2006 September

Utah Journalist spends summer on New Jersey copy desk

By KAYLENE ARMSTRONG
Adviser, The Daily Universe

I recently returned from New Jersey after a six-week stint on the copy desk of The Record, the second largest newspaper in the state with a circulation of 150,000 that serves a county of about 900,000 (twice the population of Utah County). The main newspaper offices are located in Hackensack, the county seat for Bergen County, which is located just across the river from Manhattan. On a clear day, the New York skyline is visible from the newsroom’s fourth floor.

The fellowship was part of a program sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors that puts college journalism professors back into the work force for the summer to learn a thing or two. I hope I learned more than that.

The Record has some qualities that newspapers everywhere could emulate. First, they hire top-notch staff. Editor Frank Scandale came from the Denver Post five and a half years ago and has worked to augment his fine staff with some truly excellent writers and editors. The copy editors I worked with on the rim do amazing work – headlines often are pure poetry. I was in awe of their abilities.

Scandale is quick to credit the successes to the owners and publisher, members of the Borg family who are in their third generation of running The Record. They really care about good journalism and not just the bottom line, Scandale explains.

That caring shows up in the training they send employees to or provide on site. Several kinds of training are available to employees, such as use of various computer systems. Even machinists who fix the press are given computer training.

The caring also shows up in a willingness to let the editorial staff do good investigative work and tackle sensitive topics that advertisers might not like. A five-part series last fall on toxic waste left by Ford Motor Company is just such a case. The publisher’s response to running the series? “Take on Ford. I don’t care if they pull their ads,” Scandale recalls.

The newspaper also takes seriously the role of educating the public about what is really going on in government. This summer the paper looked at how police and teachers unions influence property taxes. The six-part series, titled Runaway Pay, detailed the income levels of the various police and teachers as well as the benefit packages and other perks these public servants enjoy, all paid for with tax dollars.
More than 250 readers wrote in about the series. “A lot of readers said they had no idea their police and teachers were so well compensated, and for many, the news provided a piece of the property-tax puzzle that was missing,” wrote reporter Bob Ivry in summarizing the response at the conclusion of the series.

“Teachers and police and their supporters defended the compensation levels, saying that people underestimated the difficulty of their jobs. Others cited school administrators' sweetheart deals, pension abuse and the avarice of elected officials as more of a drain on the public purse than the salaries and benefits or rank-and-file workers.
“Some readers hailed Runaway Pay for reporting what people are afraid to say publicly. … Others were furious over what they said is a sense of entitlement among police and teachers.”

While being a leader in solid investigative reporting (while I was there they wrote a story naming the new “don” of the New Jersey mafia), they are lagging somewhat behind in technology. Production went from an old fashioned back shop with paste up to pagination just a few years ago. One copy editor recalled watching as the World Trade Center Towers burned and collapsed on his first day of training for pagination in 2001. The paper’s Web site was more reflective of newspapers online in the late 1990s. A new version rolled out a few days after I left with a more up-to-date look but still just a regurgitation of stories from the print version from this morning. The many possibilities available online still elude them.

Just like newspapers in Utah, The Record has more improvement to do, something every newspaper in the country should be striving toward. A new managing editor, Frank Burgos from the Philadelphia Daily News, took over at the beginning of August. He talked to the staff after his appointment was announced in July, giving a brief overview of some of the areas he would like to see improved. He said the staff needs to look at the competition the newspaper faces – not just other newspapers but such things as family time, work, hobbies, and recreation – and then consider this consumer demand: “If I’m going to spend an hour with the paper, you need to make it worth my time.” It’s a demand that Utah newspapers must consider as well.

(You may have never heard of The Record, but you are probably familiar with one of their famous photos. Photographer Thomas Franklin snapped the shot of the firemen raising the flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 – reminiscent of the marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II. Franklin was a finalist for a Pulitzer but lost to the New York Times for their overall coverage of Sept. 11.)

Front-page ads run in 32 percent of dailies

Reprinted from Texas Press Messenger

Survey finds trend also increasing at weeklies

Front page ads: Love ’em or hate ’em they’re making a comeback among newspapers in Texas and nationwide.

The Wall Street Journal announced last month that starting in September it will sell ad space on its front page.

