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WWW.ANANEWS.COM AUGUST 2009

Convention is only six weeks away! Are you ready?Register NOW for the ANA

2009 70th Annual Meeting & Fall Convention. This fun and infor-mative event takes place Oct. 10, 2009 at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Jour-nalism and Mass Communication in sunny downtown Phoenix.

You can now register online at http://ananews.com/registration.

If you plan on making over-night accomodations, check out the special rates ANA has negoti-ated with the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel ($129/night) and the Holiday Inn Express Down-town Phoenix ($129/night). These special rates end soon, so book early!

The entire industry is going through massive changes and we could all learn something from each other’s successes. Join us for a roundtable where we share new revenue ideas, listen to a panel of Gen Y students talk about the next generation of news and learn how to get the most out of your Web

site. And more!The convention kicks off with

a keynote by ASU Student Media Director Jason Manning.

Manning oversees the State Press, Web Devil, State Press Magazine and Sun Devil Televi-sion. Prior to joining ASU he was the politics editor for washington-post.com, where he led the Web site’s coverage of the federal gov-ernment and national campaign politics.

While at washingtonpost.com Manning planned and implement-ed the Web site’s multi-format election coverage – using data, video, audio, photos, graphics, and text. He also oversaw collabora-tive projects that brought together reporters, editors, videographers, developers, programmers, and de-signers to produce award winning interactive news features.

Manning has also served as local-national editor for PBS NewsHour, coordinating online news coverage with PBS member

stations nationwide. Prior to join-ing PBS, Manning was education producer at usnews.com.

After the success of last year’s hands-on video training, we’re of-fering it again to those folks who need a refresher or want to learn how to record and edit video for the Web.

Join for a very special lunch as the University of Arizona and ANA present the Zenger Award to Navajo Times Publisher Tom Arviso and recognize journalists and others in the community for their dedication to freedom of information and the people’s right to know.

And don’t miss the always exciting Better Newspapers Con-test and Newspaper of the Year celebration, which concludes the convention with a happy hour reception.

More details will follow; stay tuned. Registration packets have been mailed, so keep your eyes peeled!

Participants at the ANA 2008 Annual Meeting and Fall Convention listen to Richard Haddad’s war stories.

August 2009 ■ ANAgramsPage 2

events will need to apply for credentials directly from the AIA in order to cover these events. With the assis-tance of Richard Haddad, I have put together answers to some of your questions here.

What exactly is an AIA event?According to the AIA’s definition, a sanctioned

event only includes the playoffs and the champion-ship games. Technically, regular season games are not AIA events. This is because we are not gaining access to the events with permission of the AIA. The local schools are giving us access or permission to shoot at these regular season games. However, because the lo-cal schools are members of the AIA, we feel it would still be a good idea to include a permission statement when selling these images as well. AIA wants to in-vest their time into running sports events, and we want to invest our time in reporting on these events.

Who owns the copyrights to the photos we cap-ture at AIA events?

The ANA’s stance has always been that we (the newspapers) own the copyrights to our work. This has been the main point of disagreement with AIA, espe-cially in recent years, as many newspapers now sell their news photographs online. With the current AIA media credential agreement, we are only acknowl-edging that we gained access to the event through the permission of AIA. (In the media agreement, the AIA refers to this as “facility access”.) While we own the copyrights, there are some compromises that were made in regards to commercial use — but in the end, the copyrights on the photos belong to us. The copyrights that the AIA refers to in the credential-ing document is only in reference to the team names, logos and uniform designs and has nothing to do with photographs or video.

Can we sell the photos on our Web sites?Yes, we can sell the photos as long as there is attri-

bution given to the AIA (see below), and as long as we

Late last year, ANA and the Arizona Interscholas-tic Association completed the renegotiation the media credential being used for AIA sanctioned events. This new document is the result of compromises in language from both sides. Recently the AIA issued their 2009-10 media credential. It can be found online at: http://www.aiaonline.org/news/press_center.php. Any photogra-phers wishing to cover AIA

are selling the images for non-commercial use to our readership. You can find more details in the credential agreement, but the basic premise is that we are selling images to private individuals for personal viewing and not for commercial ventures.

What is required?Photographs obtained during an AIA event by a

credentialed media photographer that are posted for sale to our readers (referred to as ultimate consumers in the written agreement) must contain acknowledge-ment that the photo was obtained at an AIA event and with the permission of AIA. For example, when posting photos in a gallery that also allows readers to purchase those images, we are required to have a statement similar to this one:

Photos were obtained during an Arizona Inter-scholastic Association event with permission of the AIA.

On the purchase form, we are also required to make it clear that photos are for private viewing only and cannot be resold or used for any commercial use. An example of this is used by Western News&Info (WNI). WNI uses an online form that has a purchasing agreement that readers must check off before complet-ing a sale. It states:

All photographs in this gallery are subject to copy-rights of the professional photographer listed above and are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) and by the Berne Convention. Reproduction, storage or transmittal by any means, of any image on this web site, whole or in part, is prohibited without express prior written permission. Prints purchased from this gallery may not be reproduced or scanned for any reason and may only be used for personal display. If you wish to publish or reproduce the materials in any physical or digital form or use them for any commercial purpose, including display or Web page use, you must obtain prior written permission from the photographer listed above.

The customer must select a button that indicates they agree with the terms and conditions of the sale before they can complete the purchase.

