500-plus contribute to community impact newspaper’s patron ... · 7 hours ago · ards of our...

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500-plus contribute to Community Impact Newspaper’s Patron program u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

If you’re a crossword fan, chances are you’ve attempted to tackle the Los Angeles Times cross-

word at some point. The puzzle is one of the most iconic in publishing, appearing in more than 200

out-of-market titles. For years, the Times’ various

puzzle offerings served as a valu-able connection point with read-ers. But those relationships suf-fered over the past decade or so as the paper cycled through bank-ruptcy and ownership changes.

But the Times’ latest transfer of ownership is changing that. In June 2018, biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong purchased the Times,

the San Diego Union-Tribune and LA Times En Es-pañol from Chicago-based Tronc (now Tribune Publishing) in a deal valued at $500 million.

“The Soon-Shiongs have been wonderful stew-ards of our business and we’ve taken back own-ership of things that were previously managed and outsourced by Tronc, including games and puzzles,” Vice President of Business Development Lee Fentress told News & Tech. “We endeavored to not only take back ownership of the puzzles section, but more importantly, the relationship with the user.”

To bolster its puzzle offerings, the Times part-

Turn to page 25 for expanded industry coverage

Puzzle platform reinforces reader relationships for LA Times u by Tara McMeekiN ContRibuting WRiteR

La Times continues on page 6

More than 500 people have contributed to Community Impact Newspa-per’s new Community Impact Patron Program.

By early May, the program, launched on April 1, garnered close to $50,000 in contributions for the Texas-based company.

CI co-owner/founder John Garrett announced that 100% of CI Patron con-tributions after processing costs will go to the locally based journalists who produce CI content. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic sped the timing of the initiative, which helps achieve a three-year company goal to have indus-try-leading compensation for its journalists, the company says.

CI announced that longtime employee and Community Relations Manager Lauren Itz will run the CI Patron program, with the aim of the program becoming a strategy for readers to connect with the company in a more meaningful way.

“We see the Community Impact Patron Program as a long-term connection tool between our local journalism efforts and our local readers. We promise to use the funds to keep the great local journalism coming. The support means the world to our employees,” Garrett said.

Garrett has plans to include early supporters in a new CI Patron Founding

Lauren Itz

community impact Newspaper continues on page 5

Community Impact Newspaper’s headquarters in Pflugerville, Texas.

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Newspapers change operations in face of pandemic

What to expect from Gen Z

u by Tara McMeekiN ContRibuting WRiteR

u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

Newspapers are certainly no strangers to navigating change. Now pub-lishers are once again showing their resiliency as they’re forced to quickly adapt to a new landscape in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since March, newspapers have made quick transitions to take operations remote where possible and put plans in place to reduce risk to essential on-site employees, including pressroom and mailroom staff.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which counts roughly 400 employees, has implemented a mix of remote and onsite working, according to Vice Presi-dent of Production Janet Owen. While a number of advertising and news-room employees have been able to work remotely from home, Owen said not all were set up to do so.

“For the people that didn’t have the facilities they needed at home, we restructured to half days, three days a week,” Owen told News & Tech. “With the exception of creative services, all of our production staff have continued to work this whole time.”

The biggest challenge initially was equipping employees who weren’t fa-miliar with VPN to work from home, but Owen said the Review-Journal’s IT group worked hard to get them up and running.

On the production side, the publisher has split its pressroom in half. Owen said schedules were changed and people were assigned to specific presses.

“We have presses A and B and their crews,” Owen said. “In the event that a B press crew member gets sick, we would quarantine the whole crew if we had to and crew A would take over all production.”

A similar plan was put in place in mailroom where the equipment has been split in half.

“Inserting machines are tied to each press crew so if anyone gets sick we would only lose half the crew, which wouldn’t be ideal, but with advertising page counts down, we would be OK,” Owen said.

At deadline, the Review-Journal planned to begin bringing more employ-ees back on May 26, while adhering to six feet of social distancing and diligent sanitization and safety measures. Owen said the fact that there are several different entry points to the building has made isolation of groups easier. For example, the plateroom has its own dedicated entry so those employees don’t have to comingle with other staff.

“For our press crews, we will keep the changes in place,” Owen said. “I

believe that will be the case until there is a vaccine.”Owen said the biggest takeaway from this experience has been to be nim-

ble and move quickly to execute plans. “Things can change in a heartbeat,” she added.

Software key at WaPoThe Washington Post’s COVID-19 response has been similar, with the major-ity of office-based staff working remotely since March 10. On the production side, the publisher said most of its printing and distribution staff continues to operate onsite. The Post put substantive safety measures in place, includ-ing daily temperature screenings, social distancing protocols, mask require-ments, frequent hand washing and other sanitization measures.

“Our top focus is employee safety,” said CIO Shailesh Prakash. “We have taken significant steps as a company to prioritize and preserve employee safety and will continue to do so.”

The Post also touts its publishing platform and other software tools for enabling robust remote-based operations.

“Our investments in Arc Publishing, which is a modern, cloud-based sys-tem, have been advantageous during this time,” Prakash said. “It spans the entire arc of a publisher’s needs, from story planning, to content creation, to rendering, on multiple platforms and has allowed our talented journalists to work from the safety of their homes.”

Arc integrates with other collaborative apps like Slack, which Prakash said has enabled complex tasks such as homepage creation to “maintain the high quality that readers expect from The Washington Post.”

Prakash also pointed to the benefits of Zoom, Webex, Skype and Microsoft Teams.

“(These) have also kept our distributed workforce connected and produc-tive,” he said. “On top of that, every critical system has inbuilt redundancy, which helps reduce downtime and keep systems performant.” p

The Pew Research Center has put out a profile of Gen Zers (ages 18 to 23). “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far,” published May 14, offers a rundown of what we can expect from this up-and-coming group. The report points out that Gen Z was set to stride into a strong economy but is now looking at an uncertain future due to the coronavirus pandemic. News & Tech culled out some facts that are of interest to newspapers, magazines and other media as well as the companies who serve those industries.• One-in-ten eligible voters in the 2020 election will be Generation Zers.• Gen Zers are more racially and ethnically diverse than any earlier genera-

tion, and they’re on pace to be the most well-educated generation we’ve seen.

• A small majority (52%) are non-Hispanic white, smaller than the percent of Millennials who were non-Hispanic white in 2002 (61%). One-in-four Gen Zers are Hispanic, 14% are black, 6% are Asian and 5% are some other race or two or more races.

• Pew surveys conducted in 2018 (before the coronavirus outbreak) among Americans ages 13 and older found that, like Millennials, Gen Zers are

progressive and pro-government, most see America’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity as a positive, and they’re less likely than older generations to see the U.S. as superior to other countries.

• Maybe because they’re more likely to be involved in educational pursuits, Gen Zers are less likely to be working than earlier generations when they were teens and young adults. Only 18% of Gen Z teens (ages 15 to 17) were working in 2018, compared with 27% of Millennial teens in 2002 and 41% of Gen Xers in 1986. And among young adults ages 18 to 22, while 62% of Gen Zers were employed in 2018, higher shares of Millennials (71%) and Gen Xers (79%) were employed when they were a similar age.

• According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 95% of 13- to 17-year-olds have access to a smartphone and (97%) use at least one of seven major online platforms.

• YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are among teens’ top online spots. Around 85% say they use YouTube, 72% use Instagram and 69% use Snap-chat. Facebook is less of a hit with teens — 51% say they’re using it. Some 45% of teens say they’re online “almost constantly,” and 44% say they’re online several times daily. p

How has your operation responded to the coronavirus pandemic? News & Tech would love to hear from you!


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Puzzle PlaTFoRM ReINFoRCes ReadeR RelaTIoNshIPs FoR la TIMes 1 500-Plus CoNTRIbuTe To CoMMuNITy IMPaCT NewsPaPeR’s PaTRoN PRogRaM 1 NewsPaPeRs ChaNge oPeRaTIoNs IN FaCe oF PaNdeMIC 3 PagesuITe: CoVId-19 hasTeNs uPgRades 7 leadeRs weIgh IN wITh TIPs, RealITIes 8 ColoRado suN shINes aMId PeeR ReCogNITIoN, ReadeR gRowTh 10 a seasoN oF webINaRs 13 MulleR MaRTINI woRks IN wuhaN 15 sIlVesTRI To head ReleVaNCe PRoJeCT 16

May/June 2020

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Members Group to connect those donors to journalistic efforts through polls, email updates and CI Patron events. These include an inaugural Community Impact Conversations webinar April 28, when CI hosted five Central Texas business leaders to discuss how they are navigating the coronavirus storm.

‘Undivided attention’Itz provided News & Tech with an update on advertisers: “This time has proven to be challenging for lo-cal business owners, deciding how to operate moving forward. While we've had some advertisers who have needed to pull back efforts for a month or two, we've had many understand the importance of keep-ing their brand in front of people's faces. They too have gotten creative with what they're offering and how customers can go about using their services. Some have even amped up their advertising since they realize with so many people sheltering in place, they're getting more undivided attention on their brand,” she said.

“We’ve had clients tell us that be-cause they've chosen to keep a con-sistent message going the past cou-ple of months, they haven't seen the dip in business that they projected.”

In addition to the new Patron pro-gram and print product, in recent weeks CI has expanded its digital ef-forts by offering daily newsletters for 30+ hyperlocal editions, upgraded from weekly newsletters. CI’s digi-tal audience, at 2.5 million users in March, now nearly matches its print audience, at 2.7 million mailboxes per month, according to Itz.

Garrett said in early May that the company has been able to avoid lay-offs and furloughs.

Community Impact Newspaper owners John and Jennifer Garrett launched the first edition of Commu-nity Impact Newspaper in 2005 with three full-time employees covering Round Rock and Pflugerville, Texas. Today the company has 33 print editions, which are sent monthly through the U.S. mail, and covers 59 communities. The company is head-quartered in Pflugerville. p

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Papers asking for donationsMany newspapers and other publica-tions are asking for donations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.One effort has the Local Media Foundation partnering with local news outlets around the U.S. on an emergency response program to activate grassroots giving.The foundation’s COVID-19 Local News Fund has surpassed $1 million in total donations, the foundation announced May 7, achieving its initial goal in 40 days. The program raises funds that directly support local news organizations’ coverage of COVID-related issues in their com-munities.More than 230 local news outlets participate in the program. More than 11,500 individual donors from 48 states have contributed. “Our mantra from the earliest days launching the program has been to democratize giving,” said Jed Wil-liams, chief strategy officer for Local Media Association. “Organizations

large and small, from coast-to-coast, have engaged their communities with great success to support vital coverage of the pandemic. We’re floored by the outpouring of support for local news.”Publishers in 40 states are participat-ing, with 94 having raised more than $1,000 in donations and 25 exceed-ing $10,000.Among papers asking for funds in partnership with the foundation are the McClatchy-owned Sacramento Bee, Modesto Bee and the Idaho Statesman. Also on board are the Anchorage Daily News, Times-Pica-yune (New Orleans) and the Hartford Business Journal (Connecticut).The Local Media Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Michigan-based Local Media Association.LMA’s innovation engine, Accelerate Local, launched six projects in 2019 with 50 media partners and three projects so far in 2020, including the COVID-19 news fund, the Oklahoma Media Center and the news collab-orative in Chicago.