The New York Times also last month started selling ads on its business section front, in addition to its Metro section on Sundays, and this month the Boston Globe will begin placing ads on its business, real estate and other sections, except its city and region section. Both papers are owned by The New York Times Co.

And the Los Angeles Times also plans to start selling section-front advertising.

The nation’s largest newspapers are making the jump and Texas is not far behind. As newspapers continue searching for new revenue streams more and more appear to be turning to front-page ads and advertising on sections fronts.

When the Texas Press Messenger first covered the issue in November 2000 only a handful of newspapers were publishing front-page ads.

Today that dynamic has drastically changed and the results of a random visual survey of Texas newspapers last month showed some surprising results.

Out of 69 daily newspapers surveyed, 32 percent are publishing front-page ads and another 13 percent print ads on their section fronts. So nearly half of all dailies are printing ads in what traditionally has been sacred newshole.

None of the state’s five largest dailies run front-page ads and only the Austin American-Statesman is selling ads in the corner of section fronts, as of late July.

The most unique twist on front-page ads the survey found in the dailies is The Pampa News, which runs ads in its banner, across the bottom and in a rail down the left side in 2-inch by 1.5-inch slots.

The survey also looked at weekly and semiweekly newspapers. Only 25 percent of the 136 weeklies and semiweeklies surveyed published front-page ads, as of late July.

Still out of all the newspapers surveyed nearly one-third are publishing front-page and section-front ads.

Most of the front-page ads the survey identified are single-advertiser small strip ads that run across the entire bottom page. Generally the ads are plain with one color and no graphics and no large type.

Several newspapers, however, give front-page ads prime placement in the flag or banner and mix the ads with their regular teasers. A handful of newspapers sell ads both in the banner and across the bottom.

On section front advertising, the sports page seems to be the most popular place for ads. Most section-front ads identified in the survey were placed in the right or left ear, top corner, of the page. Section front ads also tend to have minimal text and generally one color.

Front-page advertising started resurfacing in newspapers in the late 1990s and in 1999 USA Today made it a staple. Early in their histories newspapers often commingled ads with front-page news. Many newspapers continued to run front-page ads until about 30 years ago.

Do this and you can anticipate more sales

By John Foust, Raleigh, NC

I asked Emily, an advertising sales manager, about her secrets of selling. "A big key," she said, "is to see things from the advertiser's perspective. I encourage our team to think, 'If I were in their position, what would I want to know right now?' Web sites have FAQs – frequently asked questions – and so do we. It's a matter of anticipating those questions in advance."

Our conversation reminded me of a recent business trip to southwestern Utah. Because the most convenient airport was McCarran International in Las Vegas, my plan was to rent a car and make the two-hour drive.

When I asked the lady behind the car rental counter how to get to Interstate 15 North, she handed me one of those standard, car rental maps. Before I drove out of the lot, I compared their map to the map I had brought with me. Everything looked okay; neither the airport nor the highway had moved between map printings. But since I'd learned that maps don't reveal anything about road construction or streets to avoid during rush hour, I decided to ask an expert – the person at the gate.

After the gatekeeper checked my paperwork, I asked, "What's the best way to get to I-15 North?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know."

How about that for anticipation? I-15 is one of the busiest roads in his state. It runs within a few miles of where he was standing. But he didn't know how to find it.

From the efficient way he examined my paperwork, it was obvious that this was not his first day on the job. But if he had been working with Emily, she might have told him, "Get a clue, buddy. It's your job to help people. Anticipate what they want to know, find the answers, and tell them – even if you have to write the information in a notebook and keep in your pocket."

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzsky said, "Don't skate to the puck; skate to where the puck is going."

Anticipation can make athletes – and sales people – better. "It's easy to anticipate advertisers' concerns," Emily explained. "If you've been selling for a while, you should never be caught off guard by an objection or a question. You've probably heard them all before. But if you hear a new one, don't say 'I don't know' without adding 'Let me find the answer for you.'"

When advertisers are on the receiving end of a sales presentation, what are they thinking? (How much does it cost? Does your paper's readership include my target audience? How have similar businesses advertised?)

After they sign a contract, what is important for them to know? (What about deadlines, turnaround time, production guidelines, available fonts and stock art?)

And when ads begin running, what are their concerns? (What is the billing cycle? What is the procedure to make copy changes?)

