2006 November

By Joel Campbell
Utah Press Association
Legislative Monitor

Mitch Pearlman, the long-time head of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, once likened government privatization, also called outsourcing, to the evil Klingon Empire's "cloaking device' which hides spacecraft in the sci-fi TV and movie series "Star Trek."

To be sure, the Klingon fleet is growing and journalists and public should be careful as government cloaks services and budgets in privatized deal-making. The list of services government privatizes is long. Outsourced deals includes toll roads, golf courses, swimming pools, water and sewer projects, commuter rail, school choice programs, prisons, foster care services, pension funds, insurance funds, police and fire services, parking meters, food service, airports, school buses, and printing services.

A few examples of privatization trends:

-- In what is being called the largest highway privatization deal in U.S. history, and in a transaction that's already raising the ire of many Americans, the Indiana government approved the controversial deal April 13, agreeing to lease the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for 75 years to Spanish-Australian consortium Cintra-Macquarie for $3.8 million. It remains to be seen how the public will have scrutiny over the project.

-- Utah is also getting into the road privatization game. For example, Utah legislators passed a bill to help fund $16.5 billion in needed road projects. It allows the Utah Department of Transportation to partner with private firms to build and operate toll roads in return for cash to fix roads.

-- On a local government level, The Dallas Morning News used school district records to show that Dallas schools spent more by outsourcing copying and printing services to Kinko's. In fact, instead of slashing printing expenses by the promised 21 percent, Dallas schools quadrupled copying expenses. The contract also requires schools use Kinko's equipment, thus hundreds of printers the district already owned sit in warehouses. Without access to district records about this outsourced service, the public may still be in the dark about cost overruns.

There are plenty of proponents and opponents to privatization and outsourcing. If a government outsources services, Journalists should check out what's promised against what's delivered. But that's becoming harder as expenditures and reporting slip from public view. When government outsources services, private providers don't have to comply with open records and open meetings rules. At the same time, quasi-public groups which receive government funding, raise funds, or develop policy may also claim exemption from access laws.

At the very least, open government advocates should demand private companies performing government-like service be subject to access laws through contracts. But even then, contractual obligations are easily broken. More effective are statutes requiring outsourced services be subject to open records and open meetings laws.

In 2001, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted a law that allows public view of records of private companies provide a government function in contracts of excess of $2.5 million. Contracts must stipulate that companies hand over records about the government function to the public agency making the contract and then those records are subject to the state's FOIA.

In some states access advocates are waging battle over private contracts in the courts. In 2005, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the financial records of the quasi-private University of Iowa Foundation are subject to state records laws because the government may not outsource its functions to "secret its doings from the public." The University of Iowa contracted with the foundation to manage fund-raising operations. The foundation manages $234 million in university money although titled an "independent contractor."

In October, Maryland's highest court heard whether Baltimore's city economic development agency closed-door shenanigans can continue. Baltimore Development Corp. managers said the "quasi-public" organization is exempt from access laws and working outside public view is important to its success. Property owners say that the organization should comply with sunshine laws since the mayor chooses the board and its coffers are filled from city budgets, according to the Boston Globe

Comments from Court of Appeals judges bode well for the case outcome. The Globe reported Judge Dale R. Cathell saying: "I've always heard that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. This has a lot of quack to it."

Advocates need to educate more officials to understand the issue like Cathell. And at the same time, advocates should continue pounding on the statehouse door seeking laws that keep the Klingons from turning on their cloaking devices.

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A former newspaper reporter and editor, Joel Campbell is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University. E-mail him at joelcampbell@byu.edu.

The next act for newspaper companies
By Clayton M. Christensen and Andrew B. Davis

The Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers. Downtown department stores. Video rental stores. Minicomputer manufacturers. All fell, or are falling, in the face of game-changing disruptive innovators. Is there reason to believe that newspaper companies can succeed where so many market leaders have stumbled?

After spending a year studying the problem in the course of the American Press Institute’s “Newspaper Next” project, our answer is a resounding yes.

