2006 April

Winter Convention a Rousing Success

The theme for Winter Convention 2006 was “Foundations for Success” and it proved to be close to prophetic before ending last Saturday. Training on improving sales, a seminar on building and retaining circulation and another on the importance of giving your subscribers electronic subscriptions to your newspaper all held the secrets to building a foundation of success for each of Utah’s newspapers.

Special awards were given this year to Rick Hall of the Deseret Morning News with the Jim Cornwell Distinguished Service Award, Barbra Stinson Lee received the prestigious Master Editor & Publisher Award. Joel Campbell associate professor at BYU and our legislative monitor, received the UPA’s Honorary Publisher Award. Special recognition was given to Jerry O’Brien with our most prestigious Newspaper Hall of Fame Award. Having his three sons and daughter there to accept this award was a touching and fulfilling moment during convention.

The Saturday evening Better Newspaper Contest Awards dinner is always a highlight and this year was no exception. The work done by Kirk Parrish in preparing the actual entries in presentation format has become one of the finishing touches to a lovely evening. Receiving these awards continues to carry a great deal of respect and joy to the winners. One of most sought after awards, Community Service Award was given this year to The Wasatch Wave. If anyone would like the cd produced with the presentation and winners need to simply contact Kirk Parrish at the UPA offices.

Another high point in the convention is that of the High School Better Newspaper Awards. The winners this year were as follows:

• Group 2 & 3 A, first place was awarded to The Prospector, Park City Second place, Bulldog Press, Judge Memorial

• Group 4 & 5 A, first place was awarded to HKI Hawkey, Alta High H.S. Second place, Thundebolt, Timp View H.S.

• Super Journalist Award winner this year was Matt Livingston of Kanab High School

Dixie Brunner continues to recognize the importance of her position in encouraging participation of the high schools and their journalism department in this competition. These are the people who need our encouragement to keep writing, selling and producing newspapers. It is these same youth who will be knocking on your door in a few years asking to continue our tradition of being the heart and life of local and state communities through our local newspapers.

Click above for more Winter Convention 2006 photos

Click Here for Better Newspaper Contest Winners

Board Members

The issue of ‘free classifieds’ puzzles publishers

By Peter M. Zollman

The issue of free classifieds won’t go away any time soon.

It’s a tremendous challenge for publishers, because they’re used to getting paid for the ads they run.

But Google, Microsoft and many other companies – including Craigslist, the site that’s not really a business – don’t plan to get paid for the classified ads they carry. At least not directly. And that makes every traditional classified advertising publisher crazy. Publishers have to adapt to the new business rules while still keeping the old business going and growing.

It’s not easy. Not at all.

Here are a few questions:
--- Should you offer free classifieds?
--- If so, what / how / why?
--- Should you allow your ads to be aggregated into Google Base / Indeed.com / Oodle.com / Vast.com / etc.?

Unfortunately, there’s no single answer to any of those questions. For each newspaper / market / category, the answer is different. We work with our clients to answer those questions specifically for them.

But since I’ve raised the questions, I should at least give you my “generic” answers with a very short synopsis of why I and my colleagues at Classified Intelligence believe as we do.

--- Should you offer free classifieds? Yes. Sometimes. Are there marketplaces you’ve lost? Like “merchandise under $500” or personals or “used cars under $3,000”? If so, that’s a good place to start. But make sure you build in revenue streams, such as section sponsorships or options for advertisers who want to sell to the audience you’re reaching (low-end used-car dealers, for example, adjacent to “used cars under $3,000”). And upsells into print. And upsells online. Best: All of the above.

“Why” offer free classifieds? To recapture categories you’ve lost, and / or to hold on to your “endangered species.” Make sure you use those free classifieds to promote your newspaper, to build “community” on your Web site (and in print, if possible), and to increase traffic on your Web site. All of those generate revenue through local ad sales.

