2005 June

2005 June

UPA Hosts Newspaper Association Managers Convention

After Laurie Wynn welcomed NAM conventioneers on behalf of UPA, she encouraged the few attendees who had on sport coats to remove them and forget them for the balance of the convention in Park City. Laurie educated the group on the “casual atmosphere of Utah.” In typical Laurie form, she won the hearts of the group and set the stage for two and one half days of learning and idea sharing.

The convention began the night prior with a warm and welcome “meet & greet” to give everyone an opportunity to meet their fellow Press Association cohorts. The group of Display Advertising Managers from each Press Association began the process of educating one another to the challenges and successes of their individual associations.

The days that followed allowed enthusiastic training that focused on “Self Management” by Eloise Owens, A Website for All Press Associations was discussed, Electronic Tearsheets, A vision for the Media Industry and Co-marketing ideas. They all continued to keep a lively pace for a very exciting convention filled with training, ideas and round table discussions that seemed to meet everyone’s expectations.

A short bus trip to the Olympic downhill venue and tour of the facility met with a very enthusiastic reception by those who attended. Understanding the workings of the Olympic competition and training offered even after the Olympics was a big hit with the crowd. Afterwards everyone was treated to a delicious BBQ dinner at the Park City Marriott where the convention was held. A local group called “In Cahoots” gave everyone a wild and rowdy rendition of many cowboy songs and cowboy poetry. Everyone participated in a fun evening of western entertainment.

Reviews from those attending the convention included many promises to return to our beautiful state and words of gratitude for the informative, educational training and the fun that only Park City can afford. Cards, e-mails and phone calls received the following week attested to the success of this, UPA’s first sponsored NAM convention in Utah.

As A Means To Inform UPA Members...

Arinda Gutierrez - UPA Advertising Manager

Arinda was born in Redding, CA on April 3rd 1977 (mark that on your calendar). She was raised in an 18 wheeler truck for the first two years of her life, traveling everywhere in the United States with her Mother and Father. Her family moved to Utah in 1980.

Arinda has been with UPA for over two years now. She began by job sharing with Jen Higbee our former Advertising Manager. Arinda’s background in sales is firmly rooted in telemarketing where she had many successful years as chief marketer and sales leader.

After saying good-bye to her husband, Arinda’s day at UPA begins at 8:30 AM after dropping off her sons Nathaniel (8) and Nicolas (5) at school. She checks her e-mail first thing to insure there have been no last minute requests that have come in after she left work the evening prior. She then answers voicemail and e-mail requests. Her day requires focus from the moment she sits down until she leaves in the evening around 4:30 PM (that usually extends to as late as 7PM on some evenings). She phones, e-mails and makes in-person calls to advertising agencies, advertising clients and UPA members for the balance of the day. Her sole purpose is to educate potential clients to our services, up-sell to advertising agencies and clients, book advertising and find new Newsearch clients for UPA. She conducts training seminars every Wednesday with Kirk Parrish on our electronic clipping service called Newsearch. This free training is available to existing clients or anyone interested in the system.

Arinda loves her job and the relationships she has built with her clients and newspaper personnel. She plans to be with Utah Press Association for many years to come.

GRAMA And Tax Reform Task Forces Begin Setting Agendas

By Joel Campbell
UPA Legislative Monitor

Calling a review of GRAMA a “daunting task,” members of the task force commissioned with reviewing the state’s public records law said they’ll discuss several issues including officials’ e-mail, charging “fair market value’ for public records, privacy and possibly revising the law’s appeal structure.

“We haven’t had major relook at GRAMA since it was enacted. It is one of the best laws in the United States, but needs some fine tweaking,” said Sen. Dave Thomas, R-South Weber and task force co-chair. “Transparent government is the essential mission of GRAMA.”

Meeting May 17, both the GRAMA Task Force and Tax Reform Task Force, took preliminary looks at the issues that will be on agendas from now until November. After review, they’ll likely propose legislation for the 2006 General Session of the Legislature, which begins meeting in January.

Members of the Tax Reform Task Force said they want to “right size government,” but didn’t say what that means for sales tax exemptions. The group did form a subcommittee that will study sales and use taxes. Committee members will meet twice monthly and will review former Gov. Olene Walker’s tax reform proposals on May 26.

