You’re Invited.

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For program details, see page 5, call (847) 795-0380 or visit InlandPress.org.

October 24-26 | Renaissance Chicago HotelInland’s 125th Annual Meeting

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InlandWorks for You

For more information, see page 5, call 847-795-0380 or visit inlandpress.org

Attend the Inland Press Association’s124th Annual Meeting, Oct. 25-27, 2009, at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel, in downtown Chicago. Newspaper executives will find excellent training and networking opportunities at this must-attend event. This year’s session topics include:

• Separating Truth from Fiction on Newspapers in Recession

• The Economics of Publishing in a Free Content Market

• Event Marketing and How It Can Service Advertisers and Drive Revenue

• Legal Update: Risks and Opportunities Facing Newspapers

• New Revenue Generators: Mobile, Video, Local Search, Personalized News and More

• Models for Revenue — The Issue of Charging for Content

Photo courtesy of © City of Chicago

PAGE 6 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | JUNE 2011

Hotel:Hilton Garden Inn Omaha Downtown/Old Market Area, 1005 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68102.Phone: (402) 341-4400Room Rate: $129 for single, double or kingCut-off date for this rate is Wednesday, July 29.Shuttle service will be provided.

Conference registration opens at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4, followed by sessions from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Friday, Aug. 5, sessions run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the conference adjourns.

For more information or to register, visit InlandPress.org.

Attend the 2011 New Business Development ConferenceAugust 4-5The Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald

Sessions include:• Online Initiatives to Grow Market Share• Creating a Culture of Innovation• New Product Development• Understanding the Retailing Environment• Effective Advertising and Professional Presentations• Monetizing Social Media• Employee New Business Rewards and Incentive Programs

“Creating a Culture of Innovation and New Revenue Development” Inland

Works for You

Last chance to register

Aug. 6-8, 2009 Doubletree Hotel

Arlington Heights, Ill.

Inland Pressinlandpress.orgAssociation Foundationnewspaper business

development network

Newspaper Business

Development Conference

• Informative and motivational speakers

• Roundtables and “great idea” exchanges to help grow your revenue

• Great ideas for specialty products, special sections, niche publications, multi-platform sections, online and e-mail products, content, design, sales and marketing

• Attendees receive Great Idea DVD that includes all contest entries

For more information, see page 6, call 847-795-0380 or visit nbdn-inland.org.

Inland can help you reduce turnover and save money with the Employee Attitude Survey and the Newspaper Industry Compensation Survey. Inland’s industry standard for compensation planning and the employee survey can help your media company hire the right employees, set the right compensation, and

find the right motivation to keep them productive and engaged. Enroll today at InlandPress.org/Research and start keeping more of your cash.

Losing them is costing you thousands of dollars every year.

Your employees areyour most precious assets.

* Annual costs related to employee turnover based on a mathematical calculation of a business with 100 employees. Costs include separation pay, termination and hiring administrative costs, employee pre-screening, interviewing, background checks, medical exams, time spent doing the employee’s work until a replacement is found, productivity loss, a new employee’s learning curve, and more.

Source: University of Wisconsin Extension

InlandWorks for You$2

19,37

5*

PAGE 18 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | MARCH 2011

InlandWorks for you

Inland Press FoundationYour Best Value in Media Training

Attend the Group Executives

Conference

Thrive in a fast-changing world ...

Sept. 21-23, 2009InterContinental Hotel

Kansas City, Mo.

• Understand the evaluation and financing of newspapers in today’s marketplace.

• SEO, SEM, rich media, video, directories, search or e-mail marketing—which yield the most revenue and how can you get it?

• Get the latest cost-cutting efficiencies and strategies to use at your newspaper.

For more, see page 10, call 847-795-0380 or visit inlandpress.org

PAGE 10 The Inlander | Inlandpress.org | JUNE 2009

Ideas

Newspaper leaders will find quality training and valuable net-working opportunities when the Inland Press Association and the Suburban Newspapers of America join forces this fall.

Inland’s Group Executive Con-ference will be held in conjunction with SNA’s Publishers’ & Adver-tising Directors’ Conference Sept. 21-23 at the InterContinental Hotel in Kansas City, Mo.

“Inland is all about improving business practices and results,” said Ray Carlsen, Inland’s executive director. “The efficiencies and syn-ergies represented by this collabo-ration can encourage all newspa-pers to work together and improve the business.”

“The Inland Group Executives’ conference has a great reputation, and we are delighted that they will be joining us in Kansas City this fall,” said Nancy Lane, president of SNA. “By joining forces, we can provide even better programming to the members of both organiza-tions. This is a win/win for all.”

