MPA/MPS e-Bulletin

BNC editorial rules

The staff and board of directors of the Mississippi Press Assocation wish all our members and clients a very happy holiday season. Our offices will be closed Dec. 25 and 26 for Christmas. We will be closed at noon Dec. 31 and all day Jan. 1, 2009, in observance of the New Year holiday.

Members are encouraged to make their reservations soon at the Jackson Marriott Downtown for the annual Mid-Winter Conference to be held Jan. 30-31. The cutoff date to receive the MPA group rate of $112 nightly is Monday, Jan. 5.

Members attending the conference should call the Marriott direct at 601-969-5100 or toll-free at 1-800-228-9290. Online registration at this hotel is not available at the group rate.

Full registrants to the conference will receive complimentary parking at the hotel.

MPA members will judge entries in the South Carolina Press Association Editorial Better Newspaper Contest Jan. 22 in the Hunsberger Community Room at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson.

We are actively recruiting judges to volunteer for the event, which will be held from 9am-3pm. Lunch will be provided at no cost to participants. About 30 judges are needed for the event; please email Beth Boone if you can volunteer to assist.

Judging of newspapers contests is reciprocal. Members of the South Carolina Press Association earlier this year judged entries in the MPA BNC editorial and advertising contests.

The University of Southern Mississippi and the MPA Education Foundation are sponsoring a Multimedia Storytelling Workshop on the USM campus in Hattiesburg Feb. 6 from 9am-3pm.

The workshop will include a general overview of multimedia storytelling and will cover a variety of software and tools, including Web design, audio editing, audio slide show creation, videography and video editing.

The workshop will feature instruction on Mac-based hardware and software.  Much of that instruction should transfer easily to PC-based participants.  Participants are encouraged to bring laptop computers (but they are not required).

The workshop is free to MPA members, and lunch will be provided. The cost is underwritten by a grant from the MPA Education Foundation.

Please download and return the application form to Dr. Christopher Campbell, director, USM School of Mass Communication and Journalism via email, fax at 601-266-6473, or USPS at 118 College Drive # 5121, Hattiesburg, MS 39406.

House ads promoting the upcoming MPA Education Foundation Roast of Mississippi Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant are now available for download (Your MPS ad download password is required). Prepared sizes include SAU, PASS and 48/24-inch. Additional size requests can be accommodated per member request.

This year’s event will be held Jan. 29 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown. Bryant, former state auditor, is in his first term as Mississippi’s lieutenant governor. He was chosen by MPAEF to be “roasted” for his support of open government and the 2008 Incident Report bill passed by the state legislature.

Click here for information on the roast or to register for the event.

For the first time, MPA and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association will join to present an SNPA Traveling Campus during the Mid-Winter Conference. This year’s event will be held Jan. 30-31 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown.

Course offerings will include sessions on improving sales techniques and performance, improving customer service, the continued strong sales position of newspapers and print media, and best management practices for tough economic times.

Speakers include Charlie Kolsky, vice president for business development with Townnews; Bill Smith and Bobbie Hebert of the Free-Lance Star in Fredericksburg, Va., Gus Gonzalez of Leadership on the Level in San Antonio; and software and tech trainer Lisa Griffin of Ray Davis and Co. of Selma, Ala. Kolsky, Smith, Hebert and Gonzalez all have in-depth newspaper backgrounds they will bring to their programs. Griffin is a well-known trainer who has worked with many newspapers and presented programs at numerous MPA events in the past.

Registration is underway and, for the first time, can be completed online via credit card for members who will attend the entire two-day conference. A PDF form is available for download for members who will only attend portions of the conference.

Click here for a conference agenda.

Inland Press Association | Some long-standing newspaper “rules of thumb” are challenged by the results of Inland’s 2008 Cost and Revenue Study for Daily Newspapers. Like many industries, newspapers employ financial rules validated more by continued use than any basis in fact or empirical data. Inland’s latest study, covering 2007 data, challenges some of these mythical benchmarks.