When you offer free classifieds, make sure you’re not substantially increasing costs. Use them to drive ad placement online. And make sure you include upsell WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) capabilities on your site, so customers who are tempted to spend $5, $10, or $15 for increased visibility online or a print upsell have great reason to do so. Readily, easily and by credit card.

--- Should you allow aggregator / indexer sites like Google Base and Oodle to include your listings in their databases? This is another tricky question, and I could easily make the argument either way. But in general, our answer is yes. With more caveats and “ifs / maybes” than just a straight yes.

The bottom line, in my opinion: No one calls your newspaper because they want to “place an ad.” They want results. They want to sell that car / rent that apartment / sell that house / find that new employee – quickly, easily, effectively and as inexpensively as possible.

If you’re the place they call to place the ad, good for you. If you’re the place consumers turn to, you’re doing your job. You’re serving as the marketplace.

As long as the advertiser pays you for the results, you’re the winner. As for all the free sites, sure, advertisers could post ads on their own – but they’d have to deal with the complicated and time-consuming task of knowing which sites to visit, actually placing, managing and expiring the listings, and so forth.

But if your brand is the “one-stop advertising source” for finding a job / home / car / etc. in your market, you’ll do well.

Again: This is not a blanket endorsement. For more pros and cons, invite one of us from Classified Intelligence to speak at your association meeting; have us work with your company on the specifics of your market, and your objectives, or just call me with specific questions. I’ll be happy to try to answer them. No charge. Because these are important issues and publishers should consider them carefully. Before they lose the marketplace.

* * * *

Peter M. Zollman is founding principal of Classified Intelligence LLC and the AIM Group, consulting groups that work with media companies to help develop profitable interactive media services. Zollman can be reached at pzollman@aimgroup.com, (407) 788-2780.

2006 Legislative Report

By Joel Campbell
UPA Legislative Monitor

Well it was a tough session at the Legislature. A major focus was GRAMA that required a lot of behind the scenes work by UPA members.

Along with the assault on GRAMA, several important changes were made the state’s open meetings act. Before the session began, UPA members were also successful in stopping an attempt to remove the sales tax exemption from newspaper circulation.

While the ink of the governor’s signature is barely dry on 2006 bills, lawmakers are already considering issues that may impact newspapers:
Tax Base Expansion - to study expanding the tax base, including sales taxes on services. This could impact advertising sales and circulation sales.

Truth in Taxation Newspaper Advertisements - to study the cost of truth in taxation newspaper advertisements and the feasibility of requiring newspaper truth in taxation advertisements to appear in an electronic format.

Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Sourcing Rules - to study the sourcing requirements and rules required by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement.

Restricting Social Security Number Access at Public Offices - to study what can
be done under the Government Records Access and Management Act to restrict public availability of Social Security numbers at public offices, including county clerk filings of discharge papers from military, lien releases, etc.

Open and Public Meetings Act - to study proper regulation of subcommittees under the Open and Public Meetings Act (H.B. 14).


GRAMA
Special thanks to attorneys Jeff Hunt and Mike O’Brien for their legal analyses and summary of many of these bills.

All of the following provisions were proposed in bills during the 2006 session and all these provisions were defeated. Here’s the results.

(1) communications to and from elected officials are still open;
(2) the presumption of access to records still survives;
(3) inspection records are still public;
(4) records about minors are still public;
(5) government cannot levy an additional "surcharge", i.e., market rates, for access to electronic records or databases; and
(6)government cannot deny a GRAMA request by saying the information requested is in a public record somewhere else.


Summary of bills:

HB 12 -- As originally drafted would have reversed the presumption of access to government records and made secret all communications to or from an elected official. Objectionable provisions were amended or removed. H.B. 12 added a new section that protects disclosure of "internal communications that [are] part of the deliberative process" between legislators and legislative staff. (Lines 332-340). This would include e-mails, but also other types of records, i.e., memoranda, correspondence etc. In Jeff Hunt’s view, this does not represent a substantive change in the law or provide greater protection for these types of records than that which existed currently under GRAMA. Bill passed.