Can photos be used in large quantities in spe-cial sections?

We can use photos in any of our news products no matter the size and quantity. As the agreement puts it, we can use the photos for “news and editorial cover-age of the event.” The magnitude of that coverage is ours to determine.

Are we allowed to use photos taken at AIA events on items other than traditional news prod-

continued on page 3

High school sports media credential answers

Paula CaseyExecutive Director

ANAgrams ■ August 2009 Page 3

High school sports media credential answersucts, such as printed calendars, promotional tote bags, local history books, etc?

This is a gray area that ANA feels should be approached with caution. If these items are going to be offered only to sub-scribers or local reader base, there should not be any conflict. But if these items are intended for sale to the general public, outside the normal cus-tomer base, it could be considered a commercial use, which could violate the credential agreement. The concern is that these nontraditional products may appear to have nothing to do with news coverage. On the other hand, depending on the purpose of the product, it may be appropriate if it targets our readership and our subscribers and pro-motes our sports coverage. In short, if it’s an extension of our coverage, we can use the photos without con-cern. ANA suggests calling AIA if we have concerns about projects of this nature.

What about yearbook photos or other school publications like newsletters?

Photos provided for use in yearbooks, school newsletters or other school publications are allowed without restriction. The access statement would not be required.

What if a newspaper does not want to accept the AIA’s new credential agreement? Can the AIA keep our news photographers from shooting at an event if we purchase a ticket and sit with the gen-eral public?

During negotiations, ANA presented this same argument. The AIA cannot possibly eject every parent who has a long camera lens and is shooting photos. It became a fuzzy area. ANA believes the answer is no. We have every right to purchase a ticket and gain ac-cess to any public sporting event like any other patron. If the AIA truly wants to restrict someone from shoot-ing from the bleachers, they may threaten to remove a photographer, but they do not have power to enforce this threat. Even without a credential, a photographer has every right to be up in the stands and shoot photos during a public event. Both ANA and the AIA believe this media credential compromise fits both our needs at this time.

continued from page 2 What if a parent or spectator sends us a great photo we want to use in print or online?

We can use it. If the spectator was in the stands and had a ticket, or other authorized access, we have every right to use the photo. We should be sure to credit the par-ent or spectator as the photographer.

What if we want to share photos or cover-age with a neighboring newspaper?

This was something ANA argued heavily to

protect. Arizona newspapers regularly swap photos or ask for traded coverage, especially during away games. Yes, we can share and swap. However, the same rules apply when it comes to the access state-ment indicating we obtained the photo during an AIA event with permission of the AIA.

What about video?The media agreement contains some restrictions

on the use of video. Video footage of the game cannot be posted while the game is still in progress. Once the game is over, there is a five-minute limit on any video we post on our Web sites. It would be a gesture of goodwill to include the access statement that the video was captured during an AIA event with permission from AIA.

What about third-party distribution of photos, such as AP?

We can distribute photos from an AIA event to any third party as long as it is an extension of our normal news coverage. The restrictions in the media creden-tial agreement are primarily to ensure the photos are not used for commercial purposes, such as selling an image to Nike for a shoe advertisement. Photos can be posted with third-party news organizations such as AP, or any other shared news platform that we would normally do business with.

How long are these stipulations in place?The dates on the media agreement indicate July 1,

2009 through June 30, 2010. Photographers should be approved access through the next credentialing period, or through the 2009-2010 school year.

If you have any further questions, feel free to call me, Paula Casey, at (602) 261-7655 or email me at [email protected].

High school football. Photo by Patrick Ng.


SPJ’s ‘After Deadline’ meets tomorrowIt all begins at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, August 27. Join the Valley of the Sun Chapter of the Society of Profes-

sional Journalists for this month’s exciting After Deadline mixer. Special guest Pat Elliott will follow up on the May meeting which focused on new career options for journalists by providing specifics on how to use Linke-dIn to find jobs, freelance work, and build your network. Enjoy drinks (on you) and appetizers (sponsored by SPJ Phoenix) at the Duck & Decanter, 1651 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016.

Yuma Sun reorganizes newsroom

“We are fortunate here at the Yuma Sun to have many very talented associates,” said Terry Ross, director of the news and information department. “When the opportunity came recently to fill some important positions, we were fortunate to have the right people ready to step into the jobs.

“While there are new faces in the positions and in some cases new approaches to them, our basic goal of keeping the people of Yuma County informed remains the same, whether it be through our printed publications or through new media efforts like our Web sites.”

Four associates have new roles in the newsroom.John Vaughn has moved from the assignments desk to take the helm of Bajo El Sol as its editor.Vaughn has worked at the Yuma Sun since 1983. Originally from the Phoenix area, he is a graduate of

Northern Arizona University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Spanish.Roxanne Molenar is now the assignments editor. Formerly the news editor in charge of copy editing and

design, Molenar will now manage the reporters and their coverage of Yuma County.Molenar has worked at the Yuma Sun since 1998. An Ohio native, she graduated from Ohio University with

a bachelor’s degree in journalism, with minors in French and anthropology.Brian Williams is the new sports/news editor. He will handle the sports department, as well as the page de-

sign and copy editing staff.Williams started with the Yuma Sun in 2006. A California native, he has been employed by Freedom Com-

munications, the Yuma Sun’s parent company, since 1999.And, last but not least, Darin Fenger is now the features editor. He will handle the coverage of feature news

and upcoming events throughout the community.Originally from South Dakota, he graduated from South Dakota State University with bachelor’s degrees in

journalism and sociology. He has been with the Yuma Sun since 2002.