Editorandpublisher.com | Detroit Media Partnership CEO David Hunke told production and editorial union leaders last week that there will be no newsroom layoffs when the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News drop four home delivery days completely.

MORE:

• Papers say carriers OK with limited home delivery.
• Community papers weathering economic storm.

Maneater.com | Despite the Tribune Company’s announcement Monday that it is voluntarily filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the rest of newspaper industry shouldn’t worry just yet. “Most newspaper companies aren’t in that situation,” said Tom Warhover, the MU Print and Digital News faculty chairman and the executive editor of the Columbia Missourian. “This really isn’t reflective of a trend at all. That’s not to say newspaper companies are doing great, but there are other indicators of trends for newspapers, and this is not a good one to use.”

The staff of MPA/MPS wishes all our members and clients a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be closed Nov. 27-28 in observance of the holiday.

The MPA Mid-Winter Conference will be held Jan. 30-31 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown. This year’s event will feature a slate of speakers on a number of sales, revenue and management topics and will be held in conjunction with the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Traveling Campus.

Sessions will be held throughout the day Friday, Jan. 30 with a reception at the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion that evening. Saturday events continue with the annual Silver Dollar Breakfast, more SNPA sessions and the traditional BNC-Advertising Awards Luncheon.

Agendas and registration materials will be available to members in early December.

The conference will again be preceded by the MPA Education Foundation Benefit Roast, also slated for the Jackson Marriott, on Thursday, Jan. 29. This year’s “roastee” is Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, selected for his support of Sunshine Laws and the 2008 legislation sponsored by MPA to have law enforcement incident reports declared public records.

Members attending the conference should call the Marriott direct and mention MPA to receive the special room rate of $112. Call the Marriott at 601-969-5100 or toll-free at 1-800-228-9290.

The cut-off for reservations is January 5, 2009. Click here for more details.

The John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University will publish its first Mississippi Political Almanac and is soliciting columns and editorials from 2008 published in state newspapers for inclusion in the volume.

In a letter to Mississippi editors, Phil Hardwick, the center’s coordinator for capacity development, said he would like to include notable columns and editorials in a section of the almanac devoted to political commentary, cartoons and trivia.

“We would be most grateful if you would select any or all of the following for inclusion into the almanac: The best locally written column about local politics in 2008; the best locally written column about state politics, and the best locally written column about state politics.”

Hardwick said he is also interested in anecdotes that would fall into the political trivia category, information about “intriguing Mississippi politicians,” and any other information that a follower of Mississippi politics would find interesting or amusing.

The Almanac will also include a collection of columns and commentary by Stennis Institute director Dr. Marty Wiseman, as well as political data from recent elections.

For more information on the project or to contribute materials, contact Hardwick by email or telephone at 601-354-6011.

The University of Mississippi rededicated Farley Hall as well as three classrooms named to honor longtime professors: the J.R. Hoar Center for Excellence in Writing, the S. Gale Denley Digital Photo Lab and the Samuel S. Talbert Reading Room.

“Without question, they are the foundation of journalism at Ole Miss,” said Samir Husni, journalism chair and Hederman Lecturer. “They’ve touched countless lives and helped literally hundreds of journalists in their careers.”

Talbert chaired the journalism department from 1957 until his death in 1972. In 1958, Talbert established UM’s Silver Em Award, which recognizes a Mississippian or Mississippi-based journalist who has made outstanding contributions in the profession.

Denley, who died in August after a long illness, was a longtime Mississippi journalist and spent many years as director of the Student Media Center, which oversees The Daily Mississippian, the dmonline, Rebel Radio, Newswatch 12 and campus yearbook. He was the longtime publisher and editor of The Calhoun County Journal in Bruce.

Hoar joined the UM faculty in 1956 and taught for 36 years. He received the campus-wide Outstanding Teacher Award in 1974 and the Silver Em in 1994.