Emily is right. Anticipate what advertisers want to know – and you'll be on the road to more sales.

(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

NNA Contest Winners to be Honored at 2006 Annual Convention

Contact: Sara Dickson
Title: Special Events Coordinator
Phone: (573) 882-5800
E-mail: saradickson@nna.org

COLUMBIA, MO — Judging results have been received and winners of the 2006 Better Newspaper Contest and Better Newspaper Advertising Contest will be recognized at the “Toast to the Winners” awards reception at the National Newspaper Association’s 120th Annual Convention & Trade Show, Oct. 11-14, 2006, in Oklahoma City, OK. Convention registration and reception tickets are available online at: www.nna.org/Meetings/Annual2006/

Reed Anfinson, publisher of the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson, MN, and chair of the Contest and Awards Committee, announced and congratulated the contest winners. Awards notification letters and emails have been sent to winning newspapers.

There were 3,126 entries in the Better Newspaper Contest and 387 entries in the Better Newspaper Advertising Contest for a total of 3,513 entries. These figures represent the greatest number of entries received in both contests over the past 10 years. Entries were received from 253 member newspapers in 39 States and the District of Columbia. Missouri had the most combined BNC/BNAC entries with 374, followed by California with 371. The category receiving the most entries – 70 – was Best Feature Story or Series, Non-Daily Division, circulation 10,000-14,999.

Winners are listed at http://www.nna.org/Contests/_2006BNC/index.htm and will be recognized in a special contest insert in the November issue of Publishers’ Auxiliary. Judges comments will appear in the insert. Places won by General Excellence winners will be announced at the awards reception.

NNA appreciates and values the time and talent volunteered by our judges for these contests.

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.

Newsman celebrates 50 years at top

Reprinted from Salt Lake Tribune
By Lisa J. Church
lchurch@citlink.net

MOAB - Sam Taylor leans back in his creaky desk chair, clasps his hands behind his head and starts to speak. It is a posture familiar to anyone who spends time in Taylor's cluttered office at the The Times-Independent - this southeastern Utah town's only newspaper.

"Monday morning has always been exciting to me. I've always been ready to get over the weekend and into the office," the 73-year-old Taylor says. "I'm just as enthused about that today as I was in the very beginning."

The paper has been the Taylor family's business for almost 100 years, ever since Sam Taylor's father, Loren "Bish" Taylor, took charge of the enterprise in 1911 at age 19.

This month marks Sam Taylor's 50th year at the helm - a hallmark that surpasses even his father's longevity in the business. Today, The Times-Independent remains true to its masthead: Southeastern Utah's longest-running business remains independently owned.

"What a satisfying life I've had," Taylor says.

It is a life filled with memories and moments that chronicle not only Taylor's personal experiences and his years of public service, but also the history of his hometown.

He witnessed the rise and fall of Moab's status as the West's "uranium capital," its transformation into a tourism magnet, and the daily clashes of personalities and politics in a community with a fierce reputation for speaking its mind.

As the editor, and now co-publisher with his wife, Adrien, he has frequently waded right into the thick of those local issues. Many of those memories still bring a smile to his weatherworn face.

Like the Saturday in 1953 when a 20-year-old Sam Taylor, filling in as editor for several months after his father suffered a stroke, received an unexpected visit from an upstart mining prospector named Charlie Steen.

"He came in, wearing his muddy boots, his old jeep parked out front, and handed me a story on his [uranium-ore] find. I ran the story," Taylor recalls, his expression suddenly breaking into a wide grin. "At the time a lot of people didn't really believe it would come to much. We broke the news of Charlie's uranium bonanza. It really put Moab on the map."

Just as quickly, the smile fades. Taylor's voice turns soft as he recalls the uranium crash of the 1980s that devastated this small community.

"In the space of a year - in this town of 5,000 men, women and children - we lost 2,000 jobs," he says, shaking his head as if to erase the painful memories. "Subdivisions were lined with for-sale signs like picket fences."

When the bottom fell out of the uranium market, it also took a toll on Taylor's business.

"To see a town go broke immediately. To see families broken by unemployment and alcohol abuse. It was heartbreaking," he says. "We had to cut our staff dramatically. I grieved over those employees for a long, long time."

