrochures at wnpa.com under the Advertise Statewide pers without cost. link in the navigation bar at the top of the home page. Potential customers include festivals, fairs, resorts, real you can choose to advertise works: estate offices, state agencies, regionally or statewide to boost • You sell the ad to a local statewide or regional polititourism in your community. non-profit organization to bolcal candidates – anyone who Here’s how the program ster tourism.
desires a cost effective regional or statewide campaign. Because member newspapers publish these ads for free, the ads are black and white only and small – just two columns wide by either two or four inches tall. It’s not too early to talk with local chambers or festival organizers or others who receive hotel-motel tax money from local governments. Many are planning next summer’s spending right now. And if they have already allocated their funds, tell them you want to be included in next year’s request. The WNPA 2x2 ad program is important arrow in your sales quiver and a great way for advertisers in your area to reach a broader audience at a very affordable price. Questions? Call Member Services Director Janay Collins at 360-344-2938.
WITH OVER 60 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, WE KNOW JOURNALISM. From public records to protecting journalists, from defamation claims to business needs, large and small Washington publishers turn to us.
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The Washington Newspaper November 2018 3
131ST ANNUAL CONVENTION
WNPA: Association members honor Archipley, Luna Continued from Page 1
year veteran newspaperman, accepted the Miles Turnbull Master/Editor Publisher award. In accepting the award, he delivered heartfelt remarks to the crowd. “Whether you’re writing or editing the stories, shooting the photos, selling the ads, building the pages, delivering the papers or any number of other important tasks that make community newspapers run, you have the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing work that matters,” Archipley said. “In this era when people in power are calling us the enemy, trying constantly to make our work harder, when repressive regimes in other parts of the world are even murdering our brothers and sisters in journalism, our work – whether it’s in a major metro zone or a tiny backwater village – is more important than ever. “When many are trying to close the doors on truth, we have to fight even harder to keep them open,” he said. Jeanie Luna, the office manager at the Northern Light in Blaine, was announced as the 2018 winner of the Dixie Lee Bradley award. That award is given annually for a behind-the-scenes newspaper employee who is essential to the operation of the business. Northern Light Publisher Patrick Grubb somehow lured Luna to the conference without telling her she would receive the award, and she gasped in surprise when her name was called. “I cannot speak highly enough about Jeanie,” Grubb said. “She is smart, she is funny, she is loyal, and she is caring. All of what we’ve gone through as a company starting basically from scratch, scaling up, introducing new accounting and CRM software systems, she’s been there and done it for us.” The Bradley
Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
The bidding was lively during the live auction that benefitted the WNPA Foundation. award comes with an engraved clock and a $500 check. Laura Martin of the Statesman Examiner won this year’s Pinnacle Award for selling the most WNPA statewide classified and Impact Ads. With her top salesperson award, she received a check for $1,000. The Community Service award for news coverage went to the staff of the Chinook Observer for coverage of the immigration crackdown on Washington’s coast, and the advertising Community Service award went to Job Wise of the Daily Sun News for a food drive and free movie promotion. Just prior to the evening gala awards dinner, silent and live auctions netted about $6,000 for the WNPA Foundation. John Marling of Pulse Research wrapped up the conference with a fact-filled breakfast program that described five things community newspapers can and must do right now to increase readerLuke Whittaker picks up a first place for Comship and revenue. munity Service for the Chinook Observer.
Cody France of SmallTownPapers was on hand to promote his company’s services. SmallTownPapers has been a major sponsor of the convention for more than a decade.
Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
Whidbey News Group Publisher Keven Graves collects a first place in General Excellence for the Whidbey News-Times.
Jana Stoner catches up with Brian Koenig from the Wenatchee World.
The Washington Newspaper November 2018 4
131ST ANNUAL CONVENTION
Doug Schust of Hagadone Digital dives deep into digital reality during a workshop session.
Bill Ostendorf thunders through a workshop presentation.
Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
WNPA President Michael Wagar congratulates Andy Hobbs and Cindy Ducich of the Federal Way Mirror for a first place in General Excellence. WNPA Member Services Director Janay Collins helps WNPA board member Caralyn Bess with some information at the registration table. Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
Roger Harnack comes forward to collect Photographer of the Year.
Photo by Philip L. Watness, Skamania County Pioneer
The Washington Newspaper November 2018 5
Wagar
Grubb
LaFontaine
Stokes
Hunter
The Pinnacle Award CONTEST RULES
Weeks
Bess
Powell
Harnack
WNPA membership approves officers & board of trustees
A new Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Board of Directors was unanimously elected by the membership at the annual meeting Oct. 12 at the Red Lion Hotel in Yakima. Installed as President was Michael Wagar, President of Lafromboise Communications. First and second vice presidents are a ladder to the presidency. Patrick Grubb of the Northern Light in Blaine, was elected first vice president and will ascend to the presidency in October 2019. Eric LaFontaine was
elected second vice president and will become president in October 2020. Filling out the rest of the board are: • Past President Sandy Stokes, Olympia News Bureau Bureau Chief. • Colette Weeks, Director of Content for Skagit Publishing. • Steve Powell, Managing Editor, the Marysville Globe. • Teresa Myers, Publisher, the Omak Oakanogan County Chronicle. • Scott Hunter, Publisher, the Grand Coulee Star. • Roger Harnack,
Myers
Nedved
Publisher, The Statesman Examiner in Colville. • Caralyn Bess, Publisher, the Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake. • Michelle Nedved, Publisher, The Newport Miner. Board members serve for three years, and can serve up to two terms as trustees. WNPA was organized in 1887 as the Washington State Press Association Publishers across the state were prompted to form the organization by the completion of a railroad that linked Eastern and Western Washington for the first time.