Ole Miss also recognized the establishment of two new endowed scholarships, ­ the Bill and Jean May Mississippi Sun Scholarship and the Clay and Krista McFerrin Sun-Sentinel Scholarship.

The scholarships are part of a $300,000 endowment created by Ed and Becky Meek, formerly of Charleston. The scholarships will be awarded annually with first priority being given to students from Tallahatchie County who major in journalism at Ole Miss.

“My career in journalism began when I was employed at The Mississippi Sun as a junior high school student by Bill and his late wife, Jean Counger May, who became my adopted parents. I am most grateful for the example they set for me and for their support and encouragement,” Ed Meek said.

“Clay and Krista McFerrin observe their 25th year with The Sun-Sentinel this year and we honor the outstanding contribution they have made to our hometown by publishing one of the best community newspapers in Mississippi.”

MORE: Video and Full Story.

Declines for dailies and weeklies conspired to push total statewide circulation of newspapers down by 4 percent to 630,694 per the recent Statements of Ownership filed with the USPS and copied to MPA.

The drop is the most precipitous yet recorded by MPA, with daily declines in recent years offset by mostly stable circulation for the 75 weekly newspapers in the state. For the most recent period, however, the average rate of decline for weeklies mirrored that of dailies. In 2007, weeklies and semi-weeklies actually recorded an increase of 2 percent.

Total circulation for dailies dipped 4 percent to 339,922. There were bright spots, however, with seven newspapers posting circulation increases, most notably the Daily Corinthian, Greenwood Commonwealth, Natchez Democrat and Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Non-dailies and weeklies dropped by 3 percent to 290,772. Assorted factors contributed to the decline, including the consolidation of newspapers in Aberdeen and Amory and DeSoto County, which led to drops based on duplication of readership. The DeSoto Times-Tribune, which is the successor to Hernando’s DeSoto Times Today and Olive Branch’s DeSoto County Tribune, posted a circulation of 12,294 and becomes the state’s largest non-daily paid circulation newspaper.

Circulation figures will be included in the 2009 MPA Newspaper Directory, which will be published in January.

A new U.S. Department of Transportation requirement that all members of the media working accidents and other news events on federal highways and interstates went into effect Monday, Nov. 24. Newspapers who have reporters working accident scenes and other news events on affected highways must now wear high-visibility vests that meet specific USDOT criteria. MPA has a number of DOT-compliant vests for purchase by members at $22 each. For more information, or to purchase a vest in either S/M or L/XL size, contact Kimberly Haydu.

National Newspaper Association | The Sunshine in Government Initiative has suggested that the new Administration of President-elect Barack Obama should take four immediate, concrete steps to strengthen open government to counteract years of growing government secrecy in a climate in Washington increasingly hostile to the people’s right to know.

Newspaper Association of America | Shoppers prefer newspapers, which far surpass direct mail as the medium of choice for information on purchases. Newspapers are cited as the most convenient way to plan shopping and compare pricing.

Editor and Publisher | If you’re looking for someone to fault for congress’ failure to approve an auto industry bailout, don’t blame Detroit’s two major papers. Both The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News have been editorializing heavily in favor of some aid for their biggest local industry, especially the Free Press, which has been running pro-bailout editorials all week.

RELATED: Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi gets in line and asks for a newspaper industry bailout.

A reminder Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday morning. Be sure to set your clocks back one hour Saturday evening before going to bed. Daily carriers for Sunday editions will have one extra hour to sleep or get those papers in the tubes and driveways this weekend.

Clarion-Ledger executive editor Ronnie Agnew will be the 50th recipient of the University of Mississippi’s Silver Em Award during a banquet Nov. 6 on the Oxford campus.

Agnew, a native of Saltillo, was editor of the Dothan (Ala.) Eagle, where he also supervised four other daily and weekly newspapers. Other career stops included The Cincinnati Enquirer and a stint as managing editor at The Hattiesburg American. Agnew is also an alumnus of the Maynard Management Institute at Northwestern University, where he developed the skills for his current job as executive editor, including a focus on diversity. He joined the C-L in 2001 as managing editor.

