December 2012 Colorado Editor

coloradoInside: Meet the CPA leadership team. PAGE 4

Official publication of the Colorado Press Association / coloradopressassociation.com / Vol. LXXXIII, No. 12 December 2012

editorBy Denny Dressman

A dynamic collaboration that has the po-tential to benefit all Colorado Press Associa-tion member-newspapers was approved at the November meeting of the CPA’s Philanthropic Advisory Committee.

Members voted unanimously to award a one-time $5,000 grant to the I-News Network, a two-year-old, non-profit, project-oriented journalism organization based in Denver. Laura Frank, a former Rocky Mountain News reporter, is founder and executive director.

I-News produces at least a half-dozen news projects annually, consisting of multiple print stories, photographs that illustrate the stories, and complimentary multimedia productions suitable for use on television or online. All I-News projects are intended to have statewide

application or deal with topics that are signifi-cant in many areas of the state, rather than a single location. Some daily newspapers that are members of CPA have published I-News stories in the past, but until now, there has been no of-ficial arrangement between I-News and CPA.

Under the terms of the PAC’s initial one-year grant, I-News will make its projects available to all CPA newspapers—daily and weekly—at no charge.

And to ensure that CPA newspapers, regard-less of size or frequency or publication, are pre-pared to utilize the I-News projects most effec-tively—and supplement them on occasion with local reporting when feasible—the I-News staff will conduct training sessions during the up-

coming CPA convention. In addition, I-News will provide tip sheets on how CPA newspapers can get the most of out I-News projects, and will be available for consultation on an individual newspaper basis through the coming year, as requested.

CPA member papers also will be able to pro-pose projects of broad application to I-News for possible development, though the final decision on adopting a project will remain solely with I-News.

The staff of accomplished veteran journalists at I-News includes computer-assisted reporting expert Burt Hubbard, who has taught database reporting at the University of Colorado in ad-dition to pioneering this specialty at the Rocky

Mountain News; prize-winning reporter, pub-lished author and, until recently, Denver Post metro editor, Kevin Vaughan; veteran editor Jim Trotter, who earned acclaim at the San Jose Mercury News, Rocky Mountain News and Asso-ciated Press; and photojournalist Joe Mahoney, formerly of the award-winning Rocky Mountain News photo staff.

The arrangement between CPA and I-News will be evaluated by the Philanthropic Advisory Committee during its first year of existence, and will be considered for renewal for a term longer than one year.

The CPA convention and annual meet-ing will be held February 21-23 at the Westin Denver Hotel in downtown Denver. For more information, contact Samantha Johnston at [email protected] or by phone at 303-571-5117.

I-News deal will benefit CPA membersOrganization provides investigative reports

The annual Colorado Press Association convention will be Feb. 21 – 23, 2013, at the Westin Denver Downtown Hotel.

CPA staff and convention committee members made a number of changes to this year’s program based on feedback from the 2012 convention.

“We have put a tremendous amount of effort into shaping the annual convention experience to meet the needs of our attend-ees,” said CPA executive director, Samantha Johnston. “The feedback we received last year was thoughtful, critical and insightful, and we have made a number of changes to the typical routine to offer the most value possible.”

Top 10 highlights of this year’s convention

10. The annual award banquet will be free to all attendees and will take place from 2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23. The more, the merrier. The event will be followed by a hosted hors d’oeuvres reception and cash bar.

9. Specific topics will not overlap on the schedule, i.e. editorial sessions will not over-lap with other editorial sessions, so the at-tendees will get the most bang for their buck.

8. The annual job fair will be held from 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22. The time was changed to later in the day to conflict with the fewest possible sessions. Individuals working the job fair will not miss important break-out sessions.

7. We have three outstanding industry leader keynote speakers, and three keynote opportunities – Friday Legislative Luncheon, Saturday morning keynote kick-off and Satur-day luncheon speaker.

Colorado Press Association will judge the annual Virginia Press Association Better Edi-torial and Advertising Contest.

CPA is soliciting judges for daily and week-ly advertising categories, as well as writing, photography and art, presentation and design and multimedia and online categories. Ap-proximately 80 judges are needed.

“Judging is not only an important recipro-cal favor to state associations who judge the annual CPA contest, but its also a tremendous opportunity to gather ideas and see what kind of work is being done at newspapers across the United States,” said CPA executive director, Sa-mantha Johnston.

Judges should be fairly seasoned reporters, editors, designers, advertising consultants and managers, and multimedia professionals who are able to judge the submitted work based on the overall quality of writing, photography, presentation, style, etc. Judges are needed from daily, weekly, small and large newspapers.

“Just as Colorado has a diverse newspaper landscape, so do the states we judge,” Johnston said. “Anyone interested in judging will be as-signed entries in their field of expertise and from newspapers closely matched in size and scope to their operation.”

Editorial judging will be completed online between Jan. 31 and Feb. 15, 2013. Advertising judging will be completed online between Feb. 11 and Feb. 20, 2013. All judges will receive a detailed contest judging email once judging begins.

CPA member editors, advertising directors and publishers will receive an email after the Christmas holiday asking for help.

“We encourage every newspaper to offer at least one judge, and if the staff is large enough, multiple judges,” Johnston said. “With enough judges, we can limit the amount of work per person, which makes judging fun and thor-ough.

Judges needed for Virginia Press Association contest

2 0 1 3 C O L O R A D O P R E S S A S S O C I A T I O N A N N U A L C O N V E N T I O N

More improvements on tap this year

CONTEST on page 8CONVENTION on page 8

Award-winning broadcast journal-ist Judy Muller is a professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communica-tion and Journalism. Previously, she was a correspondent for ABC News for fifteen years, reporting for such broadcasts as World News with Peter Jennings, Nightline and 20/20.

From 1980 to 1990, she was a cor-respondent for CBS News, reporting for the radio network and for the television broadcast Sunday Morn-ing. She is also a commentator for

NPR’s “Morning Edition” and APR’s “Marketplace Money”. For the last five years, she has been a contributing correspondent to KCET TV’s “SoCal Connected,” where her reporting has won numerous honors, including a George Foster Peabody award, a Co-lumbia DuPont, an Emmy and two Golden MICs. Her latest book, about weekly newspapers in America, is en-titled “Emus Loose in Egnar: Big Sto-

Judy Miller: Legislative Luncheon keynote speaker

SPEAKER on page 8

Reprinted with permission from The Washington Post

By Charles Lane

I haven’t heard much talk about it from the 2012 candidates, but there’s a scandal brewing in this country.

Monday through Saturday, unin-vited messengers show up at house-holds all across America and drop off unsolicited catalogues, credit card come-ons and other paper equiva-lents of spam e-mail. Americans get 84 billion pieces of this stuff every year — the vast majority of which they dump, unread, in the nearest trash can or recycling bin.