Brian WilliamsRoxanne MolenarDarin Fenger John Vaughn

Arizona Public Notice Handbook updated for 2009The Arizona Public Notice

Handbook has been updated for 2009, courtesy of the Arizona Newspapers Association, and authored by David J. Bodney and Sandra K. Saunders of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

The handbook is available at http://ananews.com/pubnot/handbook.html as a searchable .pdf document. Copies will also be available at the ANA fall conven-tion on Oct. 10.


ANA supports UA j-school student newspapersThe Arizona Newspapers Association is proud to support the University of Arizona School of Journalism

with a donation to assist in the printing of the Tombstone Epitaph and El Independiente. Below is a thank you letter from the school.


I’m declaring victory. I’m moving on.And, once again, I hope you’ll help.A few years ago I wrote a book called We the

Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, suggesting that we were on the verge of an evo-lutionary leap. Amid the democratization of media tools and access, I said, the lecture mode of journalism was giving way to conversation; and that stemmed, in part, from the simple fact that the audience always knows more than the person telling the story.

This evolutionary shift is still in its relatively early days. We are in a period of immense disruption, espe-cially notable in the demolition of the business model that has paid for most traditional journalism for the past half-century or so.

Like everyone else, journalists have always been publicly preoccupied with their own situation. Unlike almost everyone else, they’ve owned a higher podium and a louder megaphone. We’ve been bombarded with angst, recriminations and, lately, panic emanating from an industry in jeopardy — a business that can no longer rely on the monopoly and oligopoly profits that spun off some occasionally brilliant journalism during the industry’s fattest era.

But look around. The messy process of reinvention is well under way. Not a week goes by without a new announcement of an experiment in journalism. Good luck to them — and the thousands of other folks who are working on these problems.

Last week’s news was from an Aspen Institute conference, where a high-powered group of folks publicly agonized about the future of journalism. From a distance, the highlight looked to me to be the New Business Models for News project from Jeff Javis and company at City University of New York.

More recently it was GrowthSpur, a consultancy created by digital media pioneer Mark Potts and some colleagues, and aiming to “provide tools, training, services and ad networks that will help local sites grow and become successful businesses.”

And True/Slant; Huffington Post; Journalism On-line LLC; Spot.US; EveryBlock (sold to MSNBC); and countless others (including our terrific media-entrepre-neurship students at Arizona State University) who are proving out Clay Shirky’s observation: “Nothing will work, but everything might. Now’s the time for lots and lots of experiments.”

So I’m declaring victory, albeit early, on the supply side of the equation. Democratized media are giving voice to everyone who has something to add to the

emergent global conversation, and the same tools are enabling smart people to experiment with sustainability models for tomorrow’s news and information. We will have plenty of quality news and information — though sorting the good stuff from the sludge will be just one of the huge issues we’ll have to deal with as we move forward into this new era. And, of course, we’ll need to help people creating that supply do a better job at all levels.

But that doesn’t solve what may be a bigger issue: crappy demand. We have raised several generations of passive consumers of news and information. That’s not good enough anymore.

The media of today and tomorrow require us to become active users. Indeed, this entire project is about experimentation. Some of what we try will not work. Some of it will. But in the end, I hope to have created a solid user’s guide to news and information, for people who realize that they have to take some responsibility for knowing what they’re talking about.

Being active users of media is not an “eat your spin-ach because it’s good for you” exercise. It’s definitely good for us, but it’s also interesting and/or fun — and in the end truly satisfying.

As with We the Media, I’m not working in a vac-cum. Lots of other people are thinking about these questions and trying to come up with answers, too. As always, we’re in this together.

Dan Gillmor embarks on Mediactive projectDan GillmorMediactive.com

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www.ananews.com/calendarEducation is at your fingertips! See a list of all webinars and events on our Web site:

Arizona Press Club’s annual fall workshop in FlagstaffIt’s that time of year when Flagstaff has never seemed so lovely. But that’s just one of the many reasons we at

the Arizona Press Club would like to invite you to a special FREE workshop at Northern Arizona University on Sept. 19.

During this FREE, four-hour workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to hear fellow journalists’ thoughts on such important subjects as Developing a Story Using Public Records and Using Social Media to Sell Yourself (and Your Work). An award-winning photojournalist will explain Photography to Non-Photographers, a.k.a. all of us hard-working scribes who suddenly must not only write, but also snap, download and upload. Noted media lawyer Dan Barr will explain the state of the state when it comes to media law and public records. Afterward, network galore at a post-workshop happy hour at the Zane Grey Ballroom at the historic Hotel Weatherford.

To RSVP, or if you have any questions, please e-mail [email protected].

First medium in, first out for newspapers

According to Borrell Associ-ates, print newspaper ad revenues are expected to increase 2.4% next year, and then in single digits over the next few years, through 2014. According to Colby Atwood, president of Borrell Associates, the outlook for the industry will improve even more after next year. By 2014, newspaper income will be up a total of 8.7% over the 2009 figures, to slightly more than $39 billion (not including online revenues).

But this doesn’t mean the old business model is coming back, the group said. “Even at 2014 levels of just under $30 billion, newspaper advertising won’t be anything near the $55 billion we saw earlier this decade. Nor will it ever return to that level.”