HB 258 -- (the "BlackBerry Bill") -- As originally enacted, this bill allowed government to designate a single business address, e-mail address, and telephone number of a government agency for the public to contact a government employee. The law also provided that any other government employee telephone number or e-mail address was not a "record" under GRAMA. After HB 258 passed and was signed into law by the governor, the law was amended through HB 188 to protect only mobile telephone numbers and email addresses of government employees. No change was made, however, to the provision allowing government to designate a single common business address, e-mail address, and telephone number for government employees.

HB 188 – This bill requires the chief administrative officer ensure that officers and employees of the governmental entity that receive or process records requests receive required training on the procedures and requirements of GRAMA

HB 28 -- As originally drafted, the bill would have allowed government to charge additional fees for access to electronic records, including database information. The bill would also have allowed government to refuse to respond to a GRAMA request if the information was available in another public record. The objectionable provisions were removed or amended.

H.B. 281 -- This bill would have made private all identifiable information about minors (under 18 years) contained in government records except information in court records. This would have eliminated public access to the names and identifying information about minors arrested and charged with serious crimes, high school newspapers and yearbooks, honor roll information, and children who are the subject of Amber Alerts. Bill did not pass.

S.B. 15 -- This bill requires all GRAMA appeals to be heard by the State Records Committee unless both parties to the appeal agree otherwise. (This did not pass)

S.B. 77 -- Would have made government inspection reports private unless a sanction resulted. This would have eliminated public access to numerous inspection reports of restaurants, elevators, buildings, fire safety, private clubs, dams, day care centers, radioactive waste facilities and dozens of other regulated businesses. Bill was pulled from Senate Committee agenda by sponsor and never resurfaced. (This did not pass)

S.B. 110 -- This bill would have made private voter information about judges. Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, decided not to proceed with this bill after he determined that existing GRAMA provisions provided adequate protection for judges.

S.B. 190 -- As originally drafted would have prohibited someone from filing a GRAMA request if the record requested was received by another government entity for audit, enforcement, litigation, or investigative purposes. Objectionable provision removed.

OPEN MEETINGS
HB 14 -- As a result of an audit of school board meetings, substantial changes were made to the Open and Public Meetings Act.

Requires a workshop or an executive session of a public body in which a quorum is present is an open meeting unless closed in accordance with the act.

Requires workshops or executive sessions to be held at the location where the public body is holding the regularly scheduled public meeting and provides certain
requires that all closed meetings be recorded.

Requires that the reason or reasons for holding the closed meeting and the location of
a closed meeting be publically announced and entered in the minutes of the open meeting at which the closed meeting is approved.

Requires that public bodies provide annual training on the requirements of the Open and Public Meetings Act to the members of a public body.

Requires that the attorney general's office provide public bodies with at least yearly notice of any material changes to the requirements for the conduct of meetings under the act penalties for violating closed meeting provisions;


HB 16 – This bill also enacts improvement suggested by UPA.

Defines "recording" to mean an audio, or an audio and video, record of the proceedings of a meeting that can be used to review the proceedings of the meeting;

Encourages public bodies to use electronic means to:
provide public notice to media agencies that make a periodic written request to
receive them; and post public notice of its meetings on the Internet.
Requires public notices with agendas to provide reasonable specificity to notify the public as to the topics to be considered at the meeting; prohibits a public body from considering topics that are not posted with the public notice

Requires both written minutes and a recording to be kept of all open meetings, with
certain exceptions; provides that written minutes shall be the official record of action taken at an open meeting;



PUBLIC NOTICE

HB36 -- Utility fund notice. Although public notice is recognized no newspaper notice is specified.

HB 75 – Unclaimed property. The bill would have reduced newspaper public notice requirements and allowed Internet publication. (The bill failed)


OTHER
SB 122 -- Repeals libel provisions - Failed

“All I know is what I read in the papers”

by Cindy Joy-Rodgers
saradickson@nna.org

COLUMBIA, MO––“All I know is what I read in the papers” became one of Will Rogers’ trademark quips. He used his newspaper columns and his witty and profound observations to reach millions of Americans, just as community newspapers continue to do today.