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nered with San-Francisco-based Amuse Labs late last year. Amuse, chaired by John Temple, former editor and publisher of the now-defunct (Denver) Rocky Mountain News, developed an HTML5-based crossword platform, dubbed PuzzleMe.

The Times went live with Amuse’s platform in February for LA Times games, its suite of online crossword, Sudoku, word search puzzles and other games. The technology allows puzzles to be embedded anywhere on a website and can be tailored to look like a publisher’s native page. Publishers can also monetize puzzles.

“We know we have a pretty significant brand, and we have game players from around the country that aren’t necessarily subscribers,” Fentress said. “The hope is to eventually convert some of those users to subscribers, and although we are just at the beginning of that, we’re pleased with the early results.”

Advertising approach All of the Times’ puzzles are currently free, and when it comes to advertising the Times’ puzzle offerings, Fentress reiterated that it’s all about tak-ing back the customer relationship. He said the publisher now has the ability to integrate puzzles into all of its products, including its homepage, newsletters and editorial features. That’s an op-

tion the Times didn’t have when puzzles were outsourced.

“We’ve undergone a complete refresh of the games section,” Fentress said. “We’re publishing ads for it in the printed paper, and we’ve run some online and digital campaigns to create awareness as well.”

Fentress said the puzzles section has also be-come a more sought-after spot for advertisers in print and online during a time when news cover-age is particularly bleak.

“We’re creating an environment for advertisers that don’t want to be adjacent to coronavirus or political coverage,” he said. “Those ads are get-

ting a lot of views because people don’t typi-cally play these puzzle games for just five or 10 minutes.”

Besides the improved functionality of the puzzles, Fentress said he also attributes some of the uptick in puzzle participation to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to solo par-ticipation, the Amuse platform provides the ability to collaborate remotely with someone else to complete a crossword. That’s a particu-larly appealing option at a time when people are feeling more isolated.

“People need a break, and there is also still this group of people that like to start their day with a crossword,” he said. “It’s good for the mind and brain — the research is clear on that — so we’re glad to provide that break from the

difficulty of the pandemic.”Fentress said he believes the potential for edi-

torial customization of the puzzles is endless around events such as the Oscars and Emmys, for example.

“I think in our industry it’s so important to build relationships via customer service and feedback,” he added. “There are so many possibilities with this, and so far we are thrilled with the progress.”

Amuse Labs has also partnered with The Washington Post, Newsday, and New York magazine in the U.S. as well as The Hindu in India and The Guardian in the U.K. p

La Times from page 1

The Los angeles Times launched amuse Labs’ platform for its puzzles and games in February.

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PageSuite: COVID-19 hastens upgradesu News & Tech Staff RepoRt

The CoVId-19 situation has accelerated the pace at which some publish-ers are looking to upgrade their e-editions, according to PageSuite Marketing Director Lucy Penn.

The company has worked with clients “to create digital-only editions whilst they’ve had to temporarily pause print production and we are continu-ing to work with our clients to help them through any issues they may have with distribution, content or engagement during this time,” said Penn.

The U.K.’s Racing Post, for one, decided to stop printing their daily paper due to the outbreak causing horse racing across the U.K. to come to a halt.

In place of the printed edition, Racing Post is creating a daily, digital-only spe-cial edition. The edition provided full coverage on the UK’s virtual Grand Nation-al on April 4 and will continue to offer readers material from its archive daily.

PageSuite has also helped clients release paywalls to provide access for readers unable to get print editions.

And following conversations with clients, PageSuite re-launched MyDigi-talNewspaper and MyDigitalMag, an emergency solution for those looking to see their content remains accessible during the outbreak.

MyDigitalNewspaper (www.mydigitalnewspaper.com) and MyDigitalMag (www.mydigitalmag.com) provide an easy way for publishers to get printed editions online, according to the company. The browser-based solution al-lows readers to access newspaper and magazine editions within a digital newsstand.

PageSuite is helping publishers implement this solution by absorbing some of the platform costs, says the company.

The company has launched both MyDigital platforms in the U.K. and will be launching the U.S. version soon, says Penn.

Sun-Times switchesThe Chicago Sun-Times recently switched to PageSuite’s Replica e-edition solution as well.

“Sun-Times readers are incredibly diverse in demographics, behaviors and reading preferences — so we are constantly looking for ways to improve our reader experience across all of our mediums,” said Nykia Wright, interim CEO at Chicago Sun-Times.

“Our new partnership with PageSuite will allow existing ePaper readers to better access and engage with the news, and it will open up new opportuni-ties for all Chicagoans to engage with the Sun-Times digitally.”

Readers will need a subscription to use the Chicago Sun-Times Replica edition. PageSuite integrated Piano’s subscription solution into the paper’s Replica edition.

Digital publishing company PageSuite’s speciality lies in working with publishers to deliver content through multiple channels, cutting print and distribution costs, the company says.

PageSuite offers three core solutions: A Replica solution for e-editions, a Live solution for publishers looking to launch a live news app and an Edition solution. The Edition solution is used by Dallas Morning News to craft their digital-only Evening Edition. All three solutions are built on the same plat-form and can be bundled together to create a 2-in1 app containing a replica edition and live news feed, or can be launched independently.

E-editions are now being viewed on smartphones more than on desktop or tablet devices, according to PageSuite.

PageSuite’s head office is in Ashford, in the county of Kent, England. p

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Mark CohenRegional PresidentAPG Media of Ohio/Michigan

News & Tech: what ef-fect have you seen on advertising and what

measures have you taken on that front?CoheN: Our company (and us) have been very successful with selling the stimulus packages. Businesses appreciate what we are trying to do for them and as well we are reminding them that they need to mar-ket and advertise. Also, it forces our reps to call on more nontraditional customers via phone. We were pleased with some of the results with non-profits and other categories that we rarely called on. It’s retraining reps out of necessity with more phone sales, call-ing on a different clientele. This new normal will carry us to a new sales culture that we have been preaching about for years. More calls to new and different customers!

News & Tech: what effect have you seen on subscriptions and what measures have you taken on that front? CoheN: Home delivery has been stable. Single copy has been a challenge for obvi-ous reasons. Between social distancing and store closures, it is what we expected. The good news is that digital subscriptions have been up 14%. This is something we can build on.

News & Tech: what hR challenges are you facing? CoheN: It is really a matter of keeping the team motivated and positive. I haven’t no-ticed any severe issues on this front but it is a matter of our leadership being more diligent about encouragement with our employees. It’s time for us to improve listening skills and as long as we are doing that, then this should help ease the strain. Our goals and objec-tives aren’t altered and we are all held ac-countable but the communication method

changes. Good leadership is about adjusting style and emphasis during a time of crisis. We are trying to do that.

News & Tech: are there any benefits in the short and longer term?CoheN: I think both the short-term and long-term benefit is that you really find out who are the winners on your team and, conse-quently, who do not measure up. It is still about people and some have stood tall and surprised us and have been versatile to work any job needed. It has forged a bond with many of us and that has made us stronger.

News & Tech: what changes do you plan in your print operation and schedule?CoheN: We have cut back days, but this was discussed before the pandemic.

News & Tech: do you anticipate using any government relief funds?CoheN: We are hoping that we receive some.

The APG Ohio group consists of a num-ber of newspapers and their websites, in-cluding The Athens Messenger, The Athens News, The Crescent-News (serving Defi-ance, Ohio), Circleville Herald, Perry Coun-ty Tribune, The Logan Daily News, The Pike County News Watchman, The Courier (serv-ing Vinton and Jackson Counties in Ohio) and the Record & Clarion (serving Gladwin County and Beaverton, Michigan). p

Tom LoeschPresident imPRESSions Worldwide

M y m e s s a g e would be more for owners, like myself. Too many employees a re signing up for un-

employment or failing to perform due to the fear of losing their job. Instill confidence in your employees to deliver product satisfac-

tion and execution in creative new ways as opposed to laying them off. I have read about some brilliant new methods of selling advertising and generating revenue. Those ideas come from great employees. Empower your employees with ideas and ask them to think outside of the box. Our employees and customers are most important, and failing to take care of either one of them is detrimental to our success.

Our passionate group of dedicated pro-fessionals has worked long hours on the road traveling and made sacrifices work-ing through holidays and weekends when we are extremely busy. They have carried the load when the company needed them most. They know we will continue to sup-port them and their families now during this difficult moment in time. All of our employ-ees are fearlessly working hard to generate new revenue, execute jobs and take care of our customers.

The 25-year-old imPRESSions offers sec-ond-hand single-wide newspaper and com-mercial presses and auxiliary equipment, as well as services including press room upgrades. imPRESSions is headquartered in Burlington, Washington, and also has a facil-ity in Tupelo, Mississippi. p

Bob HallstromVice President of Sales & Product Development The Siebold Company

News & Tech: what ideas can your or-ganization offer as an operational

solution during these crisis times?hallsTRoM: The primary goal during this pandemic for The Siebold Company and for all our newspaper printing customers is

Leaders weigh in with tips, realities u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

News & Tech asked some industry lead-ers what effects they’ve seen and what steps they’re taking to address the COVID-19 pan-demic.


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Diane AmatoVice President of SalesTecnavia

In these challenging times, with advertis-ing temporarily cancelling schedules and subscribers depending on their trusted local newspapers more than ever, publishers are turning to their print replica solution.

Tecnavia has been in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak for some time with cus-tomers worldwide and has aided many pub-lishers in making quick changes to schedules and delivery. In Italy, Tecnavia has worked with Italian publishers that have suspended their print distribution and are relying on the print replica for delivery to their subscrib-

ers. The increased demand has resulted in a 30–40% uptick in traffic.

In North America, Tecnavia is helping mul-tiple publishers within several groups utilize the same strategy, eliminating print distribu-tion on some days but keeping the curated print version for online access. The cost sav-ings of printing and distribution combined with keeping subscribers attached are vital for their operations.