If homeowners are merely an-noyed, local governments are furi-ous; it costs them $1 billion per year to collect and dispose of the waste, according to a recent New York Times report.

Yet the federal government stands by and does nothing to stop this nuisance. Arguably, Washington is encouraging it.

I refer, of course, to the U.S. Postal Service. The digital age has rendered paper obsolescent and the postal service’s business model un-sustainable. Buffeted by a 26 percent drop in first-class mail volume since 2006, it lost $15 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

And the postal service has ex-hausted its line of credit with the U.S. Treasury for the first time ever, which means that henceforth it must fund current operations out of current revenue, to the extent that’s possible.

It has asked Congress for the authority to make necessary cost-cutting reforms, such as suspending Saturday delivery and closing un-needed facilities. But lawmakers are dithering, lest they offend any of the “stakeholders” — direct-mail adver-tisers, postal unions, rural politicians — that feed off the postal gravy train (or what’s left of it).

It’s not that different from the stalemated politics of entitlement reform — only this time the unaf-fordable promises at issue include “universal” six-day-a-week delivery and health benefits for 600,000 mostly unionized postal employees.

Meanwhile, the postal service must cast around for money-making ideas. It is especially interested in ads, which now account for about half of its dwindling business. The wasteful flow of paper from mailman to mailbox to municipal dump is not about to end.

In August, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved a “negotiated service agreement” under which the postal service will give deep rate dis-counts to Valassis, a direct-mail firm that grossed $2.2 billion last year by sending about 3 billion pieces to 60 million homes. USPS estimates

the deal will bring in $107 million over three years.

To be sure, even if it increases junk mail, the deal won’t necessarily add to the total national pile of pa-per. The particular ads USPS would deliver — pitches for durable goods sold by brick-and-mortar retail stores — already reach consumers via newspaper inserts.

What the deal would do is alter the national flow of advertising, to the financial detriment of newspa-pers like the one you may be hold-ing. Struggling print media need this like a hole in the head. Small wonder that the Newspaper Association of America — of which The Post is a member — has sued to block the deal in federal court.

This gives me a conflict of inter-est, of course. Still, even people who don’t draw a newspaper paycheck should be able to appreciate what’s wrong here.

The rationale for a postal service is that the U.S. government should facilitate national integration and economic expansion. That’s why the Constitution gave Congress the power “to establish Post Offices” and why Congress used that power to

give the postal service a monopoly on first-class mail delivery, preferen-tial access to federal credit and other advantages. It was envisioned as a utility, providing a delivery network to all companies and individuals on more or less equal terms.

Now, in its technological obso-lescence and financial decrepitude, and with the encouragement of both Congress and its regulator, the postal service has been reduced to helping one private-sector entity outcompete another. The fact that all parties concerned — USPS, newspapers and junk mailers — are scrapping over the same shrinking paper pie only heightens the poignancy.

Many proposals for reviving the postal service would compound the error by letting this federally advan-taged entity compete with the private sector in businesses such as check-cashing or beer and wine shipment.

Without serious cost-cutting, such gimmicks would probably fail anyway.

Our far-flung postal system used to epitomize American democratic efficacy. Today, however, Congress’s failure to deal with mail’s inevitable decline is a case study in democratic dysfunction.

[email protected]

2 colorado editor December 2012

colorado editorISSN #162-0010

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Vol. LXXXIII, Issue 12December 2012

Colorado Editor is the official publication of the Colorado Press

Association and is published monthly at 1336 Glenarm Place.Denver, CO 80204-2115

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Subscription rate:$10 per year, $1 single copy

StaffSamantha Johnston

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Board of DirectorsOFFICERS

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The Holyoke Enterprise [email protected]

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TreasurerTerri House

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Alamosa Valley Courier [email protected]

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Cortez Journal [email protected]

Bart Smith The Greeley Tribune

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Laurena Mayne Davis The Daily Sentinel

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David McClain Sterling Journal-Advocate

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Paula Murphy Trinidad Times Independent

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colorado editor 3December 2012

CPA contest award notifications will be sent by Christmas

The Colorado Press Associa-tion Better Newspaper Contest award notifications will be emailed to the contest managers before the Christmas holiday.

The contest manager is the individual at the newspaper who initiated the contest set-up for that particular newspaper. Contest results will only be released to the contest administrator and newspa-pers publisher or their designees.

Award notification will list the contest category and names of individiual winners. Places are not disclosed until the annual awards banquet held on Saturday, Feb. 23 during the Colorado Press As-sociation convention.

Newspaper contest managers who have not received notifica-tion of winners by Monday, Dec. 24 may contact Lisa Woodworth at 303-571-5117 or by email at [email protected].

Service to the First deadline extended

Colorado Press Association has reopened the Service to the First annual contest. No entries were received in this category.

“Service to the First Amend-ment is a cornerstone of our indus-try,” said CPA executive director, Samantha Johnston. “It seems like this category might have been overlooked, or at least not well understood, because almost every newspaper in the state probably has at least one example of their com-mitment to the First Amendment.”

The award, which is intended to honor a newspaper’s service to the First Amendment guarantee of a free press can include, but is not limited to, fighting the threat of censorship in America, overcom-ing uneasiness with regard to press credibility, combating government secrecy at all levels, and instilling in the public an appreciation of its need as well as its right to know.

“The CPA Board of Directors felt that people might think this award is for a big or special project related to the First Amendment,” Johnston said. “While a project could be submitted, day-to-day efforts with an impact could be just as powerful.”

Entries could include news and feature stories, editorials, staff-writ-ten columns, house ads and First Amendment projects. The winning entry need not be a specific project, but an example of the newspaper’s commitment to the First Amend-ment.

Previous entries have ranged from court actions filed by the newspaper and public awareness campaigns conducted by the news-paper in partnership with other organizations to stories challenging transparency within local govern-ment.

The extended deadline for en-tries is Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. Award

recipients will be announced dur-ing the Legislative Luncheon held Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 at the Westin Denver Downtown Hotel.

To enter, send nominations to Samantha Johnston, Executive Director, Colordo Press Associa-tion, 1336 Glenarm Pl., Denver, CO 80204 or by email or DropBox invi-tation to [email protected].

Fence Post expands with magazines

The Greeley-based Fence Post Publishing Co. has recently expanded with the acquisition of a Wisconsin-based company which has four rural-lifestyle magazines that are distributed nationally.

The newly acquired magazines are: Countryside & Small Stock Journal, sheep!, Dairy Goat Journal, and Backyard Poultry. Subscribers and newsstand buyers exceed 170,000 in the United States and Canada.

