MPA/MPS e-Bulletin

The Mississippi Press Association will return to the Gulf Coast and Biloxi’s Beau Rivage Resort and Casino for the group’s 142nd Annual Convention June 26-28.

This year’s convention, which will focus on the state Sunshine Laws and Freedom of Information matters, will host speakers well-known to many MPA members, including FOI attorney Leonard Van Slyke, MPA general counsel John Henegan, and National Newspaper Association postal chairman Max Heath.

View the tentative agenda here.

Reservations can be made for the Beau Rivage for the group rate of $139 Wednesday and Thursday night and $179 Friday and Saturday nights. For more information on lodging or to make reservations, click here.

Registration packets will be mailed to members in early May.

Convention chairman for this year’s event is Randy Ponder of the Sea Coast Echo, president-elect of MPA/MPS. He will accept the gavel the evening of June 27 from outgoing president Tom Andrews of The Picayune Item.

Convention highlights include the traditional golf and tennis tournaments, post-event schooner cruise and, of course, the Better Newspaper Contest Awards program.

For more information on the convention, contact Layne Bruce, executive director, lbruce@mspress.org, or Kimberly Haydu, event manager, khaydu@mspress.org.

Members who entered the 2007 Better Newspaper Contest Editorial Division should this week receive notifications from MPA on whether their newspaper or staffs placed in the annual competition. Contest coordinator Beth Boone sent notices in care of each winning newspaper’s publisher.

Judging this year was performed by the South Carolina Press Association in Columbia last month. Awards will be presented during MPA’s 142nd Annual Convention June 28 in Biloxi.

First class postage rises to 42 cents effective May 12. But a long-sought 5 percent discount on out-of-county mail should be good news for community newspapers.

Newspapers should also take note of revised USPS Form 3541 that goes into effect this month.

The National Newspaper Association is calling for nominations for the 2008 Daniel M. Phillips Leadership Award, which was established in 2007 to honor Daniel Morris “Dan” Phillips, longtime associate publisher of The Oxford Eagle and former MPA president who passed away in 2005 at the age of 47.

Nominees must be between 23-40 years old, well respected in the community, be of good reputation and integrity, provide active leadership in the newspaper industry and be active in his or her state press association and community. Nominees must be an NNA member, and although NNA involvement is encouraged, other merits will be taken into consideration in determining the award winner (NNA involvement is not required).

Deadline for submission of letter of nomination and form is May 31, 2008. If your nominee is among the top five candidates selected by the judges, you will be contacted and asked to submit additional documentation. The nomination form and more details are located at nna.org.

The Daniel M. Phillips Leadership Award will be presented during NNA’s 122nd Annual Convention & Trade Show, Sept. 25-28, 2008, in Saint Paul, MN. For more information, contact Sara Dickson at (573) 882-5800 or saradickson@nna.org.

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.

From Editor and Publisher: Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed Monday in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country’s largest dailies in the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday.

MORE FROM E&P

• Top 25 daily newspapers in latest FAS-FAX
• Yes! It can happen: Top daily circ gainers in FAS-FAX
• Times-Picayune circ down nearly 30% over four years
• Seattle papers buck downward JOA circ trend 

From MediaLife Magazine: Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poynter Institute, a non-profit school for journalists that also owns the St. Petersburg Times, talks to Media Life about managed reductions, justifying circ declines to advertisers, and what media people can learn from the circulation drops.

From American Journalism Review: “Forget Clinton and Obama. The real loser of the Wednesday night debate in Philadelphia was journalism…The relentless rat-a-tat-tat of questions about campaign distractions by ABC moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos was a vivid illustration of what is so wrong with so much that passes for political coverage today.”

From MediaLife Magazine: The New York media landscape is about to get a major makeover, and the likely loser will be Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News. The winner: Rupert Murdoch, his longtime arch rival as owner of the scrappier, down-market New York Post, and more recently owner of the far more prestigious Wall Street Journal. Murdoch is about to close a deal in which he would gain control of Newsday, the Long Island daily that’s now part of Tribune company under real estate mogul Sam Zell.

MORE: Wall Street Journal editor hits the bricks after four months under Murdoch’s ownership.

A limited number of summer internships are still available to member newspapers through the MPA Education Foundation. Members interested in applying for a summer internship, through which MPAEF will underwrite $1100 in expenses over 11 weeks, can download the form here.

Last year, 12 weekly and 10 daily newspapers participated in the program, which allows journalism, communications or media students to work at member locations for a period up to 11 weeks. As long as members employee the interns at a rate of no less than minimum wage, MPAEF contributes an additional $100 per week to help offset living and other expenses.

Deadline to apply is April 10. For more information, contact Layne Bruce at lbruce@mspress.org or by calling 1-601-981-3060.