When Taylor took over the family business in June 1956, The Times-Independent was facing tough financial times. His father had never fully recovered from the stroke, and a lease agreement with outside editors had resulted in a less-than-satisfactory newspaper, he says.

"We owed money to people all over the country," Taylor says. "The payroll was due, and we had $18 in our checking account."

Taylor used his "mustering out" pay from his two years of military service to pay his employees. Then he set up payment plans with the company's suppliers. It took him 15 years to pay off one debt, he says, but eventually the newspaper was in the black again.

In the years since, Taylor has often been in the limelight.

He has served on numerous boards in Grand County, including a nine-year stint on the school board, which he says was his favorite volunteer position. In the 1960s, he served in the Utah Senate, served five years on the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board, and for 21 years - nine of them as chairman - as a member of the Utah Transportation Commission, a post he resigned in the 1990s after a dust-up with then-Gov. Mike Leavitt.

"I told him I'd made too many trips across the desert and hills to carry a rubber stamp," Taylor says, then laughs. "But that was a very satisfying job. I served under five governors, and we got things done."

That no-nonsense attitude is one reason the community has continued to respect Taylor - even those who disagree with him, says Jimmie Walker, a friend of more than 60 years.

"He's been instrumental in keeping this community going, even through really tough times," Walker said. "Sam was always involved. He has a natural knack for talking with people. You want to pay attention to what he is saying. He's been a real rock."

Since the early 1960s, Adrien Taylor has worked at Sam's side, as co-publisher and now also editor of the weekly newspaper. Together, the couple has filled every job there - from reporter to mail-room worker - to keep the business going through good times and bad.

"It's been a partnership from the very beginning," Adrien Taylor says. "We've had a joint vision, and it's been very satisfying to see changes come about in the community."

It has also proved challenging. People regularly call the Taylors at home during evenings and weekends to discuss issues or provide news tips.

"You do give up part of your privacy. You become a public figure almost as much as an elected official," she says. "But it's definitely been worth it. I don't think either of us would have chosen anything different."

Sam Taylor simply dismisses the thought that he might have taken a different path.

"I'm not your typical old-timer who wishes things would always stay the same. I'm excited about things happening in our town," he says. "I've had a wonderful life and a wonderful wife. I was born to do this."

Sam Taylor

* Born: May 28, 1933. The youngest of five children, Taylor had four older sisters. "I had five mothers," he often jokes.
* Family: Taylor and his wife, Adrien, have been married for 45 years. They have four children: Tom, Sena Hauer, Jed and Zane.
* Education: Taylor holds a journalism degree from the University of Utah.
* Senate stint: In 1962, Taylor, at age 28, was appointed to serve the remaining year of a Utah Senate term vacated by uranium magnate Charlie Steen.
* Community service: He served on the Utah Transportation Commission from 1973 to 1995, and has been active in civic and professional organizations for most of his newspaper career. He is a past president of the Utah Press Association.
* Fun fact: Taylor is an avid reader of history books and historical fiction, with a special interest in the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Making Photos Larger ... It Can Be Done

by Kevin Slimp, August 2006

Story Photo
Clothing fashions aren’t the only styles that have gone retro. Lately, I’ve noticed it’s become fashionable to offer Photoshop training for newspapers again.

A couple of years ago I discussed the upswing in software training, since the advent of Adobe InDesign, with a friend who was also in the training business. We agreed on a couple of points. First, it seemed like everyone wanted training in InDesign. Second, getting folks to come out for Photoshop training was like pulling teeth.

I did a national tour with a buddy a couple of summers ago. I led the sessions on InDesign and Acrobat. He led the sessions on Photoshop and Advanced Photoshop. You guessed it. The InDesign and Acrobat sessions garnered four times as many registrations as the Photoshop classes.

Lately, however, I’m noticing more e-mails requesting Photoshop training than just about anything else. Especially from community newspapers.

And classes sponsored by press associations are filling up. Go figure.
One question that seems to get asked in every Photoshop class is, “How can I take a small photo, provided by a client or downloaded from a web site, and make it bigger in the paper?”

I usually respond with something like, “Just take the photo and stretch it out on the page.” You should see the looks I get.