The 7:15 p.m. banquet in Johnson Commons Ballroom is to be preceded by a 6 p.m. reception in the conference room of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. Tickets are available for $35. Call 662-915-7147.

MPA is now taking orders for regulation safety vests that will soon be required by the U.S. Department of Transportation when reporters and other personnel are working news events along federal highways and rights-of-way. The new requirement takes effect in late November.

The proper garment is a ANSI Class II-2004-107 safety vest. MPA’s vest is bright yellow with reflective markings. In large letters on the back is the MPA logo. Vests are available n S/M and L/XL sizes for $22 each.

To order vests, email khaydu@mspress.org.

Just when Americans find themselves drawn to news reports from a contentious presidential election and deflating economic challenges, new research from the National Newspaper Association (NNA) again demonstrates that Main Street America relies upon community newspapers to inform and empower citizens from coast to coast. In a follow-up to its landmark 2005 research and 2007 update, NNA finds that 86 percent of adults read a local community newspaper each week, which compares with 83% in 2007 and 81% in 2005. The survey was conducted this past summer, before the presidential race heated up and the stock market took a dive.

“This is in stark contrast to news reports trumpeting the decline, if not demise, of newspapers,” says John Stevenson, president of NNA and publisher of the Randolph Leader in Roanoke, AL. “We learned three years ago that we had a different story to tell, and with this second update we again prove that our initial findings hold up.”

According to the 2008 NNA survey, conducted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s (RJI) Center for Advanced Social Research at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri:

• 86 percent of adults over the age of 18 read a newspaper every week.
• 75 percent of those readers read most or all of their paper.
• On average, readers spend 45 minutes reading an issue of their paper, compared to 42 minutes from the 2007 survey, and 38 minutes in the 2005 survey.
• More than one-third of readers keep their paper for more than six days, enabling them to revisit a story or advertisement at their leisure.

Download the NNA release with more information on the study.

From Mediaweek: For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, the latest news brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros. According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6 percent to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8 percent to 43,631,646 copies.

MORE: MediaLife reports on mounting troubles for metro newspapers.

From The New York Times: After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, its publisher announced Tuesday. The cost-cutting measure makes The Monitor the first national newspaper to largely give up on print.

From Editor and Publisher: We’re in the homestretch! And the Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for daily newspaper endorsements, while splitting with McCain-Palin the most recent 18 papers to make our list. The Democratic team now leads by 231 to 102, a better than 2-1 margin and an even wider spread in the circulation of those papers — see full tally below as of today. The circulation of the Obama-backing papers stands at over 21 million, compared with McCain’s 7 million.

The deadline to enter MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division is 5pm Tuesday, October 7. Find entry forms and criteria here.

Awards will be presented during the annual Mid-Winter Conference, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown.

Annual USPS statement of ownership filings are due at your local post office by Sept. 30, 2008. The required information also must be published in your newspaper:

• No later than Oct. 10 for dailies and semi-weeklies;
• No later than Oct. 31 for all weeklies.

MPA also requires its members submit a copy of the postal Statement of Ownership to our office by faxing to 601.981.3676 or via mail to 371 Edgewood Terrace, Jackson, MS 39206. For your convenience, we encourage you to submit the Statement with your 2008 BNC-Advertising entries, due Oct. 7.

National Newspaper Week is Oct. 5-11, 2008. Member newspapers are encouraged to visit the MPA’s partner NNW Website to download art, columns, house ads and other features to run in editions that week.

The package is produced by this year by Texas Press Association and made available to participating associations across the country. The theme for this year’s observance of NNW again focuses on public notices and the importance the legal advertisements play in keeping government agencies open and honest.

For more information on the NNW package, contact Layne Bruce.

