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Annual Convention
What Every Newspaper Can Learn
From Detroit's Bold Experiment
During SNPA's News Industry Summit, the publishers/editors of The Detroit (Mich.) News and The Detroit Free Press will provide a snapshot of their very different planning initiatives as the Detroit Media Partnership reduced the papers' frequency of delivery from seven days a week to three days – Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

SNPA members will hear how both newsrooms developed the express editions that are published for retail sales on the other four days of the week.

Paul Anger

Jon Wolman

Paul Anger, editor and publisher of The Detroit Free Press, and Jonathan Wolman, publisher and editor of The Detroit News, also will review the expansion of digital delivery platforms that are an integral aspect of serving Detroit readers, as well as readers across Michigan.

Wolman has been publisher and editor of The Detroit News and publisher of its Web site, detnews.com, since 2007. Previously, he worked for 31 years with The Associated Press, where he served as senior vice president, executive editor and Washington bureau chief. He was editorial page editor of The Denver Post from 2004 to 2007.

The Detroit News is published by MediaNews Group and circulates Monday through Saturday throughout southeast Michigan. The News was founded in 1873 and detnews.com was launched in 1995. Wolman oversees The News' administrative and news operations.

Wolman is a native of Madison, Wis., and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

He served on a committee of five Washington editors that negotiated principles of combat coverage with the Pentagon following the 1991 Iraq war. He is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and The Gridiron Club, an association of Washington journalists, and he served three times as a Pulitzer Prize juror, chairing the national reporting jury in 1999.

As executive editor of AP, Wolman was responsible for the cooperative's news coverage and editorial standards across the world and the United States.

Wolman joined AP in 1973 and reported from Detroit until 1975, covering automotive and urban issues. He became news editor for Michigan in 1975 and directed coverage of the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance and the beginning of the decline of the domestic car industry. He was named AP's urban writer in 1976, based in Washington and subsequently was a national correspondent. He spent 20 years supervising AP’s Washington news report and served as bureau chief from 1989 to 1998, encompassing the first Bush administration and six years of the Clinton administration.

Wolman was appointed executive editor of AP in 2000 and senior vice president in 2002.

Anger has been with The Detroit Free Press since August 2005, when he was named vice president and editor.

The Free Press was named winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting – its ninth Pulitzer Prize – for a year-long investigation of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the text-message scandal that engulfed him. Under Anger’s leadership, the newspaper has enhanced its watchdog and investigative reporting, become an industry leader in video production and video quality and shown record growth on Freep.com.

In the last two years, the Free Press and Freep.com have won three national Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for video presentation – in competition with PBS Frontline, National Geographic, the New York Times and Washington Post, among others. The Free Press, which produced its first video in December 2005, has won more national Emmys than any newspaper-based Web site.  And the Free Press and WWJ-TV recently announced a unique venture with First Forecast Mornings, a 5 to 7 a.m. weather-traffic-news show starting May 5, with the Free Press supplying news reports. 

Freep.com traffic, including its Metromix and Momslikeme sites, has soared to as many as 3.8 million page views in a single day and more than 50 million in a single month under Anger’s watch. And Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson has three times been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial cartoons, for his work in 2005, 2006 and 2008.           

Anger serves on the Detroit Media Partnership executive committee and is a board member of Detroit’s Metropolitan Affairs Coalition. He has twice been a Pulitzer Prize judge at Columbia University and has been recognized five times with Gannett’s President’s Ring, awarded annually to the top 10 editors across the company’s 80-plus newspapers. He was named Gannett’s Editor of the Year for 2008, and the Free Press also won Gannett’s top award for newsroom performance.    

Anger has more than 40 years’ experience as a reporter, editor and publisher. He was vice president and editor of the Des Moines Register from January 2002 until moving to Detroit. The Register was a Pulitzer finalist in investigative reporting during his time there.  

Before going to Des Moines, he worked as a news editor for the Knight Ridder News Service in Washington, D.C., editing national and international coverage that included the war on terrorism. He worked for The Miami Herald for 29 years in several roles, including sports editor, Broward editor and Herald Broward publisher. In that position he served several community roles, including Broward County Urban League chairman and vice chairman of the Broward County Library Foundation.

Registration
The 2009 SNPA News Industry Summit (Annual Convention) will be held Oct. 18-20 in Naples, Fla.