The truth is you can just stretch it out on the page, but the results will probably be terrible. A few years back, an editor friend told me he regularly took photos and stretched them three to four times their original sizes on the Quark page. This I had to see. A few days later, I received an envelope with several copies of his newspapers. The photos looked awful. I called him and told him those were the worst photos I’d ever seen in a newspaper. His response: “I knew you’d say that.”

Several months ago I wrote a review of onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals; I’ve since recommended the product to several photo editors. This plug-in helps Photoshop users get better results when enlarging pictures.

Recently, I received a copy of Blow Up, from Alien Skin Software. I decided to see how it compares with Genuine Fractals.

First, remember that both of these products are Photoshop plug-ins. This means they both work as “add ons” to Photoshop, working within the application. After installing both plug-ins, the user will find them under the File>Automate menu. Alien Skin’s marketing folks say that Blow Up works better than any other plug-in that enlarges images. So I put it to the test.

Basically, it worked like this. I began with three photos. The first was a 72 ppi image of a golfer, about 3 inches wide that I shot a couple of months ago. For this comparison, I enlarged the image by 200 percent, using Blow Up without changing any of its default settings. Next, I did the same thing using Genuine Fractals. I placed the photos on an InDesign page, side by side, along with the original photo enlarged 200 percent using Photoshop alone. I printed the page on a Xerox color proofer and took it around my office for people to view. I asked which of the three images looked the best. Of the seven people I asked, all seven said the image done in Photoshop alone was much worse than the others. 6 of the 7 thought the image enhanced with Blow Up and Genuine Fractals looked the same.

Next, I took two photos. One was very small, approximately 2 inches wide at 72 ppi, and the other was approximately 5 inches wide at 72 ppi. The first image was similar to one taken from a Web site. The second was better, but at an 85 or 100 line screen, the photo would have to print pretty small to retain its quality. In this test, I used a feature available in Blow Up called “Adding Grain.” One of my chief concerns about using a plug-in to enlarge an image is the plasticized look that commonly appears. Images can appear overly smooth, as if they made of - or covered with - plastic.

According to the Blow Up instruction guide, the Adding Grain feature simulates film grain. So I increased the grain amount till I could see grain begin to appear in the preview window.

I enlarged the first, smaller, image 400 percent. The second, larger, image I enlarged 200 percent.

When I asked my colleagues which of the larger images looked best, six of seven selected the Blow Up photo. One thought the Genuine Fractals image looked better. All said both looked much better than the image enlarged in Photoshop alone.

When I asked them about the smaller image, which had been enlarged 400 percent, five thought the Blow Up enhanced image looked best. Two thought the images edited using Blow Up and Genuine Fractals were about the same.

I agreed with my colleagues in all three instances. Without tweaking either plug-in, both seemed to provide similar results. But the Add Graining feature significantly improved the look of the images when printed at a 100 line screen.

Here are a few other details concerning Blow Up. Blow Up resizes multi-layered documents without flattening. It also offers the ability to create a new image when resizing, leaving the original untouched. Blow Up works with 8, 16, and 32-bit images. It’s quick and easy to use. I like it.

MSRP of Blow Up is $199 (US). Upgrades are available for registered users of any other Alien Skin Product for $99 (US). Blow Up works with both Macs (OS 10.3.9 or later) and Windows (2000 or XP). For more information, visit www.alienskin.com.

National Newspaper Week

National Newspaper Week Oct. 1-7, 2006

Week Since 1940, the Newspaper Association Managers have sponsored National Newspaper Week. This year's celebration will be October 1-7 and the theme is "NEWSPAPERS: We Cover Your Life."

How true that is.

Again, UPA is hosting the National Newspaper Week material on its website. And it's already gone "live," so Utah newspapers can go ahead and start downloading materials.

The material is a little different from the past. There are several full pages of materials, in SAU and PASS options, ready for publication. Nothing to do, but put them in your system.

When it comes to convincing retailers where to put their advertising dollars, newspapers are at the top.

When it comes to promoting ourselves (practicing what you preach to retailers), newspapers are at the bottom. So take pride in your industry and in your newspaper and focus on promoting it from now through the end of National Newspaper Week. But use the materials during NNW, October 1-7.

The NNW kit is available at: www.kypress.com/nnwkit

The quiet war on the web

THREE OREGON INVASIONS: WILL YOU BE NEXT?