The Fence Post Co. currently publishes the Rocky Mountain Fence Post edition and the Plains Edition each week as well as the Tri-State Livestock News and Farmer and Rancher Exchange, both in South Dakota.

Bart Smith, general manager of the Fence Post Co. and publisher of the Greeley Tribune, will oversee Countryside. Swift Publishing Co., based in Carson City, Nev., is the parent company of the Greeley operations which have offices and a printing plant at 501 8th Ave. in downtown Greeley.

“Countryside is a perfect fit with our current agriculture and country lifestyle publications,” said Smith. “With the continued success of our current Fence Post publications, we have been looking for an expansion opportunity that would complement what we have now.”

The Countryside and Small Stock Journal magazine grew out of an interest for many people to live a simpler life and be more self-sufficient. The poultry, goat and sheep magazines that followed are for those who are raising livestock on their own on a small scale and are looking for advice and guidance.

The nine Countryside employees were retained and will continue to operate the company from the plant in Medford, Wisc. Besides the magazines, which each print six times a year, the company sells a large listing of books that reflect the topics of the magazines.

The new magazines expand an already diverse group. The Fence Post publications, with a primary coverage area of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, concentrate on ranching and farming and rural life. Tri-State Livestock News, in Belle Fourche, S.D., concentrates primarily on the cattle and horse livestock operators and related interests. Farmer and Rancher Exchange is an advertising-only publication that circulates to rural residents in central South Dakota.

obituary

news in brief

By Kieran NicholsonThe Denver Post

Eva Hodges Watt, a local author and longtime Denver Post staffer, died Wednesday in Denver. She was 90.

Watt joined The Denver Post city desk during World War II as a reporter and went on to become the paper’s religion editor, fashion editor, society editor and colum-nist. She wrote under the byline Eva Hodges and retired from The Post in 1985.

During her long career in journalism, Watt covered a wide array of assignments, from breaking news to high society and haute couture from the runways of Paris. In 1979, Watt won a Penney-Missouri award for her fashion coverage at The Post.

Among the newsmakers and entertainers Watt in-terviewed for the Post were Mamie Eisenhower, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Billy Graham and Bill Blass.

After she retired, Watt traveled extensively and wrote two books with local flavor: “Papa’s Girl,” a biography of former Denver Post owner and society maven Helen Bonfils; and “Helen Marie Black, Heart of the Denver Symphony.”

Watt was a longtime member of the Denver Woman’s Press Club and was active in the League of Women Vot-ers. She was an avid theater-goer and an accomplished gourmet cook whose dinner parties for former “Posties” were legendary.

Watt was born Sept. 27, 1922, in Silver City, N.M.,

the daughter of the local district attorney. She gradu-ated from Colorado College in 1942 and landed a job as a reporter with the El Paso Times. Two years later, on a quick trip to Denver, she walked into the newsroom of The Denver Post and asked for a job. She was hired on the spot.

In 1953, she married Tom Watt, the Post’s photo edi-tor and later its TV columnist. In the 1960s, Tom Watt became news director at Denver Channel 4, then known as KOA. The Watts were active for many years in Den-ver’s media community. Tom and Eva had two sons, Rob and Joe. Tom Watt died in 1972.

The family was living in the Green Mountain area of Lakewood in the 1960s when Tom Watt, his younger son, Joe, and a friend started out on a hike on the Beaver Brook Trail near Lookout Mountain. The three were caught in a sudden snowstorm and sought shelter at a nearby house in Mount Vernon. The people who took them in were so kind and caring that Tom Watt decided then and there to move his family to the mountain enclave. The Watts were active in the Mount Vernon Country Club community for years. Eva Watt left Mount Vernon in 2003 and lived at Parkplace senior community in Denver.

Eva Watt is survived by her two sons, Rob Watt of Denver, Joe Watt of Golden; and daughter-in-law Laura Watt of Golden. Eva’s brothers Joseph Hodges of Silver City, N.M., Norman Hodges of Silver City and Fallbrook, Calif., and Robert Hodges of Scottsdale, Ariz., prede-ceased her.

Eva Hodges Watt

Colorado Press Association is a strong force when members band together to steadily fight for freedom of the press.

News and editorial pages across the state have publicized countless examples of pressing statewide issues with regard to open meetings and open records laws, freedom of informa-tion and legal procedures in general.

Quick to inform our member papers of current happenings that affect our industry is our CPA staff, led by the watchful eye of lobbyist Greg Romberg, executive director Samantha Johnston and an active legislative committee currently chaired by David Mc-Clain.

Awareness of issues such as the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice’s (CCJJ) recent recommendation to repeal the state’s newspaper theft statute unites our industry in standing firm for public principles.

In August, CPA members were given the opportu-nity to sign a letter of opposition to the CCJJ recom-mended repeal of the state statute making illegal the theft of free newspapers.

CPA worked together with Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder), who announced Nov. 19 that she will introduce legislation to resolve the dispute over CCJJ’s recommendation for repeal of Colorado’s newspaper theft statute.

In January, Rep. Levy will introduce legislation to repeal the newspaper theft statute and replace it with the crime of interference with the lawful distribution of a newspaper.

CPA members’ efforts of support for opposition to the repeal recommendation were an important piece of this resolution.

Legislative advocacy was emphasized again in mid-August when a comprehensive Legislative Toolkit was prepared for CPA members. It was a valuable resource heading into election time.

Considerable time was devoted to assist publish-ers and editors to feel adequately prepared to address industry issues with Colorado legislators.

The toolkit contains background informa-tion on four key topics in 2013:

• Colorado Open Meetings and Records Laws.

• Legal Notice Advertising.• Newspaper Theft Law.• Updating the Colorado Open Records Act

in a digital age.Encouragement was given to become famil-

iar with these materials and to provide copies to candidates.

If you missed seeing this material prior to the election, please contact the CPA office to have a copy emailed to you, as it is still ex-tremely valuable and informative.

Suggested talking points for candidates were part of the toolkit. CPA requested that answers to spe-cific questions be recorded to provide good information on candidates’ positions on important issues.

If you have that information and haven’t yet shared it with CPA, it’s not too late. It’s helpful to know where elected officials stand on open meetings/records. That info can be sent to Samantha Johnston at [email protected], faxed to 303-571-1803 or mailed to 1336 Glenarm Place, Denver, CO 80204.

Candidate information and percentage of Republi-can, Democratic and Unaffiliated voters in each legisla-tive district is in the toolkit.

Dedicated, intense effort clearly went into the preparation of the legislative toolkit for the benefit of all members to strengthen legislative partnerships. Even though the election is over, the information is still timely.