The Group Executives Confer-ence will start with a reception Monday evening, Sept. 21, and continue Tuesday, Sept. 22—one day prior to the official start of the SNA Fall Conference. The groups will have joint programming for the morning sessions on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Members of both associations will have access to the full Inland and SNA programs at member rates. On Wednesday morning, In-land Press members have the op-portunity to participate in a joint session with SNA Fall Conference attendees. Inland members can reg-ister to attend the rest of the SNA Fall Conference for an additional $404 for SNA on Wednesday af-ternoon, all day Thursday and Fri-day morning sessions.

Tuesday sessions include:

Evaluation and Financing of Newspapers in Today’s Market — How in the world do you deter-mine a realistic value and price on

newspapers for sale or for acquisi-tion in today’s economy? What do you recommend when a newspaper transaction becomes necessary or highly desirable? Is there any cap-ital out there for newspaper acqui-sitions, refinancing or other major capital purposes? What are the prevalent terms?

Values of newspapers in the cur-rent market can still be established based on EBITDA multiples and hard assets, but the caveat is the lack of a “bottom” for forecast prof-its. Where available financing has slowed transactions, creative seller-financed deals are making a come-back. With John Cribb, managing director, Cribb, Greene & Associ-ates, Bozeman, Mont.; Owen Van Essen, president, Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, Santa Fe, N.M.; and Frank Greuter, Sr. V.P., Citizens Bank, Publishing Group, Boston.

Building an Opportunity Map for Online Ventures — Whether it’s SEO, SEM, rich media, video, directories, search or e-mail mar-keting, all content areas do not gen-erate equal revenues. Which yield the most revenue and how can we get it? Find out how we can trans-late the web business we have to a sustainable business model by fo-cusing on the right things that pay. Finally, take advantage of your op-portunity by understanding how to measure, price and sell your total audience.

Cost-Cutting Efficiencies and Strategies — Topics to include content alternatives, outsourcing, centralization, partnership oppor-tunities, elimination/reduction of services newspapers thought they couldn’t live without, and more.

HR Law Updates — A new ad-ministration at the federal level is bringing substantial change that will greatly effect newspaper op-erations. This is an essential session for those who want to be proactive in dealing with change.

For a complete list of Wednes-day’s half-day joint sessions and to register, please visit Inlandpress.org/training.

How newspaper group executives will benefit from Inland and SNA

Listen Up.Inland Press Foundation Webinars

Look at what they’re saying:

InlandWorks for You

Find out what everyone is getting excited about. VisitInlandpress.org/training/webinars

“Well done. Great speaker and great information. I hope our management team takes this information seriously and makes the much-needed changes. Thank you for your time, and I must say the follow-up and communication prior to the Webinar was fabulous! Well done.”

— Tiffany Willard, Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph Herald

“I found the Webinar to be very helpful. Quite a few things discussed in the Webinar are already in place here in Edmonton. However, the idea for a Recruitment Media Kit made attending the Webinar well worth it. Thank you.”

— Willy Grant, The Edmonton Journal,

Alberta, Canada

“The Webinars are a very efficient way of keeping informed of the latest information. They are greatly appreciated.” — Mark Wolf, The Truth, Elkhart, Ind.

“Packed with useful information. Good presenters.”

— Clara Tappa, Kenosha, (Wis.) News

“The Webinar was helpful. I can’t take all my account reps out of the office, but the quick and to-the-point presentation is good info.” — Tina West, Courier Times, New Castle, Ind.

“Very informative especially for small papers such as ours. We’ll do more.”

— Marshall Smith, Idyllwild (Calif.)

Town Crier

“Great Webinar. We need as much online education as possible.”

— David Jakeman, Messenger News, Fort Dodge, Iowa

InlandWorks for You

Honor your journalists

Enter the 2009

NewsroomContests

Inland Press Association invites entries to its 2009 Newsroom Contest to recognize high-quality performance, encourage, motivate and re-energize newsroom staff and prominently identify newspaper excellence.

· Community Leadership Award, co-sponsored by University of Missouri School of Journalism

· Local News Writing Awards, co-sponsored by University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

· Editorial Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by William Allen White School of Journalism, University of Kansas

· Front Page Contest, co-sponsored by Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

· News Picture Contest, co-sponsored by Indiana University School of Journalism

For more information, see page 4, call 847-795-0380 or visit InlandPress.org

InlandWorks for You

2010 KeyExecutives Conference

CHANGING MODELSon distributing and protecting

content and serving the community

Feb. 28 - March 3 | South Seas Island Resort | Captiva Island, Fla.For more information, see page 5, visit InlandPress.org or call (847) 795-0380.