Our belief is not an academic one. Over the last five months we conducted demonstration projects at a handful of U.S. newspaper companies. Although it’s too early to point to billion-dollar businesses, we have seen mindsets shift and managers get excited as they see the massive growth potential that still exists for the industry.

Newspaper companies have real assets to bring to the table. Despite declining circulation, the core newspaper product continues to produce cash flows that many other industries eye with envy. The core content produced by the industry is the basis for many of the disruptors; without newspaper content, there isn’t much news for television to report, bloggers would have less to blog about, and Yahoo! News and Google News would be blank pages. Furthermore, newspapers have strong brands and highly skilled employees.

But success will not come easily. Driven by shifting customer behaviors, the media landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace. Fundamental changes are reshaping the media environment and are sending waves of disruption throughout the industry.

In the face of this, newspaper companies have barely begun to scratch the surface of their innovation potential. To succeed, they have to learn to look at markets in completely new ways, invest to create new capabilities and re-think the way they work individually and collectively.

Jobs To Be Done

The mindset shift starts with the way newspapers see the consumer. For a long time, newspapers have watched as readership has slid. They have tried to answer the question, “How can we convince more people to read our paper?” The question needs to be: “What indispensable information jobs will consumers hire us to do? What products can we provide that will do those jobs better than any other competitor?”

Just as GateHouse Media New England is doing with WickedLocal.com (one of our demonstration projects) and Cox Communications is doing with Kudzu.com, newspaper companies have to help consumers who don’t use the newspaper solve the pressing problems they face in their lives.

These solutions are likely to require new capabilities, such as constructing databases of local information, finding ways to tap into the “collective wisdom” of people who live in the community and building platforms on which virtual communities can form.

Newspaper companies have to rethink their revenue equation as well. For generations, display advertising and classified advertising have powered the newspaper business model. The companies that place those advertisements are—not surprisingly—called “advertisers.” Many newspaper executives have fooled themselves into thinking that the problem these business customers seek to solve is to advertise.

That’s not right. Advertising is a compensating behavior. In its demonstration project, the Richmond Times-Dispatch interviewed more than 40 businesses that don’t advertise in the newspaper. Not one said the problem they are trying to solve is to advertise. Instead, they are looking to build relationships with consumers, create brands, attract employees and simplify back-end operations. Those are the real jobs to be done.

Newspaper companies must help businesses and individuals that don’t advertise address these issues. They must do so by creating new solutions that get their jobs done, including such “offline” strategies as niche publications and special events as well as emerging Web approaches such as paid search, consumer direct, targeted advertising, and lead generation.

These aren’t pie-in-the-sky models. These are real approaches that already are making many non-newspaper companies (and a few newspaper companies) big bucks. Utilizing these approaches can enable newspaper companies to reach business customers that historically couldn’t or wouldn’t use newspaper products.

Realizing this potential requires developing new capabilities. The Boston Globe—one of our demonstration projects—sought to develop new ways to reach small businesses that didn’t use any of the Globe’s products. The Globe’s idea? Resell a “search engine marketing” offering from a third-party vendor. One key to success? Using low-cost sales channels like telesales to reach the market.

The Payoff

Newspaper companies shouldn’t approach the innovation challenge alone. There are opportunities for companies to collaborate online in powerful ways, particularly to serve national companies that want to tap into the vast reach of the more than 1,400 local daily newspapers and more than 8,000 non-daily ones that collectively reach more than 55 million consumers.

There are dozens of other specific suggestions that appear in the Newspaper Next report, including a step-by-step method for innovation, a “game plan” for growth, a dashboard to track progress, reviews of the demonstration projects, and the results of a survey of industry leaders that indicates a clear desire for collaboration.

Above all else, newspaper com­panies have to commit to doing things differently, and they must back that commit­ment with action. Business as usual will not suffice. Cutting costs and hoping the current storm will subside is not a strategy for growth.

The payoff of all of this work can be significant: Companies can launch new offerings, grow in new directions, and harness the disrup­tive forces that have threatened the industry. They can move from monolithic product offerings to a vibrant portfolio of products, services and business models.