Taking Will’s Words to Heart…Black Ink in the Red Land is the theme of the National Newspaper Association’s 120th Annual Convention & Trade Show. The 2006 convention will be held October 11-14, 2006 at the Renaissance Hotel & Conference Center in Oklahoma City, OK.

The annual convention attracts more than 300 owners, publishers, and senior staff of community newspapers across the United States, representing upwards of 1,800 community newspapers. Convention attendees have the opportunity to attend educational sessions, participate in roundtable discussions with experts in their field, hear keynote presentations and interact with their peers at offsite events scheduled for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The convention will also host a trade show on October 12 and 13 with more than 50 vendors offering products and services for newspapers.

Two workshops are scheduled for Saturday, October 14th at an affordable fee for conference attendees, but are also open to those not attending the convention. Confirmed is a half-day session on “Not All PDF’s are Alike.”

For updates and registration and vendor information, visit www.nna.org.

The National Newspaper Association’s mission is to protect, promote and enhance America’s community newspapers.

Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America's community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country. The nation's community papers inform, educate and entertain nearly 150 million readers every week.

Morgan News publisher buys musical

As many of you know, Doug Johnston, publisher of the The Morgan County News in Morgan is also an actor. What you may not have known is that he bought the rights to a musical he was in last year, and has added eight new songs, and is ready to put it on the road this summer.

Doug played LDS Bishop, William Keys in “Lives Change”, an LDS play written, by then 19 year old Pam York of Morgan. Doug loved the role so much; he even shaved his seven year old beard for the part. “Shaving my beard was much harder than playing the Bishop, Doug said.

After the musical was over, Doug mentioned to Pam that if she ever wanted to sell the musical to give him a call. When the phone call came, he was ready. He had memorized every word and song in the play, and knew what he wanted to do with it. He added some minor parts of the play, took some out and added the new songs and a few characters. He hired an musical arranger and will also have a CD of the musical in stores this summer.

The play is set in a small town, where the main character is trying to figure out her life. (Sounds like any teenager in any town!) It is a story that spans 50 years. You don’t have to be LDS to like the musical, and you can find out more about it at www.liveschange.com

The cast of 24 are willing to travel, and have some weekends still open in July and early August of this year. They would love to have some of the papers sponsor them at a local high school, college or theater. “We will come, if we have an audience”, says Alora Smith, who plays the lead in the play. “You give us two hours and we will give your audience a night they won’t forget for a long time.” She concluded, “The people that come the first night, usually bring three or four friends back the second night.

Doug says that there would be a way for the papers to make some money on this; we will give you the playbills for your location, you can have all of the money that you collect on the playbill. You can contact Doug at The Morgan County News at (801) 829-3451 or his cell at (801) 829-8441 or email him at doug@morgannews.us for more information.

Grace Wall Conlon Lays Claim To Being Utah's Oldest Working Newspaperwoman

At 84, plus a few months, Grace Wall Conlon is the oldest working newspaperwoman in the State of Utah. Conlon arrived at this conclusion after conducting a survey of all the newspapers listed in the Utah Press Association’s Directory of Utah Newspapers.

Conlon was born in Brooklyn on December 7, 1921. She moved to Utah in 1994, lived in Orem and Sandy, and currently resides in Spanish Fork.

For several years, she was a stringer for the former Utah County Journal, working current news and feature stories. In 1995, she wrote a weekly column, “Utah and the U.S.” for the Daily Herald, Provo. That column explored the impact of national events on the local economy. She has also been published in the Salt Lake Tribune and currently is promoting her western adventure novel, “Satan‘s Caravan - A Victory over the Adversary”.

