Sun newspapers, Bluffton/Hilton Head papers sold to local media professional
B.J. Frazier, the owner of Coastal Fun Info LLC, publishers of The Bluffton Sun, The Hilton Head Sun and The Sun City Sun (S.C.) community newspapers – and their digital platforms – has announced the sale of those properties to Kevin Aylmer, president of Lowcountry Local Media.
MOREServe on an SNPA committee
For the last year, the leadership of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association has been working to develop a strategic plan to guide our organization.
Through our work with SNPA's executive committee, staff, board members and Max Strategy Consultants, who helped guide us, I firmly believe we have developed a roadmap to make SNPA a better organization and, most importantly, more valuable to its members.
Now we need your help.
The board has begun working on these issues, but we would like for members to be part of planning and executing our strategy.
We've identified four major areas that we'd like to focus on as part of our plan:
MOREAd campaign calls for use of trusted sources to fight fake news
SNPA is working with the News Media Alliance to raise awareness about the importance of real news produced by trusted news organizations that employ high-quality, investigative journalists. The second phase of the national campaign begins today.
MOREA dozen ideas that deliver revenue
In David Letterman style (but with two additional items), Tom Yunt sent attendees at the SNPA-Inland Annual Meeting home with a dozen ideas that will drive revenue for their newspapers. Ninety-nine percent of what he talked about was focused on the core product – print; not digital. Yunt is COO of United Communications Corporation, Kenosha, Wisc., which publishes the daily Kenosha News, two additional dailies, several weeklies and several television stations.
MORENew partnership will help newspapers better meet their postal needs
Brainworks Software, LLC has announced a new partnership with Interlink's True Newspaper Mail, an industry-leading cloud-based presort mailing system.
One group of 41 publications, currently using Brainworks' CircSmart management software, switched to True Newspaper Mail resulting in an annual postage savings of $185,000, while improving their delivery and gaining access to newspaper mailing expertise.
MORETillotson 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.
MORELes Simpson: With friends like Editor & Publisher, who needs enemies?
Last week, E&P sent many in our industry an e-mail with a link to a column. The subject line read: "E&P Exclusive: Newspapers Should Be Transparent About Their Financial Challenges."
It made some claims that the industry isn't being fully truthful about our finances with a few suggestions on how to do it better by someone who left newspapers a decade ago.
I crafted a reply – which you can read here – with the help of a few SNPA board colleagues. My thought was "Wouldn't 'Editor and Publisher' (emphasis added) like to hear the viewpoint of ... say ... a publisher?"
Boy, was I wrong.
MOREPolitiFact, Alabama Media Group find plenty of work to do
As Republicans head to the polls today for the nationally watched runoff election between U.S. Senate candidates Luther Strange and Roy Moore, PolitiFact has focused its Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking forces on Alabama.
But its mission isn't only about sorting out who's telling the truth and who isn't in the primary contest to replace Jeff Sessions, now U.S. attorney general. PolitiFact is researching what people think about the organization itself and other news media outlets in some of the politically reddest places in the country: Mobile, Ala.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Charleston, W.Va. The goal is to improve credibility all around.
MOREAP to enhance fact checks with $245,000 from Knight
The Associated Press has announced an effort to enhance its fact-checking and ability to debunk misinformation with $245,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
With the funding, AP will add additional full-time journalists dedicated to fact-checking and integrate local news fact checks into APNews.com and the AP News app.
MOREZipRecruiter, GateHouse Media launch partnership to transform hiring
ZipRecruiter and GateHouse Media have announced a partnership that makes ZipRecruiter the exclusive recruitment advertising partner for GateHouse Media. The partnership, which will launch Oct. 1 in more than 550 markets across the U.S., will power GateHouse recruitment pages – online and in print – that reach more than 21 million readers every week.
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We have a new website:
www.newspapers.org
America's Newspapers – the association formed from the merger of the Inland Press Association and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association – was ceremonially launched October 6 at its inaugural annual meeting in Chicago.
Dean Ridings will be its chief executive officer, effective Nov. 11.
America's Newspapers unites two of the oldest press associations to form one of the industry's largest advocates for newspapers and the many benefits to their communities, civil life, freedom of expression and democracy.
"Newspaper journalism provides a voice for the voiceless, challenges elected officials, shines a light on government, calls for change when change is needed, and exposes corruption and injustice," said Chris Reen, the president and publisher of The Gazette in Colorado Springs who will serve as the first president of America's Newspapers.
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New association launches today;
SNPA-Inland merger is complete
A new association formed by the consolidation of SNPA and the Inland Press Association was officially launched today. The name of the new association will be announced on Oct. 6 at the association's first annual meeting in Chicago.
Edward VanHorn, SNPA's executive director, said that the merger unites two of the country's oldest press associations into a progressive new organization that will use its bigger and more powerful voice to be an unapologetic advocate for newspapers.
MoreSNPA's staunchest advocate honored for 43 years of service
Edward VanHorn, who went to work for SNPA 43 years ago straight out of the University of North Carolina, will be honored at next week's SNPA-Inland Annual Meeting as this year's recipient of the Frank W. Mayborn Leadership Award. The award is named for the Texas newspaperman who helped shape SNPA in the early 1950s and served as president from 1961 to 1962.
"He's been that silent leader behind the newspaper industry and SNPA," said SNPA President PJ Browning, president and publisher of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. "We're honored to have the opportunity to give him this award as he's retiring. We thought it was very fitting."
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