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Tecnavia is an e-publishing solutions pro-vider with U.S. offices in Burnsville, Minne-sota. The company also has offices in Swit-zerland and Italy. p

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less than two years after its launch, The Colorado Sun is getting some significant recognition from readers and peers alike. The Sun in early May netted 10 first-place awards in the Colorado Press Association journalism contest, in categories including public service, investigative journalism, education, business, agriculture and health.

The accolades came just one month after the paper won 28 awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Top of the Rockies competition, including 14 first-place nods. Those awards spanned business enterprise reporting, gen-eral website excellence, politics and science and technology categories.

“This is really us being grateful to Coloradoans to be able to do this kind of work,” Sun Editor Larry Ryckman told News & Tech.

Former Denver Post editors Ryckman and Dana Coffield founded The Sun and launched the online news organization in September 2018. Both left The Post in March 2018, following newsroom cuts by hedge fund owner Alden Global Capital.

“If you’d have told me two years ago where we’d be with The Sun today, I wouldn’t have completely believed it,” Ryckman said. “We’re not only alive, but we’re thriving.”

Taking pride in quality journalism In addition to those stories recognized with awards, Ryckman said there are plenty of others he and his staff are proud of. One of those was published after the award submissions and covered the death of 13-year-old Charlotte Figi from suspected coronavirus complications. Figi, who suffered from crip-pling seizures most of her life, was the inspiration for the CBD movement and is the namesake of Colorado-based Charlotte’s Web.

Another was an in-depth look at a rash of suicides occurring in Arapahoe County in 2018. Those suicides culminated with the deaths of two Arapahoe High School seniors within a few days of one another.

“I live in that community and we knew about this first,” Ryckman said,

“But it wasn’t about being first — it was about doing it right.”The Sun’s Jennifer Brown sat down with the parents of those seniors as

well as kids and mental health professionals in the community to tell the painful story.

“Those families reached out to Jennifer and thanked her — and that is one of the quintessential Sun stories,” Ryckman said. “We are thrilled to get awards but even happier when we see people responding to us.”

Still, those awards have cemented The Sun’s value with readers. Case in point: The day The Sun published its Top of the Rockies accolades, 68 new members signed on.

“To connect with people and know that they value us enough to pull out their wallets — that is really cool,” Ryckman said.

Although The Sun’s focus has always been on quality journalism and loyal readership over advertiser-driven page views, the publisher has exceeded its own expectations. Unique page views exceeded 2 million visitors in April. Vis-itors are staying on the site longer and returning to sign up for membership.

The Sun has seen consistent momentum since its launch, and grew 13 per-cent, with 1,200 new members signing up in the month of March. Ryckman attributes that growth to transparency and treating readers with respect.

“We don’t scam people with click-bait headlines,” he added. “We aren’t going to waste your time — if you click on this story, you’re going to be glad you did, because we consistently deliver the quality, in-depth news we’ve always promised.”

The Sun’s reporting comes from 13 full-time staff journalists and a handful of freelancers. Ryckman said he’s fortunate to be surrounded by so much talent and dedication.

The publisher had financial backing from New York-based startup Civil early on, but that support ended late last year.

“For some, that might have been a death blow, but for us it’s been liberat-ing,” Ryckman said. “Civil absolutely allowed us the runway to get started

Colorado Sun shines amid peer recognition, reader growth u by Tara McMeekiN ContRibuting WRiteR

The Colorado sun staff was recognized with a number of awards in april and May. Back row, from left: Larry ryckman, Kevin simpson, Eric Lubbers, Jason Blevins, Jen-nifer Brown, Erica Breunlin and John Ingold. Front row, from left: Dana Coffield, Moe Clark, Jesse Paul, Tamara Chuang, Carol Wood and John Frank.

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The washington Post has li-censed its Zeus Performance adver-tising technology stack to The Seattle Times. The Post launched Zeus last year to connect publishers’ ad inven-tories with marketers that are looking to automate their digital ad buys.

Zeus provides publishers an alter-native to Google’s programmatic ad platform by offering a brand-safe en-vironment and more appealing ad for-mats, according to AdAge. So far, the publisher has partnered with 50 sites.

For The Seattle Times’ part, Zeus is enabling local markets to drive a better user experience and more ef-ficiency across its technical stack.

In its first month since rolling out Zeus, The Times saw its ad viewabil-ity more than double, while CPMs and RPMs have shown strong dou-ble-digit growth as well, The Post re-

ported. In addition, the overall site speed of seattletimes.com has im-proved by some measures as much as 50%.

“First, we wanted to simplify our ad tech stack to improve the page load times for our end users,” Times’ Vice President of Advertising Gary Smith said in a statement. ”Second, we wanted to improve viewability for our advertising customers while preserving our programmatic adver-tising revenues.”

Smith said a close, hands-on work-ing partnership with the Zeus team has been key to the success.

“They helped us test scenarios to optimize for our goals,” he added. “This partnership has resulted in a better web experience for our read-ers and advertisers, an ideal outcome for us.” p

Seattle Times licenses WaPo’s ad technology stack platform u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

and prove our case to Coloradoans, but now we’re flying without a net — we’re completely independent at this point.”

Benefits of collaborationTaking a page from non-profit media organization The Texas Tribune, The Sun has forged partnerships with 30 other publishers across Colorado, offering its content to those papers, Ryckman said.

He said his staff is happy to provide access to deeper journalism for media organizations, which like The Post, have had to cut back. What The Sun re-quires in return is that publishers note that it is reader-supported and include a link to visit coloradosun.com.

“To use a bit of a pun, we’ve tried to set The Sun up at the center of the media constellation in Colorado, and we’ve tried to be very collaborative,” Ryckman said.

One stand-out collaboration came last year when The Sun partnered with 15 other Colorado news organizations to publish “Parked: Half the American Dream.” The feature, which focused on trailer parks being the last truly afford-able housing in the state, resonated with readers at a time when the Colorado housing market has priced many residents out of home ownership.

Recently, The Sun partnered with other publishers to cover the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in Colorado.

“These collaborations have really been a pitch to our colleagues to show them that we aren’t a threat to them, but rather, we are stronger together,” Ryckman said. “We all like to get a scoop, but let’s collaborate where we can to help each other.”

Perhaps the ultimate reward for Ryckman and staff is the fact that they’re having fun doing what they love.

“I have been in this business for 40 years and this is the most fun I’ve had,” he said. “We have been fortunate in our timing. There were others who went before us and were unsuccessful — but now, people are turning to us for that quality news they missed.” p

www.newsandtech.com


when I was a journalist in Montana, I wrote stories about endangered species — grizzly bears, wolves, eagles. Now my con-cern is about another endangered species — journalists.

In April, the Pew Research Center report-ed that the nation’s newspapers have cut about half of all editorial jobs since 2008.

The number of newspaper newsroom employees dropped by 51 percent between

2008 and 2019, from about 71,000 workers to 35,000.It’s not just a newspaper problem. Overall newsroom employ-

ment — in newspapers, radio, broadcast television and cable news — dropped 23 percent, from 114,000 newsroom employees in 2008 to 88,000 jobs.

Worse still: These statistics predated the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to another widespread series of layoffs, salary cuts, furloughs and newsroom consolidations. And folding newspa-pers.

Revenues at many publications fell 50 percent or more when the pandemic forced the closure of many to most of the businesses that advertise in local media. It remains unclear when — or even if — those local businesses will fully reopen.

Instead of dying a death by a thousand cuts over another decade, local news media are being killed in weeks and months by COVID-19.

In my more than 50 years in the news business, I’ve worked for three daily newspapers, five bureaus of The Associated Press, a weekly newspaper in Montana, and TownNews, a digital media company.

Of the three dailies I worked for — the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera, The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News — only two survive. The Rocky Mountain News, which predated statehood (starting in 1859) folded on Feb. 27, 2009. May the feisty tabloid rest in peace. The Rocky was one of the first to die.

The Denver Post and Daily Camera, once stalwarts of their com-munities, are now owned by a New York hedge fund that has done everything it can to wring profits from the newspapers with virtually no reinvestment. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed them closer to the endangered species list where they — sadly — will find plenty of company.

The fabled Associated Press struggles as well, although not as much as the daily newspaper industry that founded the AP. The AP has many fewer reporters, editors and stringers than it had in its prime. The impoverished newspaper industry is in no position to shore up the AP, which has grown increasingly dependent on non-newspaper revenue. The AP has eliminated all chief of bureau jobs (in favor of regional sales staffs), cut staffing at most bureaus, trimmed state reports, eliminated most stringers and posted much of its news report all over the World Wide Web. (The AP’s once stal-wart competitor, UPI, now exists in name only.)

The weekly newspaper I co-owned and edited for 14 years — the Bigfork (Montana) Eagle, went out of business before being resur-rected last year as a shell of itself. I fear the COVID-19 pandemic

will return the Eagle to the newspaper graveyard. Many of my co-horts and friends in the weekly newspaper field are facing very dif-ficult times as their retail base has all but disappeared.

For many years, weekly newspapers were the backbone/heart/conscience of their communities. Many if not most were locally owned and dedicated to their communities. (Typical of many pub-lishers, I served on the chamber of commerce board, was president of the development company and attended and covered local ser-vice clubs.)

The “little guys’” problems are pretty much over-shadowed by the news from group publishers.

We see many reports about the board room activities of the over-leveraged companies that own many of the nation’s newspapers. Pew and others report the nationwide statistics of newsroom cuts.

But this problem is much deeper than statistics and financial re-ports.

It’s a problem many in the public don’t see coming.The general public may think of journalism as the daily battles

between the president and the White House press corps or the of-ten contradictory news reports on Fox and CNN/MSNBC. Some now think of journalism as mainly “fake news” or political propa-ganda.

But the real hit is coming at the local level. The staff cuts are com-ing mostly among the journalists who cover city council, county board and planning board meetings. Coverage of public affairs and prep sports, street fairs, art festivals and other local events is going to diminish if not disappear. The future of letters to the editor, obits, birth and wedding announcements is in jeopardy.

We will have more and more so-called “news deserts.” More places where it’s easy for public officials and others to bilk the public.

Google and Facebook — the duopoly that has gobbled up most advertising — can try to fill the void, but they in some measure have built their audiences on the content produced by journalists who are now on the endangered species list.

State and national press associations — now needed more than ever — are fighting for their lives as membership and dues dwin-dle. Journalism schools are or have taken “journalism” out of their names.

So who’s going to run and fund Freedom of Information hotlines? Who’s going to fill the watchdog role that many of us believe is critical to a healthy democracy?

