The deadline to enter MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division is 5pm Tuesday, October 7. Find entry forms and criteria here.
Awards will be presented during the annual Mid-Winter Conference, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown.
Annual USPS statement of ownership filings are due at your local post office by Sept. 30, 2008. The required information also must be published in your newspaper:
MPA also requires its members submit a copy of the postal Statement of Ownership to our office by faxing to 601.981.3676 or via mail to 371 Edgewood Terrace, Jackson, MS 39206. For your convenience, we encourage you to submit the Statement with your 2008 BNC-Advertising entries, due Oct. 7.
National Newspaper Week is Oct. 5-11, 2008. Member newspapers are encouraged to visit the MPA’s partner NNW Website to download art, columns, house ads and other features to run in editions that week.
The package is produced by this year by Texas Press Association and made available to participating associations across the country. The theme for this year’s observance of NNW again focuses on public notices and the importance the legal advertisements play in keeping government agencies open and honest.
For more information on the NNW package, contact Layne Bruce.
A federal regulation that will go into effect in late November will require reporters and photographers covering events on federal highways and rights-of-way to wear high-visibility safety vests. The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration has said the new rule was put in effect to increase visibility and safety of media and others who work accident scenes and cover other news developments on or near highways.
MPA will make vests available to members that will be stenciled with the MPA “PRESS” logo on the back panel beginning in October. Publishers and editors will receive further information via mail and email as the vests become available.
For members who choose to purchase vests from another vendor, the new regulation requires the garments be lime green or orange and must be Class 2, ANSI/107 approved.
More information is available from NNA.
Registration for this year’s ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference is underway. Materials can be downloaded here.
The event returns to the Ameristar Hotel and Casino in Vicksburg Nov. 6-7. It s sponsored jointly by MPA and the Louisiana Press Association and Arkansas Press Association.
Speakers include circulation training and sales expert Don Michel of Anderson Randles & Associates and National Newspaper Association postal chairman Max Heath. The Friday morning Hot Ideas Breakfast will again be led by Phil Erhardt of The Times Picayune in New Orleans.
Heath will be on hand to consult daily and weekly members concerning their USPS statements and help maximize potential savings on their postage bills.
Registration is $90. The group rate at the hotel is $89 nightly. For more information, contact member services manager Beth Boone.
NNA: The outlook for community newspapers is much better than what is being reported in the media, said a group of community newspaper leaders. “You read about the struggles that newspapers are having in larger markets,” said Michael Abernathy, president for Landmark Community Newspapers. “And we don’t really find that to be the case in our community markets.”
Al Neuharth: “This week, I met in this Mile High City with executives of mostly middle-America medium-sized newspapers at a conference sponsored by the Inland Press Foundation…One speaker was Walter Hussman Jr., owner-publisher of the Arkansas (Little Rock) Democrat-Gazette. His newspaper showed its traditional circulation gains again this year. It now is 182,202, up from 174,722 10 years ago. I asked Hussman the “secrets” to that continuing success. His reply: We put news in the paper that people can use.”
MediaLife Magazine: The economy’s rocky, consumers are worried, magazines are struggling, and it’s only been 18 months since Time Inc. folded Life in its latest iteration as a weekend insert. But that’s not discouraging publishers from launching newspaper inserts, with three debuting in just these recent weeks.
OXFORD — S. Gale Denley, the longtime publisher of the weekly Calhoun County Journal and mentor to a generation of journalism students, has died at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford.
Funeral Arrangements for S. Gale Denley:
Funeral services will be held at Bruce United Methodist Church on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3 p.m. Interment will follow in Bruce Cemetery. Parker Memorial Funeral Home in Bruce is in charge of arrangements. Visitation is scheduled Saturday, Aug. 30 from 5-8 p.m. at Bruce United Methodist Church.
Memorial donations may be made to the following institutions:
The S. Gale Denley Student Media Center Scholarship, UM Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677;
or
The Bruce Museum, P.O. Box 1013, Bruce, Miss., 38915
or
Sanctuary Hospice House, P.O. Box 2177, Tupelo, Miss., 38803
Directions to the church:
From Oxford: Start out on MS-7 S. MS-7 S becomes MS 9W S. MS 9W S becomes MS-9 S. Turn LEFT onto MS-32/ W CALHOUN ST. Continue to follow MS-32 E. Our church is approximately .06 miles on the left.