A federal regulation that will go into effect in late November will require reporters and photographers covering events on federal highways and rights-of-way to wear high-visibility safety vests. The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration has said the new rule was put in effect to increase visibility and safety of media and others who work accident scenes and cover other news developments on or near highways.

MPA will make vests available to members that will be stenciled with the MPA “PRESS” logo on the back panel beginning in October. Publishers and editors will receive further information via mail and email as the vests become available.

For members who choose to purchase vests from another vendor, the new regulation requires the garments be lime green or orange and must be Class 2, ANSI/107 approved.

More information is available from NNA.

Registration for this year’s ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference is underway. Materials can be downloaded here.

The event returns to the Ameristar Hotel and Casino in Vicksburg Nov. 6-7. It s sponsored jointly by MPA and the Louisiana Press Association and Arkansas Press Association.

Speakers include circulation training and sales expert Don Michel of Anderson Randles & Associates and National Newspaper Association postal chairman Max Heath. The Friday morning Hot Ideas Breakfast will again be led by Phil Erhardt of The Times Picayune in New Orleans.

Heath will be on hand to consult daily and weekly members concerning their USPS statements and help maximize potential savings on their postage bills.

Registration is $90. The group rate at the hotel is $89 nightly. For more information, contact member services manager Beth Boone.

NNA: The outlook for community newspapers is much better than what is being reported in the media, said a group of community newspaper leaders. “You read about the struggles that newspapers are having in larger markets,” said Michael Abernathy, president for Landmark Community Newspapers. “And we don’t really find that to be the case in our community markets.”

Al Neuharth: “This week, I met in this Mile High City with executives of mostly middle-America medium-sized newspapers at a conference sponsored by the Inland Press Foundation…One speaker was Walter Hussman Jr., owner-publisher of the Arkansas (Little Rock) Democrat-Gazette. His newspaper showed its traditional circulation gains again this year. It now is 182,202, up from 174,722 10 years ago. I asked Hussman the “secrets” to that continuing success. His reply: We put news in the paper that people can use.”

MediaLife Magazine: The economy’s rocky, consumers are worried, magazines are struggling, and it’s only been 18 months since Time Inc. folded Life in its latest iteration as a weekend insert. But that’s not discouraging publishers from launching newspaper inserts, with three debuting in just these recent weeks.

OXFORD — S. Gale Denley, the longtime publisher of the weekly Calhoun County Journal and mentor to a generation of journalism students, has died at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford.

Funeral Arrangements for S. Gale Denley:
Funeral services will be held at Bruce United Methodist Church on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3 p.m. Interment will follow in Bruce Cemetery. Parker Memorial Funeral Home in Bruce is in charge of arrangements. Visitation is scheduled Saturday, Aug. 30 from 5-8 p.m. at Bruce United Methodist Church.

Memorial donations may be made to the following institutions:
The S. Gale Denley Student Media Center Scholarship, UM Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677;
or
The Bruce Museum, P.O. Box 1013, Bruce, Miss., 38915
or
Sanctuary Hospice House, P.O. Box 2177, Tupelo, Miss., 38803

Directions to the church:
From Oxford: Start out on MS-7 S. MS-7 S becomes MS 9W S. MS 9W S becomes MS-9 S. Turn LEFT onto MS-32/ W CALHOUN ST. Continue to follow MS-32 E. Our church is approximately .06 miles on the left.

Directions from other MS cities can be found at:
http://www.gbgm-umc.org/fumc-bruce/directions.html

A Blue Ribbon Panel appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour has recommended the repeal of the sales tax exemption for Mississippi newspapers as part of a comprehensive proposal to overhaul the state’s tax code.

The group met Aug. 19 to formally vote on specific proposals in the plan, which also include hiking the excise tax on tobacco and broadening service tax categories to include towing, data processing, security, janitorial, advertising agency fees and graphic design, among others. A final vote to send the plan on to Barbour was taken this week.