Engagement of our members is essential to the suc-cess of our organization – legislatively and otherwise.

Take advantage of legislative updates provided to members to stay informed, contact your legisla-tors when that assistance is requested and keep our membership informed of issues affecting you and your publication.

The strength of the Colorado Press Association depends upon the active involvement of each and every member.

from the president

Organization strength relies on membership

brendabrandt

cpa president


The Colorado Press Association Nominations Committee last week rec-ommended a slate of candidates for the annual board election to be held Friday, Feb. 22 during the annual convention. The committee, established according to CPA bylaws, includes the immediate five past CPA presidents. This year’s committee members are Jeanette Chavez - formerly of The Denver Post, Dean Lehman – Long-mont Times-Call, Steve Henson – The Pueblo Chieftain, Tom Bredehoft – The Flagler News and Randy Sunderland – Delta County Independent.

CPA members can vote in person or by proxy at the annual meeting in February.

Proxy forms and voting information will be sent to all owners and publishers no later than January 1.

For information about the board of directors or the nomination and election process, contact Samantha Johnston at 303-571-5117 or by email at [email protected].

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

CHAIRBrenda BrandtPublisher, The Holyoke Enterprise [email protected]

Before beginning her newspaper career, Brandt earned a Bach-elor of Science degree in education, with a double major in math and journalism from the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 1977. She taught high school math and journalism at Aurora, Neb. high school for two years, also serving as sponsor for the high school yearbook and newspaper.

Brandt joined The Enterprise in 1979 as news editor and added the managing editor responsibilities in 1980. In 1994, she assumed the advertising manager›s role and became publisher. In 1999, Brenda and her sister and brother-in-law (Lori and Russ Pankonin) purchased Johnson Publications (Holyoke En-terprise, Imperial Republican, Grant Tribune-Sentinel and Wauneta Breeze) from Loral and Elna Johnson (Brenda and Lori›s parents).

Brandt was appointed to the Board in September 2007 to fill a vacancy. She served as Board secretary in 2009, treasurer in 2010, Vice President in 2011, and President in 2011 and 2012.

PRESIDENTBryce JacobsonPublisher, Craig Daily [email protected]

Bryce Jacob-son started in the newspaper business at age 8, delivering the Journal-Advocate in Sterling. He later worked in the news-paper’s mailroom and circulation depart-ment, and was named circulation manager in 1998.

Jacobson worked in the circula-tion departments at the Star-Herald in

Scottsbluff,Neb., and later was with the Denver Newspaper Agency until 2006 when he was named publisher of the Craig Daily Press.

He serves as President of the Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Colorado and is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Craig.

Jacobson is the father of two children, Peyton, age 11 and Bayley, age 7. Jacob-son was elected to the board in 2009. He served as Treasurer in 2011, and Vice President in 2012.

VICE PRESIDENTTerri [email protected]

Terri House began her newspaper career at The SUN at age 15, working in the mailroom. She held the positions of advertising manager, general manager and assistant publisher before purchasing the newspaper in 2003.

Service to her community is of utmost importance to House. She received the Pagosa Springs Volunteer of the Year Award in 2008 and Citizen of the Year in 1996. She has served as President of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colora-do and received the Mashaw’s Magic Mo-ments Award in 2010. House has served as Council Chair of United Way, board of directors of Archuleta County Fair, Western Heritage Committee producing the Red Ryder Roundup Rodeo, Opera-tion Helping Hand Christmas charity, the Prevention Coalition and Reach for the Peaks balloon rally among others. She is currently President-Elect of Pagosa Springs Rotary Club and serves on the advisory council of Southwest Colorado Community College.

Terri was elected to the board of Colorado Press Association in 2009. She served as Secretary in 2011 and Treasurer in 2012.

TREASURERKeith CernyPublisher, Valley Courier, Alamosa [email protected]

Keith Cerny is publisher of the Valley Courier in Alamosa. He is also a division manager for News Media Corporation with oversight of nine newspapers in Colo-rado and Wyoming, including a daily, six weeklies and a shopper in the San Luis Valley.

Prior to moving to Alamosa in 1992, Cerny served on the Wyoming Press Association Board of Directors while publisher in Evanston and Lusk, WY. Cerny sits on the Adams State Col-lege Foundation Board, is president of the ASC Grizzly Club Board, Alamosa County Economic Development Board, Creede Theatre Board, SLV Arts and En-tertainment Committee, San Luis Valley Regional Council for El Pomar Founda-tion and the Alamosa Rotary Club.

He was appointed to the CPA Board of Directors in 2009 to fill a vacancy, and

was elected to a four-year term in 2010. He served as Secretary in 2012.

SECRETARYBart SmithPublisher, Greeley Tribune [email protected]

Smith became publisher of the Greeley Tribune in 2007, and soon after was named general manager of the newspaper group for Swift Communica-tions that includes the weekly Windsor Now, and the Fence Post weekly agriculture publications and websites in Colorado and Nebraska, as well as two agriculture weeklies in South Dakota.

After earning a journalism degree from the University of Wyoming just up the road from Greeley and stints in Rawlins and Lander, Wyo., Smith moved on to Whitefish, Mont., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Roseburg, Ore. in editor and publisher roles before circling back to the Rockies.

Smith got hooked on newspapers as a young U.S. Army correspondent in Vietnam in 1971.

He is past president of the Montana Press Association and chaired the News Education Committee of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. He is a former member of the National Press Photographers Association and the Na-tional Conference of Editorial Writers.

Smith lives in Greeley with his wife and a daughter attending college. His oldest daughter is a reporter for the Sum-mit Daily News in Frisco, Co.

HOLDOVER DIRECTORS

DIRECTORMark [email protected]

Mark Drudge started his newspaper career in 1986 with the Glenwood Post as a Circulation District Manager and soon moved to the adver-tising department working as a Sales Account Executive for several years. In the late 90s, he moved back to the circulation side working as Circulation Director for the Western Slope Publishing Group. He held is first Publisher position at the Rifle Citizen Telegram in 2000.

Drudge left Colorado for a few years where he worked as both a publisher and a sales manager in York, Nebraska and Newton, Iowa.

Following his desire to return to the mountains and be closer to his children, Drudge joined the Cortez Journal as sales manager in March of 2010.

Drudge hold a BS from Ball State Uni-versity. He loves to trout fish, and to get off road in his 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser. He has played the banjo since very young and he played and recorded in several working bluegrass bands over the years. He has two daughters, Kelly, in Battle-ment Mesa and Katie, in Guam with the US Air Force.

DIRECTORLaurena Mayne [email protected]

Laurena Mayne Davis was appointed in May 2011 to fill the position vacated by Harrison Cochran.