Directions from other MS cities can be found at:
http://www.gbgm-umc.org/fumc-bruce/directions.html
A Blue Ribbon Panel appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour has recommended the repeal of the sales tax exemption for Mississippi newspapers as part of a comprehensive proposal to overhaul the state’s tax code.
The group met Aug. 19 to formally vote on specific proposals in the plan, which also include hiking the excise tax on tobacco and broadening service tax categories to include towing, data processing, security, janitorial, advertising agency fees and graphic design, among others. A final vote to send the plan on to Barbour was taken this week.
The governor has the option of sending the entire plan or only portions of it on to the state legislature for consideration either in special session this fall or the regular session convening in January.
Mississippi has long had a sales tax exemption for newspapers and the Association along with member publishers have successfully argued against repeal in the past. Considerations include freedom of speech implications and the sheer logistics of requiring collections on the sales of single copy and home delivery newspapers. Even though sales taxes on newspapers are levied in certain states, the trend has been for adoption of exemptions. Louisiana during its last legislative session instituted a long-sought exemption on newspaper sales.
The MPA Governmental Affairs Committee has been tracking the developments along with Capitol representatives Hayes Dent and Steve Browning. A meeting with lobbyists next week will outline a strategy for the Association and a teleconference with the full GAC membership will follow. Members will be apprised of developments and may receive a call to action via email within the coming days from the Association or GAC chair Jim Prince of the Neshoba Democrat.
A full copy of the Governor’s Tax Study Plan may be downloaded here.
Criteria and entry packets for the Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division have been released and are available for download now.
Deadline for entries is Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 5pm. Entries must be hand-delivered to the MPA office by that time, or shipped at an appropriate time to guarantee delivery by the close of business on Oct. 7.
This year’s contest includes two new categories to recognize member expansion into magazine publishing. Category 29/Best Magazine Product will recognize special publications that are produced in magazine format as either one-time specials or periodicals. Category 30/Best Magazine Advertisement was created to recognize excellence in design and content for advertisements produced specifically for these special products. The Advertising Committee made recommendations for the additions during an August meeting and the changes were approved by the Board of Directors this week.
Judging this cycle will be by the members of the South Carolina Press Association. Awards will be presented Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Marriott Jackson during the annual MPA Mid-Winter Conference.
For more information on the contest, contact member services manager Beth Boone.
The ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference will return to Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg Nov. 6-7. The event is held annually in conjunction with the Arkansas and Louisiana press associations.
Featured speakers at the event include circulation and marketing consultant Don Michel and perennial ArkLaMiss favorite Max Heath, postal chairman for the National Newspaper Association.
Michel is the co-owner of Anderson, Randles & Associates, a nationally-recognized newspaper circulation consulting company. A magna cum laude graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside with a degree in psychology, Michel has more than 30 years of experience in circulation management, training and consulting.
During his newspaper career, he held circulation executive positions at The Journal Times (Racine, WI); the Billings (MT) Gazette; the Des Moines (IA) Register; and The Gazette in Cedar Rapids (IA), where he now resides.
Heath, longtime vice president of postal and acquisitions for Landmark Community Newspapers, has been featured regularly at ArkLaMiss and is routinely lauded for working with attending members on their postal statements and maximizing savings for their newspapers.
Registration materials for ArkLaMiss will be forthcoming in September. For more information, contact Layne Bruce.
For many members, Internet sites are secondary to concerns about the core product, particularly during this trying economic times. For those members who have sites but are not generating income, the task of dedicating brainpower and sales efforts to building revenue stream can be a daunting task. For members who have not yet made the leap to the Internet, the challenge can seem down right impossible with limited staffs and resource.
Workable solutions for both scenarios are on the agenda for MPA’s first Internet Conference for Community Newspapers, October 7 at the Jackson Hilton. Featured speaker Gary Sosniecki, an expert on newspaper portals for weeklies and community dailies will discuss various success stories in generating content that drives readership and advertising revenue.
Following Sosniecki’s presentation, members will share success stories and hints on problems you can avoid in our Best Practices panel discussion. Topics will range from advertising sales to editorial content, including posting video and multimedia content.
The program is perfect for those who are interested in starting a site, or those who are looking to build stronger the sites they already have. Plus, MPA will inform members of a low-cost turnkey Internet solution it will be offering beginning in 2009 for newspapers who currently have no Web presence and limited resources or staffing to dedicate to one.
