By Cindy Durham, SNPA

The newsroom plays a key element in any newspaper's circulation and audience development goals, industry leaders told members of SNPA's NEX GEN Class during a video conference call last week.

Executives who addressed this month's topic were:

• Jeff DeLoach, president of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
• David Kirkman, vice president of audience services, Richmond Times-Dispatch.
• Mark Adams, audience acquisition and retention manager, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C. Adams also is a member of the NEX GEN Class of 2018-19.

Among the key takeaways shared with the group:

• Retaining current subscribers is much more efficient than acquiring new ones.
• Utilizing value-selling techniques with each subscriber touch point is critical – especially with incoming calls.
• Reader revenue, both print and digital, has growing importance for future financial health, not only audience needs.
• Traditional sales channels will remain important, enhanced with innovative digital marketing (email and social media).
• Market audience leadership through quality content is essential.

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Presteligence has announced that the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press will use My Team Scoop for its high school sports coverage of 55 area schools.

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By Matt Coen, president and co-founder, Second Street

The Chattanooga Times Free Press leverages various ballot sponsorship opportunities and a winners’ event to drive biggest revenue to date.

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By Christy Oglesby, Special to the SNPA eBulletin

Like other mainstream newspapers, the Hope Star and the Times Free Press in Chattanooga hold fast to protocols that guard against the publication of fake news. Some require a minimum of three named sources for every story. Others forbid unnamed sources. Period.

With the introduction of "fake news" and "alternative facts" into the nation's lexicon, those reporting guidelines are what distinguish these newspapers from news outlets that operate without them.

From Alaska to Pennsylvania and all points in between, reputable newspapers strive to eschew fast and first to deliver only facts.

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Reprinted from the Times Free Press, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Jeff DeLoach, a 56-year-old native of Jackson, Tenn., has been named president of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press.

He succeeds Bruce Hartmann, who has taken a job with the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

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Editorial staff members from The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the former editorial page editor of The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., have been awarded top honors by SNPA in the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition.

First-place in the "over 50,000" circulation category went to Mike Clark, Roger Brown, Wayne Ezell and Ron Littlepage of The Florida Times-Union. First-place in the "under 50,000" circulation category was awarded to Glenn Marston, former editorial page editor of The Ledger.

Second-place honors went to John Railey, editorial page editor of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, and Anita Shelburne, opinion page editor of The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.

The awards were presented by Lissa Walls Vahldiek, CEO of Southern Newspapers, Inc., Houston, Texas. Vahldiek is the daughter of the late Benjamin Carmage Walls, for whom this award is named.

Walls, whose newspaper career spanned seven decades, primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership.

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The Chattanooga Times Free Press is inviting readers to enter its Great Green Giveaway – in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

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There is one less week of shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. The paper's HoHo Expo offers local retailers this extra chance to reach holiday shoppers.

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