Mayne Davis began her journalism career as a graduate assistant writing and editing stories for Northern Arizona University’s Graduate College magazine. She later was a full-time journalism lecturer at NAU with a news writing focus.

Mayne Davis was hired as a copy editor at The Grand Junction Sentinel in 1994 and was promoted to features editor in January 2000. Mayne Davis left The Sentinel in 2003 to be an instructor of mass communication at Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University), where she continues as adjunct faculty. She spent time working at Community Hospital as a pool writer and editor.

Mayne Davis is currently the manag-ing editor at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

She holds a BA in Humanities from Mesa State College and an MA in English from Northern Arizona University.

DIRECTORPaula MurphyPublisher, Trinidad Times Independent [email protected]

Trinidad Times In-dependent and Raton Range publisher Paula Murphy was appoint-ed to the Colorado Press Association Board of Directors in October 2011 to replace Bob Moore who resigned when he accepted a position in El Paso, Texas.

The CPA appointment – Murphy’s first in Colorado – follows her New Mexico Press Association board mem-bership from 1998-2001 and presidency in 2001. She sits on the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Board of Directors.

Murphy began her newspaper career in 1985 when she joined the staff of The Raton Range in Raton, N.M. She worked with The Range until 1989 when she left to pursue other opportunities. In 1991, she returned to the Range and accepted the position of Advertising Director. In 1997, she was promoted to publisher.

Murphy and her husband Tom pur-chased The Raton Range and Trinidad Plus in 2001 from Boone Newspapers. She turned the weekly Trinidad Plus news/shopper into the twice-weekly subscription-based Trinidad Times Independent.

Murphy and her husband also own and operate a cablecast television station, Trinidad Times TV in partnership with the newspaper.

DIRECTORCurtis [email protected]

Curtis Hubbard oversees The Denver Post’s daily editorial and opinion pages

cpa leadership


and Sunday Perspec-tive section. He was elected to the board of directors in 2012 for a two-year term.

A Colorado native, Hubbard has covered news and politics in the Interior West since 1993. Prior to joining The Post, he worked as a local news edi-tor at the Boulder Daily Camera and as editor at the Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Guide. He joined The Post in 2004 as state editor, where he oversaw the paper’s out-state bureaus and Denver-based reporters and columnists. From 2007 until January of 2011, he served as the paper’s politics editor, handling the newspaper’s election coverage and reporters covering federal and state government, Denver City Hall and transportation.

Hubbard served on the Wyoming Press Association Board of Directors during his time at the Jackson Hole Guide.

Hubbard earned a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from Beloit (Wis.) College, where he minored in journalism, and is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School.

He lives in Louisville with his wife and two daughters.

TWO-YEAR DIRECTORS

DIRECTORMatt LubichExecutive Editor, Co-Owner, The Johnstown [email protected]

Matt Lubich is the Executive Editor and co-owner of The John-stown Breeze. He has co-owned The Breeze with his wife, Lesli Bangert, since 1997.

The 108-year-old weekly newspaper has been covering the communities of Johnstown and Milliken (Colo.) and surrounding Weld and Lar-imer counties since 1904. Lubich grew up in Pueblo, Colo., where his first job in the business was driving a Sunday morning contract delivery route for the Pueblo Chieftain; filling racks and newsstands around town.

A graduate in 1986 with a degree in journalism from the University of North-ern Colorado, Lubich was voted the “Most Promising Freshman Journalism Student” and also was once introduced to someone by UNC J-School professor

Dave Anderson as “my most recalcitrant student.” Lubich had to go home and look up recalcitrant.

He worked at the Evans Star Press and for legendary Colorado editor Percy Connaroe at The Lafayette News in the late 1980s. Returning to Colorado in 1991 from New Mexico, he wandered into the Breeze one day looking for freelance work. He eventually became the paper’s editor, before he and his wife purchased it from Clyde and Ardis Briggs in 1997.

In 2002, and again in 2005, The Breeze won the General Excellence Award for small weeklies from The Colorado Press Association.

Lubich and Bangert have two daugh-ters, Riley, a freshman at Montana State University in Bozeman, and Harper Lee, a junior at Roosevelt High School in Johnstown.

Lubich was appointed to the board in September 2012 to fill a vacancy.

DIRECTOR Don LindleyManaging Editor, The Durango [email protected]

Don Lindley moved to Colorado in 2010 to become managing editor of The

Durango Herald. Before that, he had a long career with daily newspapers in Florida working as an environ-mental reporter, edito-rial writer, managing editor and executive editor.

He serves on the board of directors of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and is an active member of the Colorado Freedom of Information Council. In Florida, he served eight years on the board of the Florida So-ciety of News Editors as its FOI chair. He also was a trustee of Florida’s First Amend-ment Foundation for 12 years and chaired the FAF board from 2006 to 2010.

A native of Milwaukee, Wis., Lindley holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University and a M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Durango with his wife.

Holoyke Enterprise publisher and Colorado Press Association president, Brenda Brandt, left, and husband Bob Brandt, right, play chefs Cindy Grade and Farron Heit in the melodrama “Someone Save My Baby, Rught! Or …

Foil That Villain!” In this scene, the Brandts play sparring candy chefs. Also pictured is Ahsley Sullivan, also of the Holyoke Enterprise, playing Mrs. Praline, the Sweet Shoppe owner. The melodrama was a fundraiser for the Peerless Theater managed by Bob Brandt when he isn’t working his fulltime job as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service.

The Holyoke crew gets involved


“As crazy as it sounds, losing a sale can be good for business,” Gerald told me. “It offers a unique chance to build rapport over a long period of time. And when they conduct another advertising review, I’ll be in a better position than before.”

To put it simply, a sales presentation has three possible outcomes: (1) yes, (2) no, or (3) not yet. The good news – for Gerald and other optimistic sales people – is that “no” can be interpreted as “not yet,” instead of “never.” This means there is hope for a future sale, even when the last attempt wasn’t successful. Rapport is a huge element in turning today’s “not yet” into next month’s or next year’s “yes.”

“Selling advertising is all about relationships,” he said. “When there’s not good rapport, even an existing advertiser will find it easier to drop out of the paper if there’s a bump in the road ahead.”

Dale Carnegie wrote, “If you have a lemon, make a lemonade.” With those words in mind, here are some tips to strengthen rapport after a lost sale:

Step 1: Thank sincerely. Gerald’s strategy is to thank a

prospect immediately after a presentation. And if they decide not to buy, he thanks them again – with a handwritten note or an e-mail.

“Unless it is a rare circumstance, I drop the must-buy-from-me persona. Some sales people say, ‘Thank you, and by the way, you should reconsider this list of selling points,’ but I disagree. That not-so-subtle message is, ‘You made a bad decision, and here’s your chance to correct it.’ That’s no way to build rapport.

