The offices of the Mississippi Press Association and Mississippi Press Services will be closed Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 24-25, for the Christmas holiday. Additionally, we will close Tuesday, Jan. 1 for New Years Day. Our best wishes for a happy and safe holiday season to all our members, clients and associates.
Members attending next month’s Mid-Winter Conference at the Jackson Hilton have until Jan. 3 to make their reservations at MPA’s group rate of $114 per night.
Mississippi Power CEO Anthony Topazi is the honoree for the 2008 Celebrity Roast to benefit the Mississippi Press Association Education Foundation. The event will serve as the kick-off for the 2007 Mid-Winter Conference next month in Jackson.
Previously, Topazi was executive vice president at Southern Company Generation & Energy Marketing, responsible for Southern Company’s energy trading and wholesale marketing. He began his career with Alabama Power in 1969 as a cooperative education student engineer.
Perspective Editor Sid Salter, a past MPA president and one-time roast honoree, will once again service as roastmaster.
Other past honorees include Gov. Haley Barbour, Sen. Trent Lott and Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat.
Tickets are $80 and tables of eight are $575. Both are available by calling the MPA, 601-981-3060.
MPA/MPS has retained the services of Hayes Dent Public Strategies, a Jackson-based firm, to serve as its representative at the capitol and act as an advocate for MPA’s 110 member publications. Under terms of the agreement, HDPS began representing MPA Dec. 1.
Hayes Dent, chairman of the firm, is a former executive director of the Delta Regional Authority, a federal-state partnership agency created to foster development in that region. He has also worked in the Congressional Affairs Office for the United States Department of Agriculture and in the administration of Gov. Kirk Fordice. Business partner Steve Browning previously served as executive director of Mississippians for Economic Progress, a non-profit coalition of trade and medical associations. It was during his tenure at MFEP the state legislature passed the 2004 Tort Reform Act. He has also served as an aide to Sen. Trent Lott.
The pair have met with MPA Governmental Affairs Chairman Jim Prince, publisher of the Madison County Journal and the Neshoba Democrat, concerning the association’s 2008 legislative agenda. Items of interest include continued efforts to pass uniform incident report legislation, assisting with further sunshine law initiatives, protecting public notices in newspapers and monitoring tax reform proposals.
Dent and Browning are expected to attend portions of the Mid-Winter Conference in January and will be officially introduced to the membership during the event.
From the Editors Weblog: A wave of outsourcing will begin in 2008 in the newspaper industry according to a survey of 15 private company executives done by Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Ginocchio. Outsourcing appears to be the most-sought solution to counter the advertising revenues’ swoon.
From MediaLife Magazine: The great social value of newspapers traditionally was that they were read by the leaders of their communities, the folks with the deepest investments, whether business owners or homeowners or civic leaders. They cared, and their opinions mattered. That’s no less so in this internet era.
From Editor and Publisher: Less than three weeks before one of the most competitive Iowa Caucuses ever, The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, the state’s second-largest paper, has lost its editor. Mark Bowden, who has been with the 59,425 daily-circulation paper since 1979 and served as editor for more than a decade left the paper last Tuesday with little explanation, according to staffers.
The MPA/MPS office will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 22 and 23, for Thanksgiving. We will resume normal business hours Nov. 26. From all of us at your newspaper association, we wish all our members and clients a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Preliminary analysis of MPA member USPS statements of ownership indicates circulation dipped only slightly in 2007 compared to prior year. Total circulation fell 3,446, or less than 1 percent, to 656,856.
Cummulative circulation of the state’s 23 daily newspapers fell 2 percent to 356,873. Losers outnumber gainers: A total of 13 papers posted losses for the year, although the majority were slight. Papers posting increases for the year include the Biloxi Sun Herald, Columbus Commercial Dispatch, Laurel Leader-Call, Natchez Democrat, Oxford Eagle, Starkville Daily News, Tupelo Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, University Daily Mississippian, and West Point Daily Times Leader.
Non-dailies/weeklies again blunted the loss of the dailies by gaining 4,731, or 2 percent, over prior year.
Numbers are preliminary; a few newspapers have not yet submitted their 2007 USPS Statements of Ownership and Circulation to MPA. If your newspaper has been contacted and you have not yet supplied the form, please do so by faxing to the attention of Beth Boone: 601-981-3676. Circulation figures for all state newspapers will be included in the 2008 Newspaper Directory available from MPA early next year.
The MPA/MPS Board of Directors will hold its final meeting of 2007 November 29 at the Edison-Walthall Hotel in Downtown Jackson. A holiday luncheon with the MPA/MPS staff will precede the meeting.
Agenda includes a recommendation from a board subcommittee on hiring new legislative representation for the upcoming 2008 Session that gets underway in January. Subcommittee members interviewed three prospective firms recently during meetings at the MPA offices. The change comes as the Governmental Affairs Committee has underscored a commitment to passage of a law that will strengthen incident report and sunshine laws in Mississippi. MPA’s legislative agenda also includes mounting a defense against potential threats to public notices in member papers and the possibility of a service tax bill that could impact members.