Smaller local newspapers are better positioned to do that than large urban dailies. The Virginia Gazette, in Williamsburg, says that “... newspapers (must) find ways to become more interesting, more relative to their audiences.... the ‘major daily newspaper’ is turn-ing into a smaller, more delicate, colorful local magazine, with fair prospects for growth... provid-

ing rich local content that people seem to prefer in print. rather than screen, format.”

The top five reasons why Bor-rell Associates thinks newspapers will rebound, according to a Mar-keting Charts summation:

* Newspapers were the first medium that the internet forced into a “period of adjustment,” and they will be the first to emerge from it.

* The revenue decline has been much less severe for the majority of the US’s smaller news-papers. Borrell expects growth for these papers to come from geographical targeting to non-clas-sified, non-department-store local advertisers, even as larger papers continue to experience layoffs, abbreviated publication schedules and closures in order to “right-size” themselves.

* Newspaper sales and market-ing teams are evolving in earnest by becoming proactive about discovering and meeting cus-tomer needs, selling against the competition, and taking no client for granted, especially in local ad markets.

* As the country’s economy

begins to improve, and the auto, real estate and recruitment sectors resurge, newspapers will capture a bit more of the resulting growth in ad spending than their current share. This will come in part from growth in pre-print and free-stand-ing insert revenue from advertisers migrating out of direct mail.

* Newspapers are using the web to generate a significant por-tion of their revenues and profits. Borrell Associates forecasts that side of the business will begin to provide more support to the print side.

Additonally, related to the newspaper industry recovery, Bor-rell says:

* The papers that will do the best are the ones that can serve smaller advertisers on the mar-keting side by actively pursuing customers that have never done business with newspapers before.

* Successful papers will do a better job on the editorial side by focusing on unique local content and less on wire service feeds.

* If national advertisers could make a single newspaper buy, it would make an important contri-bution to newspaper growth.

Jack LoechnerMediaPost


The chasm between the value of print and Web readersRyan ChittumColumbia Journalism Review

After posting the unhappy news that newspaper ads are at 1965 levels, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how much revenue newspapers get from their print readers versus their online ones. It offers a reality check as newspapers try to figure out where to go from here.

Print newspapers took in $34.7 billion in ad revenue last year and had 49 million subscribers. That works out to $709 per subscriber.

Newspapers online had $3.1 billion in ad revenue last year and averaged 67.3 million unique visitors per month. That’s $46 per reader.

$709 (or even $603) versus $46. And you wonder why news-papers still like their print prod-ucts.

But that doesn’t even tell the whole story, because, recall, newspapers still cling to that 19th Century business model known as getting customers to pay you money. Alas, the most recent data I can find on industrywide circu-lation revenue is from 2004, and the Newspaper Association of America hasn’t returned my calls or emails.

So let’s go with that 2004 number, which was $11 billion. Yes, I know circulation has de-clined 11 percent since then, but I’m making a somewhat-educated guess that increases in newsstand and subscription prices have offset that—at some major papers, circu-lation revenues have actually been growing while circulation itself declines.

Add that circulation revenue to ads and the print newspaper had about $45.7 billion in revenue last year. That works out to $940 per subscriber ($834 under Mutter’s 2009 estimate and the guesstimat-ed 4 percent circulation decline).

To repeat: $940 per print subscriber versus $46 per online reader; $45.7 billion versus $3.1 billion. That means a print sub-scriber is worth more than 20 times the revenue an online reader is. This is going down, of course. While last year a print subscriber brought in twenty times as much revenue as an online reader, this year that number will decline to somewhere around eighteen, as-suming the above estimates.

And if anything, these num-bers understate the disparity. I don’t have any idea how much newspapers get for things like reprints and syndication, though those don’t comprise a major part of the revenue pie.

The boilerplate caveat: These numbers are revenue, of course, not profit. Production costs eat up much more of print revenue than they do of online.

Now, some will holler that it’s apples and oranges comparing online readers to print paying cus-tomers because there are multiple readers per unit of circulation for a print paper.

My point is about paying

customers, but okay. There are roughly two readers per copy of the print newspaper, so that would bring the number to about $470 per reader ($417 with the FY09 estimates) versus $46 per online reader, which matches up pretty neatly with the famed, lamented ten-to-one ratio that afflicts news-papers’ digital hopes.

And you don’t want me to run the numbers on online subscrip-tions versus print subscriptions, and anyway I don’t know of any data out there. I’ve estimated The Wall Street Journal, the only American paper to successfully charge, gets about $60 or $70 million a year from online sub-scriptions, which would add $1 to online revenue per reader.

Still, the online numbers aren’t as bad as they seem. Not all online newspaper readers are made equal. The top, say 10 percent of readers, who visit the home page twice a day are worth exponentially more than the bottom 10 percent, junk traffic that bounces in off Digg or some blog and which sees a page or two and spends maybe 10 sec-

continued on page 9


onds on the site. I wish I could quantify how much the top 10 percent are worth, but I’ve never been able to find data on that. Still, remove the junk traffic, and the online revenue per reader would rise.

Spin that how you want. Either newspapers have done a poor job of addicting more online readers to their offerings or their hardcore readers are still pre-dominantly reading the print paper.

continued from page 8

The chasm between the value of print and Web readers

Big Bug News editor named Citizen of YearThe Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce named Heidi Dahms-

Foster, editorial manager of non-daily publications for Prescott News-papers Inc., its Citizen of the Year Friday.