20 Reasons to Attend Inland’s

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For details on sessions, see page 4. For more, visit InlandPress.org or call (847) 795-0380.

Feb. 28-March 3South Seas Island ResortCaptiva Island, Fla.

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17 1411

12

13

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3

7 You’ll discover how to take advantage of ad networks without them taking advantage of you.(Presented by Kerry Oslund, vice-president of Digital Media for Schurz Communications)

You’ll learn about the real opportunities that exist to help you launch a paid content model in 2010.(Presented by Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and co-founder of Journalism Online Venture)8 19 You can participate

in Inland’s Tennis Tournament.

You’ll get ideas (and share some of your own) on how to generate new revenue during Inland’s Idea Exchange.

You’ll find out what national retailers are looking for from local newspaper sites and how you can be a part of this growth opportunity.(Presented by Katie Risch, director of Media Relations, Centro, Chicago)

You’ll hear about the latest current social media strategies that foster community engagement and reach new customers.

You’ll learn everything you need to know about E-Readers.(Presented by Ray Marcano, Internet general manager, Cox Ohio Publishing)15 2 You’ll get tips on how to organize for speed and flexibility to

expand your commercial opportunities and grow new revenue. (Presented by Chuck Peters, CEO, Gazette Communications)

You’ll enjoy an Oceanside reception sponsored by Publishing Group of America (American Profile, Relish and Spry magazines) with great food, cocktails and conversation.

You’ll hear Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex S. Jones, director, Harvard University’s The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, deliver a keynote speech.

You’ll leave the conference with proven ways to ensure your sales staff produces top sales results. (Presented by Mike Blinder, president, The Blinder Group, New Port Richey, Fla.)

You’ll see some of the winners of 2010 Print Quality Competition, co-sponsored by Southern Lithoplate, and the New Frontier Awards.

There’s lots more to do while at Captiva Island — boating, fishing, kayaking, jet skiing, swimming (in resort pools or the beach), go shopping or visit an art and photo gallery!

You’ll be able to plan and shape the future of Inland Press during committee planning meetings.

You’ll learn about the legal challenges facing newspapers and what to do about them.(Presented by Camille Olson and Richard Lapp, partners, Seyfarth Shaw, Chicago)

161 You’ll know how to get your share of the projected $3 billion in political ad spending in 2010. (Presented by John Kimball, president, The John Kimball Group LLC, and former Newspaper Association of America chief marketing officer)

You’ll appreciate the opportunity to network with like-minded, successful professionals.

You’ll hear about newspapers that have improved their classified advertising strategies. (Presented by Mark Stange, classified advertising director, Cox Newspapers)

1859 You’ll learn how to better leverage your products with your audience in today’s economy.(Presented by Sue Beck, president, Print Marketing Concepts Inc., Houston)

You can join the Inland Golf Tournament while at the resort.

Your spouse or guest can enjoy a Shelling Cruise to Cayo Costa.

Key Executives Conference

“Journalists and sales staff need more training than ever. I think if you have

less people, they have to be better. If you train them, they’re smarter,

faster, more entrepreneurial and they’re happier.

“You can’t tell staff, ‘I’m asking you to do three jobs, and I’m not going

to train you.’ That will only erode our products and revenues.

“The impact of Inland’s training can be dramatic.

Good training can take 10 people and help

them to handle the work of 12, but when

cutbacks force people to take the work of

others, no training can actually mean 10 people

only get done what eight people did before.”

Inland Works for You

— Bill OstendorfPresident and Founder

Creative Circle Media Consulting

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For more information, e-mail Tim Mather, Inland’s Financial Studies Manager, at tmather@inlandpress.org.

unleash your financial power

this summer. On Tuesday, June 29, Inland will host the Management & Costs Workshop. This one-day training session provides an overview of benchmarking, a high-level summary of the 2010 National Cost & Revenue Study results, followed by a working session using case studies to provide participants with a greater understanding of how to maximize the benefits of participation in the National Cost & Revenue Study.

where & when: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 29 at Inland’s office in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Ill. Registration opens at 7:45 a.m.

who should attend: Both participants and potential participants in the National Cost & Revenue Study. Specifically, publishers, CFOs, controllers, department managers and other operational decision-makers as well as new personnel who may need to work with the study materials.

why you should attend: • Participants who do not posses a strong background in looking at operations from a financial perspective will benefit from real-world discussions. • Financial professionals will gain a clearer understanding of how to use the results of the National Cost & Revenue Study as a benchmarking resource. • Case Studies cover general management, advertising, circulation, production and editorial issues.Facilitating this year’s workshop will be Steven Pope, president and publisher of the Colorado Springs (Colo.) Gazette and regional vice president for Freedom Communications.

registration information: Participants in the 2010 National Cost & Revenue Study pay $175 per person to attend the June workshop. The fee for general registrants is $275. To register, visit InlandPress.org and select the “Training” tab.

hotel information: Accommodations will be available at the Comfort Inn Des Plaines/O’Hare, 2175 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL, 60018, can be reserved by calling (847) 635-1300 ext. 501 (be sure to ask for Nicole and the Inland Press Association block). Rooms are $69 for the night of June 28.