The MPA room block is now open for reservations at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, venue for the 142nd annual convention June 26-28. MPA members can reserve their rooms for a special press association room rate for the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Log on to beaurivage.com to make reservations online using the MPA group code MSPA608. Or call the Beau direct at 1-228-386-7444 and identify your group as the Mississippi Press Association. Members are urged to make their reservations now. Group cutoff is June 3, 2008.

More information about the convention, including a preliminary agenda and updates on speakers and other details, will be posted here as it becomes available.

MPA members now have access to live, online training led by two of our industry’s leading experts on software and technology. The webinars, through braincast.biz, will be held throughout April on a variety of topics, including Photoshop CS, Adobe Flash and PDF file creation and management.

Participating newspapers view the training session using their Web browers (Safar, Explorer, Firefox) over a broadband (high-speed) Internet connection. Participants receive live audio by dialing a toll-free number provided after registration.

The fee to participate is $69 per connection per session. Most newspapers will choose to gather staff together in one location, around a large monitor or projector, while listening to audio over a speakerphone.

Register today or find out more course information at braincast.biz. Sessions are led by noted training experts Kevin Slimp and Russell Viers.

These webinars can be viewed on Mac or PC computers and no special software is necessary. Participants will receive an instruction sheet after registration. Included in the information is the username, password and a toll-free number for audio. In addition, you will be supplied a log-on name.

Upcoming sessions include:

• April 3, 11am – An Overview of Adobe Flash for the New User. Led by Kevin Slimp | Flash is an incredibly powerful tool for creating animated ads and video for Websites. Join Kevin in an overview of Flash for new users and folks who want to know what this application is all about.
• April 8, 4pm – Photo Editing & Color Correction in Photoshop CS. Led by Kevin Slimp | Even the most veteran Photoshop users don’t have the time to learn to use all of the color correction and editing tools in Photoshop. Join Kevin in this whirlwind tour of photo editing and color correction tools in Photoshop CS-CS3.
• April 17, 11am – Creating PDFs that work EVERYTIME!  Led by Kevin Slimp | Two groups need this class: Everyone who creates PDF files and everyone who receives PDF files! Almost all problems related to PDF files are built into the files when they are created. Join the guru of PDFs himself, Kevin Slimp, in this fast-paced look at creating PDFs the right (and wrong) way.
• April 29, 4pm – Creating Preflights to Find Problems in PDFs in Acrobat 6-8. Led by Kevin Slimp | Acrobat Professional 6-8 allow users to creat preflights that will find any problem in a PDF file before it becomes a problem for you. Join Kevin as he teaches users how to create preflights in the various versions of Acrobat Professionals. As a bonus, Kevin will demonstrate how users can create “fixes” to correct PDF problems in Acrobat 8.
• April 30, 4pm – Fixing Problems with PDF Files. Led by Kevin Slimp | Finding problems in PDF files is half the battle. Fixing them is the other half. In this session, Kevin will lead you through methods to correct most of those pesky problems that derail your PDF files.

From Editor and Publisher: The Audit Bureau of Circulations has moved closer to an overhaul of how it counts paid newspaper circulation. During a meeting of its board of directors last week in Kiawah Island, S.C., the bureau approved modifications that will affect how publishers report starting April 1, 2009. Among those changes: Newspapers will be considered “paid” by ABC regardless of the price.

From NNA: - Reliance upon America’s community newspapers to inform and empower citizens remains strong along Main Street America from coast to coast. In a follow-up to the National Newspaper Association’s landmark 2005 research on readership patterns for community newspapers, NNA found that readership of community newspapers increased slightly (from 81 percent in 2005 to 83 percent in 2007). This is in stark contrast to news reports purporting to chronicle the decline, if not demise, of newspapers.

From NAA: Nielsen Online ranks the top 30 news Websites for February 2008. With over 3.5 million unique viewers, The Drudge Report took the top spot. Gannett’s Online Division ranked 11th, while the New York Times site ranked 12th.

Lisa Griffin will lead a two-day session on Adobe InDesign March 27-28 at the Eagle Ridge Conference Center on the campus of Hinds Community College just south of Jackson.

The sessions will kick off Thursday afternoon, March 27 at 2pm with an introductory session on the popular desktop publishing program. An advanced track will follow the morning of March 28 at 9am. A limited number of rooms are available for overnight lodging at Eagle Ridge.

Thirty slots are open for these valuable InDesign courses. Reserve yours today. Call MPA at 601-981-3060 for more information on the courses and accommodations.

Download the registration form here.

A five-week teleseminar series on advertising sales will be led by nationally-recognized trainer and speaker Bob Berting. The series will kick off April 3 at 1:30 p.m. and be held over five consecutive Thursdays.

MPA member newspapers can take part in the series for a course fee of $145. Topics to be covered include solicitation techniques, selling against media competition, ad design and layout and working with hard-to-please customers.

Berting is the author of the 13 chapter sales manual “Dynamic Advertising Sales and Image Power”. He also is a columnist in several national and regional publications. He has conducted over 1,500 seminars for print media teams and has been the owner of a full-service ad agency since 1981.