The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California, worked hard over its four-month demonstration project to develop structures and processes to make innovation sustainable. Its efforts energized the newsroom, helped improve existing products and sparked innovative ideas. Its newly constituted “Big Brain” panel helped to shepherd an idea for a Web site where restaurants can post coupons for free called FoodPsycho.com.

“Yes, these are challenging times for our industry,” Desert Sun editor Steve Silberman said. “But I also can’t think of a better time to be a journalist, a more exciting time to be a journalist, where there are more possibilities and more hope.”

Through its findings and initial implementation via the pilot programs, API’s Newspaper Next project has demonstrated that by using a process for innovation-driven growth, the newspaper industry can not only survive, it can grow and prosper.

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Clayton M. Christensen is a Harvard Business School Professor and the founder of Innosight LLC, a Watertown Ma. innovation consulting company. Andrew B. Davis is the president and executive director of the American Press Institute. Innosight and API collaborated on the Newspaper Next project. The final report is available at www.newspapernext.org.

SND Adopts New Ethics Code

by Randy Hines

All of us have vivid memories of newspaper photographs. In some cases, we wonder how editors could have let them be published.

A few have been especially gruesome, such as accident or crime scenes with dead bodies partially hidden by sheets. Others are often in blatantly poor taste, such as the topless photos of celebrities enjoying a vacation at the beach.

Many Utah newspapers joined the rest of the country in running photos of the Amish schoolhouse shootings last month in rural Pennsylvania outside Lancaster. Unfortunately, the “crime” committed by photographers was shooting the Amish, whose culture and religious beliefs forbid photos of their faces because they are interpreted as “graven images.”

The most common explanation given for this aversion to photographs is that offered by the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau: "Many Amish believe that photographs in which they can be recognized violate the Biblical commandment, ‘Thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image.’ Please follow our lead in taking no photographs in which faces are recognizable."

Grieving survivors and family members were captured on film by news crews from around the world. Those unfamiliar with their customs saw great photo ops of horse and buggy transportation, straw hats with other unusual attire, and the sad faces of the Amish. What many of those photojournalists did not see was a town of peaceful pacifists torn to pieces by this senseless tragedy.

Fortunately, the judgment of editors stepped in and prevented such photos in many cases. (Television crews were much more insensitive.) Photo editors and other newsroom leaders often apply sound decision-making in a vast majority of tough ethical situations. This wisdom usually goes unnoticed. What stands out is the occasional lapse.

Another visual issue, photo manipulation, also came to the front burner this fall with Katie Couric’s miracle diet that dropped 20 pounds off her frame in CBS’s Watch! magazine.

The concern of professionals regarding digital retouching is reflected in guidelines adopted by various journalistic organizations. The Society for News Design adopted a new ethics code, the first in its 27-year history, on Aug. 30. According to its preamble, members “have an obligation to promote the highest ethical standards for visual journalism—for all journalism—as they apply to the values of accuracy, fairness, honesty, inclusiveness, and courage.”

The New York Times has an enviable policy to prohibit photo manipulation without disclosure for a valid reason:

Images in our pages that purport to depict reality must be genuine in every way. No people or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene (except for the recognized practice of cropping to omit extraneous outer portions). Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the "burning" and "dodging" that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images. Pictures of news situations must not be posed. In the cases of collages, montages, portraits, fashion or home design illustrations, fanciful contrived situations and demonstrations of how a device is used, our intervention should be unmistakable to the reader, and unmistakably free of intent to deceive. Captions and credits should further acknowledge our intervention if the slightest doubt is possible. The design director, a masthead editor or the news desk should be consulted on doubtful cases or proposals for exceptions.

The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics provided plenty of advice to Utah deals with photos on several fronts when it states that journalists should:

Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.

Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.

Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.

Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.

Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.

Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.