The chamber honored the longtime employee of Prescott Newspa-pers Inc. during its annual Banquet and Community Awards program.

Dahms-Foster joined Prescott Newspapers Inc. in January of 1986 in the composing and paste-up department. She worked in the com-posing, circulation and accounting departments before becoming a reporter for the Prescott Valley Tribune in 1989. She became manag-ing editor of the Prescott Valley Tribune in 1993 and held that posi-tion until 2003 when she married Randy Foster. She then became a part-time business reporter for the Tribune’s parent company Western News & Info and as writer-photographer for Yavapai Magazine while also spending time with her husband, her garden and her prize-win-ning Australian shepherds.

In 2007 she came back to PNI as editorial manager of non-daily publications and also handles the managing editor duties for the Tri-bune and the Big Bug News, which she helped found.

Under her leadership, the Tribune and its sister non-daily publica-tions, including the Chino Valley Review, have won numerous awards for editorial excellence.

ANA JobBankGENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER. Prescott Newspapers, Inc., featuring the award winning 17K cir-culation Daily Courier, in the mountain environment of Prescott, AZ is looking for a reporter. The Daily Courier publishes seven days a week with a.m. distribution. The right candidate will have a degree in journalism or com-mensurate experience, knowledge of Associated Press style, and strong verbal and customer relation skills. Excel-lent benefits. Send resume and clippings to Human Resources, Prescott Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box 312, Prescott, AZ 86302; Fax (928) 777-8625 or email [email protected].

PUBLISHER. Applications are now being accepted for the general manager position in Los Alamos, NM. The Monitor is a five-day per week broadsheet, published onsite and carrier delivered in the historic community of Los Alamos, NM where the Los Alamos National Laboratory is located. Must have proven ability to get results, proven leadership skills to lead a dedicated staff of 15 FT and PT employees, minimum 3 years newspaper management experience and an innovative approach to business growth. Publisher will actively participate in various communi-ty functions and events and take a leadership role in the community. Apply to: Dan Sykes, Executive Vice Presi-dent, Landmark Community Newspapers, LLC, P.O. Box 549, Shelbyville, KY 40066 or email [email protected].

www.ananews.com/jobbankSearch job listings and resources on our Web site:

It’s clearly a mix of both.So, which way to go? Attempt to protect your

print franchise and hope you last long enough for an e-reader or some such thing to replace your print fixed costs? Or push your audience to the Web, cut your staff some more and pray that somehow ad CPM’s start skyrocketing?

You tell me.


Journalists’ plan B should include building online brand

As more news organizations are laying off full-time reporters, many of them are being replaced by freelancers. On top of that, with the ubiquitous tools that allow anyone to publish, journalists now have to set themselves apart and establish their credibil-ity more than ever. Journalists have to communicate directly with the audience and in many cases become a part of it. They no longer have just a byline, but a face and a personal brand. There is an increasing shift from the organization that you represent to you as an individual.

Alfred Hermida, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of British Colum-bia, notes that it is a good idea to start building your personal brand as a student. However, it is just as important for a veteran journalist to build your brand as well.

A veteran reporter may be familiar in his or her local town, but unknown to the outside world. And if that hometown paper closes, the local credentials become almost irrelevant. Journalists need to have an online presence and a personal brand.

One of the key ways to start developing your brand is providing a place where all your online personalities and platforms meet –- a central Web site where potential employers and the public can learn all they need about your professional credentials, as well as learn how to contact and connect with you. Here are a few ways journalists can build their personal brands. We’d love to hear others in the comments below.

Showcase your blogging skillsMore and more journalists are writing articles

regularly, while at the same time hosting their own blog or contributing to a news organization’s blog.

It is evermore important for journalists to practice their blogging and showcase their skills on a personal Web site.

This should be a personal blog, but not a “person-al” blog; it should be professional in nature and reflect your expertise. Keep the musings about your dinner last night for a separate blog.

Demonstrate your expertiseThough blogging on a specialized topic is a key

way to demonstrate your expertise, the entire theme of the Web site should be focused around your brand as a journalist. This means being consistent in the phrases that you use to describe yourself, whether in an “about

the author” blurb or the subhead summarizing who you are professionally. For example, Joey Baker’s Web site describes him as a “new media advocate.” Baker, the business director for CoPress, is con-cise, professional and memorable in his description. Consistency in the way you brand yourself is key. It ultimately creates an image of your personal brand for your Web site’s visitors.

Show off your portfolioA personal site allows you to aggregate and dis-

play your professional work. It’s a one-stop shop for visitors to see what kind of work you have done. It’s a transparent resume of sorts, allowing you to showcase your best writing samples (including blogs), videos, photographs, Web site development, you name it.

You can link to the articles, embed videos, or provide a PDF version (here is a great example from multimedia journalist Evan Wyloge). Remember to provide some information that tells the viewer why you are showcasing a specific sort of work. It should ultimately show off your skills. It goes without say-ing your Web site should also include a resume page, along with the ability for a visitor to download it as well.

