SNPA Traveling Campus

Transform your business with new strategies for prosperity

May 18-20 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Posted

Top-level newspaper executives are invited to attend a new program in Chapel Hill that will analyze tactics to strengthen newspapers in the digital age and create strategies to maintain profitability.

The May 18-20 conference features key industry leaders and strategists who will examine how technology is redefining the way that news and information are consumed, and work with participants to develop new models and strategies to transform their businesses.

The program – "From Disruption to Transformation:  New Strategies for Prosperity in a Digital Age" – is a collaboration of SNPA's Traveling Campus and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina. 

Attendance is limited to 40 executives, and only a few seats remain.

Newspaper executives from all market sizes will benefit.  The discussion and interaction at the conference will focus on:

  • Knowing your audience
  • Re-thinking news
  • Developing a new business model
  • Connecting revenue growth to audience and cost
  • Building on what you've got
  • Creating new types of content, and
  • Re-engineering to develop the critical capability to take advantage of new sales and revenue opportunities.

Penny Abernathy
JoAnn Sciarrino

The conference will be led by Penny Abernathy, the author of "Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability" and a Knight Chair of Journalism and Digital Economics, and JoAnn Sciarrino, longtime advertising executive and currently Knight Chair of Digital Advertising and Marketing. 

The agenda:

MONDAY, May 18
Knowing Your Audience
Freedom Forum, Third Floor, Carroll Hall
UNC Campus

2 - 2:30 p.m.
Saving Community Journalism:
From Disruption to Transformation

  • Presenter: Penny Muse Abernathy, author, "Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability"

2:30 - 4 p.m.
Do you know where and how your readers are getting their news?

  • Presenter: Tom Rosenstiel, executive director, API
  • Practitioner: Les High, editor, The News Reporter, Whiteville, N.C.

Break

4:15 - 5:30 p.m.
How will the newsroom of tomorrow look?

  • Presenter: Robyn Tomlin, vice president of digital and communications, Pew Research Center (former editor of Digital First, Thunderdome)
  • Practitioner: Ryan Thornburg, UNC digital professor (former digital editor, The Washington Post)

6 - 7 p.m.
Reception:  Ackland Art Museum
Dinner: On your own.  Three options provided.

TUESDAY, May 19
Developing a New Business Model: 
Connecting Revenue to Audience and Cost
Freedom Forum, Third Floor, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus

8:30 - 9 a.m.
Is this a good idea?
Determining the feasibility of new products

  • Presenter: John Clark, director, UNC's Reese News Lab (former general manager of WRAL.com)

9 - 10:45 a.m.
What's in a strategy?

Tips on designing a newspaper that serves the needs of both readers and advertisers

  • Presenter and Practitioner: Raju Narisetti, senior vice president, strategy, News Corp.
  • Presenter and Practitioner: Steve Gray, director of strategy and innovation, Morris Communications

Break

11 a.m. - Noon
How much is each reader worth?
A simple way to calculate the lifetime value of your audience

  • Presenter:  Penny Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair, Journalism and Digital Media Economics
  • Presenter: JoAnn Sciarrino, Knight Chair, digital advertising and marketing

Noon - 1:30 p.m
Lunch
Freedom Forum

1:30 - 3 p.m.
Building on what you've got:
Improving your rate card and sales process to rev up your bottom line

  • Presenter:  Penny Abernathy
  • Practitioner: Catherine Nelson, vice president and CEO, Rutland Herald, Rutland, Vt.

Break

3:15 - 5 p.m.
Totally rethinking the advertising sales effort:
Is an in-house digital agency feasible for your organization?

  • Presenter:  JoAnn Sciarrino, executive vice president, BBDO North America (2001-2012)
  • Practitioner: Bruce Kyse, publisher, Calaveras County Enterprise and Sierra Lodestar and former publisher, The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif. (2005-2013)

6 - 7 p.m.
Reception:  Old Well Room, Carolina Inn
Dinner: On your own.  Four options provided

WEDNESDAY, May 20: 
Crafting a strategy for the next five years: 
What I learned and will implement
Freedom Forum, Third Floor, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Lightning-Round Strategy Presentations by Attendees

With feedback from panel of practitioners and presenters, including:

  • Robyn Tomlin
  • Raju Narisetti
  • Steve Gray
  • Catherine Nelson
  • Bruce Kyse
  • Ryan Thornburg
  • Les High
  • Penny Abernathy
  • JoAnn Sciarrino

The program content is geared toward publishers, general managers and CEOs. 

"The goal of this conference is to help top newspaper executives come up with a strategy for their company, a timeline for implementation, and a system for measuring progress," Abernathy said. 

Abernathy, a journalist and business executive at several news organizations, including the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal,  presented a one-hour overview of the program at the SNPA News Industry Summit in Charlottesville last October, and similar overviews at other press associations.  The extended conference in Chapel Hill is designed to delve into the details of three key strategies for success, and to examine the successes at newspaper companies that already are deploying these strategies to transform their businesses.

Newspaper executives from any size market will benefit.  The strategy discussions and interaction at the conference will focus on cutting legacy costs, creating new types of content, and re-engineering to develop the critical capability to take advantage of new sales and revenue opportunities.

The registration fee is $495 for the first person from each newspaper.  Additional executives from the same newspaper may register for $295.

SNPA is holding a small block of rooms at The Franklin Hotel in Chapel Hill.  The group room rate of $159 includes free parking, Internet access and breakfast.  The J-School is an easy walk from The Franklin Hotel.   Reserve rooms in the SNPA block by calling (866) 831-5999.

Click here to register

Abernathy, Sciarrino, digital, business models
Calendar View all