The first meeting of the board in 2008 will be during the annual Mid-Winter Conference at the Hilton Hotel in January.
Members are encouraged to send in their 2008 rate cards now so that increases will be in effect with MPS clients when the calendar rolls over to the new year.
Ad services reps Andrea Ross and Monica Gilmer are collecting the information to get updated rate, personnel and other important information on members in to the MPS database. Please forward a PDF copy of your rate card to aross@mspress.org or mgilmer@mspress.org, or via fax to 601-981-3676. Old-fashioned mail still works, too: MPS, Attn: Rate Cards, 371 Edgewood Terrace Drive, Jackson, MS 39206.
From ABC: To meet the evolving needs of advertisers and publishers, the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has endorsed a set of sweeping strategic recommendations for U.S. newspapers that aim to provide marketers with more useful information, streamline ABC rules and audits, and modify key circulation standards.
From American Press Institute Director of Marketing Elaine Clishman: I have a particular affinity for weekly newspapers. Weeklies are where most of my experience lies, and I believe firmly that the strength of connection between a weekly newspaper and the community it serves can be a significant strategic advantage. So it was a pleasure for me to spend four days a couple of weeks ago moderating API’s annual seminar for weekly executives, Management of the Weekly Newspaper.
From Editor and Publisher: Willamette Week is about to wrap up its best year ever in display advertising, and is even beginning to rebound a bit in classified advertising that’s been decimated by Craigslist, publisher and co-owner Richard H. Meeker says in the latest issue of the Portland, Oregon, alternative weekly.
A reminder Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday morning — finally. DST was extended by several weeks this year, beginning in the spring a couple of weeks earlier and ending one week later this year by order of Congress.
Be sure to set your clocks back one hour Saturday evening before going to bed. Daily carriers for Sunday editions will have one extra hour to sleep or get those papers in the tubes and driveways this weekend.
Members not yet registered to attend the annual ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference in Vicksburg Nov. 8-9 still have a couple of days to sign up for the program.
Registrations will continue through the week. Materials, including a registration form and agenda, may be accessed here.
Sessions will include Postal Regulations, Circulation Ideas for Small Dailies & Weeklies, Customer Service, Home Delivery Start Diversification, Roundtable Discussion Panels, a Hot Ideas session and more.
Conference registration is $89.00 per person. Lodging is no longer available at the Ameristar hotel, but an alternative list of lodging options is available by calling MPA at 601-981-3060 or by visiting the MPA ArkLaMiss website at www.mspress.org/arklamiss.
Pictured: McKinney Award winner Patsy Speights (center) with J.J. Carney of the Lawrence County Press (left) and Amy Jacobs.
The following are comments offered by Prentiss Headlight editor Patsy Speights who was presented the McKinney Award at the annual National Newspaper Association Convention in Norfolk, Va.:
“Thank you for honoring The Prentiss Headlight.
“People like Emma McKinney knew the joys, trials, tribulations and struggles of small papers and serves as an encourager to those of us who stare at a blank computer screen each Thursday knowing what must happen before the press runs.
“Here’s a short list of things you may be able to relate to:
“Be encouraged when you lose about twenty pounds, involuntarily, after an unhappy reader has felt it necessary to chew on you because of something you wrote or did not write.
“Be encouraged when you are standing all alone explaining the open meetings/public access laws to elected officials and their counsel.
“Be encouraged when you’re standing on the side of the highway and see friends or maybe family being rescued by volunteer firemen from tangled cars.
“Be encouraged when you are accused of wrecking a family, getting someone fired or thrown out of the church when you print their name in the arrest docket.
“Be encouraged when your day is filled with messages from your computer telling you error (-39) but will not tell you what is a -39.
“Be encouraged because you are the historian of your community.
“Be encouraged as you publish a newspaper that truly cares about your community because you live, work and play with your readers.
“Be encouraged because you know years down the road, someone will walk in the door, long after you’re gone, with a clipping published under your watch.
“Be encouraged and know you are not alone.
“There are hundreds of us doing the same job.
“Thank you Bill and Amy for having faith in me and for giving me this wonderful job. Thank you NNA for recognizing me today.”
From MediaLife Magazine: Traveling about America, picking up the local papers, one might not notice it at first. In some ways, newspapers seem fatter, with more sections that seem to fall out as you open them, entertainment and shopping guides in particular. But look a little closer and you do see it. Business sections, long a staple of even the smallest dailies, are disappearing. The Winston-Salem Journal cut its business section back in August. The Akron Beacon Journal dropped its section back in March.
From USA Today: Billionaire investor Sam Zell told a group of newspaper executives that the industry’s woes result partly from complacency, responding too slowly to rapid change.
From the AP via E&P: The board of The Associated Press on Thursday approved a major overhaul of the way the AP prices and packages news for its member U.S. newspapers.
Annual USPS statement of ownership filings are due at your local post office by Oct. 1. The information provided on Form 3526 allows the Postal Service to determine whether publications meet the standards of Periodicals mailing privileges.