Just because a picture is unusual or dramatic is not necessarily a compelling reason for publishing it. Many problems could be avoided if a simple "Why?" test were applied during those harried moments preceding decisions on publishing questionable visual images. The idea behind this is that you should have a persuasive reason before publishing this type of material—a reason solid enough that it could be used as an explanation to second guessers or judges.

More courts today are recognizing the private citizens’ right of privacy. Use your cameras carefully and be especially wary of electronic or darkroom manipulations.

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Dr. Randy Hines teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He can be reached at (570) 372-4079 or randyhinesapr@yahoo.com. © 2006

Go local, go deep, position for the future

By Peter M. Zollman

As audience migrates online at a remarkable pace, too many newspapers are positioning for the past.
They’re trying to convert twice-a-week readers into three-times-a-week readers. They’re using every trick in the book to increase print circulation. They’re focusing on selling more inserts, more classified “liners” --- frequently giving them away --- and more small print ads to more small advertisers.

Great ideas, all. I wouldn’t denigrate a one. But why not instead focus where the audience is going? Why not position for the future, instead of the past?

Will newspapers still be printed for the next 20 or 30 years? Most probably. But will the generation that’s now teenaged or younger suddenly come to rely on newsprint as it matures into a generation of 20s and 30s? Not a great idea to bet your future on that!
With that issue in mind, I spoke a few weeks back at the Western Classified Advertising Association. It’s a wonderful group, and unlike many conferences I attend it focused heavily on the changes classified advertising departments face. (Contrast that with so many newspaper association conferences, where the classified presentations are all about protecting print from the “encroaching Internet.”)
As I spoke about the changes in real estate, recruitment, automotive and other classified categories, one theme came to mind: A local newspaper has several strengths, but its No. 1 advantage is clear --- its ability to out-local anyone else.

So the theme of my presentation was simple: “Go local. Go deep. Position for the future.”

Should a local newspaper not provide national tools, or national content? Of course it should. And regional networks are extremely valuable --- news content, classifieds, regional retail advertising. But that newspaper should focus its effort on the place it can do the most good and have the most impact. Local. More local. And still more local.

A database of “just the classified liners” from the paper is not enough to serve the audience. Not when the local multiple listing service has lots of pictures of houses for sale. Not when auto dealers make the inventory of every car on their lot, and others, available for the viewing. Not when EBay has items for sale in your market; when Craigslist offers free ads for just about everything that you charge for. And not when Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and niche sites of every stripe include long, detailed job descriptions of jobs in your market that aren’t in your newspaper. (Don’t believe it? Send me an e-mail and I’ll prove it to you. No charge.)

Go local. It’s obvious. None of the national sites knows your market better than you do. They won’t capture schools information with day-in, day-out coverage of the education scene in your area. They can’t offer local video clips on a real estate site -- generic clips, perhaps, but nothing truly local.

Go “deep.” What does that mean? Ideally, your database of online ads will include information about every home for sale in your market. Every car on a dealer’s lot, and every private-party seller’s car, too. Every job in the area. And more. It’ll include extensive editorial content about all of those verticals. Plus data about schools. Home prices. The largest, the best, the most “family friendly,” the growing employers. Things a buyer can’t find anywhere else.

Recently, Classified Intelligence and ERE Media surveyed recruiters about their advertising spending habits and trends. Almost half of the participants said they plan to increase spending with online job sites this year over last; 43 percent said they would cut spending on print. One recruiter called print “less and less effective every year, as the new generations don’t read the classifieds.” (The report, “Recruiters Rate Advertising Effectiveness,” is available through ClassifiedIntelligence.com.)

Similar results are clear in the automotive and real estate categories. Circulation and readership numbers for newspapers make the related downward trend obvious: Fewer people are using the printed product; more are going online.

Faced with that inevitability, doesn’t it make sense to “position for the future?” Focus where the audience is going?

That’s one of the things that made Wayne Gretzky great as a hockey player. Although Gretzky is often quoted (incorrectly) as saying so, it was actually his father, Walter, who taught Gretzky, “Go where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

Good advice, too, for a newspaper publisher.