A full conference registration for SNPA members is $495 (through Sept. 15). Rates increase $100 after Sept. 15. Supplier companies also have the opportunity to host a tabletop display at the conference.

Ricky Mathews, former president and publisher of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., has been named president and publisher of the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala., and the Mississippi Press in Pascagoula.

Mathews also was named president of Advance Alabama/Mississippi and will assume oversight responsibility for The Birmingham News and the Huntsville Times, in addition to the Press-Register and Mississippi Press. All four newspapers are part of Advance Publications Inc.'s newspaper group.

Ricky Mathews

In Mobile, he succeeds Howard Bronson, who has been publisher of the Press-Register since 1992. Bronson supervised the design and construction of the newspaper's present printing plant and office building on Water Street, which opened in 2002. He introduced many innovations in the newspaper, including the popular Sound Off column, as well as the practice of printing corrections on page one.

Alex Taylor

Cox Media Group, Inc. has appointed Alex Taylor as group vice president for its Dayton, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., markets, effective immediately. This is part of Cox Media Group’s new operating concept that reorganizes its media businesses by maximizing the expertise and talents of its media professionals across its portfolio of newspapers, radio and television businesses (see article below in the Industry News section).

Taylor is publisher of The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.), and his replacement will be named in the coming weeks. Taylor will report to Doug Franklin, executive vice president of Atlanta-based Cox Media Group and a former president and CEO of Cox Ohio Publishing.

In his new role, Taylor will oversee Cox’s newspaper, television and radio properties in the Dayton market and the publications in its surrounding areas. Additionally, he will have oversight for Cox’s four FM radio stations in Louisville. This radio group will report to Donna Hall, a direct report of Taylor’s who also manages Cox’s four stations in Dayton. In his new role, Taylor will encourage collaboration of ideas, skills and strengths to provide unique sales opportunities and solutions for advertisers across multiple media platforms. The newspaper, television and radio properties will continue their existing independent news and editorial functions.

Kristal Kuykendall

Kristal Kuykendall, formerly news editor at the Benton Courier in Arkansas, has been named editor of the newspaper. Kuykendall has worked in journalism for 19 years, most recently as senior editor at Celebrate Arkansas Magazine, based in Rogers, Ark.

John Gallagher

John Gallagher has assumed a new position within the Goss International organization as director of business development for the Goss Lifetime Support program in North and South America. In this role, he is responsible for developing and coordinating service, parts and enhancement initiatives to improve the performance and extend the competitive lifespan of Goss systems.

Gallagher started his career with Goss Graphic Systems in 1985 in Preston, England. He has had extensive experience in press installations, project engineering, project management and service management roles. He was formerly the field service manager for Goss newspaper and commercial presses in the United Kingdom and, most recently, was a project and installations manager for Goss commercial web presses in the United States.

He is now based at Goss International’s facility in Durham, N.H.

Some SNPA Members May File Suit Against SEC
Some SNPA member newspapers are considering filing suit against the Southeastern Conference (SEC) over new credentialing policies for reporters, photographers and videographers who are covering games for their newspapers.

The action is being contemplated because the papers’ publishers believe the policies are onerous, detrimental, and in the opinion of media attorneys, illegal. If the new credentialing policies are not modified soon, a number of publishers are considering filing suit for an injunction against the SEC to prevent it from enforcing the new policy on the eve of the football season. 

Attorneys for one newspaper (which will not be identified in this eBulletin article) already have prepared an injunction request, and they are prepared to work with any lead attorneys selected for suit in other SEC states.  

• To read a summary of the credentialing policies prepared by this law firm, click here.
• To read the SEC media credentialing policy as it currently stands, click here.

Then, SNPA would appreciate your feedback.

• Do you find these policies acceptable or unacceptable?
• If unacceptable, would you be willing to join in a common injunction request and suit against the SEC only (not the individual universities)?
• If so, would you be willing to be named as a plaintiff?
• Would you be willing to share in the legal costs?

To respond to SNPA, e-mail Edward VanHorn, SNPA executive director: edward@snpa.org.

Cox Media Group Announces New Integrated Media Organization
Cox Media Group, Inc. has announced a new operating concept that reorganizes its media businesses by maximizing the expertise and talents of its media professionals across its portfolio of radio, television and newspaper businesses. This model is a departure from the company's traditional grouping of businesses solely by medium, and it responds to rapidly changing consumer and advertiser preferences.