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that if he had to choose be-tween “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Sorry, Tom. p

Marc Wilson is chairman emeritus of TownNews. He worked as a reporter for three daily

newspapers and five bureaus of The Associated Press. He co-owned and was editor and

publisher of the weekly Bigfork (Montana) Eagle for 14 years. His columns run regularly in

News & Tech.

Apologies to Tom u by Marc wiLsoN ColumniSt

MArc... My words


Vendors, media advocacy organizations and news and print opera-tions are going big on webinars to keep their names top of mind and to share tips on survival in these extreme times. Here’s a sample of what’s been out there of late:

• Denver-based tech and digital advertising company adCellerant may be the webi-nar kings. The company sched-uled a handful of webinars of interest, including “Creative is King, especially during a Crisis,” “Using Social Dis-tancing as the Centerpiece to your Advertising Strategy” and “Customer Loyalty Strategies and Ways to Steal From the Competition.” In an April we-binar titled “Social Distancing Strategies for Advertisers and Ways To Save Money During COVID-19,” CEO Brock Berry took a look at Google Mobility Data stats reflecting how more than a dozen industries are faring during the crisis, and strategies advertisers in those industries can use to reach tar-gets. Those hit hardest by the crisis in particular, such as res-taurants, have an urgent need to advertise. He also cited stats from research firm 4A’s that show that only 15% of people surveyed didn’t want to hear from brands at this time.

“This (crisis) is going to change people’s buying and shopping habits permanently and I think our local retailers need to move to e-commerce

solutions within their websites faster, as fast as possible. So we’re go-ing to be launching an e-commerce solution here for local business owners in the next few weeks,” he said.

our takeaway: as things change, companies and industries need to get messages out to the public on the new landscape and how they’re operating. This need can help publishers score advertising.

• “Local Transformation with Mitch Pugh,” a recent waN-IFRa webinar, was nicely summed up by Brian Veseling, senior editor at WAN-IFRA (the Frankfurt-based World Associa-tion of Newspapers and News Publishers).

Pugh, executive editor of The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), stressed ARPU. “Volume is important, don’t get me wrong,” Pugh said. “We need to continue to get digital subscribers and retain the ones we have, but what I think is even more important, is this notion of ARPU, or average rate per user.”

“A lot of people do introductory rates of 99 cents for one month, three months or a whole year. You can do that if you are The New York Times and you have millions of subscribers,” he said. “But if you’re a local news organization just getting started, and you set your value at 99 cents, it’s going to become really, really hard to drive that rate per unit up.”

Another tip for doing well with digital subscriptions is to maintain the number of freely available stories very low, Pugh said.

“Most people’s meter settings are too liberal. They give people too many free views, especially the audience who already knows you. That fanatic and loyal audience that is already reading your content. If they are visiting your site more than two times every 45 days, you need to get them to pay you,” Pugh said.

our takeaway: don’t give away the store.

• Email marketing company emma offered a webinar titled “Adapt-ing your Email Marketing Strategy during the Global Health Crisis.”

If you’re regurgitating random info from someone else, just tell-ing people your staff members are at home or sending emails be-

www.newsandtech.com

A season of webinars u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

a page from a recent adcellerant webinar.

Brock Berry, adcellerant CEo

spirit airlines learned a lesson about sending out obsolete, pre-written messages. From a webinar from email marketing company Emma.

webinar continues on page 14

www.newsandtech.com


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cause everyone else is, don’t. A poorly executed email can be a unsubscribe magnet, ac-cording to Emma.

Emma also counsels not to forget about your pre-sched-uled emails that don’t apply anymore in this crisis. The webinar of-fered an example from Spirit Airlines touting a sale that no longer applied.

our takeaway: Remember to use best email practices, even in a cri-sis.

• The local Media Consortium held its 2020 spring conference virtually, with two sessions/webinars per week through the month of May.

A recent webinar featured Bill Day, a vice president at consumer research company Magid, with hubs in New York, LA, Minneapolis and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Consumer behavior hasn’t settled in,” yet in this crisis, he said.

Basing his talk on attitudinal research, he presented some inter-esting stats: 44% of consumers are getting news as a way of passing time and 63% want information about how they can support and use businesses.

Fundamentally, “This is a local crisis. This is a local story about the economy,” he said.

People are looking to media for into on local matters, such as meat limits or changing hours at grocery stores.

our takeaway: keep it local in coverage and get sales teams to lever-age societal changes at the local level. enterprise selling, as opposed to transactional, is key.

• america’s Newspapers is offering webinars for members and non-members, which the organization archives for later viewing. Recent topics include “Generating Revenue During the Pandemic by Helping Your Advertisers” and “Readers and Diving into the Sales Techniques Behind Selling Response.”

• The association for PRINT Technologies (aPTech) held its Leading PRINT Summit, originally scheduled as a face-to-face event set for April 28 in Orlando, as a full-scale digital event, allowing mem-bers and non-members to access the event for free. p

webinar from page 13

www.newsandtech.com


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shortly after the measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic were eased in Hubei, the hardest hit of China’s provinces, Muller Martini began a free service program to support its customers in the region.

“Muller Martini appreciates the excellent partnership and collabo-ration it has enjoyed with our customers in China for many years,” says Sven Olsen, head of the Muller Martini Asia Pacific region, ex-plaining the launch of the special assistance program. “During these difficult times, we want to do something to show our appreciation.”

Muller Martini offered Chinese customers who have been most af-fected by the novel coronavirus a free service package for the month of April, a company news release said.

Immediately after the launch of the program, Muller Martini got responses from several customers in Wuhan who needed help re-starting their machines following a two-month shutdown. A three-member service team from Shanghai was able to provide them with assistance.

Barely a week after the last restrictions were lifted, Li Zhihua, Tony Liao and Ken Dong, all staff from the sales and service management department, set out from Shanghai by car and reached customers in Wuhan following a two-day drive. When they arrived, they carried out inspections, adjusted production settings, conducted mainte-nance and provided training for the machine operators.

Yunliang Yang, general manager of Hubei Xinhua Printing, ex-pressed gratitude for the support that was provided. “Many thanks to Muller Martini for the extraordinary assistance it has provided during

these difficult times. This commitment moved us deeply.” At the time, in late April, Muller Martini was the only machine

manufacturer to offer this sort of support, the release said.

Job for Core Publishing SolutionsIn other Muller Martini news, a hybrid Alegro Digital from Muller Martini has allowed Core Publishing Solutions to work more effi-ciently, according to Muller Martini.

The company, located in Eagan, Minnesota, and part of Thom-son Reuters, has in effect three machines in one thanks to a special customer-specific configuration, says Muller Martini. Because the signature stack feeder is not the start of the perfect binding line for digitally printed products, but instead is located between the gath-ering machine and the binder, two processes can run at the same time. Digitally printed products go directly from the feeder to the binder, while the gathering machine is prepared for the next offset production or uses them to gather the signatures while the digital job is running.

At nearly 233 feet, the Alegro Digital in Eagan is one of the world’s largest lines. The perfect binding line stretches from the manual feed to the 27-station 3694 gathering machine, the Solit three-knife trim-mer and the CB 18 book stacker to the Pluton palletizer.

Core Publishing Solutions produces more than 18 million reference books, specialized brochures and updates each year. Although three-fourths of all print jobs at Eagan are processed digitally, digital print-ing only accounts for 15 percent of the company’s page volume. p

Muller Martini works in Wuhan u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

www.newsandtech.com


Silvestri to head Relevance Project u News & Tech Staff RepoRt

Industry veteran Tom silvestri has been tapped to lead the Relevance Project, a re-newed effort to champion the importance of community newspapers and to celebrate press associations. The project involves a campaign designed to rebrand press as-sociation ad services and the papers they represent and position them for relevance in a digitally focused world, says project organizer NAM.

NAM is Newspaper Association Manag-ers, a coalition of newspaper association executives in the U.S. and Canada.

Silvestri steps into the newly created executive director position after having retired in late 2019 as publisher and vice president of BH Media’s Richmond Group, which included the Richmond Times-Dis-patch (now owned by Lee Enterprises). He continues to consult there in a contract ca-pacity.

Silvestri will lead planning and execution of the project, which was first launched in 2018. Among the project’s purposes are corralling the assets and services of mem-ber press associations, most of whom are

state or province-based, and refining the messaging on what newspapers represent, moving their branding toward a “commu-nity forum-type concept,” says Silvestri.

High on his to-do list just a few weeks in are establishing an online presence for the Relevance Project and attempting to chat with the designated representatives of all 44 NAM members. “Every time I talk to one of them, they give me something that’s so inspirational and so motivating and helps me focus,” he says.

Silvestri, who some years ago worked as president of Media General’s Commu-nity Newspapers (Media General sold the Tom silvestri

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Times-Dispatch and other papers to BH Media), defines commu-nity newspapers in terms of impact rather than size or publication frequency. “I think every newspaper maybe with the exception of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal is a community newspaper. If you really wanted to tick me off, you’d refer to them as ‘those small papers,’” he says.

He goes on: “When I hear community newspapers, to me, it’s more of a definition of somebody who really is in touch with their communities, engaged with their communities, worries about their communities, and their livelihood depends on the community. The caretaker of local information as well as local democracy.”

Most specifically, the project serves the approximately 9,600 publications that are represented by NAM members, Silvestri says. NAM members and their members represent “a double ring of membership all wedded towards advancing newspapers at a time of great change and a time of crisis,” he says.

‘So important’Silvestri’s press association involvement includes a stint as presi-dent of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, which merged with Inland Press Association in 2019 to form industry ad-vocate America’s Newspapers. He serves as chairman of the SNPA Foundation, a key financial supporter of America’s Newspapers.

“The press associations are so important to their members,” he says.

There’s an interest among the associations in sharing best practices and solutions on the revenue side as papers balance subscription, membership and advertising options, he says. He also wants to trum-

pet publisher success stories outside of the big national papers. The project was born from the NAM board and members and has

great support there, says Silvestri. Silvestri says the project is set to operate as an “agency or hub unto itself,” focused on results for all in the chain. Silvestri credits NAM President Steve Nixon, Layne Bruce, who handles the administration of NAM (director of the Mis-sissippi Press Association in Jackson; NAM’s HQ is also there) and particularly past NAM president Michelle Rea, head of the New York Press Association, for launching the project and letting it find its legs going forward, despite the massive challenge of COVID-19.

“As we move forward into unchartered waters, having Tom at the helm will prove invaluable,” said Nixon, executive director of the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association. “Rather than pull back during the COVID-19 pandemic, NAM, with Tom, is pushing ahead at a time of intense urgency and sweeping uncertainty as some newspapers fight for their existence and their communities try and hold onto their local democracy.”