Nelson new president of WNPA Foundation Don Nelson, a past president of WNPA and the Publisher of the Methow Valley News, was selected by the WNPA Foundation Board as its next president. Sandy Stokes, curNelson rently past president of WNPA, will serve as vice-president.
Typically, past presidents of WNPA migrate to the Foundation board, but the board discussed at its annual meeting opening the board to others who might support the board’s mission. Natural partners would be journalism faculty members and others who support the Foundation’s education mission. Foundation programs are supported by fundraising and by endowments made in the name of past WNPA publishers.
• Presented each year at WNPA’s annual convention. • Awarded to the top salesperson of WNPA Impact Ads and statewide classifieds. • Winner will be the person with the highest program revenue totals. • Contest period: begins the Monday following the annual October con$1,000 CASH vention’s adjournment. It PRIZE! concludes the following Sept. 30. • Winner receives a $1,000 cash prize and a trophy. • Standings are reported in WNPA email updates and The Washington Newspaper throughout the year. • Winner must be employed at a WNPA member newspaper at the time the award is presented. • Impact Ad sales brochures are available at wnpa.com.
PO Box 389, Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-344-2938 • wnpa.com The Washington Newspaper November 2018 6
WNPA JOB BOARD ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVE Are you a strong closer? Do you excel at follow through? Do you have a “get-it-done” attitude? Beacon Publishing, publisher of three community newspapers and other specialty publications, is looking for display advertising sales professional for the South Snohomish County area for either parttime or full-time. You’ll be part of a team that is on a mission to provide the best in local news, news that makes a difference in people’s lives, news that matters. Sales experience is a plus but not a requirement. We will train you. Major responsibilities include: actively pursue and develop new clients; build strong relationships with clients to understand and meet their needs; maintain client accounts in a competitive market; and professionally represent Beacon Publishing. Minimum qualifications include: excellent written and verbal communication skills; outgoing personality; desire to provide a high level of customer service; and deadline oriented. Salary is Commission-
based. The more you sell, the more you make. Benefits include a health care plan and vacations. To apply, send cover letter and resume to: Jenn Barker, General Manager, Beacon Publishing, Inc., 806 5th Street Mukilteo, WA 98275 or e-mail to: gm@yourbeacon.net MAILROOM MANAGER Seeking a MailroomManager. Job duties include but are not limited to; building, grounds, equipment maintenance and repair. Hiring and managing mailroom employees. Ordering and stocking all supplies for mailroom. Working with other internal departments to meet deadlines. A working knowledge of equipment repairs is a must. On the job training. This opportunity affords a minimum of 32 hours a week with generous benefits after a 60-day new hire period. Benefits include health care, dental, life insurance, paid holidays, sick, vacation and personal days, as well as 401(k) and Flexible Spending (FSA). EOE. Must have a valid driver’s license, proof of insurance and pass a preemployment drug screening
WNPA can help with legal questions and concerns If you are worried about the legal implications of a story you are about to publish or if you have heard from an attorney who is threatening action against you, the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association has your back. The first contact for you is Executive Director Fred Obee. In many cases, he can answer basic legal questions about access
to meetings and records, and counsel you on libel concerns or your approach to a sensitive story. If you are facing immediate legal jeopardy, you will be connected with WNPA hotline attorney Michele Earl-Hubbard for a free one hour consultation. The bottom line? Call WNPA at 360-344-2938 if you have legal concerns. We’re here to help.
7 The Washington Newspaper November 2018
and motor vehicle driving record check. Please send resume to tmyers@ omakchronicle.com or mail to The Omak Chronicle, PO Box 553, Omak, WA 98841. No phone calls please. Job open until filled. EOE REPORTER We are seeking a general assignment reporter
to cover community, features, business and agriculture news in the heart of Central Washington. Our next reporter must have well-developed skills in English and AP style, be able to write, take pictures, enjoy social media, edit copy and work well with others, be an energetic team player, bear strong
interpersonal skills, and be well organized. Preference is given to applicants from Washington state. The job becomes available June 1. Moses Lake offers a great small town feel with big city features. Outdoor recreation is nearby with close locations for hiking, skiing, powersports, fishing, golf and more.
We offer full medical coverage, paid vacation and a retirement 401(k) plan. Please email cover letter, resume and writing samples to mediawork2018@outlook. com or via mail to: Reporter opening, 601 S. Pioneer Way, Ste F #269, Moses Lake, WA 98837.