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Peter M. Zollman is founding principal of Classified Intelligence and the AIM Group, consulting groups that work with publishers print and online to develop profitable interactive media services. For more on their services, visit their Web sites, ClassifiedIntelligence.com and AIMGroup.com. Reach Zollman at pzollman@classifiedintelligence.com, (407) 788-2780.

Daily Herald names new publisher

By Grace Leong, Daily Herald

Longtime newspaper executive Craig B. Dennis was named publisher of the Daily Herald and its 11 affiliated weekly newspapers and specialty publications Tuesday. He succeeds Albert J. Manzi, who resigned in July. The appointment takes effect Oct. 23.

Dennis, 51, has 26 years of newspaper management experience, including 17 as a publisher.

Greg R. Veon, vice president of Lee Enterprises Inc., which owns the Herald, was in Provo on Tuesday to make the announcement and introduce Dennis to the Herald staff. He said Dennis was selected because of his broad experience in news, sales, advertising, marketing, management and interactive media operations.

"Craig has an excellent background working with daily newspapers and niche weeklies, and working in an environment close to major metropolitan areas in Seattle and Sacramento," he said. "He also has extensive online experience, which is one of Lee's fastest-growing areas in terms of revenue and readership."

"It's unusual to find someone who has experience with community dailies and weeklies and operating them as a group," Veon said. "Craig is accustomed to managing operations with a lot of moving parts."

Dennis leaves a position as associate publisher and director of sales for Nevada County Publishing Co., which publishes The Union, a daily newspaper in Grass Valley, Calif. He was previously president and publisher of the Auburn Journal and senior publisher of Gold Country Media in the Sacramento region.

His career includes extensive sales, marketing and newspaper publishing experience in the Pacific Northwest. He was publisher of the Community News Group, a subsidiary of the Seattle Times Co., and publisher and divisional manager of the former Whidbey Press Inc. in Oak Harbor, Wash. He was also owner, publisher and editor of the Chinook Observer, a weekly newspaper in Long Beach, Wash. He is an economics graduate of Stanford University and received his MBA from the University of Washington.

"I'm excited about the market," Dennis said of Utah Valley and the Wasatch Front. "This is a young market in terms of demographics. It's a great market to grow in. Lee and I are committed to producing quality newspapers and will continue to improve our products, grow our Web presence and make sure we reach out to the whole community."

Dennis is a member of the board of directors of Suburban Newspapers of America and chairman of the Internet and communications committee. He is a past president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, where he chaired committees for advertising sales and the annual better newspaper contest.

An avid cyclist and skier, Dennis's current community activities include serving on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Auburn. He also serves on the board of directors of the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce and is chairman of the finance committee. He is actively involved in Leadership Auburn and Rotary Club of Grass Valley.

He and his wife, Geri, a sixth-grade teacher, have been married 27 years. They have two sons, Brandon, 17, and Rylan, 13.

After Manzi's resignation, David Fuselier, a veteran publisher for Lee Enterprises, came out of retirement to serve three months as interim publisher at the Herald. He will return briefly to his home in Wisconsin before embarking on his latest enterprise as a grape grower and winemaker in Colorado.

Lee Enterprises is the nation's fourth-largest newspaper publisher with 58 daily newspapers in 23 states. It is the seventh-largest by circulation.

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This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.

Kevin answers questions from AZ to NY

by Kevin Slimp, November 2006

I’ve received a lot of good questions from readers lately. Let me share a few.

From Denise, New York:
We have a pesky problem. We can search by content on our local hard drives, but not (Adobe) InCopy documents. Our I.T. staff person said that spotlight doesn’t recognize InCopy documents as text documents. This has been a major pain in the neck. We stopped keeping a paper clip file several years ago. Since we lost the ability to search our files by content, we are really handicapped in our research and reporting efforts. Do you know of a solution to this problem? Any insights/advice you can give me are much appreciated.