Build an audience, communityIt used to be that journalists didn’t really have to

worry about attracting an audience for their work. The audience was just there. But now journalists play a big role in attracting readers to a news Web site. Your personal site can demonstrate your ability to build an audience and, ultimately, a community of readers. The key is engaging your readers through comments on blog posts, but also providing ways for them to con-nect to the site and you through RSS, e-mail subscrip-tions, a contact form, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

It’s a good idea to allow your readers to see what you’re doing on the Web (example: if you use Twitter, display your tweets them in a sidebar widget on your site). It may feel a bit intrusive to allow readers in to your social media space, but it will provide another way for them to connect back to your site.

Present your new media skillsThis doesn’t just mean showing your ability to

produce content on various platforms, it means dis-playing your ability to learn new media skills and stay relevant in a time of evolving technology. You put together the Web site, and by doing so you likely learned a lot in the process: how to integrate various features, content management, design that works well and Web usability. These -- and the design -- should reflect you as a journalist.

Vadim LavrusikPoynterOnline


Eight lessons newspapers can learn from bloggersLeo Babautawritetodone.com

It’s not news that the news industry is changing rapidly, and the traditional newspaper and magazine industry is in a whole mess of trouble.

Newspapers are losing readers at an alarming rate to online reading — and readers are reading not only newspapers, but blogs and many other types of sites.

Newspapers are trying to find a model for making money online, but they’re not learning fast enough, not adapting fast enough. Online ads can’t support them, because now the monopoly for publishing news and commentary has been broken, and advertising has been spread out among thousands and thousands of sites.

How can the newspaper industry adapt? Well, they’ll either have to figure that out quickly, or they’ll die. As a former journalist and editor at a Gannett-owned newspaper, I have some thoughts.

1. Smaller is better. Newspapers can’t survive on online ads not because it’s an impossible model for publishing — I do it at Zen Habits and many other blogs and smaller news sites do it. They can’t survive on online ads because they’re too huge. Not only do they have a newsroom of journalists and editors, but they have copy editors, layout editors, graphic artists, photographers, managing editors and more. And that’s just the newsroom — one small part of a newspaper company. There’s also advertising, production, circula-tion, accounting, the IT department, human resources, and overall management.

There is no way an organization that huge can survive on online ads, especially now that the news monopoly has been broken. The solution isn’t to charge more, but to become smaller. If a newspaper transitions to an only online edition, it can get rid of its print-ing presses and printing sections. Smaller can mean

they get rid of large parts of accounting and HR and management and so on. Basically, everyone should be involved in actually producing content, with perhaps a small amount of ad sales staff. Smaller is better — with a small news team, you can produce great content and live on much less. More on this below.

2. If you charge, people won’t come. Readers are used to reading things for free. Sure, they’ll pay a couple dollars for an entire issue of a newspaper, but who reads the entire newspaper online every day? Now we just read a couple articles that are interesting, and move on to other sites. If the other sites are free, why should we keep coming back if you start to charge us? Not only that, but the biggest sources of traffic and growth come not from regular readers but from links from other blogs and news sites, social media, email, and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook … and if you erect a pay wall, no one will be able to link to you! You’ll die a slow but inevitable death.

3. If you charge, others will offer it for free. The Wall Street Journal and a couple of other business news sites are getting away with charging because the busi-ness crowd doesn’t mind paying for access to up-to-the-minute business information. It’s just a regular expense, a part of doing business. However … that won’t work forever. Eventually other sites will come up that offer information that’s just as good, but free. These sites will be smaller, and at first won’t have as much credibil-ity. But as people migrate to them — because they’re free, and the information is the same — they’ll start to build up some credibility, and then WSJ will be in real trouble. The same will be true for others who charge for access to information — people will eventually get it somewhere else, because that’s an opportunity for someone to create a business based on giving the infor-mation away for free. They’ll be ad supported, sure, but if they’re smaller they’ll be able to live on that.

4. You’ve got competition now. This is just an extension of No. 3 above, but expanded: in the old days, you only competed against other major news media. That’s no longer the case. Now, lots of people are publishing news — including everyday people who post news to Twitter, right when news is happening, as eye-witnesses. Now lots of people write commentary (granted: sometimes too many). Now there’s competi-tion everywhere for people’s interest and attention. So you’re going to need to step it up — you can’t do things the old way. Figure out what your competitive advan-tages are, and use them to your advantage. We still need you to be a government watchdog, we still need your in-depth reporting, but perhaps some of the things you’re doing that have been replaced by new competi-tors (such as Craigslist or weather services and the like)


can be dropped.5. Your main asset is credibility, not money or

size. The difference between you and a blog isn’t the writing, or how fast you get the news, or how big you are, or even how deep your pockets are, but how much people trust you. This trust is huge, actually, because it means when others might break the news before you, people will still want you to confirm that it’s true. Whatever you do, don’t lose that trust. Use it to your advantage. Blogs are building that trust as we speak, and if you break the trust in any way, you’ll lose every-thing.

6. You’ve got the skills — but you need to adapt. One of my advantages when I started blogging was that I was a journalist by training, which isn’t required for blogging by any means — most of the best bloggers were never journalists and many journalists aren’t good bloggers. But I had some skills that translate well in the online world — writing fairly clear and concise articles, for example, and using bullet points and other devices to make it easier for readers to find the essential infor-mation, and headline writing, and research. You’ve got those skills and more — but they don’t translate exactly to blogging. You need to learn blogging, and the online world, and really participate in it and understand it, so that your skills can be adapted to the new demands of readers. Part of that is that you need to connect with them, and you also need to learn community and new forms of writing that are foreign to journalism. You’ll also need to forget division of labor — everyone needs to produce content, and everyone needs to be able to handle tech and business.