BY DAVID MERRILL
“Newspapers that pretend that the internet doesn’t exist will eventually fall off a cliff.”
—Alan Rusbridger, editor of
The Guardian, London

Small local newspapers are largely ignored in statistical reports pertaining to, produced for, and dispensed by the media industry. When Knight-Ridder goes up for sale or the New York Times reports reductions in earnings and/or circulation, the fate of newspapers in general is anxiously examined in that light.

Publishers of Oregon’s small community weeklies, knowing those prognosticators and pundits aren’t talking about them, have become inured to most media reports of peril and promise in the industry.

But the winds of change are blowing, and for those newspapers who still fearfully resist “giving away” all their news on the web, I have a suggestion: keep one eye over your shoulder. Because there, galloping over the distant horizon, is a predator whose goal is to siphon off your readers and advertisers and pull that comfortable rug out from under you. You may have a rock-solid community franchise in your print product, but if you don’t secure that franchise by putting your news online, someone else will.

In fact, they’re already trying.

How it happens

If your newspaper doesn’t have a web site at all, it’s quite likely that one will eventually appear and proclaim itself to be your community’s online news site. The creator of that site, who may be one of your neighbors, will be vieing for local advertising dollars as well as readers. That’s what happened in Creswell (see “The Creswell caper” below).

Newspapers without web sites may encounter some difficulty when they are ready to register an internet domain. That’s because, for 350 Oregon cities and towns and all Oregon counties, domain names in the form “[cityname]news.com” and “[countyname]news.com” (and variations on those themes) are already registered. For details on this nationwide investment in nearly 50,000 internet “news” domains, see “Mass-producing online news” below.

Many Oregon weeklies, fearing an erosion of their print circulation, set up web sites that encourage visitors to subscribe to the print edition. Some provide only contact and subscription information; some also include online forms for submitting letters to the editor and marriage/ birth/death announcements; and some even offer selected headlines and lead paragraphs as teasers, with an admonishment such as “Here’s what you missed in this week’s paper.”

If that describes your web site, you should remember that its presence does not prevent others from offering online news content for and about your community. If another individual or newspaper sees an opening, they’re likely to capitalize on it. That’s what happened in Seaside (see “The Seaside situation” below).

Why would someone try to start a newspaper web site in your town when you already have both a newspaper and a web site? Because there’s advertising money to be made wherever the eyeballs go. If your web site isn’t attracting and engaging your community, someone else will try to make money by doing so.

This form of competitive predation is in its early stages, and some of the broader-scale attempts are downright ugly, visually and otherwise. But they are harbingers of a burgeoning threat, and their foot is already firmly in the door. As such efforts acquire greater funding and more sophistication, and as the opportunity available in your community becomes apparent, their foothold will inevitably increase.

Mass-producing online “news”

A few internet entrepreneurs, realizing the incremental revenue possibilities, have launched large-scale attempts to blanket the country with what are designed to appear as local news web sites.

One is interesting to note, although it’s unlikely to be a threat in your community. If I had to vote for the ugliest “news” site, it would be havenworks.com, which purports to offer news from everywhere but is such a grotesque visual assault that even finding the links on the page is nauseating. This effort must be waning, because what news I’ve seen there lately is way out of date.

Topix.net is a fascinating blend of “local” news aggregation linked to cannily distributed, article-centered forums that make it seem like a news and discussion site based on your town, however small. The jig’s up, though, when you go to other towns’ forums and find that the same articles, and the same comments on them, are included in forums for every town in the state. The clear visual design of topix.net lends credibility to its stunning list of “topix,” but I don’t believe it is a significant threat to Oregon’s community weeklies. The mass-networking venture that may be the greatest threat is a product of getlocalnews. com, and the gateway to Oregon’s segment of this vast network can be seen at oregonnewsonline.com.

A critical first step in this entrepreneurial scheme was to register all available internet domain names that take the form “[cityname]news.com” or, if that’s already taken, “news[cityname].com” or “[cityname]oregonnews.com.” You can no longer register such a domain name for any of 350 cities in Oregon: newsashland.com, newslakeview. com, yoncallanews.com, medfordnews.com, and creswellnews.com are all registered and active. The same is true of Oregon’s counties: klamathcountynews.com, multnomahcountynews.com, and newswheelercounty.com are examples. At all those web sites you’ll see a clone of oregonnewsonline.com that proclaims itself to be a “local news and citizen journalism” site.