I asked Gary Cosimini, the resident guru of all things publishing at Adobe, for his input on Denise’s problem. Here’s what he had to say:

InCopy documents are not recognized as text documents by Spotlight (because technically, they aren’t), even though they do contain text. InCopy documents could be converted to text by stripping out the XML formatting using an empty XSL style sheet, or with a Perl script, but then you’d have two files for each story. Still, it might be a solution. A very nice XML database that can do this and index the results for searching, though not by Spotlight, is called Ixiasoft.

From Delaney, Tennessee:
We put Quark 7.02 on our new iMac with the Intel chip running Mac OS 10.4.8. We use this computer to send our pages to film. When we place the PDF directly into Quark we have some issues, especially when the PDF has RGB photos. It seems when we have a problem placing the PDF, the EPS version of the same file will work fine for black and white pages. The problem we are having occurs when we send the EPS to print on a color page. Quark will separate the colors to 4 color blacks. Do you have any idea what we could do to fix our problem?

I had a pretty good idea of what was causing Delaney’s problem, but I thought I’d let the QuarkXPress guru, Craig Lanning, lend a hand. Here’s what Craig had to say:

The behavior described is what will happen to RGB images when sent straight through to a CMYK SWOP device (as has always been the case in earlier versions of QuarkXPress). If the PDF has embedded RGB images, Delaney will need to use the Color Manager to set up a Source Setup for RGB images so that they are converted to a CMYK Output Setup before going from the RGB color space to CMYK. That is the easiest way to handle this. The QuarkXPress manuals have a great section on the Color Manager. If Delaney wants to contact me directly to go over how to set this up, feel free to forward my Email address and we’ll set up a time to do so.

From Rob, Arizona:
When we first set things up (in 1997) to make Postscript files from Quark 4.x in OS 9, we used Generic Imagesetter for grayscale pages and Acrobat Distiller for color pages. Since going to OS X and Quark 6.5, our options have changed. We can still find Generic Imagesetter, but we can’t find Acrobat Distiller as an option. Do I need to install a different ppd to get an Acrobat Distiller option? Or use a different printer ppd? Help me Obewan.

Finally, an easy one! Thanks, Robert. Yes, you need to select the Adobe PDF driver. If you’ve installed Adobe Acrobat on your OS X machine, you should find this driver listed. Use this for both color and grayscale pages.

From Melanie, Tennessee:
Hey Kevin. I have a question. We moved a computer to someone else in our office. I’m trying to change the computer’s name to hers. I was able to change the administrator’s name, but I can’t find a place to change the name of the computer. It’s confusing when you have three computers on your desktop and they all have the same name!

No problem, Melanie. In the last couple of OS X versions, you change the computer name like this:

1. Go to “SYSTEM PREFERENCES” (under your blue apple)
2. Click on SHARING
3. Look at the top of the SHARING window. There’s a place to change the computer name.

From Kristie, Arkansas
InDesign is working very well for me, except for one thing that maybe you can help with. When the secretary types in the classified ads, she does them in QuarkXPress and puts some weird “rule below” thing on them. When I open them in InDesign, it doesn’t put that same rule on my document, so I end up having to do a huge amount of work to them and it puts me behind. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Oh Grasshopper. You are going to love InDesign’s nested styles when you learn to use them. A nested style is a type of paragraph style that allows the user to combine character styles together to create incredible effects. They work great with classifieds. You could create a nested style that bolds the first five words of an ad, prints the rest of the ad as regular text, puts a space below each ad, then places a rule below each space. Then it wouldn’t matter what application the text was entered in (although I can’t understand why you’d use QuarkXPress for text). You could simply place any text on the InDesign page, select all, then apply the handy nested style that you will create as soon as you finish reading this column. In the meantime, you could use InDesign’s find/change feature to change her “weird rule below thing” to the type of rule you want.

These are my responses to just a few of the dozens of e-mail cries for help I receive each week. If you have a question, send it to kevin@kevinslimp.com.

The power of teamwork

By John Foust, Raleigh, NC

There's an old story about a man whose car got stuck in a ditch. He went to a nearby farmhouse for help, and the farmer said, "Maybe Jasper can help. Jasper is my blind mule."