7. Connect with readers and bloggers, don’t snub them. Blogs have succeeded in part because we

are a community, and a large discussion. Readers can connect with bloggers in ways they never connected with journalists — the best journalists have always been (and mostly still are) in ivory towers, looking down on the reading public and barely accessible but through letters to the editor (and more recently, email). But readers can instantly communicate with bloggers, and the best bloggers talk back, are part of the discus-sion. And bloggers connect with each other — we have giant conversations through our blogs and Twitter, link to each other, not just to our own articles. You need to become social, in the new sense of the word — not just in going to community functions and press conferences.

8. Become lean and distributed. Having a huge building full of employees and equipment is unsupport-able these days. The best bloggers work from home, or from coffee shops. We have no huge building, because we couldn’t afford it. Let your reporters work from home or from the road, with a laptop, and you remove the need for an office. Learn to collaborate online, to do business online. Let readers become news gatherers, and give them a voice and a channel for putting out the news. Let the community be your sources, in a new and exciting way, and you’ll need fewer employees.

What does all this mean for the employees of newspapers? It means you’ll need to learn new ways of working, and that some of your will be laid off, inevi-tably — either because the newspaper purposely leans down, or because it will go out of business. For the sake of our society, I hope the best newspapers don’t go out of business, that they learn to be leaner. But many employees will be out of work — and that’s OK. You’ll start your own blogs and Web sites and go into compe-tition with your former employer, as I have. And you’ll love every minute of it.

continued from page 11

Eight lessons newspapers can learn from bloggers

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es, the choice isn’t nearly as clear cut. Nikon and Canon both put out quality products and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with either brand. As I visit photographers at larger papers, it seems they are more prone to own Nikons than Canons. However, I tend to buy Canons when I’m purchasing cam-eras for personal use. An additional consideration these days is whether you want the ability to shoot high definition video with your SLR.

From Brett in Kentucky:Hi Kevin,

I have an eMac running 10.4.11 operating system. I have been using InDesign 2.0 for several years now and all of a sudden it won’t open. I’ve done everything I know to do, including re-installing the software.

When I click to open the program, the dialog box opens up, but when it gets to “ loading palettes” it acts like it’s trying to open up but never does. After it tries to boot up for a minute or so, it unexpectedly quits. Do you have a answer to this problem? I ap-preciate any help you can give me.

Brett:This is a common problem on

both Macs and Windows-based systems running InDesign. It sounds like it’s time to get rid of the old preference and create new ones. Try this to fix the problem on your Mac: 1) Quit InDesign; 2) Drag the “Version [version]” folder from the “Users>username>Library>Preferences>Adobe InDesign folder to the Desktop; 3) Restart InDesign.

In most instances, InDesign will start up after removing this folder. If the problem recurs af-ter this process, it isn’t related to preference files. To restore custom settings, drag the “Version” folder from the Desktop back to its origi-nal location, and then click OK when asked if you want to replace the folder.

Kevin Slimp

Institute ofNewspaper [email protected]

My inbox has been especially full lately. That makes it harder to an-swer every question personally, but I try to answer as many questions as I can. Let me share a few I’ve received over the past few weeks:

From Mark in Pennsylvania:Kevin,

We have a PDF, created by In-Design and cropped in Acrobat. When we place the “cropped” file onto an InDesign page, the original cropped area returns and prints over the words and ads around it. Any idea why this happens?

Mark,This has perplexed InDesign

users from day one. Most applica-tions simply ignore a cropped area as if it’s not there. InDesign knows, however, that it’s there and gives you the option of showing or hiding the cropped area. Simply click on the “Show Options” button in the Place window when placing a PDF file on a page. Next, select “Crop” from the “Crop to” list. That’s it.

From LJ in Nebraska:Kevin,

I need to invest in new equip-ment, quickly. Over the weekend

we lost our G5 RIP. It lasted at least five years. Anyway, would the MAC ($1500) you have in your current review be appropriate? I’m the pur-chasing person not the designer, but I think we have OSX something and CS3. Any expertise that you’re will-ing to share is helpful.

LJ,It’s a safe assumption that the

current iMac would cover all the bases of your five-year-old G5. Be sure to get plenty of RAM. The model you’re considering comes with 4 GB RAM, which should be fun. But it’s always a good idea to load up on memory when possible. The iMac will come with the latest operating system and CS3 will run fine. If your old machine won’t re-start, you might need to call Adobe to switch your CS3 serial number over to your new machine. Cre-ative Suite can be installed (but not run) on two machines at once, so you might be able to install it without first calling Adobe.

From Nick in California:Hi Kevin,

Which would you choose if spending around $700 for an SLR digital camera: a Canon or a Nikon?

Frankly, Nick, that would depend on the lenses you already have.

Lenses are often more expen-sive than the camera itself, so I usually recommend that people stick with the brand they already have lenses for. However, if you’re starting from scratch without lens-

Kevin answers questions about cameras, software and font problems

What does this guy do, anyway?Kevin directs a training program for newspaper designers, publishers and I.T. related staff called the Institute of Newspaper Technology. The Institute takes place each October on campus at The University of Tennessee. In addition to his work with the Institute, Kevin speaks at dozens of conferences related to newspapers and publishing throughout the world each year. About twice a month, Kevin visits newspapers to provide training and advice. His webinar schedule can be found at www. braincast.biz.