Before moving West, Conlon was a columnist for Advertising Age, the international “bible” for the advertising industry. The theme of those columns, as passed on to her from her editors, was to write a William Saffire-type column, targeted to copywriters, i.e. take words that are in the national news and explore their use and meaning. Conlon was a feature writer for the Advocate in Stamford, CT and the Greenwich Time, Greenwich, CT in 1992 and 1993.

Since early in 2005, Conlon has covered City Hall for the Spanish Fork Press, writing stories about significant events taking place in the City and relating City Council discussions concerning these happenings. She also writes a weekly column “City Beat”. In addition to covering municipal events, Conlon writes regularly about the economy, interviewing leading bankers, economists and other financial advisors. She also writes for business magazines and has a story on health care in the upcoming March 2006 issue of Connect magazine. Other Conlon stories appeared in past issues of Utah Business.

Conlon draws on long experience in the corporate world, having retired, after 26 years, from the Executive Staff of Lever Brothers Company, NYC, a multi-billion dollar consumer packaged goods company. Conlon’s responsibility at Lever was to design and implement computer-based strategic planning systems.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Conlon was well-known nationally as a speaker on strategic planning and appeared at the first Business Week Planning Conference, NYC. She often spoke at colleges and universities, addressing graduate students at Yale, the University of Tulsa, NYU, Polytech and others. She was a regular instructor for the American Management Associations in New York and Chicago.

Good information equals good advertising

By John Foust, Raleigh, NC

Josh got a call from a real estate agent who wanted to run a series of ads to promote herself. They made an appointment, and a few days later he met with her to learn about her business.

The instant he sat down in her office and opened his legal pad, she said, “Let’s hear your ideas.”

“My ideas?”

“What do you think I should put in my ads? I want to hear ideas.”

“First,” he said, “I’d like to learn about you and your business. That’s where the ideas will come from.”

“I’m too busy for that. I thought you were coming in here with ideas.”

Josh told me about the advertising that resulted from the encounter. “They were generic ads that could have described any other real estate agent in town. ‘Call me because I’m really good and I’ll work really hard for you and by the way take a look at these pictures of my latest listings.’ That was a shame, because there was a lot we could have said – if we had only known more about her. She was new in the business and it was obvious that she had big plans. It would have been nice to find out what made her tick.”

Sir Francis Bacon wrote, “Knowledge is power.” Of course, any old knowledge won’t work. It has to be the right kind. And it has to be applied in the right way.

Engineers have a saying: “Garbage in, garbage out.” It’s the same in advertising. Good information equals good advertising. And bad information equals bad advertising.

I like to visualize a Big Ad Machine. At the top, there’s a funnel where we put information about an advertiser. That information runs through the system – across wires, tubes and conveyor belts – where it is examined from every angle and molded into an idea. And on the side, there’s a slot where an idea pops out.

Sales people can’t manufacture information. They have to get it from somewhere – or from someone – and that’s usually their client. Let’s examine some categories for your information-gathering questions:

1. History. How did the company start? What obstacles had to be overcome? How has their business evolved? What is their business philosophy?

2. Customers. Here’s where you learn about the audience they want to reach. What types of customers do they have now? What types do they want in the future?

3. New products, services or locations. Can your paper be their primary promotional vehicle?

4. Features and benefits. Communicate relevant benefits – and readers will pay attention. People don’t buy features, they buy benefits.

5. Competitors. Figure out what the other guys are doing. What are their strengths? Where are they vulnerable?

6. Points of differentiation. Seek the unique, and you won’t end up with “me too” advertising that gets lost in the crowd.

Here’s the bottom line: If an advertiser provides you with the right kind of information, you might end up with what Josh’s frantic real estate client was looking for – a great idea.

(c) Copyright 2006 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust conducts on-site and video training for newspaper advertising departments. His three new video programs are designed to help ad managers conduct in-house training for their sales teams. For information, contact: John Foust, PO Box 97606, Raleigh, NC 27624 USA, E-mail: jfoust@mindspring.com, Phone 919-848-2401.

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