“When all things digital disrupted the newspaper industry, the disruption did not create an adequate improvement or equivalent substitute,” says Rea. “Our democracy, our local communities, our small businesses, our local institutions and our citizens need to recognize the important role that community news organizations play in their everyday lives. The mission of the Relevance Project is to help ordinary people understand that while our delivery plat-forms have been disrupted, the role and relevance of newspapers matter greatly. Tom’s the right guy to carry this message across the goal line.” p

www.newsandtech.com


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Each of the sites will have their own local workflow that includes servers, RIPs, edition planning and output management to their indi-vidual, local CTP devices. But instead of upgrading their legacy work-flow systems at each site, Tribune Publishing decided to centralize their production workflow at one cloud-based hub.

The hub is integrated with Tribune’s own, pre-existing cloud where each print site can log into ProImage’s central system and manage their own production workflow, independent from each other. This central system, NewsWayX, relies on HTML5 to allow newspaper production operators to access their NewsWayX workflow from anywhere. Staff can log in from different computers at work and from laptops at home to work on production flow.

One benefit, says ProImage, is that all the sites can now take advan-tage of ProImage’s ECO ink optimization software, which the Tribune already had for some of the sites.

The time frame for overall implementation was set to about a year. p

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Furloughs, suspended dividend at Tribune Publishing

Tribune Publishing announced a number of changes the company says are due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chicago Tribune reported May 14 that Tribune Publish-ing and The Chicago Tribune Guild have come to a deal to furlough all unionized newsroom employees making $40,000 or more or a week in May, June and July. Talk of longer-term furloughs will be pushed off until late July, the New York Post reported.

Employees will continue to get health benefits but no salary during furlough weeks. The employees will also be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits and the extra $600 per week unemployment supplement available through July 25.

The company also canceled a $9 million quarterly dividend it planned to give to shareholders, the New York Post reported.

Tribune Publishing will report its financial results for the first quarter on June 5, the company said. The company had delayed the report.

The company had instituted two measures for non-union staffers in April, the New York Post reported. It cut pay from 2 percent to 10 percent on non-union employees making more than $67,000 annually. The change will on a permanent basis lower the base pay of nonunion employees between 2% and 10%, with those making more seeing a larger drop. Staff had until April 17 to accept the pay drop or apply to depart Tribune Publishing and get a severance package.

Top company executives saw a drop in pay as well, with CEO Terry Jimenez bypassing two weeks of salary and undergo-ing a 10% cut in base pay. Jimenez has a yearly base salary of $575,000, according to an SEC filing.

Tribune Publishing board members will get a 13.8% cut in their fees, the paper said.

Kentucky’s News-Enterprise offers free adsThe News-Enterprise (Elizabethtown, Kentucky) is providing,

free of any cost or commitment, a print ad in the paper to every locally owned business as each reopens its storefront. This ad-vertisement can be used to announce the business once again is open to the public.

The paper is also matching businesses’ retail advertising spending up to $1,000 a month through June.

The paper’s program is called the Community Pandemic Re-lief program or CPR.

Virginia-based Landmark Communications owns the paper.

McClatchy launches text-to-speech audio feature

McClatchy has launched a text-to-speech audio feature that will offer readers the option to listen to news content produced

by its 30 newsrooms. This is part of McClatchy's strategy in the audio space, which includes initiatives in smart speakers, audio search and podcasts, the company says.

The new AI audio feature integrated across McClatchy's digital news sites dynamically converts written content into an audio file. The text-to-speech service was tested on two Mc-Clatchy news sites over three months with significant positive customer feedback, a McClatchy news release says. The results from The Sacramento Bee and The News & Observer showed an increase in user engagement online including a 168% increase in time spent on the news site, an 89% increase in story page views and a 95% increase in visits per user.

A play button is positioned under every article headline. McClatchy partnered with Trinity Audio on the initiative. Its

tech uses AI and machine learning and inserts advertising on a revenue share basis. Trinity Audio is part of Israel-based Somo-to, a publicly-traded company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Gannett reports Q1 earningsGannett posted a net loss of $80.2 million in the first quarter,

including $78 million due to depreciation and amortization and $34 million in cash charges tied to the company’s recent merger, USA Today reported. The company had first-quarter revenues of $948.7 million.

Same store revenues decreased 10%, approximately in line with Q4 2019 performance, including the negative impact of approximately $17 million related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a May 7 earnings release said. Paid digital-only subscriber volumes now total some 863,000, up 29% year-over-year, the release said.

“The impact on our business from the pandemic came fast and is significant,” said Michael Reed, chairman and CEO. “However, we continue to execute on our operating and inte-gration plans from the acquisition of legacy Gannett last year. The realization of synergies remains on track and debt pay down remains ahead of schedule. We have also moved aggres-sively to manage through the current economic crisis by taking measures to preserve and increase liquidity and financial per-formance, including further cost reductions, limits on capital expenditures, and the suspension of our quarterly dividend.”

Cutting paper print days is “not part of our plan today,” Reed told USA Today. Poynter and others reported layoffs at Gannett round the country in late April.

Roanoke Times, Idaho Statesman news staffs vote to unionize

News staff at The Roanoke Times voted 47-3 to unionize, the paper reported April 28.

The Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 of The NewsGuild will represent the The Timesland News Guild. The NewsGuild is part of the Communication Workers of America.

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The vote also involved the Laker Weekly.Lee Enterprises owns the paper.Meanwhile, journalists at the Idaho Statesman have union-

ized. The 18-0 vote involved non-manager newsroom staffers. McClatchy owns the paper.

Journalists at VTDigger, a Vermont online nonprofit news site, also voted to unionize in late April.

News Media Alliance: COVID-19 ad blocking hurting publishers

News Media Alliance’s Rebecca Frank recently published an article on Medium on the problem of digital advertisers and ad tech companies blocking their ads from appearing next to coronavirus-related content. The issue has ballooned into an existential crisis for news publishers, the Alliance says.

There are multiple solutions being posed by various indus-try players in an attempt to curb the use of keyword blocking, writes Frank, vice president, research and insights. “For ex-ample, NewsGuard’s ranking of trustworthy news sites, and the Local Media Consortium/Brand Safety Institute’s white list are good solutions. The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) is also taking a multi-pronged approach to encourage advertisers to continue to support news,” she writes.

“And we think multiple solutions will be needed and that or-ganizations should implement the solution that works best for them. If they’re waiting for an industry-wide consensus, it will be too late. If they’re passing responsibility for the problem on to other members of the advertising ecosystem to let them deal with it, that is not helpful and in the meantime, the problem is getting worse,” she writes.

News Guild pushes for Baltimore Sun to be sold to non-profits

The union representing journalists at the Baltimore Sun has started a "Save Our Sun" effort in hopes of removing the paper from corporate ownership and making the Sun operate as a non-profit.

Last year, New York-based hedge Alden Global Capital bought 32% of Tribune Publishing stock, making Alden the largest shareholder of Tribune and giving Alden two seats on the Tri-bune company board. Tribune owns the Sun, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and other papers. It is expected that Alden will work to obtain majority ownership of Tribune Publishing and The Sun as early as this summer, says the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.

“Local foundations and supporters have the capital to take control of The Sun and under this new ownership model, The Sun’s revenue can be used for its right purpose: reporting local news, not enriching financiers at the expense of The Sun's dis-tinguished history and our vibrant region. All we need is for the hedge fund to sell it,” says a guild page on the effort.

“We started Save Our Sun to ensure we have the resources we need to keep doing our jobs, preserve newspapering in Balti-more and prepare a national model for local communities to buy their newspaper back,” said Liz Bowie, a union leader and reporter at The Sun.

Lee gets letter from NYSEOn May 18, Lee Enterprises said it received a letter from the

NYSE indicating that Lee isn’t compliant with these listing standards: Issuers maintain an average closing share price over a 30 trading-day period of at least $1.00; and issuers maintain average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading-day period of at least $50 million and, at the same time, its shareholders’ equity must exceed $50 million.

Lee said it plans to notify the NYSE of its intent to return to compliance within the cure period, six months from July 1 on the first standard and 18 months from July 1 on the second.

Failure to satisfy the conditions of the cure period could lead to a delisting.

Google launches Journalism Emergency Relief Fund, waives fees

Google has launched a global Journalism Emergency Re-lief Fund through the Google News Initiative to support small and medium-sized news organizations producing original news for local communities. The fund’s aim is to support the produc-tion of original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google says. Operating globally, it will provide an easily accessible route to financial assistance at this critical time, Google says.

Google is also waiving ad serving fees for news publishers globally on Ad Manager for five months, the company said in mid-April. The company said it would notify news partners that meet the requirements about the details of the program and what they can expect to see in their account statements.

YouTube works on tool for publishers to sell subscriptions

YouTube is working on a tool for news publishers to sell subscriptions to their owned-and-operated digital properties through their YouTube channels, according to publishers that have knowledge on the subject, Digiday reported in May.

YouTube may start testing the tool by the end of 2020, Digiday said. A spokesperson for YouTube declined to offer a comment.

The tool is linked to the Google News Initiative. The video platform’s subscription sales tool may be linked to

Subscribe With Google, Digiday said. Subscribe With Google has people subscribing to publishers’ sites using their Google accounts.



Seattle Times, Tampa Bay Times get federal loans

The Seattle Times Co. has gotten a $9.9 million federal coro-navirus-aid loan, the paper reported April 21.

“This is a lifeline for us for the next 60 days,” said company President and Chief Financial Officer Alan Fisco.

The loan comes under the $349 billion Payroll Protection Program (PPP), which lets small businesses borrow as much as two and a half months of payroll, up to $10 million.

The Times also owns the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the Yakima Herald-Republic and a printing facility in Kent.

The federal government usually defines small businesses as companies with fewer than 500 staff, but the SBA includes ex-ceptions for some industries, including newspapers, which can have up to 1,000 employees, according to The Times.

“At least for now, we are putting on the back burner any plans for broad scale layoffs, or cuts to hours worked,” Fisco wrote in a note to staff. “There still may be some targeted reductions, but nothing to the extent of cuts we would have had to make without this support.”

A Tampa Bay Times spokeswoman said the paper and its other publications were getting an $8.5 million forgivable loan, Reuters reported. Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Tash said the loan would let the paper bring a “few colleagues back from furlough, and we are reversing a pay cut for most employees a month sooner than we had planned.” Bigger pay cuts for top executives will not be changed, Reuters said.

Meanwhile Axios Chief Executive Jim VandeHei said the company was eligible for almost $5 million under the program, Reuters said.