The required information also must appear in your newspaper:
MPA also requires its members to 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 2007 BNC-Advertising entries, due Oct. 2.
The deadline to enter MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest-Advertising Division is 5pm Tuesday, October 2. Find entry forms and criteria here.
Awards will be presented during the annual Mid-Winter Conference, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008 at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson.
Materials for National Newspaper Week have been posted and a link is available via the MPA Website. Member papers are encouraged to download the house ads and other materials to use in promotion of NNW.
This year’s event focuses on the importance of public notices in newspapers.
MPA members received via mail this week the annual update to the Synopsis of Publication Fees for Public Notices prepared by association general counsel team John Henegan, Donna Jacobs and Malissa Winfield of Butler Snow in Jackson.
The useful reference guide details fees newspapers may charge under the Mississippi Code for publishing the various public notices required by law.
Fee handbooks were mailed to the attention of the member publisher. If you did not receive a copy, or would like to request additional copies, contact MPA Member Services Coordinator Beth Boone (bboone@mspress.org) by calling 601-981-3060.
Agendas for the 2008 ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference will soon be mailed to member newspapers. The annual event is sponsored jointly with MPA by the Louisiana and Arkansas press associations. Program presenters include Max Heath, National Newspaper Association postal chairman and vice president of Landmark Community Newspapers.
Session topics will include discussions on postal regulations, home delivery sales and a general circulation issues panel, as well as a Hot Ideas program.
Louisiana Press is coordinating this year’s conference, set for Nov. 8-9 at the AmeriStar Casino in Vicksburg. More details will be posted on the MPA Website and emailed to member as they are confirmed.
MediaLife Magazine: In all the stories about the many troubles of the American newspaper, from falling circulation to fleeing ad dollars, we read almost nothing about the rise of a new kind of local newspaper, the online-only local daily. But in fact they exist, and we can expect to be hearing more about them as more launch.
NAA: Young people who used newspapers in school and read newspaper content aimed at teens are more likely to volunteer, vote and engage in civic expression as adults, according to a study of more than 1,500 25- to 34-year-olds released today by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation.
Los Angeles Times: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said that he was leaning toward dropping the online subscription fee for the Wall Street Journal in a gamble to increase visitor traffic and website advertising revenue.
The SNPA Traveling Campus will return to Mississippi next week with sessions scheduled in Grenada at the Daily Star Aug. 26 and 27 and at the Thames Conference Center on the Wesson Campus of Co-Lin Community College Aug. 27 and 28.
Topics include newswriting and advertising sales in Grenada, while Wesson topics will focus on circulation and news and ad design. Nationally-known speakers will be presenters for all sessions.
There is no cost for participation in these informative training sessions. Simply visit SNPA’s Traveling Campus website to sign up you or your staff members or to learn more about the sessions planned and the presenters.
Criteria and entry forms for the 2007 Better Newspaper Contest — Advertising Division will be released Friday, Aug. 31. Members will be informed via email when the rules are posted and will then be able to obtain PDFs of the criteria and entry packets at mspress.org/bnc.
Entry deadline for the 2007 Contest, which covers the dates of Sept. 1, 2006-Aug. 31, 2007. Entries will be judged by members of the Utah Press Association in Salt Lake City this fall. Winnters will be announced during the annual Mid-Winter Conference at a special awards luncheon Jan. 26, 2008.
Mississippi Press Services is currently making plans to co-host with AdMall a webinar session on maximizing revue and sales through the Web-based co-op program. MPS has offered the AdMall service to members for several years, but participation has waned over the past year and that has driven costs up for the remaining participants.
“If we can get more members interested in joining AdMall, then the dues for the program will be more affordable for everyone,” said MPA/MPS executive director Layne Bruce. “The purpose of the webinars is two-fold: We want to increase participation and training among existing members and hopefully entice a few more papers to join the program.”
MPS Director of Sales David Gillis is currently polling members to see who would be interested in participating and is working with AdMall reps to set a date in September for the training.
Members do not have to participate in AdMall currently to join in on the webinar. Dates will be announced soon.
If your newspaper would like to participate and learn how to grow co-op sales through the AdMall program, contact Gillis, dgillis@mspress.org, or call 601-981-3060.
From the North Star Writers Group: A study came out last week saying that, by 2010, more media advertising dollars will be spent online than in print. This poses a serious question for media companies – how to make online revenue work, and fast? Although online revenue is increasing at most newspapers, ad sales for the dead tree edition still largely pay the bills.
From American Journalism Review: Many in the media jettisoned caution–and the presumption of innocence–in their coverage of an alleged rape by Duke lacrosse players, and were too slow to correct the record as the case unraveled. But some journalists distinguished themselves with skeptical and incisive reporting.
From MediaLife Magazine: Worldwide, it’s a mega-trend, the rise in free dailies challenging older, established paid-circulation newspapers. Free papers are already big in Europe, and more are launching in the U.S. in cities like Washington, New York and Chicago. But the trend is hardly confined just to major markets.