“I simply thank them for their consideration, wish them success – and tell them that I am looking forward to staying in touch.”

Step 2: Keep in touch on a regular basis. “Okay, now that I’ve told them I’m going to stay in touch, I actually stay in touch,” Gerald explained. “Top-of-mind-awareness is just as important in selling as it is in advertising. People like to do business with people they know.”

Because Gerald is genuinely interested in people, it is easy to learn about their interests. He sends occasional links to articles about favorite teams and hobbies. And he makes sure to chat with them at various networking events around town.

Step 3: Monitor the advertising. “Because I want another shot at their business in the future, I follow their marketing,” Gerald said. “At some point along the way, they may ask for feedback on a particular aspect of their ads. The faster I respond, the better my chances of being heard.

“That’s an open door to another sales presentation – and maybe a bigger sale than I would have made if they had said “yes” the first time. The difference is that now we know each other pretty well.”

Gerald has found another benefit. “I’ve gotten some unexpected referrals,” he said. “People not only like to buy from people they know. They like to refer friends to people they know.”

© Copyright 2012 by John Foust.All rights reserved.John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: [email protected].

The first order of busi-ness for a small advertiser is to make some strategic deci-sions (including competitive points of differentiation, budget, schedule, web pres-ence and co-op availability).

When it’s time to move on to the ads themselves, consider these points:

1. Make an offer. This tip goes for all advertisers, especially Mom and Pop businesses that are competing with large, national chains. If you don’t give people a reason to buy from you, they’ll buy from someone else. It’s as simple as that.

Shoppers expect low prices from big box stores. A widget at Walmart or Best Buy costs less than the same widget at a local retailer. As a result, it is unreasonable for Mom and Pop to compete on every-day, item-by-item pricing. However, it is possible to generate traffic with occasional sales, discount coupons, and “buy one, get one free” offers.

“Free” is an important marketing word for small businesses. Offer free installation, free delivery, free train-ing, free analysis or appraisal, or free extended warranties.

2. Sell benefits. Big boxes have the advantages of (1) low prices, (2) big selec-tion, and (3) long hours. Ad-vantages of small businesses include (1) customer service, (2) flexibility in available products and services, and (3) first-hand knowledge of the local market.

People don’t buy features; they buy benefits. The challenge is to focus on benefits which resonate

with the designated target audience.

3. Avoid puffery. Some small businesses have a tendency to use exaggerations in their advertising. They gush about “fantastic bargains,” “unbelievable service,” and “awesome products.” And they drone on and on about being “the best” or having “the most.” All of that puffery amounts to a great big zero on the scale of influence.

People exaggerate when they lack confidence in the truth. Or when they don’t know how to communi-cate the truth.

Be specific. Tell readers exactly what makes that widget so awesome.

4. Use legible typography. In

his outstanding book “Great Print Advertising,” Tony Antin refers to typography as “the voice of print.” I like that comparison. Just like some voices are easier to understand than others, some type is easier to read than others.

Here are some quick guidelines: If you use all-caps, limit them to short headlines with short words. In body copy, serif fonts are easier to read than sans serif fonts. Stay away from script, Old English, and stylized fonts. If every word is bold, nothing will stand out.

5. De-clutter. Advertisers who run smaller ads are in a constant battle to stand out on the page. But too many of them try to be noticed by cramming everything in the world into their ads. The result is the proverbial ten pounds of potatoes in a five pound sack.

The truth is that clutter drives readers away. So when it comes to designing small ads, remember that less is more. Feature one dominant illustration, not ten little ones. Get rid of starbursts and reverses. Use white space. In other words, make the advertising inviting.

Advertising that invites reader-ship invites sales.

I’m writing another book.

Yah, I know. So is everyone else these days.

This will be my third...and it won’t focus exclusively on design. This one includes lots of quotes, some “war stories,” reflections on what I’ve learned (mostly from you!) over the years and some design wisdom.

It’s pretty much done. But don’t try to order an advance copy just yet: “pretty much done” means it’s probably gonna take me another few months to polish it.

For this month’s column, I thought I’d offer you a brief glimpse by sharing some of the design quotes with you. There isn’t one here that I wouldn’t be proud to display on my office will. But I am kinda partial to one of them. I’ll let you decide which one that is.

So, read on ... and be inspired!

“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains.”—Unknown

“I’ve been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration. Good design is problem solving.”—Jeffrey Veen

“Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion.”—Bob Baxley

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”—Charles Mingus

“ ‘Form follows function.’ That has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”—Frank Lloyd Wright

“The details are not the details. They make the design.”—Charles Eames

“Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all.”—Douglas Martin

“Art has to move you and design does not—unless it’s a good design for a bus.”—David Hockney

“Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them and executing the best solution.”—Ivan Chermayeff

“A common mistake that

people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”—Douglas Adams

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”—Henry David Thoreau

“Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.”—Salvador Dali

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”—Mark Twain

“Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”—Paul Rand

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” —Buckminster Fuller

“You need to listen deeply—listen past what people say they want to hear what they need.”—Jon Meads

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”—Steve Jobs

“I prefer design by experts—by people who know what they are doing”—Don Norman

“You show me how good a designer you are not by what you choose to put on a page—but by what you choose to take away.”—Ed Henninger

WANT A FREE evaluation of your newspaper’s design? Contact Ed: [email protected] or 803-327-3322

IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you may be interested in Ed’s books: Henninger on Design and 101 Henninger Helpful Hints. With the help of Ed’s books, you’ll immediately have a better idea how to design for your readers. Find out more about Henninger on Design and 101 Henninger Helpful Hints by visiting Ed’s web site: henningerconsulting.com

ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. Offering comprehensive newspaper design services including redesigns, workshops, staff training and evaluations. E-mail: [email protected]. On the web: henningerconsulting.com.

All quotable . . . some notable

edhenninger

Five tips for small advertisers

How losing a sale can be good for business

johnfoust

editor onlinecoloradopressassociation.com


Definition: UnderwriterOne who assumes financial

responsibility for; guarantee against failure. To insure against losses.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get a call or message from people, telling me how something I wrote changed their businesses, lives or both.

Such was the case last week, when my phone vibrated as I strolled through the aisles of my favorite department store.

The call was from a director of a major underwriting firm. When I say, “major,” I mean one of the big ones. So big, in fact, that her com-pany was the underwriter for the very store in which I was strolling.

For some reason that I don’t fully understand, I get a lot of calls from people who run very big compa-nies. They read something I write, or hear me speak at a convention, and they feel the urge to contact me for advice, or just to tell me how something I wrote or said affected

them. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to translate all these contacts into clients ... but that’s a topic for another day. The topic for today relates to this phone call.

