COLUMN: Newspapers still have story to tell
Local stories need to be told. Perhaps your story needs to be told. May I suggest a handful of ideas that will prevent the newspaper's obituary from hitting the press, because on the day that it is printed, it will be one day too late.
MOREPost's Arc unveils subscriptions platform, video app
Publishers in search of a new subscriptions platform or video app have new options from The Washington Post.
The Post's Arc Publishing is now offering Arc Subscriptions, a commerce platform that "equips publishers, broadcasters, and brands with real-time capabilities designed to accelerate digital monetization and grow revenue," according to the Post.
MOREOgden Newspapers purchases certain assets of The Vindicator
An agreement has been reached for the Tribune Chronicle to acquire The Vindicator's subscription list, The Vindicator masthead and the Vindy.com domain, according to Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator. John Cribb, Cribb, Greene & Cope, represented the Mark Brown Family and The Vindicator in the transaction.
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The Virginian-Pilot removes comments from website
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) has shut down its comments section.
The Pilot has been undergoing several changes after its sale to Tribune Publishing last year. One of the changes is an overhaul of PilotOnline.com, which will debut later this month. As part of that overhaul, which will change the look and feel of the website, the comments section is being removed.
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The Sun Herald has added back pages to the newspaper. Here's what else is planned.
In response to feedback from readers, the Sun Herald of Gulfport, Miss., is adding back pages to the newspaper.
In a recent column to readers, Executive Editor and General Manager Blake Kaplan said that a task force of newsroom personnel, marketing executives and circulation leaders surveyed and interviewed readers. Then the group talked about what they learned.
"Rarely was the feedback about the quality of journalism the Sun Herald produces," Kaplan wrote. "The biggest issue we heard was that readers wanted back things we had taken away over the years as we moved news and information from the paper to our website."
MORE7 facts about black Americans and the news media
Last week, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) held its annual meeting in Miami. The meeting was held amid increased attention to the role of black journalists in the United States and recent changes to black-oriented news media organizations, such as a decision by the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper founded in 1905, to cease printing (though it will remain available online).
Pew Research Center has studied black Americans' attitudes toward the news media – as well as their news consumption habits – for years. It also has examined minority representation within U.S. newsrooms. To coincide with the NABJ conference, here are seven key facts about black Americans and the news media:
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Packet and Gazette replacing Saturday print edition with expanded Friday, Sunday papers
With reader habits changing, The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) and Beaufort (S.C.) Gazette have announced that, starting Nov. 9, they will no longer produce a printed newspaper on Saturdays. Instead, they will launch a Weekend Edition that includes expanded newspapers on Fridays and Sundays.
MOREEO Media Group to acquire two newspapers in Oregon
A federal bankruptcy judge in Oregon has approved the sale of the Bend (Ore.) Bulletin and Redmond (Ore.) Spokesman to EO Media Group. EO Media also recently acquired two other newspapers from Western Communications: the La Grande (Ore.) Observer and the Baker City (Ore.) Herald.
Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, N.M., represented Western Communications in the transaction.
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Newspaper success on the other side of the world
The Guam Daily Post is not only the most distant independent newspaper among SNPA members, it boasts circulation and digital gains that mainland peers would envy.
Mindy Aguon, CEO and editor-in-chief of the 17,000 circulation newspaper, calls its growth in the last two or three years "massive."
"In December 2016, The Guam Daily Post was available for purchase at 70 locations," she said. "As of July, the newspaper is now available at 260-plus locations around the island. We are adding more subscribers each week and many of the subscribers tell us they switched from our competitor because of our local news content."
"In July 2016, the Post website had 151,925 page views," Aguon added. "In June 2019, the Post website had over 1.4 million page views. Our Facebook followers have grown from 9,257 in 2016 to over 32,706. Staff has grown from 30 to 52."
All this is on an island about 7,800 miles from SNPA's traditional headquarters in Atlanta. By comparison, it's about 4,407 miles from Atlanta to Hawaii.
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SNPA / Inland Merger: Looking ahead to preserving and promoting First Amendment values
As we celebrate joining together SNPA and Inland, it is worth at least a moment to honor the first principles of the newspaper industry that gave rise to both groups. And those, without a doubt, are freedom of the press and the parallel right to know and to distribute news.
Honoring those principles requires some reflection on the industry's singular role in building America's First Amendment foundation. And it is safe to say that SNPA's and Inland's member newspapers can fairly take credit for shaping the free speech and free press tradition of the republic like no other industry and, for that matter, like no other country on earth.
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SNPA welcomed another new member last week
Last week, SNPA welcomed The Siebold Company into membership.
MoreDallas Morning News reintroduces itself with campaign designed to win over new readers
How do you make print journalism matter again? That was the big question for Dallas agency GoDo Discovery Co when they were presented with the challenge of coming up with a campaign for the 135-year-old Dallas Morning News in Texas.
The answer was to reintroduce the paper to the city, especially to younger audiences who may have never picked up a paper in their lives. They had to convince the city that the paper still matters and should play a role in their lives. To reach generations raised on digital, they went about it in a decidedly analog manner – they hit the streets and talked to people to find out what matters to them in their city.
What came out of those interviews makes up the 'What Matters' campaign, which is being rolled out over the next two years. It consists of posters, stickers, free copies of the paper and a lot of live events in the community where the type states what matters, like "Local Journalism Matters," "Democracy Matters" and statements on coffee cups like "Free Caffeine Matters."
More50 Ways to Make Media Pay
From ecommerce to affiliate partnerships, programmatic to native ads, paywalls to micropayments, exhibitions to cruises, a free report from What's New in Publishing aims to spark new revenue ideas as well as reaffirm existing publisher strategies.
The report, "50 Ways to Make Media Pay," was written by University of Oregon professor Damian Radcliffe. It is divided into six chapters – the main revenue drivers for publishers: paywalls, subscriptions, advertising, ad-free models, events and ecommerce.
Click the link below for more information and to download the report.
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