"This new concept is another step toward fulfilling Cox Media Group's vision of operating as a fully-integrated media company," said Sandy Schwartz, president of Cox Media Group. "Sharing expertise and best practices across all of our media properties allows us to better serve consumers and advertisers in our changing environment. In addition, each of Cox's media properties will benefit from expanded shared services such as research, sales, digital, finance, human resources and engineering."

While Cox's local media properties and brands will still operate independently, including continuing their existing independent news and editorial functions, this new model provides opportunities for significant knowledge sharing, talent development, increased operating efficiencies and cost savings. Additionally, the reorganization helps the company to enhance and expand its digital assets and sales expertise across all of its media properties. No job eliminations resulting from the new model are expected at this time.

With this announcement, Doug Franklin, a veteran newspaper executive, and Bob Neil, president of Cox Radio, have been named to new roles of executive vice president, Cox Media Group, reporting to Schwartz. Marc Morgan has been named senior vice president and chief revenue officer, and he will work with Cox's sales function across all media.

In his role, Franklin will oversee all digital operations for Cox Media Group and will serve as the company’s newspaper “champion,” representing the medium’s perspectives and expertise at the executive level.

Franklin previously served as publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Palm Beach Post where he led the enhancement of the company’s online portfolio and major production, distribution and content partnerships with the Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) and The Miami Herald. He also has served as president and CEO of Cox Ohio Publishing and publisher of the Dayton Daily News.

In addition to his new role, Neil will remain president of Cox Radio. He will oversee all research operations for Cox Media Group and serve as the company’s radio “champion.”

"We're creating a leadership model to better reflect the reality of today's media marketplace. As the boundaries between traditional and digital media merge, it's important to have leaders in place who can think broadly across the media landscape as they guide our way forward," added Schwartz.

This announcement signals the evolution of Cox's media business strategy for future growth and success. Since Cox combined its media businesses into one organization in December 2008, Cox Media Group has brought together its national advertising firms into New York-based Cox Reps and taken Cox Radio private.

The new business model will continue to evolve over the next several months as the reporting structures go into effect.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Relocating to New Facility in Metro Atlanta
Cox Enterprises, Inc. has announced that The Atlanta (Ga.) Journal-Constitution will be relocating headquarters from its downtown facility to a new location in metro Atlanta. The move will go into effect in the first quarter of 2010 and be completed over a period of months.

“This decision was made to benefit our customers, employees and business,” said AJC’s Publisher Michael Joseph. “We hold corporations and government officials accountable for fiscal responsibility, and we must do the same for ourselves. This move will reduce controllable costs and help the company remain viable and focused on our core mission of journalism, while continuing to serve the community and provide advertising solutions.”

In 2007, the AJC invested $30 million in printing press and production enhancements in its Gwinnett County facility. Late last year, the company consolidated its printing operations by transferring the downtown production center to the Gwinnett facility. As a result, the AJC occupies less than 30 percent of its downtown facility, which is outdated and requires substantial funds to maintain and operate. The new AJC headquarters, located at 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, provides scalability to match the company’s current needs and future growth.

Through its various print and digital platforms, the AJC serves all of metro Atlanta, which will continue regardless of its headquarters location. An intown bureau will house breaking news reporters and those covering government, institutions and businesses in the midtown and downtown areas.

“While this move represents a physical change, what does not change is the AJC’s focus or commitment to news coverage,” said Doug Franklin, executive vice president of Cox Newspapers. “In fact, our real estate savings will only help the AJC continue to be the leading source of news, information and advertising for metro Atlanta.”

The new site provides ample parking for employees and is located directly across the street from the Dunwoody MARTA station. As part of Cox Conserves, the company’s national sustainability program, alternative transportation options were a key factor in determining the location.

The downtown facility is situated on nearly six acres of property that are owned by Cox Enterprises. Cox has no plans to sell the property, which the company believes has significant long-term value to the city.

In addition to the 72 Marietta Street location, Cox owns nearly 350 acres of property within the Atlanta city limits where it operates WSB-TV, five radio stations and three of its Manheim auto auctions.

The New York Times Expands Distribution to Nashville Area
The New York Times has entered into an agreement with The Tennessean to print The Times at its printing plant in Nashville.

The agreement, which became effective on Monday, will enable The Times to extend newsstand and home delivery, both weekday and Sunday, to readers in the Nashville area and to better serve existing markets in the surrounding areas of Tennessee and northern Alabama, northern Mississippi, eastern Arkansas and western Kentucky.