“You know,” she said, “your name came up in a board meeting today.”

Nothing amazes me anymore, but I still feign surprise when I hear something like this.

“Really?” I replied with as much sincerity as possible, “Why would my name come up in a meeting of a major financial firm?”

With my luck, I thought she was about to tell me I was behind on a mortgage payment or credit card bill. But that wasn’t it.

“We had a request to continue underwriting 23 newspapers today,” she told me. I learned that the papers were located in metro areas across the U.S.

“The request was summarily de-nied because it came from a chain of newspapers. And, from what we’d all heard through the media, newspa-pers were a dying breed. Not a good

investment.”I still wondered how my name fit

into all this. That’s when I learned the rest of the story.

“I remembered reading a column you wrote a couple of weeks back about how numbers were often misrepresented when the media reported newspaper statistics.”

Now she had my interest.“You wrote that the circulation

numbers for printed newspapers were much better than most head-lines indicate.”

“A very smart woman,” I thought.“So, we had someone check the

numbers of these 23 newspapers and found that they were all quite profitable.”

She went on to tell me that her firm reversed its decision and felt confident approving the request.

It seems like every month I’m writing something about circula-tion numbers, advertising sales or some other topic related to the overall health of the newspaper industry. Although most of the

critics have quieted, I still feel the bite of the criticism aimed my way for staunchly supporting the print industry when most experts left it for dead.

Then I get a call like this. And I realize that, quite possibly, 23 news-papers are in business today because this firm looked past the headlines and dug deeper to find the truth about the newspaper industry. And when they did, they felt comfortable making a financial stake in it.

So today, I’m not going to gripe about newspaper groups that are do-ing irreparable damage by making bad decisions or publications that write misleading headlines.

Instead, I am going to thank Michelle Rea for a speech she gave to newspapers in New York recently about the need to report numbers accurately. I almost thought I was reading something I had written myself when I perused her tran-script.

She was on target when she said, “Newspapers shouldn’t retreat. I

urge you to unite the fight. Fight back with powerful messaging to advertisers and with brilliant prod-ucts to deliver to readers.”

Anne Lannan, executive director of Ontario Community Newspapers Association, recently reminded readers of NewsClips that adver-tising revenue in Canadian com-munity papers has risen from $850 million to $1.2 billion over the past 10 years. She also noted that OCNA has grown from 272 members to 313 members over those years.

Both Michelle and Anne cor-rectly reminded their members that most of the numbers reported by major media come from the metro markets, which haven’t fared as well as community newspapers.

Oh, sorry. I said I wasn’t going to preach. Sometimes, I can’t help myself.

Twenty-three newspapers have an underwriter today because I made a fuss about a headline last month. Maybe it’s time we all kicked up a little dust.

I wonder how many groups are going to get mad at me over this one. Here goes.

OK, this headline appeared in my email yesterday from Newspapers & Technology, a highly re-spected newspaper industry online publication:

Digital circ for U.S. papers soars

Soars. Hmm. As I read the story,

based on daily circulation for the 613 newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for its latest six-month report ending Sept. 30, 2012, I was confused.

The first thing I noticed was that circulation held steady over the six months since the previous report. Daily circulation was down 0.2 per-cent, while Sunday circulation was up 0.6 percent.

But what kept drawing my focus was the headline:

Digital circ for U.S. papers soars

So I looked more closely. Digital circulation sits at 15.3 percent today. A year ago, it was roughly 9.2 per-cent.

According to the story I was read-ing, “ABC said digital-only subscrip-tions are on a sharp incline, with the organization reporting that digital circulation now accounts for more than 15 percent of newspapers’ total circulation. That’s a jump of almost 10 percent over year-ago figures, ABC said.”

The numbers confused me. I couldn’t figure out where the 10

percent increase was. Being the stickler I am about such things, I decided to look for myself.

I went to ABC’s website and looked for myself. I found the numbers from six months ago showing that digital circulation was 14.2 percent of total circulation six months earlier. That means it increased from 14.2 to 15.3 percent in six months.

Still today, I read more headlines in newspapers

around the world about how digital circulation is soaring among U.S. newspapers.

Wanting to be sure of my facts, I contacted Susan Kantor, ABC’s director of communications. She was very helpful and we looked at the numbers together. Sure enough, I had my facts straight.

If I’m reading the numbers cor-rectly, digital circulation rose from 9.2 to 14.2 percent in the previous six months, then went up from 14.2 percent to 15.3 percent in the most recent six month period.

So here’s my question. Wouldn’t the headline be more accurate if it were:

Digital circ increases take nosedive

Isn’t it funny what we can do with numbers? The truth is that over the most recent six months, print circu-lation stayed relatively steady. No big gains, no big losses. The percentage of circulation attributed to digital devices rose from 14 to 15 percent, a very slight increase.

My calculator (no, I didn’t really need a calculator for this one) tells

me that at this rate, digital circulation will be higher than print circulation in just 17 years.

Of course, if the decreases in the rate of digital circulation figures correlated with the numbers for the past year, dropping from a 5 percent increase the first six months to a 1 percent increase in the most recent six months, it could take thousands of years for digital circulation to reach 50 percent of total circulation.

Just to make sure I hadn’t con-fused the facts, I contacted David Anderson, professor of mathemat-ics at The University of Tennessee, where I serve on the adjunct faculty in the College of Communication and Information. I’ve never met Dr. Anderson, but I asked if he would look at these numbers with me and see if I was off base. He was quite helpful.

When I shared the numbers with him for the past year, then looked more closely at the differences between the first six months and the last six months, he was surprised. He said he thought print newspapers were almost gone, from what he’d read in the media. I explained that a lot of people think that from the stories they read.

Then I asked him, if the rate of digital circulation increase decreased in the future at the same rate that it decreased between the last two ABC reports, if that indicated that it could take thousands of years for digital circulation to overtake print circulation.

While he didn’t think it would take that long, he did agree that the numbers from the last two reports could correctly be used to infer that.

Thus the headline could just as easily read:

Print is king for next millennium

OK. Let’s get something straight. I’m not so naive that I think it will be thousands, or even hundreds, of years before most of us get our news using means other than print. But at the same time, we do a huge dis-service to our readers and ourselves when we play with headlines like this.

Here’s the story as I see it.- Was there an increase in digital

circulation over the past six months? Yes, from 14 to 15 percent of total circulation.

- Did print take a nosedive over the past six months? No, print held up just fine.

- Did daily newspaper circulation drop over the past six months? No, overall it held steady.

Perhaps this is the news we should be sharing with advertisers and readers.