Navigation on these sites is confusing and typographically ugly, but the scope, complexity, and automated nature of the overall system is as awe inspiring as it is illustrative of what’s possible. The revenue source is visible on every page: automatically rotating Google AdSense text ads are the staple, with here and there a similar text-and-link ad from a local advertiser created, paid for (as low as $20), and delivered onto the web page with no human intervention whatsoever. The system is a cash funnel, and no doubt this enterprise will eventually approach your local businesses (if it hasn’t already) to sell advertising on the “local news web site.”

The same automated system receives and dispenses instantly to the web any “citizen journalism” you care to submit, fact or fiction. Submissions may be vetted by human eyes at some point, but when I tried submitting an opinion piece, it appeared on several sites within seconds.

Many of the sites also encourage visitors to “Start your Own Online Newspaper!” Newspaper publishers will chuckle at the stated primary requirement for becoming a publisher in this system: “A computer, access to the Internet and, most importantly, ideas, information and opinions you would like to share with others in your community. Computer and journalism experience are helpful but not required.” (Emphasis added.)

The automated system of getlocalnews.com may be an affront to the newspaper industry in many ways, but it is a real venture that is offering online content, reader input, and advertising in your community. As such, it is your competition, and you need to be wary of it.

The Creswell caper

“Unless we begin thinking of ourselves as multi-media information sources, rather than as just printed newspapers, online competitors will siphon off our readership and advertising revenues.”
—Helen Hollyer, publisher,
The Creswell Chronicle

Since 1965, The Creswell Chronicle has been the weekly community newspaper in Creswell, a Lane County town of about 4,000 along the I-5 corridor. The paper had no online presence until last year, when publisher Helen Hollyer created a web site in response to competition from a community news and information site called ourcreswell.com.

Creswell resident and entrepreneur David Case started ourcreswell.com sometime before 1990, but it wasn’t a full-blown news-and-information site until late 2003. By that time, Case was part-owner of a company called Global Design that offered web hosting and content management using the same software that was driving ourcreswell.com. Case sold ourcreswell.com to Robert Clack, another Creswell resident, in October 2004. Case and Clack both argued publicly that news available on ourcreswell.com was current, whereas The Chronicle’s news was up to a week old by the time it hit the street.

Not long after Clack took over the site, he began an aggressive campaign to solicit advertising from Creswell businesses. According to Hollyer, Clack’s sales pitch included grossly inflated traffic statistics for the site, but Hollyer knew that local business owners were largely uninformed about the internet and could easily be drawn in. She had lobbied for the former Chronicle owner to start a web site, and after she purchased the paper, she intended to do so as soon as she settled into the driver’s seat. Clack’s direct competition for advertising dollars finally turned the tide for Hollyer, and she brought thecreswellchronicle.com online in August 2005.

Luckily for Hollyer, Clack is a retired insurance executive who had no newspaper experience when he purchased ourcreswell.com, and he and his high-school-age daughter maintained the site as a home business until recently. At first glance, the site has a somewhat professional look about it, largely due to the software system on which it is based and to good initial design by Case. On closer inspection, the content lacks editorial polish and organization, and the local news appears to be generated hurriedly: quantity seems to be the dominant priority. The advertising on ourcreswell.com is graphically somewhat primitive and in most cases doesn’t link to the advertiser’s web site or offer any other kind of basic interactivity.

As of February 2006, according to Hollyer, the newspaper’s site has a monthly visitor count nearly equal that of ourcreswell.com, and Hollyer is convinced that the newspaper’s web site is winning the battle for online readers and advertisers. She feels that ourcreswell.com’s attempts to lure away The Chronicle’s readers and advertisers ultimately worked in her favor: Clack’s open criticisms brought the newspaper, rather than ourcreswell.com, into the public consciousness. And when, for two weeks, Clack printed and distributed a twopage letter-sized “bulletin” of Creswell news, it paled in comparison to the 24-page weekly Chronicle and was quickly withdrawn.

“Ourcreswell.com is one of the best things that could have happened to The Creswell Chronicle,” says Hollyer. “It forced me to go online a little sooner than I had planned, and it continues to motivate me to produce a constantly improving online product.”

