Emanuel confirmed; NLRB management majority restored
On the evening of Monday, Sept. 25, the U.S. Senate voted 49 to 47 to confirm William Emanuel to the National Labor Relations Board.
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Cribb, Greene & Cope Annual Publisher Confidence Survey
Newspaper owners and executives are encouraged to participate in the Annual Publisher Confidence Survey.
The survey asks 11 questions that provide direct feedback from publishers on revenue, profit and other current trends in the publishing industry.
The survey takes less than two minutes to complete, and results are provided immediately so publishers can see how others are responding.
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Independent contractor carveout changed in North Carolina
We have been writing for months about the never-ending saga of legislative attempts to remove from North Carolina law a provision in the workers' compensation law that presumes newspaper carriers are independent contractors. This presumption has been very valuable since it was passed almost two decades ago. Since that time, there has not been a single reported independent contractor versus employee case in the workers' comp arena in the state of North Carolina.
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One-of-a-kind, N.C. newspaper carrier-contractor statute is repealed
Fending off another attack by industry opponents in the Oct. 4 special session of the N.C. General Assembly, the North Carolina Press Association stopped an effort to presume all newspaper carriers in the state to be employees, subject carriers to state workers comp and unemployment insurance taxes, and create a new test for independent contractor status.
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Emanuel confirmed; NLRB management majority restored
On the evening of Monday, Sept. 25, the U.S. Senate voted 49 to 47 to confirm William Emanuel to the National Labor Relations Board.
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Tillotson shares statistical analysis calculations used by SNI in benchmarking
Benchmarking helps newspaper management set goals, track success or failure, and provide objective standards for comparison, publishers heard during a session at the SNPA-Inland Annual Meeting led by Dolph Tillotson, president of Southern Newspapers Inc., and Tim Prince, vice president of Boone Newspapers and publisher of the Shelby County Reporter in Columbiana, Ala.
During this session, Tillotson shared a six-page handout offering the statistical analysis calculations that SNI uses, and he also is offering a blank Excel spreadsheet that can be used by other companies that want to implement something similar.
MOREFamily ownership: unique problems and solutions
Family ownership of a media company or any other kind of company can be a beautiful thing. But it has its own unique challenges and solutions.
These are rarely discussed in the open, either inside the company or at industry conferences. But there's a whole world of solutions and best practices available for family owners, if you know where to find them.
If you're a member of an owning family, or if you work for a family-owned company, Steve Gray's latest blog post may help you see where to look.
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NC Legislature adjourns September special session without harming legals or carriers
Far from the sky falling, North Carolina's legal advertising and independent contractor-newspaper carrier climate remains intact. The leadership of the North Carolina General Assembly acted responsibly, with encouragement from the North Carolina Press Association and many SNPA members, to leave N.C. law unchanged.
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Les Simpson elected president of SNPA for 2017-18
Officers, trustees elected to SNPA Foundation Board of Trustees
The SNPA Board of Directors also elected three new trustees for the SNPA Foundation at the same meeting. MORE
Keep growing by being able to change
Every day presents a new opportunity. Oftentimes we're unable to seize the moment because we're mired in old habits, doing the same thing over and over again.
Some people believe that they can't change and say, "That's just the way I am." You can change. You can start now. It could change your life today and you don't have to wait for July 1.
MoreSupreme Court rejects NLRB position on class action arbitration waivers
On May 21, the United States Supreme Court issued its long awaited decision in Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis. Justice Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the court. Rejecting the position of the National Labor Relations Board, the court ruled that employers and employees may lawfully agree that any disputes between them will be resolved through one-on-one arbitration. The court ruled that under the National Labor Relations Act, employees do not have the right to file class or collective actions, no matter what they agreed with their employer.
More'PRINT' Act introduced to protect publishers, printers from tariffs
Monday, in an effort to protect printers and publishers from unwarranted tariffs, Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) introduced S. 2385, the "Protecting Rational Incentives in Newsprint Trade Act of 2018," or "PRINT Act." Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Doug Jones (D-AL), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) joined as original co-sponsors.
The PRINT Act would suspend new tariffs currently being imposed on imported uncoated groundwood paper from Canada, which is the primary source of newsprint and other paper used by domestic newspapers, book publishers and commercial printers. Simultaneously, the legislation would require the Department of Commerce to review the economic health of the printing and publishing industries. Newspapers and printers across the United States have told Congress that the new import tariffs – as high as 32 percent – would jeopardize the viability of the industry and threaten to decimate the U.S. paper industry's customer base.
SNPA President Patrick Dorsey, publisher of the Herald-Tribune Media Group in Sarasota, Fla., and regional vice president Coastal Group, GateHouse Media, said: "We appreciate the leadership of Senator Collins and Senator King and the other co-sponsors of the bill for stepping up to protect American jobs and stop these damaging tariffs. They fully understand this action was caused by one outlier mill owned by a hedge fund and is not supported by the broader domestic newspaper producing industry. These unfair job-killing import taxes are already taking a toll across the country as newspapers have had to eliminate jobs and take other significant cost saving measures to maintain viable businesses. This is putting many community newspapers in jeopardy and further reducing their ability to keep our citizens informed on what is going on in their cities and towns. Ultimately, this is damaging to our representative democracy. The PRINT Act is a positive step in reversing these damaging impacts."
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