The farmer hitched the mule to the car, stepped back and shouted, "Pull, Deacon! Pull, Nellie! Pull, Cleo! Pull, Jasper!" Sure enough, the mule dragged the car out of the ditch.

The driver thanked the farmer and said, "Sir, that's one powerful mule you have there. But I couldn't help but notice that you called out four names. I thought its name was Jasper."

"Oh it is," the farmer said with a wink. "But if ol' Jasper had thought he was pulling by himself, there's no way he could have done it."

Teamwork is important. When we feel like we're part of a team – a group that is pulling in the same direction – we can get more accomplished.

I remember a conversation with Wayne, who works with a large advertising agency. "When we're competing for new business, we put a lot of time into the development of campaign ideas," he said. "Most accounts insist on seeing examples of the creative work that can be produced for them. It's part of their decision process."

Sound familiar? Don't your advertisers like to see examples of the ads that your paper can produce for them, before they buy into a new campaign?

"We have what we call Pitch Week," Wayne explained. "The entire agency is divided into teams. Each group is provided with a detailed profile of the account we're going after – their products, their marketing history, their target audience, and so on. We work late and through the weekend, because all of this is in addition to our regular work. Although it's a time-consuming process, it provides the agency with a lot of ammunition for the actual presentation. And I've noticed that it creates a real spirit of teamwork and cooperation."

Although the media side of the ad business is not set up for an agency-style Pitch Week, the concept can be customized. Consider the regular sales meetings that occur in every ad department in the publishing industry. Why not set aside some time to discuss ad ideas for one client each week?

This calls for a structured approach to creativity. During the designated time frame, stay away from typical sales meeting topics (prospect lists, quotas, bottom line revenue, etc.). Instead, concentrate on the advertising itself. Start with a client profile (for example, a one page outline of product and audience information). Then brainstorm on campaign themes, headlines, and illustrative elements. Encourage the group to develop as many ideas as possible – then narrow the choices.

You might be surprised at the results. "As long as the focus is clear, there's real power in group thinking," said Wayne. "One idea leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another."

Yes, there is real power when people pull together toward a common goal. Teamwork works.

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(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.

Conflict on the Frontlines: Public Beat Coverage

By Matt Baron

All too often in municipal government coverage, a reporter’s preparation consists of little more than a quick glance at the agenda.

I should know—in my two decades of municipal coverage, such lackluster effort characterized my approach more than a few times. Over time, however, a peculiar thing happened: rather than dread meetings, I actually started to look forward to them.

What happened? I no longer viewed the meeting as an event unto itself, but part of a dynamic flow of cause-and-effect that made a real difference in the life of a community.

Here are some pieces to the puzzle that helped along the way:

Anticipate the News

After reviewing the agenda—as well as background information, if the government body provides it in advance—think about possible stories. Is there anyone you should contact before the meeting, to line up an interview for a reaction afterwards?

For example, if the board is planning on voting whether to approve a liquor store, you can contact neighboring businesses and residents. Reach the prospective owner to learn more about his history and plans for the business. Research past, similar stories to see what types of issues have surfaced and explore whether those same elements are present.

Show Up Early, Be The Last To Leave

If you’ve not already tried this approach, you will find the return on this time investment to be amazing, as you connect with existing sources, develop new ones and ferret out story ideas.

One obvious group of individuals to approach are the municipal officials, both staff and elected. Less obvious are the “non-officials”—average Joes and Janes who have taken time out of their schedule to show up.

Ask them what brought them to the meeting, give your business card and encourage story ideas of any kind—people live complex lives and have many connections not readily apparent. This time need not be a formal Q-and-A situation—it’s actually more fruitful to use it as a time to “shoot the breeze” and build rapport.

Be Wary of Press Seating

Depending on the issues on the agenda, you may prefer to sit with the general public. Mixing with the masses serves a few purposes:

*It offers a clearer picture of individuals’ private reaction to public discussion and decisions.