During the GRAMA panel’s discussions, legislative researchers noted that since the Legislature enacted GRAMA in 1991, it has been amended 49 times. The GRAMA Task Force members identified several issues they will discuss. Those include:

-- E-mail. Some panel members said they don’t want e-mail to become a public record and worried about disclosing their e-mail messages with constituents. They said under current practice, only e-mails that are printed are considered public records. The UPA testified that many states are moving to specifically declaring e-mails as public records and that clear rules ought to govern the use of e-mails.

-- Fair market value. Gary Ott, Salt Lake County Recorder, asked the committee to consider charging “fair market value” to requesters of large databases of county information, including the county’s land records. Rep. Neil Hansen, R-Ogden, said he doesn’t like the idea of the public paying for public records and then being charged again when they request them.

-- GRAMA appeals. Thomas said he wanted to make more consistent the GRAMA appeal process including requiring all GRAMA appeals to be funneled through the State Records Committee. Thomas said he would like the records committee to help create a body of law about the act.

-- Privacy. The panel will discuss whether records that include both a name and other identifying characteristic such as a home address, telephone number, birth date or marital status should become off limits to records requester. Sen. Mark Madsen, , said he wanted to study whether information that someone must provide to government be then considered public information.

-- Nuisance requests. While the Utah League of Cities and Towns lobbyist said that some progress was made in this session to curb nuisance requests of records, they still want to beef up the law to fees to pay for employees to mind requesters who are inspecting records. A League spokesman said city officials want more flexibility to respond to voluminous requests by posting the records on the Internet or electronically.

Attention NNA Publisher: Be Prepared

By July 1, the FCC will require you to have a signed consent form on file for all your customers if you intend to fax rate cards, tear sheets or promotional materials to them in the coming year.
We can still save ourselves from this nightmare. Your immediate action is needed.

We are not advising you to start collecting signed consent forms yet, but if the situation does not change in the next two weeks, be prepared to start!

In the meantime, call your Senators and let them know that they must pass the Junk Fax Prevention Act NOW! Also, please email FCC Chairman Kevin Martin at http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/martin/mail.html . The FCC could delay this date to give Congress more time. NNA has a petition for an extension on file.

Here is the background once again.

Congress has adjourned for the Memorial Day recess with no further action on the Junk Fax Prevention Act, S. 714. The Federal Communications Commission has not yet acted on the petition by NNA and a coalition of other business groups for a six month stay in implementation of the signed consent form rule.

The FCC is waiting for Congress to act. The House is waiting for the Senate. The Senate is stalled in the midst of its partisan warfare at the moment. So…while we wait, the deadline looms.

The Senate Committee on Science, Transportation and Commerce voted unanimously to report S. 714. However, the official report has not yet been filed and until it has, there can be no vote on the Senate floor. The House has promised to act quickly after the Senate votes. We must get the Senate report dislodged and insist that the senators get back to business on this issue immediately after the Memorial Day recess.

Remember that if this rule goes into effect, you may be sued by any fax recipient. That may turn out to be a disgruntled reader, or an advertiser who is momentarily unhappy with you.

You can reach your Senator’s office by dialing the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Or find the email address a www.senate.gov. The following senators are particularly key—but at this point every senator counts.

If you need further information, please contact Jeff Carson, NNA Assistant Manager of Government Relations at (703) 465-8808 or jeffreycarson@nna.org.

Members of the Science, Transportation and Commerce Committee
Chairman: Ted Stevens (R-AK)

George Allen (R-VA)
Kay Hutchison (R-TX)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Dan Inouye (D-HI)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
John McCain (R-AZ)
John Sununu (R-NH)
John Ensign (R-NV)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Dave Vitter (R-LA)

Challenges Facing UPA

Here it is June and we are still facing all the challenges that have been plaguing us for the past few years. An uncertain and unpredictable economy, increased cost of doing business and more demands on newspapers than you can shake a stick at.

Circulation and readership continue to be a focus by our advertising clients. More requests for zoned advertising and improved quality of product is still being discussed by publishers and pressmen. With the renewed emphasis on the Internet and our need to provide more and more of our newspapers online is still being asked for by our internet savvy young readers. We continue to have our work cut out for us simply by keeping pace with the demands.

Newsearch continues to present us with challenges, but is our best bet for generating new revenue quickly. Any possible accounts in your individual areas that you feel would be interested in Newsearch, please drop us an e-mail and we will follow up with a sales call.

We have recognized a need for an additional salesperson and hopefully will see an increase in display and classified advertising for you soon. Keep the faith friends, we are evolving as quickly as we recognize the need.