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Cribb, Greene & Cope Annual Publisher Confidence Survey 10/10/17

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.

Independent contractor carveout changed in North Carolina 10/10/17

By L. Michael Zinser, The Zinser Law Firm

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.

One-of-a-kind, N.C. newspaper carrier-contractor statute is repealed 10/10/17

By John Bussian, The Bussian Law Firm

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.

Emanuel confirmed; NLRB management majority restored 9/26/17

By L. Michael Zinser, The Zinser Law Firm

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.

Tillotson shares statistical analysis calculations used by SNI in benchmarking 9/26/17

By Cindy Durham, assistant executive director, SNPA

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.

Family ownership: unique problems and solutions 9/25/17

By Steve Gray, vice president of strategy and innovation, Morris Communications

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.

NC Legislature adjourns September special session without harming legals or carriers 9/12/17

By John Bussian, The Bussian Law Firm

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.

Les Simpson elected president of SNPA for 2017-18 9/11/17

Lester T. Simpson, publisher of the Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, was elected president of SNPA for 2017-18 on Monday afternoon during the SNPA-Inland Annual Meeting. Read this article for news about the election of additional officers and directors.

Officers, trustees elected to SNPA Foundation Board of Trustees 9/10/17

Trustees of the SNPA Foundation board elected officers Sunday morning, Sept. 10, to serve during the 2017-18 year.

The SNPA Board of Directors also elected three new trustees for the SNPA Foundation at the same meeting. MORE

Texas court kills Obama DOL overtime rule 9/4/17

By L. Michael Zinser, The Zinser Law Firm

On Aug. 31, U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant granted the motion for summary judgment of various business groups and state attorneys general in the overtime rule case.

Previously, on Nov. 22, 2016, Judge Mazzant issued a nationwide injunction, preventing the implementation of the rule, pending a decision on the merits of the case. The injunction case is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It has been fully briefed and is currently scheduled for oral argument before the court on Oct. 3.

There is much speculation that oral argument may not occur, and the DOL may withdraw the appeal, given the Aug. 31 decision of Judge Mazzant granting the motion for summary judgment, which ruled that the final rule was unlawful.

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NLRB independent contractor status update

The National Labor Relations Board has held that companies do not violate the National Labor Relations Act solely by misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Bottom line: the decision to classify an individual as an independent contractor rather than an employee will not, by itself, subject an employer to liability under the National Labor Relations Act.

Develop a plan now to address Department of Labor's proposed overtime rule

The U.S. Department of Labor's rule to increase the salary threshold for the overtime exemption of executive, administrative and professional employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act has not yet been finalized.

The March 7 proposed rule was open for comments for a 60-day period. The Department of Labor received more than 116,000 public comments. The Department of Labor sent its final draft of the rule to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 12. The text of the final rule has not been made public.

When the final rule is published with an effective date, many expect unions and worker advocates to mount legal challenges to the rule. Even though the final rule may be challenged, it would be wise to be developing a plan now to address this huge budgetary issue.

This column focuses on the standard salary threshold, which will have the most dramatic impact on your company, and offers an action plan to address the standard salary threshold increase.

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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