The governor has the option of sending the entire plan or only portions of it on to the state legislature for consideration either in special session this fall or the regular session convening in January.

Mississippi has long had a sales tax exemption for newspapers and the Association along with member publishers have successfully argued against repeal in the past. Considerations include freedom of speech implications and the sheer logistics of requiring collections on the sales of single copy and home delivery newspapers. Even though sales taxes on newspapers are levied in certain states, the trend has been for adoption of exemptions. Louisiana during its last legislative session instituted a long-sought exemption on newspaper sales.

The MPA Governmental Affairs Committee has been tracking the developments along with Capitol representatives Hayes Dent and Steve Browning. A meeting with lobbyists next week will outline a strategy for the Association and a teleconference with the full GAC membership will follow. Members will be apprised of developments and may receive a call to action via email within the coming days from the Association or GAC chair Jim Prince of the Neshoba Democrat.

A full copy of the Governor’s Tax Study Plan may be downloaded here.

Criteria and entry packets for the Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division have been released and are available for download now.

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 5pm. Entries must be hand-delivered to the MPA office by that time, or shipped at an appropriate time to guarantee delivery by the close of business on Oct. 7.

This year’s contest includes two new categories to recognize member expansion into magazine publishing. Category 29/Best Magazine Product will recognize special publications that are produced in magazine format as either one-time specials or periodicals. Category 30/Best Magazine Advertisement was created to recognize excellence in design and content for advertisements produced specifically for these special products. The Advertising Committee made recommendations for the additions during an August meeting and the changes were approved by the Board of Directors this week.

Judging this cycle will be by the members of the South Carolina Press Association. Awards will be presented Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Marriott Jackson during the annual MPA Mid-Winter Conference.

For more information on the contest, contact member services manager Beth Boone.

The ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference will return to Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg Nov. 6-7. The event is held annually in conjunction with the Arkansas and Louisiana press associations.

Featured speakers at the event include circulation and marketing consultant Don Michel and perennial ArkLaMiss favorite Max Heath, postal chairman for the National Newspaper Association.

Michel is the co-owner of Anderson, Randles & Associates, a nationally-recognized newspaper circulation consulting company. A magna cum laude graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside with a degree in psychology, Michel has more than 30 years of experience in circulation management, training and consulting.

During his newspaper career, he held circulation executive positions at The Journal Times (Racine, WI); the Billings (MT) Gazette; the Des Moines (IA) Register; and The Gazette in Cedar Rapids (IA), where he now resides.

Heath, longtime vice president of postal and acquisitions for Landmark Community Newspapers, has been featured regularly at ArkLaMiss and is routinely lauded for working with attending members on their postal statements and maximizing savings for their newspapers.

Registration materials for ArkLaMiss will be forthcoming in September. For more information, contact Layne Bruce.

For many members, Internet sites are secondary to concerns about the core product, particularly during this trying economic times. For those members who have sites but are not generating income, the task of dedicating brainpower and sales efforts to building revenue stream can be a daunting task. For members who have not yet made the leap to the Internet, the challenge can seem down right impossible with limited staffs and resource.

Workable solutions for both scenarios are on the agenda for MPA’s first Internet Conference for Community Newspapers, October 7 at the Jackson Hilton. Featured speaker Gary Sosniecki, an expert on newspaper portals for weeklies and community dailies will discuss various success stories in generating content that drives readership and advertising revenue.

Following Sosniecki’s presentation, members will share success stories and hints on problems you can avoid in our Best Practices panel discussion. Topics will range from advertising sales to editorial content, including posting video and multimedia content.

The program is perfect for those who are interested in starting a site, or those who are looking to build stronger the sites they already have. Plus, MPA will inform members of a low-cost turnkey Internet solution it will be offering beginning in 2009 for newspapers who currently have no Web presence and limited resources or staffing to dedicate to one.

The one-day conference begins at 9am and wraps by 3pm. Registration fee is $45 per person. Contact Beth Boone for more information or download the registration form.