The Tennessean currently prints more than 20 commercial publications on three multi-web presses.

With the addition of the Nashville site, The New York Times will be printed at 26 locations in North America: Chicago, Ill.; Gardenia, Calif.; Deerfield Beach, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Wash.; Canton, Ohio; Concord, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; Springfield, Va.; Boston, Mass.; Lakeland, Fla.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Denver, Colo.; Princeton, Minn.; Gastonia, N.C.; Dayton, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Columbia, Mo.; Toronto, Ontario; Houston, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Santa Fe, N.M. The New York edition is printed in Queens, N.Y.

Gannett Digital Media Partners with Footnote.com to Launch HistoryBeat.com Sites
Gannett Digital Media Network, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. that ties together more than 100 digital communities with a combined reach of approximately 25 million people, has announced a partnership with Footnote.com to launch HistoryBeat.com, a Web site that combines social networking with archival photos and original newspaper coverage of historical events. The first sites under the HistoryBeat domain, moonlanding.historybeat.com and woodstock.historybeat.com, honor the 40th anniversary of two significant American events: the Apollo Moon Landing and the Woodstock Music Festival.

The HistoryBeat.com sites enable users to view a vast amount of first-hand local journalism from Gannett newspapers that originally covered the Apollo Moon Landing and the Woodstock Music Festival. The newly-available information includes hundreds of photos and materials that were previously unpublished or unseen for nearly 40 years. The HistoryBeat.com sites create social communities where users can interact and share content related to these historical events. Users can register and create personal profiles in order to add annotations and comments, and even upload their own photos and documents.Comments and chat features are available for registered users to share their stories and experiences of these events as well as through Facebook, Twitter and other social bookmarks. Footnote.com provides the platform to support these extensive archives to the general public, while Gannett provides the historical context and content.

“HistoryBeat.com not only makes this historical content available online, but allows people to see the impact of these events on American progress and culture by engaging via social networking tools and features,” said Jennifer Carroll, vice president and senior editor at Gannett’s Content One. “By providing unique opportunities for audiences to interact and form deeper relationships with the content online, we’re encouraging viewers to go beyond the documented news and add their unique perspectives on these two nationally defining events.”

HistoryBeat.com makes available relevant articles from Florida Today for the Moon Landing and the Poughkeepsie Journal for Woodstock, as well as additional material such as official releases, artwork and videos. Users can also search for relevant documents and images, including more than 1,800 previously unpublished photos of the Apollo Moon Landing taken by Florida Today.

More than 8.6 Million Households Obtain Coupons via Text Messages and/or E-Mail
Americans continue to watch their spending and to look for good deals in the sluggish economy, and coupons are an important method of saving money. Consumer and media research firm Scarborough Research released an analysis highlighting the ways households are obtaining coupons.

The study found that text messages and/or e-mail are an emerging method for households to obtain coupons. 8.6 million (eight percent) of U.S. households currently acquire coupons via text messages and/or e-mail. While not the leading medium for household coupon obtainment – the Sunday newspaper holds this distinction, and other means such as in-store circulars and regular mail still surpass it – couponing via text messages and/or e-mail is gaining a following among American consumers. (For a full ranking of ways households are obtaining coupons, see chart.)

“We began measuring text/e-mail coupon usage in our most recent Scarborough study, and I am not surprised to see that households are taking advantage of this new couponing medium,” said Gary Meo, senior vice president of digital media and print services, Scarborough Research. “Coupons received via text messaging are typically sent only to consumers who have opted-in to receive them. This increases the relevancy of the offer and the potential for the consumer to act on that offer. An additional benefit is the mobility of cell phones and other personal communications devices, which allow consumers to access the coupon at the point of purchase.”

Those consumers who obtain coupons via text messages and/or e-mail tend to be young, affluent, educated and female. Scarborough data shows that they are 14 percent more likely than the average adult to be ages 18-24; 51 percent more likely to be a college graduate or have an advanced degree; and 6 percent more likely to be female.

Where do these consumers live? The top local market for text message and/or e-mail coupon users is Providence, R.I. Twelve percent of households in Providence typically obtain coupons via text message or e-mail. Washington D.C., Atlanta, San Diego, Austin and Chicago, where 11 percent of households get coupons via this medium, are also among the leading markets for this activity.

