Taking a closer look at your design: Part 1 7/17/17

By Ed Henninger

I suggest a design critique every quarter ... at least every six months. Go longer than that and you risk an erosion of your design style.

MORE

College football nears 6/27/17

GateHouse Media is offering conference-focused weekly preview pages to give your coverage and sales effort great support all season long.

MORE

In Jacksonville, a new business model for the local editorial voice 6/27/17

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

Can a strong editorial voice become the center of a new local business model?

Yes, it can.

It's happening right now in Jacksonville, Fla., where Mark Nusbaum, publisher of The Florida Times-Union, has launched a new magazine with the mission of reviving the flagging downtown.

This is local advocacy journalism of a high order – an extension of The Times-Union's editorial page. And Mark and company have crafted a unique business model around it by recruiting 20 leaders of key institutions as premier partners/sponsors in support of the crusade.

Read this article for the details.

MORE

Keys to an exceptional story: photography and trust 6/13/17

By Lara Strydom, SNPA intern

Although it is widely known that the journalism world is finding more and more new ways to deliver news, Stephen Thornton still sees photography as an irreplaceable outlet for telling stories. Thornton is a two-time SNPA Photo/Video Contest Grand Prize winner and a former photographer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock.

Enter the SNPA Photo/Video Contest.

Deadline for entries is June 24.

"I still think the still image is the most powerful tool to convey emotions and a pure moment in time," Thornton says.

MORE

Dominant photo is a basic of sports front design 6/12/17

By Ed Henninger

When too many photos of like size are placed on your sports page, it's difficult for readers to know which of the packages is more important. There's no focus – each package calls for attention with the same "visual volume" as those around it.

MORE

SNPA papers hold fast to protocols that guard against fake news 5/23/17

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.

MORE

In the political fray, don't guess at motives - debate the facts 5/23/17

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

In the superheated political atmosphere that surrounds us, a basic lesson in journalism that I learned as a young editorial writer could help the media cool things down.

MORE

AP collaborates with SAM to launch AP Social Newswire 5/22/17

The Associated Press will work with social media management platform SAM to launch the AP Social Newswire, a feed of user-generated content (UGC) being vetted and verified by AP's social media experts and editors across the globe.

The AP Social Newswire will allow customers to discover and inspect user-generated content as it comes into the AP newsroom, offering real-time access to the news agency's UGC verification process through the SAM platform.

MORE

60 inches? No visual? Unacceptable 5/9/17

By Ed Henninger

Poll after study after survey tells us readers will not read a story that's more than 15-20 inches long. They just won't.

So, what do you think they'll do with a story that's 60 inches long? With no visual.

MORE

Why the bitter U.S. political divide? Blame the digital information explosion 4/25/17

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

My son asked me some tough questions recently:

"Do you share this sense that, increasingly, there are two bubbles in America, and that neither has much real interest in learning about the other's perspective? Or maybe that doing so is actually approaching impossibility because of the fact that we're geographically and socially and economically so separated?

"And if so ... is there anything we can do about it?"

In my latest blog post, I did my best to answer him.

Read Steve Gray's column

MORE
Calendar View all