Re-Imaging the Transformation at the News Industry Summit

As day one of SNPA's News Industry Summit opened, Earl Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of the International News Media Association, described legacy newspapers and digital as two ends of a rope burning toward each other.

He said the priorities for news publishers – 95 percent of whom are still print-first –  need to be:

• Keeping up with rapidly changing news consumption habits
• Leveraging data to grow audiences and revenue
• Competing in the programmatic advertising environment
• Diversifying revenue beyond print and digital

The keys to success with political ad dollars – especially as newspapers move forward into the upcoming presidential election year – was the focus of Kim Woods' presentation.  Woods, vice president of advertising and marketing for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, cited statistics from Borrell Associates showing that 75 percent of ad spending for the upcoming national contests will be spent between now and Election Day next year.

She showed how the Herald-Leader generated political revenue of nearly $236,000 in 2014 and traced the political advertising outlook for 2016:

• Political advertising is forecast to hit a record $11.4 billion in 2016, 20 percent more than the last comparable Presidential Election year of 2012.
• National elections will draw the attention, but half of political ad spending will be for local races (governor, state and local, regional government).
• Digital media is projected to surpass the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2016, despite a share of 9.5 percent of total spending.

Monday's general session also included the introduction of the NEX-GEN Class of 2015-16, and comments by the Class of 2014-15 about the things they will take with them from their experience of the past year.

Carrie Crisman, Chesapeake retail sales manager for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, described her NEX-GEN experience as a "all-access backstage pass." A number of the NEX-GEN protégés talked about how impressed they were with how open their mentors were with them, allowing them to sit in on staff meetings and giving them a real picture of the decision-making at another newspaper.  The site visits to their mentors' newspapers were a highlight of the NEX-GEN year.

The protégés described the level of discussions in the phone calls held through the year as insightful, helping them to see options from different points of view.  And, as Courtney Ricks of The Palm Beach Post said, they learned that it's OK to be disruptive.  "The minute I'm not being disruptive as a digital sales manager," she said, "I'm probably not doing something correct."

Watch www.snpa.org for continuing coverage of the News Industry Summit, including awards and contests on Wednesday morning.

Download PDFs of the following speakers' presentations from Monday afternoon:

• Earl Wilkinson
• Kim Woods