PRINT 09: Mailing and Fulfillment Centers
Are you ready to extend your customer relationships, build print volume, serve new customers and capture more profit? The Mailing & Fulfillment Center at PRINT 09 is where you will find all the latest production technologies and applications.

Check it out! A special seminar series produced by the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) will focus on solving issues faced by mailing and fulfillment centers, and how to start offering mailing and fulfillment services.

For more information about PRINT 09, set for Sept. 11-16 in Chicago, Ill., click on the links below:

• Details about PRINT 09
• Show highlights and conference sessions

News Briefs

• The Associated Press' premier financial data product, Money & Markets, is now easier to use thanks to the redesigned AP Markets Web site. Money & Markets, highly customizable for both print and online use, provides insight each day into the financial markets with a broad mix of text, graphics and data modules.

"Users have told us the new site looks great, is easy to navigate, and provides increased functionality and better access to product information," said Josh Orenstein, AP global director of business and financial products. "The new features really highlight our Money & Markets product, and the site has been designed so that members can easily take action," Orenstein said.

Check it out at: http://markets.ap.org

• Goss International has established a new direct sales and support organization in Brazil. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, the new Goss International organization is responsible for the full range of Goss commercial and newspaper presses and print finishing systems. The group also manages Goss Lifetime Support aftermarket services, including parts, service and enhancement programs.

The photos above show The Herald-Sun's composition department in Durham, N.C.

21 Papers Combine Advertising Composition Efforts into 'Super-Hub'

Sean Ireland

By Sean Ireland
Special to the eBulletin

Paxton Media Group newspapers in Georgia and North Carolina have banded together – with an assist from some new technology – in an arrangement that has led to cost savings in their production departments.

In all, 21 newspapers in North Carolina and Georgia have combined their advertising composition efforts into creating a “super-hub” at The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C. The move reduces costs for the newspapers, which have eliminated that function at their local sites.

"Like most businesses these days, we’ve been focusing on opportunities to drive efficiencies across the board,” said Leonard Woolsey, group publisher of Paxton’s three Georgia daily newspapers. “Revenue is only somewhat controllable – expenses provide a much more direct impact on the bottom line. Technology is the best and quickest way to capture those efficiencies.”

In short, over the last year, The Herald-Sun has taken over all of the advertising design for Paxton’s Georgia and North Carolina properties, building a hub featuring talented designers who use new technology to work quicker, allowing the other newspapers to eliminate their own in-house departments.

“There are several advantages. The first and most obvious is a cost savings. In the traditional newspaper model of the past, there would be an ad design staff at each newspaper. We have 15 designers handling 21 newspapers,” said Rick Bean, publisher of The Herald-Sun.

“The second benefit is that in Durham, we have an abundance of really talented people in the market. That’s not always the case in all of our smaller markets. Having said that, we did talk to some of our smaller-market folks whose departments were being closed and offered them a position in Durham, so there was talent out there.

“The final advantage we saw was that we were able to retain jobs within at least some of our markets as we consolidated. All of our consolidation has been done through and with existing Paxton newspapers.”

Paxton began investigating the idea of centralizing its advertising production more than a year ago. “(The company) recently began testing software applications in different sites – finally settling on a vendor who worked well within our structure. Once we’d established an attractive partner, we moved ahead,” Woolsey said.

For newspapers such as Carrollton’s Times-Georgian, the process for getting an ad designed has changed only slightly. “Salespeople now submit advertising – very much like they did before – but electronically. After a couple laps around the track for them, it is actually a much more efficient manner of production,” Woolsey said. “We actually get proofs back quicker than when the creative staff was working across the room without the benefit of the technology.”

In Durham, a slightly larger staff than what the newspaper had originally now does the work of 21 newspapers. “A couple of years ago we had 12 people in our ad design department,” Bean said. “Today we have 15. We’ve also invested in software that has streamlined the process and made these folks more efficient. We operate two work shifts, one a day shift and one more of a second shift, working until 11 at night, later if needed.

“The software … links the advertising insertion order to the layout information provided by the sales rep. We function much the same way as departments did several years ago, with the exception that we are dealing with electronic files instead of clip art, grid sheets and hand-written insertion orders. We have not changed deadlines in any of our newspapers, something we’re very proud of. If a deadline ad is sent to us electronically before the sales rep leaves for the night, he or she should expect to receive the ad back by the time he gets to work the next day.”