Print is king for next millennium!How numbers can say just about anything

kevinslimp

Looking past the headlines reveals a different financial story


FOR SALESmall weekly in Colorado mountain community. Grosses about $96,000. Fixed costs about $46,000. Good op-portunity for young couple starting out, or older “downsized” journalists. Easy news beats. Monopoly situation. All buildings and equipment included in sale price; you can walk in on Mon-day and put out a paper on Tuesday. Current owner will stick around to help with transition. Beautiful loca-tion, great for fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation. Excellent schools, low crime, no traffic. Price includes office building and residence. Price

reduced to $220,000 from $270,000. Call 970-723-4404.

REPORTERSeeking general assignment staff writer to cover northwest Denver metro region. Prefer at least two years experience. Must know AP style and produce crisp, newsy content. Photography skills a plus. Join our award-winning weekly newspaper staff at ourcoloradonews.com in Golden. Email resume and 3-5 clips to [email protected] or mail to Attn: Mikkel Kelly, 110 N. Rubey Drive, Suite 120, Golden CO 80403

SPEAKER from Page 1 ries from Small Towns” (July, 2011, Univ. of Nebraska Press).

She is also the author of “Now This – Radio, Television and the Real World” (Putnam).

Prior to coming to USC, Muller was a correspondent for ABC Net-work News, reporting for such broadcasts as Nightline, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Good Morning America, and This Week. During her 15 years at ABC, she covered such stories as the Rodney King beating trial, the Presidential campaigns of Paul Tsongas and Bob Kerrey, the Los Angeles earthquake in 1994, the O.J. Simpson case, and numerous environmental stories throughout the West.

From 1981 to 1990, Muller was a correspondent for CBS News, where she was a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and CBS Weekend News. Her primary duties, how-ever, were in the Radio News Di-

vision, where she anchored a daily commentary, “First Line Report,” “Correspondent’s Notebook,” and was the summer anchor for “The Osgood File.” She also covered the space shuttle program, both na-tional political conventions in 1988 and the 1988 Bush Presidential Campaign.

Muller was previously an an-chor/reporter for KHOW-AM in Denver and WHWH in Princeton, New Jersey. She began her career in journalism as a reporter for the Colonial News in Princeton, New Jersey. From 1970 to 1973, she was a high school English teacher in Metuchen, New Jersey. A 1969 graduate of Mary Washington Col-lege of the University of Virginia, Ms. Muller has received numerous journalism honors, including an Emmy award for coverage of the O.J. Simpson case and an Edward R. Murrow award for coverage of the impeachment of President Clinton.

CONTEST from Page 1Each judge should expect to

spend a total of two to three hours juding assigned entries.

“I know how busy everyone is, so I hope potential judges will see this as an opportunity to provide the same thoughtful critique and review to other newspaper profes-sionals as we receive from CPA contest judges,” Johnston said. “It

is also a tremendous opportunity to gain ideas and see the type of work being done across the United States.”

To sign up, please simply send an email to Lisa Woodworth at [email protected] or call 303-571-5117. Include your name, newspaper, title and category you wish to judge (from the list at the top of this story on Page 1).

CONVENTION from Page 1

6. We listened to the feedback from the last convention and have limited the number of consultants and, instead, have brought a broad range of industry leaders to share their current day experiences and tactics.

5. The entire registration process will be handled online.

4. Attendees with smart phones will be able to access a convention mobile application with updated information about sessions, speak-ers, cocktail receptions and other events.

3. The well-attended Past Presi-dent cocktail reception will be back,

but in a closer, more convenient location. Past Presidents should re-ceive details in the mail very soon.

2. While State Wrestling is the same weekend as the convention, we hope it will be a benefit, not an inconvenience. It will be nearly im-possible to get inexpensive hotel rooms downtown for the tourna-ment. Simply register your State Wrestling attendees in the Westin CPA block and enjoy our deeply discounted rate, even if your wres-tling reporters/photographers don’t attend the whole convention.

1. CPA has partnered with the Colorado Chapter of Society of Pro-fessional Journalists to bring excep-tional ethics and social media pan-els to the table.

Feedback spurs improvements

Muller has wealth of experience

Chance to see what others are doing

cpa marketplace

By Dan FlennikenColorado Mesa University, Mass Communication Program Director

It was a perfect storm for an aca-demic program in journalism and mass communication: In the midst of a recession, the Rocky Moun-tain News closed its doors after 150 years and CMU president, Tim Fos-ter invited our Mass Communica-tion faculty to discuss our future. His question for us: “with 175 more journalists out of work in Denver, why does CMU need a Mass Comm program?”

The topic was more of a challenge than a threat. Under the guidance of our Program Director, Byron Evers, we conducted a “listening tour” of communication industry profes-sionals in our community. We met with western Colorado CPA lead-ers. Colorado PR jobs guru Andrew Hudson joined us to facilitate the conversation. A short time later, Dr. Marianne Barrett from the Wal-ter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University con-ducted a fact-finding analysis of our Mass Comm program as part of our normal review cycle, interviewing

studenstudentts, faculty and admin-istrators for her own report about its relevance and future.

A brand new curriculum was crafted over the next year. Our goals centered on strengthening our key program element – writing. We added courses in portfolio develop-ment to better prepare our seniors for communication careers and/or graduate school; entry-level software applications to accelerate all students’ abilities in technology and introduc-tory level communication theory to ground students in fundamentals. Additionally, Awe expanded course offerings in emerging media.

The new Mass Communication curriculum now offers one over-arching degree called Mass Com-munication: Media Strategies and Applications.

Students complete a core set of required courses and then select 12 hours of “selectives” from an array of courses in two additional :categories: Strategies (writing, design, planning) and Applications (hands on practical skills).

So far, the results are reassuring to students and to the faculty. We have 178 majors – small by many

standards but a clear sign of growth for us. CMU’s Mass Communication program has added faculty (and is looking for more!).

The challenge for our program is to carefully advise each student throughout his or her academic ca-reer. The former cookie-cutter de-gree paths are now converged into one major that mirror needs we discovered on our journey. For one student, the emphasis may be heavy on reporting and writing but also add social media and production ca-pabilities. For another, the prescrip-tion may center on public relations and advertising courses but add an emphasis in photography and pro-duction.

We built a dynamic partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS that ex-panded our broadcasting facilities and intern opportunities for our stu-dents. CMU is already to launched a building project for a new academic facility that will help us grow with an eye on the changing careers in the journalistic enterprise.

What started as a perfect storm became a perfect opportunity for CMU’s Mass Communication stu-dents.

Perfect storm helped CMU’s mass comm program adapt

Scenes from a Campus Visit: Colorado State University

Documents

December 2012 Colorado Editor