Attend Inland’s 2010 Management & Costs Workshop.

Ten Reasons to Attend This Year’s Annual Meeting

Inland Press Association124 years of service to newspapers | 1885-2009

124th Annual MeetingOct. 25-27Renaissance Chicago Hotel

For more, visit InlandPress.org or call 847-795-0380

1 You’ll be better positioned to know fact from fiction regarding newspapers

Earl Wilkinson, the executive director of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association, will discuss why your business model might be at risk and what you can do to become better positioned for financial recovery as the economy improves.

2 You’ll get the latest on the “Free vs. Pay” debate

Join Mayer Maloney, publisher of the Herald Times, Bloomington, Ind., as he moderates a panel discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of charging for online content. Is a pay model inevitable?

3 You’ll get ideas on how to publish in a free content market

Christie Hefner, the former CEO of Playboy Enterprises and executive committee member of the Magazine Publishers Association, is scheduled to speak, offering insight and analysis on the economics of publishing in a free content market. She believes the publishing industry as a whole can succeed by driving integration between print and online while consistently producing quality products with strong branding.

4 You’ll hear from three experts on developing digital information products

Find out about the steps taken and the lessons learned by these industry leaders: William Grueskin, associate dean, Columbia University School of Journalism, and former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and WSJ.com; Lou Ferrara, vice president of digital and sports at The Associated Press; and Tom Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal, who developed the paper’s Web site and sports offerings.

6 You’ll get dozens of ideas on generating revenues through print products

Join Jim Normandin, vice president and publisher of the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa, as he moderates an Inland “Idea Exchange” on niche products, specialty publications, chamber or B2B publications, directories, etc.

9 You’ll find out the winners of our 2009 Newsroom Contests

Find out who won in the following categories: News Writing, News Picture, Community Service, Editorial Excellence and Front Page.

10 It’s a time to celebrate, a time to honor old friends and a time of new beginnings for Inland

Congratulate Scott C. Schurz, vice chairman of the board of Schurz Communications and the recipient of the Ralph D. Casey Award. Say a fond farewell to Ray Carlsen, recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, who is retiring as executive director of Inland Press Association. Catherine Scott serves as Inland’s new executive director during this new chapter in Inland’s history. (Connie Schulz, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address. Schulz is a Creators Syndicate columnist.)

5 You’ll be equipped with the legal risks and opportunities facing your business

Get the latest trends, enforcement policies and practices—as well as the biggest risks—that newspapers will face from Washington. Are independent contractor relationships under intense scrutiny again? Richard Lapp and Camille Olson, partners with Seyfarth Shaw, a Chicago-based law firm, will help you minimize your risk.

7 You’ll get better acquainted with new revenue generators

Learn how mobile, video, local search, personalized news and local online advertising are being used to become a significant component of the revenue budget—and may, in fact, be the primary growth area. These new revenue generators can enhance your relationships with readers and the broader community.

8 You’ll learn how to allow your readers to guide your innovation

Laura Gordon, former senior vice president of Marketing/Chief Innovation Officer for The Dallas Morning News, will discuss how to use reader feedback to create a product portfolio they want and maybe pay more for.

PAGE 12 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | MAY 2010

Ideas

Boost morale at your newspaper

InlandWorks for You

Increase job satisfaction, longevity and productivity. Assess management performance, personnel policies, and the value of benefits packages. Pinpoint and correct sources of discontent, inefficiency and turnover. Identify programs that are already maintaining high morale. Enhance not only your bottom line, but the quality of your product and your newspaper’s reputation in the community. Knowing how your employees think about the company they work for can make your newspaper run more efficiently, enhance its quality, and save you the expense of high employee turnover.

Of course, with Inland’s 80-plus years of experience in compiling newspaper-industry research studies come the familiar, unconditional guarantees. Pertinence. Accuracy. Confidentiality. The Inland Press Association helps you manage even better.

To participate, contact Karla Zander, human resources research manager, at 847-795-0380

or kzander@inlandpress.org.