Newsday has gotten a $10 million loan from the program, publisher Debby Krenek said.

Many papers don’t qualify for the loans because they are owned by large chains.

APTech, George Mason launch certificate program

The Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech) and the George Mason University School of Business have launched the LeadingPRINT: Advanced Leadership Program with its first online education offering: “Managing Transformation in the Printing Industry.”

The program is designed to provide leaders in the printing industry with the knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully transform their companies and generate continued success in an industry being disrupted by radical change in tech-nologies, markets, business and financial models, APTech says.

“It’s critically important for ‘outside’ business leadership knowledge and experience to join with our printing industry expertise so we can offer printing industry professionals new

and valuable business-growth insights,” said Thayer Long, presi-dent, APTech.

The graduate-level curriculum will develop strategic frame-works for leaders to reinvent their organizations and develop new or revised business models based on an innovative vision for the future.

The nine-week program will run June 10 to August 30, be taught by Mason professors and be delivered through the uni-versity’s Learning Management System. Those who complete the program will get a Mason School of Business certificate of completion.

Legislation would let more news publishers apply for SBA loans

A House version of the “Local News and Emergency Informa-tion Act of 2020” was introduced May 15 by Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ranking Member F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI).

The bill is identical to a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the Senate. Both bills include an affiliation waiver that would allow news publishers to apply for PPP loans as individual, in-dependent entities, despite ownership by companies with other small news publishers or non-news businesses, allowing more publishers to qualify for the loans.

The News Media Alliance put out this statement: “The Alli-ance is extremely grateful to Chairman Cicilline and Ranking Member Sensenbrenner for their enduring support of high-quality, local journalism and for their leadership in gathering bipartisan support for an SBA affiliation waiver for news pub-lishers. These SBA loans, which will allow news publishers to continue bringing critical news and information to their local communities, are more critical than ever, as news publishers face extreme challenges from the coronavirus pandemic.”

Longmont second local news site for Compass Experiment

The Longmont Leader (Colorado), a new digital-only news outlet, will launch later this spring. The announcement was made April 21 by Mandy Jenkins, general manager of The Com-pass Experiment, a local news lab founded by McClatchy and funded by Google News Initiative's Local Experiments Project.

Jenkins also said that The Longmont Leader has acquired all the assets of the Longmont Observer, a free, nonprofit news website run by volunteers. The assets include email lists, donor lists, archives, the URL and social media accounts.

The Longmont Leader is hiring a local team that includes a business development leader as well as an editor, assistant edi-tor and two reporters. Articles will offer comprehensive cover-age of local news and events. Longmont Leader will also be a home for community columns and citizen journalism produced


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in partnership with Longmont Public Media. “We are delighted that the great journalism that the people

of Longmont have counted on for three years will continue and grow with the Longmont Leader and the team that Mandy is putting together,” said Megan Favat, strategic partner lead, Global Partnerships, Google.

The Longmont Leader is the second news operation funded by The Compass Experiment. Mahoning Matters, an Ohio-based digital-only news outlet, launched last fall to serve resi-dents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Times-Shamrock donates newsprint to care home

Times-Shamrock Communications of Scranton, Pennsylva-nia, has donated four end rolls of newsprint to Associated Fam-ily Home Care in Kingston so their home health care personnel can use the paper when seeing patients at home, The Citizens’ Voice reported.

The newsprint can be put under home health care personnel’s laptops, equipment and medical bags as a barrier to stop the spreading of any contamination.

“This is just fantastic that we have this,” said Brenda Hen-ninger, officer manager at Associated Family Home Care.

Times-Shamrock owns the Times-Tribune (Scranton), The Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) and other papers.

Parent of Dallas paper cuts pay, dividendA. H. Belo, parent company of The Dallas Morning News, is cut-

ting base compensation for all employees between 3 percent and 17 percent in response to dropping ad sales due to coronavirus. Total compensation for senior executives may be reduced by as much as 27 percent, the company announced April 6. The com-pany is also halving its quarterly dividend for the third quarter.

The company said at the time that it was not instituting layoffs or furloughs. It will be accessing its cash reserves for $8 million.

Robert W. Decherd, A. H. Belo’s chairman, president and chief executive, said the company started the year with $48.6 million in cash. “Our company is advantaged by comparison to most others, especially within the newspaper industry. This gives our board choices to prioritize the long-term health of this great enterprise and support its reason for being — that is, to provide invaluable news and information to the people who depend on us and to the communities The Dallas Morning News has served for nearly 135 years,” he said.

The company’s board was set to shrink by two at the annual meeting, as directors Ty Miller and Nicole Small will not stand for reelection.

Digital subscriptions to The Dallas Morning News rose 29% in 2019 and grew quite a bit in the first four months of 2020, A. H. Belo told investors May 12.

Furloughs, layoffs at Denver Post, other MNG papers

Layoffs and furloughs hit MediaNews Group papers around the country, according to a NewsGuild report. Hedge fund Al-den Global Capital controls MNG.

Papers affected include the Denver Post, Boston Herald, San Jose Mercury News and East Bay Times, Monterey Herald, Chico Enterprise-Record, Kingston (New York) Daily Freeman and Reading Eagle.

Unconfirmed reports said a sales rep, an office manager and two editorial staff members at the Ukiah Daily Journal (Califor-nia) were put on furlough. Two were reportedly furloughed at the Fort Bragg Advocate and Mendocino Beacon, the Guild said.

The Southern California News Group (SCNG), an MNG opera-tion with 11 local daily papers and more than a dozen weeklies, has furloughed some 50 newsroom staff members and laid off several others, according to sources familiar with the moves, LAist reported.

Furloughs and job cuts were also undertaken in other depart-ments, including some 20 layoffs in advertising, according to a source, LAist said. More newsroom cuts may be in the offing, possibly in May, according to a staff announcement by SCNG executive editor Frank Pine, LAist said.

The company’s papers include the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News and San Bernardino Sun.

Buyouts are being offered at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Bring Me the News reported.

MORE NEWS• eMarketer and Business Insider Intelligence have merged to form Insider Intelligence. Germany’s Axel Springer owns the publications.

• Santa Rosa, California-based Sonoma Media Investments has secured a $3.4 million federal loan, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported. The loan, part of the coronavirus relief program, will go to paying salaries, rent and utility bills at SMI publications.

• WEHCO Media will receive $12.3 million in Paycheck Pro-tection Program loans through the U.S. Small Business Ad-ministration, Walter E. Hussman Jr., the company's chairman, announced May 5. The company owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, eight other dailies and eight weeklies.

• Fort Wayne Newspapers is suspending publication of its News-Sentinel page for the time being. The page will be as-sessed for comeback as market conditions improve, said Presi-dent and CEO Scott Stanford. News-Sentinel reporter/colum-nist Kevin Leininger has been furloughed with the suspension. Other employees also have been furloughed and some positions




cut, the paper said. Fort Wayne Newspapers also produces the Journal Gazette (also Fort Wayne), the second-largest paper in Indiana. The two papers have a joint operating agreement. The Ogden Newspapers owns Fort Wayne Newspapers.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer extended offers of voluntary buyouts to 55 guild members in sales, Poynter reported. An-other voluntary buyout offer was extended to full-time news-room employees 65 and older after some staff members said they wanted that, Poynter says.

• The Gloucester Daily Times (Massachusetts) is drop-ping Tuesday and Saturday print, the paper announced.

• The News and Tribune, covering Clark and Floyd coun-ties (Indiana), announced a five-day-a-week publishing sched-ule and end to the Monday paper.

• The Eden Prairie News and Lakeshore Weekly News (Minnesota) planned to put out their last editions in April, Gen-eral Manager Laurie Hartmann announced. The papers were among the 11 purchased this year by Digital First Media, a subsid-iary of Alden Global Capital. The other publications that are part of Southwest News Media, including weeklies in Chanhassen, Chaska and Shakopee, will go on publishing, the company said.

• The Daily Clintonian (Clinton, Indiana), which ceased publication on April 10, has been bought with the intent to restart the paper. The news comes from John Thomas Cribb, Cribb, Greene & Cope, who represented the Carey family in their sale to Don L. Hurd, president of Hoosier Media Group, Hometown Media and Heartland Media Group.

• Protocol, a tech site started by Politico’s parent company, was laying off 13 employees, according to Nieman Lab.

• The New York Times ceased printing hard copies of travel and sports sections in the paper's Sunday edition and instead printed a section focused on sheltering in place, Cheddar first reported.

• Twitter cut support for BuzzFeed’s “AM to DM” morning show on the social platform, Variety reported. BuzzFeed has stopped the show and has laid off program staff.

• BuzzFeed is furloughing 68 employees and extending salary cuts, Variety reported.

• The Boston Globe laid off two union workers and an un-specified number of nonunion staff in early May in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, Commonwealth reported.

• Starting April 28, the Sharon Herald (Pennsylvania) began a five-day-a-week publishing schedule and ceased producing Tuesday and Sunday papers, the paper announced. The Satur-day paper will serve as the weekend edition. Readers will have access to the paper’s news, features, sports, comics, puzzles, advertisements and other print content Tuesday and all week-days through the paper’s e-edition. Community Newspaper Holdings owns the paper.

• Starting May 5, the News Record (Gillette, Wyoming) will print only on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The issues will be mailed, the paper says. The paper will still publish a daily news product online.

• Valence Media planned to cut more than a third of the newsroom positions at its Hollywood Reporter and Billboard publications, the New York Post reported. Around 35 percent of the company’s newsrooms were slated for cuts, a source told the Post. The cuts were set to hit the publications’ corpo-rate management and advertising people and then involve the whole company, which includes Dick Clark Productions.

• The Washington County Pilot-Tribune has changed the web size or width of the paper, the paper announced. The width had been 12 1/2 inches and has gone to 11 1/4 inches. The length of the page will stay the same. Enterprise Publishing Company, headquartered in Blair, Nebraska, owns the paper.

• The Atlanta Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Texas) and the Cass County Sun (Linden, Texas) have combined. The new paper is called Cass County Now.

• In calls to staff, New York Post publisher Sean Giancola an-nounced that the company will take cost-cutting measures due to falling advertiser demand, the Daily Beast reported. Over a dozen staffers were laid off, people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast. Furloughs are also part of the mix, the Daily Beast says. News Corp owns the paper.

• The Lake County News Chronicle (Two Harbors, Minne-sota) will produce its last issue May 22, the paper announced. Forum Communications owns the paper.