While the newspapers have the advantage of working together within the Paxton family, Woolsey said it’s a process that could work for unaffiliated newspapers willing to cooperate on a similar project. “(There) are probably ‘sharing’ opportunities others could develop. Additionally, many times a simple upgrade in technology can result in a significant up-tick in efficiency to offset the investment,” he said.

“Today if you're not aggressively taking advantages of available technology, you're leaving a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table,” he added. “And in today’s challenging revenue environment, you can’t afford to ignore such opportunities without risking the future health of your organization and its employees’ welfare.”

For more information, contact Rick Bean at (919) 419-6501 or Leonard Woolsey at (770) 834-6631.

Why Aren't We Paying for News?
With their backs against the wall, 2009 was going to be the year that newspaper publishers finally got together to charge for the content they have been giving away for free for more than a decade. Nearly two-thirds of the way into the year, however, there has been far more talk than action. Read part one of a three-part article from Alan Mutter, which can be found at Reflections of a Newsosaur.

Florida Publisher Casts New Light on Digitial Workflow
Sun Coast Media Group Inc. has gone dark when it comes to digital prepress. Read more from this article in Newspapers & Technology.

Reader's Corner contains, from time to time, links that require registration on another site. Registration rules and requirements are established by the host site and participation by eBulletin readers is entirely voluntary. Articles cited here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SNPA or its Board of Directors. Links refer the reader to the source material.

A Potpourri of Problems

Doug Fisher

By Doug Fisher

Late summer is the time to stretch out, untangle our lives and relax. So let's take some varied problems in copy and untangle them this month.

If a whistle blows in the off-season, does anyone hear it?
One of my favorite tangles is from a sports story: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he expected the league's competition committee would review the rule that possession could not change because the whistle blew during the off-season, as it has in the past.

What a whopper of a misplaced modifier. Untangle it: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he expected the league's competition committee would, as it has before, review during the offseason the rule that possession could not change because the whistle blew.

Get modifiers next to what they modify. I also saved some words with "before" and modified to AP style, "offseason." As for "commissioner," AP says capitalize as a formal title, but a database check shows AP sports doesn't follow its own style. Some usage observers might also suggest "expect … to" is preferred to "expect … would."

The hyphen isn't evil
Throw a hyphen among journalists, and they'll scatter like cockroaches. But sometimes a hyphen helps. Really. Like here: Airline passengers will see fewer nonstop flights, less convenient travel options and possibly higher prices and fees in the coming months.

Clearer would be "less-convenient travel options." Consider the sentence construction. The first part is quantifier (fewer), adjective (nonstop), noun (flights). So the next time the reader encounters a quantifier (less), he or she is likely to look for the same pattern. But here "less" is not a quantifier but part of a compound adjective, "less-convenient." (Also, were "less" a quantifier, it should have been "fewer" anyhow.)

So, hyphen-phobic styles notwithstanding, don't spare the little mark and sacrifice clarity.

Spelling errors can be embarrassing
This was in a recent story on the history of Carolina Gold rice: Slaves from this region were highly valued for their rice-growing experience. … From them, planters learned how to dyke marshes and irrigate their fields.

Make that "dike."

Another one that's more common was in a magazine that takes pride in being a thought leader: I finally honed in on Wall Street on a rainy Sunday morning, figuring the financial district would be dead asleep, no traffic, no noise.

The correct pair is "homed in," as in homing pigeon, homing beacon, etc. Maybe people think because you sharpen, or hone, something, it means getting closer to. Not so.

Take a breath. Put in some punctuation.
As journalists, we fawn over clauses. We love them to insert additional information, afraid, perhaps, that if we used a period the reader would leave at the intermission. Instead, we too often create bloated sentences that have multiple ideas for the reader to digest and turn into hash when numbers are involved.

Exhibit A: The tornado, rated an F3 on the F1 to F5 Fugita scale of intensity with wind speeds between 136 and 165 miles per hour, snapped or uprooted trees near the intersection of U.S. 78 and S.C. 302.

That's seven numbers and one relatively complex idea (the Fugita scale) to digest layered onto another fact – where it happened. Split it and reword slightly (and use the AP‑allowed "mph" to tighten a bit): The tornado, with winds between 136 and 165 mph, rated an F3 on the F1 to F5 Fugita scale of intensity. It snapped or uprooted trees near the U.S. 78 and S.C. 302 intersection. (Or, if you want to emphasize the damage, just put the damage and location first.)