The Seaside situation

The Seaside story illustrates that your community weekly newspaper won’t ward off a predatory invasion just by putting a web site online that represents your paper. Online readership, and the advertising that follows it, is firstcome, first-served. Unless you offer active news content online, you can expect someone else to do so sooner or later, and they’ll be offering your local advertisers something you can’t.

In the coastal town of Seaside, that “someone else” turns out to be the daily newspaper that serves the area.

The Seaside Signal is a weekly paper of about 3,500 circulation. In August 2000, seasidesignal.com appeared online with a few stories from the printed newspaper, and it became fairly active from June 2001 into late 2002, carrying a lot of news and features from the print edition and soliciting and printing letters to the editor. But beginning in late 2002, in spite of new ownership in early 2003 and a new site design in February 2004, the site was updated only partially and irregularly, sometimes remaining stagnant for months. Sometime in mid- 2005, seasidesignal.com was finally reduced to a single page that provides online forms for entering subscriptions, announcements, and letters to the editor.

For 15 years, The Daily Astorian has maintained a small editorial office in Seaside to support a reporting team that feeds Seaside news to the Astoria-based daily. That office became a bit busier at the beginning of 2006 when the Daily Astorian inaugurated seaside-sun.com, a news and “citizen journalism” web site for Seaside citizens.

The site provides Seasidefocused news stories written by Daily Astorian staff, and allows readers to comment on the stories and have their comments displayed with the stories, just as they are on dailyastorian.com. In addition, the site encourages Seaside locals to upload their photos and personal stories for inclusion on the site’s community pages.

In announcing the site’s inception, Steve Forrester, editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian, referred to seaside-sun.com as a “new concept in web-based journalism.” Nowhere in that upbeat announcement was there any mention of Seaside’s community weekly, the Seaside Signal.

A spokesman for the company that owns the Seaside Signal, contacted in early February, expressed mixed feelings about this online invasion of Seaside’s territory.

“We aren’t really concerned with what The Daily Astorian tries to do in our market,” he said with confidence. “We have better penetration in the Seaside market than the Astorian.” But his dissatisfaction with the move was obvious. “We are involved in several communities in five states, and this is the first time we have seen a newspaper act in such a predatory manner.”

Mythology or reality?

Here are a few statements that have become less true over time:

The internet is only critical for the “big dogs.” As illustrated by the situations described here, small communities have become desirable targets for online encroachment. Entrepreneurs in the field are acutely aware of the rising popularity of the internet in general and online news sites specifically, even among rural populations. And they aim to capitalize on it.

Putting my news online will erode my print circulation. That may be true, but your print circulation is equally at risk (and your ad revenue and brand integrity along with it) if someone else puts viable, engaging news online for your community. You stand to lose less, and to maintain your community standing, if you are the provider (and beneficiary) of online readership and advertising. According to recent information from the Newspaper Association of America and Scarborough Research, a small paper’s bottom line can remain quite healthy in spite of print circulation erosion if its web site is done properly.

A news web site costs more than it earns. That depends entirely on how you approach it: the situations described in this article indicate otherwise. Upfront costs may be daunting, but that’s true of any new business venture. The real question is whether the online operation is managed for success; i.e., built wisely, marketed well, and maintained consistently. All that will depend on your own level of confidence in its success.

Classifieds

Managing Editor
The Tooele Transcript Bulletin, a 112 year-old family owned, two-day per week newspaper is seeking a Managing Editor to lead a strong staff of journalists. The Transcript Bulletin, circulation 8,000, has been honored repeatedly as the best large weekly newspaper in Utah and covers a county population base of 50,000. Responsibilities include assigning and editing stories, providing feedback and coaching to reporters, and managing and assisting in the page design and layout. A degree in journalism is preferred and writing and editing experience is required. The Transcript Bulletin offers competitive pay and benefits, a friendly work environment, and a tradition of journalistic excellence. We are an equal opportunity employer and drug free environment. Tooele is located 30 miles West of Salt Lake City on the other side of the Oquirrh Mountains. Send a cover letter, salary expectations and resume to: publisher@tooeletranscript.com or mail to: Scott Dunn, Publisher, P.O. Box 390, Tooele, UT 84074.