The one-day conference begins at 9am and wraps by 3pm. Registration fee is $45 per person. Contact Beth Boone for more information or download the registration form.
Media Life Magazine: Papers are doing a better job at doing what they do best: reporting the news. They are doing a better job connecting with their readers by delivering the news readers want rather than the news editors think they should get, as in the past. That’s one of the findings of a new report out from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, titled “The Changing Newsroom.”
Birmingham (England) Post Editor Marc Reeves is about to radically change the way his newspaper works and looks. Here, he explains why the changes had to be made.
Editor and Publisher: Shares of nearly all publicly traded newspaper companies have lost upwards of 80% of their value in the last year — but they haven’t hit bottom yet, says a blistering report on the sector released earlier this month by Morningstar.
MPA will host its first Internet Conference for Community Newspapers Thursday, October 9, from 9am-3pm at the Jackson Hilton Hotel. Keynote speaker for the event is Gary Sosniecki, a former newspaper publisher who launched a successful community newspaper Website in 2004.
Sosniecki’s presentation will be on the top recommendations for delivering quality content and selling your Website to your community advertisers.
Afternoon sessions will focus on member roundtables and a “Best Practices” panel of Mississippi newspapers who have enjoyed successes in both content and revenue generation from their Websites.
Tuition fee for the conference is $45, which includes the cost of lunch and refreshments. Registration materials will be mailed to members the first week of August, or can be downloaded here. Deadline to register is September 26.
For more information, email Beth Boone, or call 601-981-3060.
An online survey is posted and ready for input from MPA members on the annual Better Newspaper Contest – Advertising Division. The survey will remain open through Monday, Aug. 4 and seeks feedback from publishers, ad directors and others interested in the contest.
Specifically, the survey is intended to gauge member opinions on the categories as they current exist in the contest, as well as suggestions for new categories and the clarity and ease of use for entry preparation materials and criteria. Advertising committee members will use the feedback to make any recommended changes for the upcoming contest, the criteria for which will be posted by the end of August.
The contest deadlines October 7 at 5pm for material published from Sept. 1, 2007-Aug. 31, 2008. Awards will be presented during MPA’s annual Mid-Winter Conference, Jan. 31, 2009 at the Jackson Marriott Downtown.
The University of South Dakota’s 2008 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media will celebrate the NEWSEUM, the world’s most interactive museum, with a music and multimedia performance honoring the person most responsible for creating the $450 million facility, which opened in April.
The public event will be 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9, at the USD in Vermillion.
Former Mississippi journalist and Clarion-Ledger editor Charles Overby, chief executive officer of the NEWSEUM and the Freedom Forum, will be the 22nd person to receive the Neuharth Award since USD began the program in 1989.
The award is named for USA TODAY and Freedom Forum founder Al Neuharth, a South Dakota native and 1950 USD graduate.
The program will start with recognition of Overby and a discussion with the audience. The evening then will shift to the Freedom Forum’s 12-piece Nashville-based band in “Hits and Headlines,” a special one-time show that uses music to relive the stories of our lives as told in the NEWSEUM.
The free show will be the final event held in Slagle Auditorium, built in 1925, before it closes for complete renovation.
Tickets information is available by calling 605-677-5477.
The program will be televised by South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
– South Dakota Newspaper Association
From the Sacramento Bee: Last month, the World Association of Newspapers, which represents 18,000 papers across the globe, released its little-noticed annual report at its meeting in Goteborg, Sweden.
Its conclusion, which sounds like heresy around these parts, is that “newspapers are a growth business,” with worldwide circulation growing by almost 3 percent last year, while at the same time significantly expanding their online audience.
Variety columnist Brian Lowry: “Let’s face it: TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their news. So what happens to those ‘rip and read’ broadcasters as print staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs strafing the newspaper industry?”
Here’s what: Shrinking print coverage threatens to trigger a ‘domino effect’ as news operations downsize, feeding the strange Internet age conundrum where there’s more information — courtesy of blogs and the Web — but less real news, especially as it pertains to backyard issues.”
From Advertising Age: How fast, and how treacherous, are the currents sweeping over The New York Times? This September, its home page — some of the most valuable real estate on the web — will start automatically displaying links to competitors’ takes on big news. That’s not your traditional paper of record.