And finally, this was in a story about a teacher who died with $1.4 million: She tracked students to their homes, found them shoes, meals, jackets, and returned the truants to their teachers. She never married, never missed children, never missed a day of work.

The writer probably wanted that strong beat in the second sentence to come through in the first. But two semicolons (another room-clearer) would make it very clear for me as the reader without effort: She tracked students to their home; found them shoes, meals, jackets; and returned the truants to their teachers.

By the way, is "and" needed before "jackets?" No. That would be meddling, not editing.

Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at dfisher@sc.edu or(803) 777-3315. Past issues of Common Sense Journalism can be found at http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/csj/index.html.

Next Friday is Deadline to Submit Entries in Photo Contest
The SNPA Photo of the Year Contest honors the most outstanding work among newspaper photographers in four contest categories. The best photo submitted will earn a $1,000 cash prize for the photographer who shot the photo. That photographer may be you – or someone on your staff.

Deadline to Submit Photos: Aug. 28

Cash prizes totaling $750 will be awarded in each of the four categories.  The grand prize winner will take home $1,000.

To be eligible for this contest, your photographs must have been published (in print or online) between Sept. 1, 2008, and Aug. 25, 2009. Photos can be color or black-and-white. And, there is no limit on the number of photos that may be submitted by an individual photographer.

Contest categories are:

• Spot News – For outstanding photography illustrating quality performance under deadline pressure.
• News Feature – For outstanding photography emphasizing appeal to the newspaper reader.  It should illustrate a fresh view or strong human interest in an ordinary event.
• Artistic Expression – For outstanding photography that displays imaginative and artistic skills.  Photoshop graphics are not eligible.
• Sports – For outstanding photography that captures the key play, dramatic moment, mood or flavor of a sporting event.
  
  
• Contest details

Annual Sponsor Silver Sponsor/Exhibitor: RTTNews

Workshop for Smaller Newspapers
Conference Fees Go Up Sept. 1; Register Today!
SNPA members have just over a week left to register for this year's Workshop for Smaller Newspapers, before conference fees go up.

The registration fee for members currently is $350. On Sept. 1, the fee will increase to $400.

To take a look at the solid program put together for publishers, owners and managers of daily and non-daily community newspapers under 30,000 circulation, click here.

Sponsorship/exhibitor opportunities also are available to supplier companies at the Workshop for Smaller Newspapers.

Links to full conference details:

• Register online

Faxable registration forms:

• Newspaper members.
• Members of the Smaller Newspapers Committee.
• Associate member supplier companies (includes exhibitor/sponsor registration). For information about sponsorship details, click here.

Join Us Next Wednesday for 'Video Online' Webinar
Next Wednesday, SNPA and Borrell Associates will host a special webinar designed to demonstrate just how crucial online video is to newspapers' bottom line, and how important it will be down the road. The webinars, titled "Video Online: Implementing and Selling," will be held Aug. 26 from 2-3 p.m. (Eastern).

Participants will discover which methods of monetizing online video work well – it might be pre-roll, sponsorships, post roll, video-on-demand commercials or something new. They'll hear not only how to use video content well to attract the most advertisers, but also what brings the most page views.

Participants will leave this webinar armed with:

• The latest consumer statistics for online video.
• The latest projections for online video advertising growth.
• Best practices in online video.

This is the final webinar in a four-part series of programs – all related to new products and services. Newspapers can register for a single webinar in the series ($75) or for all four webinars ($250).

Other webinars in this series are:

• Archived – Mobile: From Content to Ads
• Archived – Social Networking: The New Content Model
• Archived – The Online Insert

WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?  The only equipment needed to participate in a webinar is an Internet-connected computer and a telephone.  Many employees can participate in the webinar simultaneously by connecting to the webinar in a conference room with a speakerphone, computer and video projector.

HOW DO I REGISTER OR GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PROGRAMS?  Register online at www.newspaperwebinars.com  This site also includes links to webinars offered by other press associations and a list of the future webinars in this online revenue series.

List Newspaper Job Openings on the SNPA Web Site
SNPA member newspapers can post job openings free of charge on the SNPA Web site. To post your job, send the text of the ad to cindy@snpa.org. Most announcements will stay on the site for a month, but you can request shorter or longer runs. Click here to access the SNPA Jobs Board.

SNPA also posts free "jobs wanted" ads (including links to resumes) for individuals looking for employment in the newspaper industry. Click here for details. Access the Jobs Wanted page.