• Leaf Group, a consumer internet company, has made a deal to transfer ownership of a library of content currently displayed on selected Hearst websites to Hearst Newspapers in exchange for $9.5 million. In addition, for a three-year period, Leaf Group and Hearst will continue to work together to man-age the sites.

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Mergers & acquisitions

Three closed California papers find new home

Charlie Plowman, owner of Outlook Newspapers in La Canada Flintridge, has acquired three closed papers from the Los Angeles Times’ parent company, the LA Times reported.

Terms of the deal weren’t made public.Due to COVID-19, the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-

Press and La Canada Valley Sun were closed by The Times’ owner, California Times, earlier in April.

Plowman publishes the La Canada Outlook, the Pasade-na Outlook and titles in South Pasadena and San Marino. His plan is to merge the two La Canada papers into one paper and reboot the Glendale and Burbank papers.

The 14 community news staff members who lost posi-tions as part of the closures won’t be going to Outlook Newspapers, the LA Times reported.

Fillmore County Journal owners make a buyThe owners of the weekly Fillmore County Journal (Pres-

ton, Minnesota) bought the Bluff Country Newspaper Group publications and have discontinued all six titles: The Chatfield News, Spring Valley Tribune, Tri-County Re-cord, Fillmore County News Leader, Spring Grove Herald and Bluff Country Reader. The Fillmore County Journal will take on the role of official legal newspaper for all cit-ies, schools, townships and county governments covered by those papers, the Fillmore County Journal reported.

The Fillmore paper will also boost circulation from 13,500 to nearly 18,000 households in the Minnesota coun-ties of Fillmore, Houston, and Mower. Many of the Bluff Country Newspaper Group employees will be brought on board in the new arrangement, the paper said.

Adwanted buys SRDS from KantarMedia buying platform Adwanted Group has acquired

SRDS, a unit for locating and comparing digital and tradi-tional media across business, consumer and geographic audiences. Adwanted Group CEO Emmanuel Debuyck said in a news release that the acquisition is designed to create a critical mass marketplace where media planners and buyers can engage in automated, one-stop planning and buying for traditional media on a single platform.

Adwanted purchased SRDS (Standard Rate & Data Ser-vice) from data, insights and consulting company Kantar Media in an all-cash agreement; specific terms were not disclosed. Bain Capital recently acquired a controlling stake in Kantar. Prior to the acquisition, Adwanted had exclusive rights to license SRDS data on more than 6,700 U.S. business-to-business and consumer magazines and integrate the data with the Adwanted platform.

The Adwanted Group was founded in France in 2012 and launched its U.S. operation late last year.


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industry People

Cox Media Group announced that Kim Guthrie, president and CEO, has decided to move on from the or-ganization after a 22-plus year career with the company. Steve Pruett, executive chairman of Cox Media Group, will serve as the interim chief executive officer until a permanent CEO is appointed soon.

Lee Enterprises has named Chris White publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal. White, who currently oversees a group of Lee newspapers in Illinois, Indiana, New York and Wisconsin, including the State Journal, took over for Tom Wiley, who was named publisher of The Buffalo (New York) News, succeeding Warren T. Colville.

Elizabeth Ellis, the longtime publisher of the Journal Inquirer (Manchester, Connecticut), has died at the age of 92.

Amy Lindsey has been named publisher at AZ Big Media.

H. Brandt “Brandy” Ayers, former publisher of The Anniston Star (Alabama), has died. He was 85.

Exactus has appointed former Tribune Broadcast Media president Larry Wert to its board. Wert joins the Florida-based company as it seeks to become a top player in the global hemp industry with its CBD and CBG products. Exactus is a producer of hemp-derived ingredients.

Tom Silvestri, most recently president and publisher

of the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, will be the executive director of the Relevance Project, the joint ef-fort of newspaper trade groups to strengthen the indus-try’s unique role as the provider of quality journalism and the keeper of public forums for thousands of com-munities across the continent.

Fran Reilly has been appointed executive director of the News Leaders Association. NLA supports and de-velops leaders of newsrooms dedicated to independent, fact-based journalism.

Ray Prince, a 61-year printing industry veteran, con-sultant, and advisor, died on May 1. He was 76. Along with holding a number of industry jobs, he served as a vice president of the National Association for Printing Leadership.

Philip Austin Berkebile Sr. died on May 1. He was 83. Berkebile retired as executive vice president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association in 2004 after serv-ing 22 years. He was executive director of the Nebraska Press Association in Lincoln from 1973 to 1985.

The former publisher of the Eugene Register-Guard has been named the top executive of the Albany Demo-crat-Herald and the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Shanna S. Cannon will serve as Lee Enterprises’ Northwest re-gional publisher, overseeing digital and print operations for the Corvallis and Albany papers as well as The Daily News in Longview, Washington, and associated publica-tions including two mid-valley weeklies, the Philomath Express and Lebanon Express. Jeff Precourt, former publisher of the mid-valley papers, and David Thorn-berry, the former Longview publisher, are no longer with the company, Lee announced.

Longtime Hartford Courant reporter Josh Kovner has died of cardiac arrest. He was 61.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch announced that Donna Bischoff has been named its general manager and Lee Enterprises’ vice president of sales for St. Louis. Bis-choff succeeds Ian Caso, who was named president and publisher in February.

Mark Daniel has been promoted to general manager at The Sentinel (Hanford, California), while Parker Bow-man has been named managing editor.

The World-Herald (Omaha) has announced that Julie Bechtel, formerly executive vice president of BH Media Group, has been named publisher. Current publisher Todd Sears becomes World-Herald general manager.

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Veteran journalist Steve Bruss has been named ex-ecutive editor for Gannett's Upstate newsrooms (South Carolina), overseeing The Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald Journal and Anderson Independent Mail.

Jewell Walston, a former Citizen Times sports editor, is returning to Asheville to lead the newsroom as execu-tive editor.

Richard S. Holden, who retired in 2014 after 22 years as executive director of the Dow Jones News Fund and 19 years as an editor of The Wall Street Journal, has died after a lengthy illness. He was 70.

Almar Latour has been named chief executive and publisher of Dow Jones. Latour assumes his new posi-tion on May 15. Latour has spent decades at The Jour-nal and Dow Jones in various roles, from news assistant and staff reporter to bureau chief and managing editor. He is currently an executive vice president of Dow Jones and the publisher for Barron’s Group. He succeeds Wil-liam Lewis, who announced he was leaving the roles he held since 2014.

Earl Graves Sr., founder and publisher of Black En-terprise magazine, has died. He was 85.

Paul Taylor, senior vice president of Hearst and pres-ident, chief executive officer and group head of Fitch Group, has been elected to Hearst’s board of directors.

A. H. Belo Corporation announced that Katy Murray, the company’s senior vice president and CFO, has been promoted to executive vice president. Murray continues in the role of CFO.

Florida Times-Union Editor Mary Kelli Palka has been named the paper’s market leader after Group Publisher Bill Offill announced his departure. Offill is resigning effective May 5.

Gannett said Douglas E. Horne has been appointed as CFO. He replaces Alison “Ali” Engel, who stepped down at the end of the first quarter.

Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash, will join The Philadel-phia Inquirer’s board. Vogel fills the board position previously held by Terry Egger, who retired this year.

Rex Maynor has been named publisher of The Nat-chez Democrat (Mississippi), Natchez The Magazine, The Brookhaven Daily Leader, Brookhaven Magazine, the Prentiss Headlight and related digital and print products.

Tracey DeAngelo has been named vice president and

general manager of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Ralf Sammeck has been appointed CDO for Koenig

& Bauer. His duties also include COO and CFO for the company.

Michael Ulverich has been appointed chief operating officer of the Koenig & Bauer management board.

Allan Malachuk, 79, former president and CEO of the predecessor company of Koenig & Bauer (US), Planeta North America, died April 19. He remained as president and CEO until his retirement in 2002.

industry People


GENERATING REVENUEby Kevin [email protected]

Like many of you, I’ve been working out of my home office for six weeks. Not only am I a little stir crazy from being home all the time, I’m a little anxious about the reduction in income related to COVID-19. I’d like to share a few things I’ve done to increase revenue during this pe-riod while building new business for the post-COVID-19 world.

Until six weeks ago, I earned a living in two primary ways. I own a book publishing company which employs a few folks. We publish books by well-known authors. This includes everything from editing manuscripts and designing pages to marketing and promoting the books. Interest-ingly, most folks I speak with outside the book business think people are probably ordering a lot of books right now. You might be surprised to learn that, like most other expenses, people have – for the most part – quit buying books. Our sales have dropped more than 90 percent since early March.

My other primary method of making a living is through speak-ing at conferences and leading webinars. Like many of my speak-ing friends, our schedules went from quite full in the spring and summer of 2020 to nonexistent. Of a dozen or so speaking events I had scheduled, other than one, all have canceled or postponed.

I saw three choices:

1. We could count on COVID-19 to pass quickly and just keep doing things like we always have.

2. We could find new ways to bring in revenue to get us through the COVID-19 period.

3. We could throw in the towel.

I chose option 2.

We began looking for ways to bring in new revenue while our traditional methods of income are taking a hit. In a strange turn of events, we had to bring in more staff to deal with all the projects we’ve begun. It’s very likely, when things get back to “normal,” we will be a much stronger company because of the plans originally made to deal with the current crisis.

So how does this relate to newspapers? Many of you are in the same place. Hopefully, my friends at papers in the U.S. were fortunate enough to qualify for PPP loans from the Small Busi-ness Administration. Those help, but they are a band-aid, not a permanent solution.

Let me suggest three ideas:

1. Find ways to bring in new revenue through

your newspaper.

A publisher friend in Minnesota and I were talking in the wee hours of the morning a few days ago. She said, “Give me an idea to bring in revenue. I am all out of ideas.” I suggested she contact local advertisers in her very small town and get them to go in together to sponsor two-page spreads each week to honor the high school graduates in the area. Combined with the feelings of regret a lot of folks are feeling for graduates missing their proms, graduations, etc., this would give area advertisers a way to honor their graduates all summer. And yes, it could bring in significant revenue for the newspaper. The conversation ended with “You may have just saved my newspaper.”

2. Find ways to use the tools on hand to bring

in new revenue. I led two webinars in April re-lated to publishing books for lo-cal authors. Afterwards, I heard from several of the attendees that they were going to begin the process of helping local authors

self-publish books right away. Us-ing staff, hardware and software they already have, a lot of news-papers can begin spreading the word and authors will show up with revenue-producing work. How could your newspaper think out of the box and offer new services that would benefit your community and bring in revenue at the same time? You’re already doing lots of things: designing brochures and websites; market-ing on your social media pages for local restaurants who are de-livering and offering carry-out; and creating signs to congratu-late the Class of 2020. What else could you be doing with the tools you already have to bring in ad-ditional revenue?