To contact Kevin directly, email:

[email protected]

From Karen in Missouri:I am having problems with fonts

on the computer. I am missing fonts from my font list when working in Quark. These fonts are in at least one of my three font folders, but not available for me to use. My comput-er has Mac OS X Version 10.5.7. We have no idea which fonts are to be in which folders. When I go to adding some font to the Font Book they will not transfer to that folder. Do you have any advice on straightening these fonts out?

Yes, Karen, I do:There are several places fonts

can reside on both Macs and PCs. When I’m having problems with a font on a Mac, I make sure it’s lo-cated in the Library>Fonts folder on the main hard drive. This makes it available to every application on the computer. Just between you and me, that’s where I keep all of my fonts. They used to be spread throughout the computer, depend-ing on my applications and font management utilities. Over time, I’ve learned that fonts kept in the main Fonts folder tend to show up when needed.

The most common question I received in June and July was relat-ed to newspaper Web sites. It seems like a lot of newspapers are looking for new hosts to make their sites more attractive to potential visitors and easier to use on the creation side of things. There are too many options to consider here, but let me make one suggestion.

When considering a host for your newspaper Web site, be sure to compare at least three potential vendors. There are plenty out there and there is probably one who has just what your newspaper is looking for at a fair price.


PresIdeNTDick Larson, Western News&Info, Inc. One-Year Dir./Daily

FIrsT VIce PresIdeNTTeri Hayt, Arizona Daily StarTwo-Year Dir./At-large

secoNd VIce PresIdeNTGinger Lamb, Arizona Capitol Times Two-Year Dir./Non-Daily

ThIrd VIce PresIdeNTDon Rowley, Arizona Daily Sun Two-Year Dir./Daily

secreTAry/TreAsurerRick Schneider, Eastern Arizona Courier One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

dIrecTorsTom Arviso, Navajo Times Two-Year Director/Non-Daily

Nicole Carroll, The Arizona Republic Two-Year Director/Daily

Pam Miller, The Verde IndependentTwo-Year Dir./At-large

John Naughton, Payson Roundup One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Joni Weerheim, The Sun (Yuma)One-Year Dir./Daily

Pam Mox, Green Valley News and Sun Past President

2008-2009 ANA/Ad Services Board of DirectorsexecuTIVe dIrecTorPaula Casey .............. Ext. 102 [email protected]

commuNIcATIoNs mgr.Perri Collins .............. Ext. 110 [email protected]

AccouNTINg AssIsTANTLiisa Straub ............... Ext. 105 [email protected]

medIA BuyerCindy Meaux ............ Ext. 112 [email protected]

NeTWork Ad mgr.Sharon Schwartz ...... Ext. 108 [email protected]

NeTWork sAles reP.Don Ullmann ............ Ext. 111 [email protected]

Contact ANA Staff

ANAgrams is an official publication of the

ARIzONA NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION1001 N. CENTRAL AVE., SUITE 670

PHOENIx, Az 85004

Events Calendar

september 13-16, 2009 Western Classified Advertising Association, las Vegas

september 22-25, 2009 sNA/Inland Press Fall conference, kansas city

september 23-26, 2009 NNA Annual Convention & Trade show, mobile, Al

october 10, 2009 ANA Annual Meeting and Fall Convention, Cronkite school, Asu, Phoenix

November 12, 2009 Mississippi Advertising contest Judging - Volunteers needed, Phoenix

November 14-15, 2009 PodcampAZ, Tempe

November 18, 2009 cronkite Awards luncheon, Phoenix

sTAy IN Touch WITh ANA

oN The WeB!

Facebook:www.facebook.com/group.php ?gid=30800632683 Flickr:http://www.flickr.com /photos/ananewsflash

MySpace: www.myspace.com/ananews Twitter: twitter.com/ananewsflash YouTube: youtube.com/ananewsflash

The Arizona Newspapers Association welcomes Sedona.biz as it’s newest member.

Sedona.biz is a local news site owned and operated by Carl Jackson. It gets over 20,000 unique visitors each month and offers visitors the opportunity to subscribe to a weekly newsletter.

Sedona.biz is the first only-only news site to apply for a new ANA membership under the recently revised bylaws.

In 2006, Mr. Jackson left banking and purchased a home in Se-dona with his wife, Jodi. “Sedona is a unique place,” writes Jackson on his site.

“Eventually, I’d like Sedona.biz to be the place for everything Sedona.”

ANA welcomes Sedona.biz

The Arizona Newspapers Association welcomes 30-year news-paper industry veteran Joni Weerheim to its board of directors. She will be stepping in as a one-year director representing dailies.

Last year, Weerheim took over as the publisher of The Sun, a daily newspaper in Yuma.

Weerheim also served as publisher for Eagle Media in Seneca, S.C., where she also served on the board of the Iowa Newspaper As-sociation.

ANA welcomes Weerheim to board

Second Cronkite New Media Academy open for registration

You can now register for the Cronkite New Media Academy, an innovative training program in digital media this fall.

The academy, operated by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, teaches participants how to develop a Web site from start to finish in 10 Saturday sessions beginning Sept. 12 and ending

Nov. 14. See more details online at http://cronkite.asu.edu/newmedia.

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