*It shatters a subtle, yet real communication barrier that press tables can create. Citizens tend to be reluctant to come up to the “throne” occupied by reporters, especially when our backs are turned to them. Only the boldest dare approach.

*Skipping the press table can also provide better “pursuit angles” as you seek to question folks who have just blasted the town board or otherwise served notice that they are now a potential part of a new or ongoing story.

Be An Ambassador for Your Paper

To many people, you are your publication. So be prepared to field criticism about coverage, about circulation, and generally about things over which you have absolutely no control.

Be gracious, get individuals’ contact information and assure them that you will convey their concern to the appropriate person within your company. Then follow through on that promise! You want people to continue approaching you, so take the “bad” now so you can also get the “good” later.

Also, during the board’s discussions, even when something goofy happens, keep a poker face—don’t make faces, laugh, groan, roll your eyes or mutter. Loud body language undermines the even-handed reputation you should seek to convey.

Some related tips:

- Dress one notch up from your usual newsroom wardrobe. Sloppy dress suggests sloppy reporting.

-Be thoughtful: if you know someone has a son who loves turtles, then clip a story you see on turtles and give it to them. That’s just good people skills in action.

-If you can’t hear officials during a meeting, then politely yet firmly ask them to speak into their microphones or otherwise make it possible for the public to hear.

-Lastly, be prepared for the town “character” who may be prone to consuming most of a meeting’s time with strange, rambling, and sometimes embarrassing diatribes. Some are conspiracy theorists, others are a few eggs shy of a dozen.

But there are still others who may have valid, newsworthy concerns. Even if they don’t, it’s their right to issue strange, rambling, embarrassing diatribes. After all, in some communities, that’s a fair job description of the paper’s top columnist.

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Matt Baron of Oak Park, Ill., is owner of Inside Edge: Public Relations & Media Services. He has more than 20 years of journalism experience, from community newspapers to national magazines. He leads training workshops for press associations and other groups, and can be reached at 888.713.5894 or online at www.mattbaron.com.

Winter Convention 2007

Plans for the 2007 Winter Convention are beginning to finalize and it looks like a convention to remember. We will be holding the convention this year at a new location in St. George. The Hilton Garden Inn will be the new home for the 2007 gathering. Reservations for the March 29th through the 31st can be made by calling (435) 634-4100.

The staff has been able to obtain the exclusive rights to show the September 11th photo exhibit. The photo essay will be available all three days of convention.

World class speakers have made commitments to educate UPA members at this years convention. Plan on an exceptional learning experience and an opportunity to see old friends and make new acquaintances. Details will be coming to you within the next few weeks.

It is Better Newspaper Contest Time

With plans for Winter Convention comes the first call for Better Newspaper Contest entries. Begin planning now for your best entries for each of the categories that were called last year. Entry packets can be found and downloaded from the UPA Website. Additional information with deadlines, etc. will be arriving in your mailbox within the next few weeks, but begin planning now for great representation at the March convention.

Business to Consumer Expo at the South Towne Business Expo in Sandy

Treasures of Utah Press Association
Last week UPA staffers Arinda Gutierrez and Kirk Parrish donned pirate costumes to get everyone’s attention at the most recent Business to Consumer Expo.

Not only did they draw a lot of people into the UPA booth with their pirate attire, they talked, cajoled and basically spread information to everyone who walked by on what UPA does and how we can help their businesses succeed.

The show once again turned out to be a very popular exhibition. UPA,, thanks to all the hard work of Arinda and Kirk, were able to educate many show attendees to exactly what UPA is and what we can do for their business. Kirk was quoted as saying “we were a very popular booth, we were able to make more contacts and get more leads than the 2005 Expo.” The truth of the matter is Arinda and Kirk are great entertainers as well as rabid believers in Utah Press Association and the work we do.

While pirates manned the booth site, Lynn Vredeveld our Business Development Manager worked the floor and visited every booth to get new advertising leads and contacts to follow up later. Lynn's work from last years show went on to bring much of the success we are seeing this year at UPA.