3. Look for tools available, many at no cost, to help

your advertisers and bring in revenue so they can prosper.

A few nights ago, I spent an hour on a video conference with Katherine Haine of City Media. I’ve run into Katherine at sev-eral newspaper conventions and always liked the way she came up with products that benefited her customers, newspapers, as well as her own business. Frankly, I don’t have time these days for an hour teleconference, but when Katherine told me what City Media was up to, I decided it might be something I’d want to share with newspa-pers. In a nutshell, City Media has created protectlocalusa.com and protectlocal.ca as ways for

community newspapers to offer online marketing - including online stores - for local busi-nesses at, get this, no cost. No cost to the newspaper. No cost to the business. How do they make money? When a percentage of the businesses decide to upgrade to other services offered by City Media, they make money. I spent two hours with Katherine, mak-ing sure there wasn’t a catch. I couldn’t find one. And get this . . . newspapers get a percentage of the revenue – 20 percent – when businesses in your area upgrade to other services. As far as I can tell, and I’m pretty good at telling, it’s a no-lose situation for the newspaper. You offer local businesses a free service that is beneficial to them, with no expenses on your part. Ever. And you get paid anytime City Media gets paid by one of the businesses in your area.

It is, indeed, a crazy time. Like many of you, I’ve never worked harder. And like many of you, I’m making less money. To me, however, it seems you have three choices. I’ve been working with community papers for more than half my life. I haven’t run into many publishers who give up easily, so I would suggest you give serious consideration to option 2. If your business is any-thing like mine, it could begin to pay dividends in the short term, and in the long term that follows.

Kevin Slimp is publisher at Market Square Books and CEO of newspaperacademy.com.

Finding new ways to generate income during times of crisis

ProtectLocalusa.com is one example of a revenue-generating product for newspapers with no expense involved.

contributor

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uFactorium www.factorium.com

Vendor insight


Vendor News

Turkish printing firm, QIPC work togetherPrinting company Tuna Matbaacılık equipped its re-

cently acquired press with the latest automation from Q.I. Press Controls (QIPC), a news release from QIPC says.

The Turkish printing company is maintaining the successful combination of the manroland UNISET 75 newspaper press and QIPC automation that the previ-ous owner of the press in South Africa used. The Dutch specialist in measuring and control equipment for the printing industry installed its mRC-3D system for color register and cut-off control at the print shop in Ankara.

The total of six mRC-3D cameras (two for cut-off con-trol and four for color register control) will allow the press to work more efficiently with less waste and a higher quality end-product as a result, the release said.

Both Tuna Matbaacılık, QIPC and Bora Erdem of Derintrade, QIPCs agent for Turkey and the person who brought the parties closer together, are looking forward to a successful long-term relationship, the release says.

DCOS replaces closed-loop inspection system in Finland

In late summer 2019 Suomalainen Lehtipaino, based in Kajaani in northern Finland, placed an order with DCOS to replace a closed-loop inspection system.

The target for the investment was for the start-up waste to be almost halved, reduced by 47.5%.

The previous control system was dismantled as the DCOS system was installed and commissioned in Decem-ber 2019.

The first full month waste report for January showed a 39% start-up waste reduction from the previous year and the start-up waste has continued to decline since, ac-cording to DCOS.

This represents the second DCOS closed-loop inspec-tion system installation in Finland.

DCOS Sweden AB was founded in 2004. Its specialty is automation for printing houses.

Kyocera enters inkjet production print mar-ket with TASKalfa Pro 15000c

Kyocera Document Solutions America has announced the launch of its first inkjet production print device with the TASKalfa Pro 15000c. This development is the next step in Kyocera’s diversification, the company says in a press release.

The TASKalfa Pro 15000c offers a cost-effective alterna-tive to conventional printing in transactional, trans-pro-motional and direct-mail applications, the release says.

“The TASKalfa Pro 15000c represents a shift in ambi-tions for Kyocera, moving us into the innovative area of inkjet production printing," said Doug Cole, director, pro-duction print. "It’s where the future of affordable print-ing lies, and our device is built with reliability in mind to ensure that downtime is kept to a minimum.”

The TASKalfa Pro 15000c is available through Kyocera’s direct sales channel and through authorized Kyocera dealers and resellers.

Kyocera Document Solutions America is a group com-pany of Kyocera Document Solutions, based in Osaka, Japan.

New initiatives from TownNews, jump in traffic

In response to the pandemic, TownNews says it’s fast-tracked a number of initiatives to help its custom-ers generate revenue as locally sold advertising income fades, including a new “Support Local Journalism” fea-ture that allows site visitors to make direct monetary contributions to their local news organizations; a series of turnkey business directory products; and a coronavi-rus resources page that offers news, information and tips to assist news organizations.

Traffic across the TownNews customer network — made up of more than 2,000 newspaper, TV, radio and web-native news sites — spiked sharply in March, the company reports.

Moline, Illinois-based TownNews customer sites were

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on pace to deliver one billion unique pageviews in March. From March 1 to March 22, the digital service provider’s media clients saw a massive influx compared to the previous 22-day period. Visitor sessions jumped 48%, unique visitors have increased 40% and unique pa-geviews are up 44%.

The escalation began on March 9 and continued at a steep double-digit rate as the COVID-19 pandemic con-tinued to have an impact.

The increase in pageviews has led to a similar increase in ad impressions. Daily global programmatic advertising revenue has seen big gains, with ad requests up 42% for the week ending March 20, according to TownNews.

Any increase in programmatic revenue will not make up for steep advertising losses both in-paper (ROP) and preprint inserts, TownNews notes. Broadcasters will also see steep declines in spot advertising, especially from lo-cal small businesses, due to ordered closures from local, state and national governments, the company says.

Zuora reports rise in subscription growth rate

More than 22.5% of companies saw their subscription growth rate accelerate, according to subscription software company Zuora.

The California-based company produced a report on earliest trends of how COVID-19 has impacted subscriber acquisition rates from March 1-31 compared to the previous 12 months.

Overall, the COVID-19 Subscription Impact Report found that 53.3% of companies have not seen a significant impact to their subscriber acquisition rates. It said 22.5% of companies are seeing their subscription growth rate accelerate, 12.8% of companies are seeing slowing growth, but are still growing, and the remaining 11.4% of companies are starting to see sub-scriber churn outpace their subscriber acquisition rates.

The subscription growth rate for digital news and media subscriptions grew 3x, the report says. The subscription growth rate for OTT video streaming companies grew 7x.

The analysis only included Zuora billing customers who have been live for at least 6 months.

Piano also shared some recent subscription data.

Vendors, orgs provide COVID-19 updatesVendors and advocacy organizations serving the newspa-per and print industries have released updates on their status during the COVID-19 crisis. Here are some of the updates that reflect moves across the industries.

• In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, in March Rayon-ier Advanced Materials announced curtailed production at seven Canadian locations. The company said it would cease or reduce operations at all softwood sawmills located in Ontario and Quebec as well as halt production at the company’s newsprint plant in Kapuskasing, On-tario. The curtailments were set to last at least two weeks or longer. Existing sales orders were set to be fulfilled from current inventory and reduced production at the Kapuskasing sawmill. All other facilities were expected to operate at normal levels.

• Fujifilm’s business units focused on the commercial, sign and display, packaging and industrial print seg-ments remain committed to continuing support of these businesses, in accordance with government directives, said an update from Fujifilm. “We have implemented necessary steps to support our employees who can work from home and have instituted additional safety pro-tections for those employees whose work must be per-formed on-site.”

• Technotrans America (tta) said in March that it’s con-ducting business normally regarding equipment sales, parts sales, equipment repair and hotline support.

• A note to customers from The Siebold Company said, “To ensure the safety of our parts customers, we sanitize all parts and components prior to shipment. We suggest when you receive shipments from us, your receiving per-sonnel use best practices to sanitize all incoming ship-ments including hand washing before and after unpack-ing the shipment. We have adopted this same procedure for all incoming deliveries received at our facilities.

• PressReader has launched a new channel on COVID-19 on its platform. It’s a news feed of stories from publish-ers around the world, which PressReader has also made available as a free digital newspaper called COVID-19 News.

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conference

Welcome back to our series on newspaper tech through the decades. It’s a chance to enjoy the rich history of our industry and see how it adapted through monumental changes, as it continues to change today. It’s also fun to see the old tech.

We started with installments on typesetting and the evolution of printing tech. Now, in our last bit, it’s a look at newsprint and the mailroom.

Photos and text for this series were drawn from “Changing Print: Turning Points in Newspaper Tech-nology since 1970,” a wonderfully researched and illustrated report from the World Printers Forum, the print community within the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Over the years, newsprint producers have dealt with the compromise of furnish versus bulk, density versus yield, surface smoothness versus set-off (printability) and cost effectiveness in terms of printed area and ba-sis weight. Given these challenges and the dilemma of balancing quality constraints, the pursuit of improved consistency in performance and profile control re-mains a priority.

“It is hard to recall that the standard newsprint grade was once 52 g/m2 compared with the current focus of 40 g/ m2, 42.5 g/m2 and 45 g/m2,” said the WAN-IFRA report.

For its part, the development of mailroom technol-ogy was driven mainly by requirements of the newspa-per and the advertising industry. Game-changers in the evolution of the mailroom:

• Single gripper conveyors, which allowed process-ing of each newspaper copy individually according to its destination in the mailroom.

• Inserting systems. Split run editions with variable insert content for different demographic areas became possible.

• Winding tech, which enabled fully automatic storage and retrieval of the printed products as well as dynamic decoupling of the press and mailroom pro-cesses to operate them at optimal speeds.

This text was adapted from material written by Hans Holenstein,

Terry Parry and others who contributed to the WAN-IFRA report.

Oh, the tech we have known, vol. 3

Muller Martini robot vehicle storage system, 1993. The temporary storage of preprinted materials was tackled at the beginning of the 1980s with the development of a patented technology for winding newspaper sections. The tech allowed full automation at newspaper operations of any size.


a semi-automated mailroom, 1972.a semi-automated mailroom, 1972.a

Keyboard programmer, model 4004, 1974. software development was thus integrated in mailroom control technology. With the advent of programming, stackers could be controlled by manually entering the data via a keyboard.

2

3Cartoon, 1972. The newspaper press of the future is fed with news and images from the top. The finished paper falls out at the bottom.

Source: Unknown cartoonist, in an internal book from Muller Martini,

authors Georg Valko, Heinz Linder and Hans Holenstein, 2005.

4

1

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