Download the registration form here.

Nominations for the MPA Hall of Fame are now being accepted. The honor is awarded annually to a single journalist who made his or her reputation in Mississippi, or who is a native Mississippian with distinguished career nationally or abroad.

Deadline for nominations is April 1, 2008.

The honoree, who may be living or deceased, is recognized during MPA’s annual convention, this year set for June 26-28 at the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi. Recent honorees have included Ruby Del Harden (2007), longtime publisher of the Itawamba County Times; the late Dan Phillips, former co-publisher of The Oxford Eagle; and Stanley Dearman (2005), former publisher of The Neshoba Democrat and Mildred Dearman (2005), longtime executive editor of The Carthaginian.

Download the nomination form here.

From NNA: Reliance upon America’s community newspapers to inform and empower citizens remains strong along Main Street America from coast to coast. In a follow-up to the National Newspaper Association’s landmark 2005 research on readership patterns for community newspapers, NNA found that readership of community newspapers increased slightly (from 81 percent in 2005 to 83 percent in 2007). This is in stark contrast to news reports purporting to chronicle the decline, if not demise, of newspapers.

• MORE: Overwhelming numbers still use newspapers for information on shopping, spending decisions.

From American Journalism Review: Last year was a momentous one for the newspaper industry. Two major companies changed hands, two others initiated spinoffs of their newspaper operations and a fifth announced that it no longer is a newspaper company. Hovering over all this was a sharp decline in the perceived value of the business.

From CNNMoney.com: Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said weakening operating trends in the US newspaper sector could continue to drive meaningful EBITDA declines in 2008 and lead to a tightening of cushions in companies’ bank covenants.

A reminder the deadline to enter the 2007 Better Newspaper Contest-Editorial Division is Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 5pm.

Copies of the criteria and entry forms can be downloaded here. Awards will be presented during the BNC luncheon at the 142nd Annual Convention Saturday, June 28, 2008 at the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi.

A multi-part, in-depth editorial series looking at a pervasive culture of secrecy in Mississippi government will launch next month, a joint effort between The Associated Press, Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information and MPA.

Despite earlier reports and listings to the contrary, MPA’s 142nd Annual Convention will be held June 26-28 at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi. Members are encouraged to update their calendars for the event.

Convention is traditionally held the third week of June, but is pushed back one week this year because of other bookings at the venue. More details are forthcoming for this year’s event, chaired by Vice-President for Weeklies Randy Ponder, publisher of The Sea Coast Echo.

A limited number of fleece pullovers are now available from MPA. These garments were worn by staff and some members of the board during the recent mid-winter conference in Jackson.

Sizes are unisex: S-3X. Each garment is $30 ($32 for 2X or $34 for 3X) and orders will ship in late February. A limited number of these sharp pullovers is available, so order by Feb. 15.

Click here to download the order form, or contact khaydu@mspress.org for more information.

The evaluation form for the 2008 Mid-Winter Conference held last week in Jackson is now online. If you attended Mid-Winter, please take a minute or two to complete the survey. The responses will help us plan future events, including this year’s convention at the Beau Rivage and next year’s Mid-Winter.

Meanwhile, photos from the event, held at the Jackson Hilton, have been uploaded to the Web. Included are individual winner’s photos from the BNC Awards Luncheon and the annual Celebrity Roast.

Also, a full text listing of winners from the Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division has been posted on the BNC page.

The University of Mississippi Department of Journalism and the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center host the annual Southeastern Journalism Conference in the city of Oxford and on the campus of the University. The three-day event will include competitions in various areas, keynote speakers, learning sessions and interaction between schools located in the Southeastern region. Up to 400 participants are expected to descend on Oxford and Ole Miss for the conference.

Emily Jones wrote a weekly features column for several years while she served as lifestyles editor for the Starkville Daily News. Jones retired late last year, but continues to publish her work in Starkville and West Point, as well as other publications.

In November, Jones joined the MPA family as an associate member and she is syndicating her column to members interested in a features and general interest column. A sample of her work can be read here.

For more information on the column, contact her by emailing e_bjones@yahoo.com or call 662-324-6128.

From Silicon Alley Insider: Next month, New Yorkers will be able to download music, for free, with the blessing of a major music label. EMI is giving away up 3 songs in a promotional stunt with NY Daily News. In order to get the songs, you’ll have to grab a code from an insert in the Feb. 3 or Feb. 10 copies of the News, then redeem the code at paper’s Web site.

From the AP: A pair of investors disclosed plans Monday to name their own slate of four directors at The New York Times Co., saying the current board hasn’t acted aggressively enough to meet the demands of the rapidly changing media industry.

Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, a record year for the industry and an increase of more than six percent over 2006 numbers. Monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged 62.8 million in last year’s fourth quarter, a record number in itself and the largest in any quarter since the Newspaper Association of America began tracking online usage in January 2004.