Participate in Inland’s Employee Attitude Survey

By Adolfo MendezEdITor

When is the last time you conducted an employee survey?

“If you’ve not done a survey at all, or in a very long time, an employee survey is a really good way to set some benchmark data,” said Mark Ernst, president of Ernst Enterprises LLC. “Inland’s got some ter-rific benchmark data that you can take a look at to see where you stake up against the many newspapers that have taken the sur-vey. At least you’ll know, ‘Where are we?’”

An employee survey can help determine how successful your company is in engaging your employees, he said. “Engaging employ-ees is really critical because our employees are what we call elevator assets, which means they leave. They go home at night, and they might not come back,” he said.

Now may be a good time to conduct a survey because as the economy improves, your most valuable people might actually surprise you and leave, he said.

“It’s not the poor performers who quit. It’s your top performers who quit. And they leave with that institutional knowledge,” he said.

Knowing what your most valuable em-

ployees really think about the job “is a critical part of assessing where we are to-day,” Ernst said. “Employees make the dif-ference. The difference between a well-run company and a poorly run company isn’t the equipment inside; it’s the two-legged things running around.”

Managing the managers is also critical to keeping expenses down and retention. “Many employees quit because of their man-ager. Hiring a bad manager costs 14 times that manager’s salary in terms of loss of productivity,” he said. “The investment in manager training pays massive divi-dends.”

Managers often mistakenly focus on ac-tivity at the expense of results, he said. “If you say, ‘I want you to make 25 cold calls a day. I want you to set at least two appoint-ments per week,’ somebody can do all those things and not sell a thing. And they’ll say, ‘Well, I did everything I was supposed to do,’ but they didn’t achieve anything. So focusing on results in terms of setting ex-pectations is critical. You want everything to be achievement, results-based.”

Another area of common confusion is work expectations, he said. “This is critical: define clearly performance expectations. If it cannot be measured, it doesn’t exist,” he said. “Everybody should know exactly what

is required of them. People have a better time hitting the target if they know what it is.”

Newspaper job descriptions could be re-written to better reflect the goals of the busi-ness, he said. “The flaw I always find with a lot of job descriptions is they have way too much information, and they’re not fo-cused on the outcome. Most jobs have three to five key objectives or measureables. Once you break it down to results, you’re losing a lot of the activity. A lot is in managing activity, not in managing results.”

Ernst suggests changing employee evalu-ation forms to reflect a focus on desired results, as opposed to activity. “What are the results that they’re getting paid to deliver and how are they doing it? Slim [the form] down, but focus on the meat,” he said.

Finally, be sure to provide whatever train-ing employees need to do their jobs compe-tently, he said. “Jim Rosse, the former CEO of Freedom [Communications], used to talk about employees becoming vintage,” Ernst said. “If you were still working on that 286 IBM machine on your desk, how productive would you be? And yet, many of our em-ployees are coming to work with skills they were taught many years ago.”

Contact: Mark Ernst, mark@eellc.us

Assess your company’s effectiveness managing employees

A bad manager might be a huge hit on a TV sitcom—like Michael Scott, the pompous and deluded boss in NBC’s hit comedy series “The office”—but a poorly trained manager in reality is no laughing matter. “The manager is the single most important factor that influences employee satisfaction and morale,” consultant Mark Ernst said during a recent Inland Webinar. “Many employees quit because of the manager.” PHOTO: NBC

The First American newspaper was published on September 25, 1690Since that time, newspapers such as

yours have provided information on the most important current events, including: the first U.S. census in 1790, man’s first step on the moon, the Journeymen Printers Union strike in 1776, the Boston Tea Party, every major armed conflict around the world, the establishment of the armed forces, the Gettysburg Address, the Pony Express, the great Chicago fire of 1891, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the first minimum wage, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Pearl Harbor, desegregation, the Mall of the Americas, the assassination of JFK and MLK, postage increases, the ozone layer, “Star Wars,” the World Trade Center bombing, the treaty of Paris, the Enola Gay, the Ford Model-T, 123 manned space flights, Al Capone, the gold rush, computers, Albert Einstein, the World’s Fairs, Social Security, the Titanic, the Bill of Rights, MRIs, the Internet, the fall of the Berlin Wall, cloning, “Citizen Kane,” the Olympics, and 44 Presidents.

NEWS

Imagine what you’ll learn tomorrow.

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For more, see page 19, visit NBDN-Inland.org or call (847) 795-0380.

Energize

Newspaper Business Development Contest

Enter the 2010

Give your staff a reason to stay motivated and optimistic about

the future in these uncertain times. Enter the 2010 Newspaper Business Development Contest,

sponsored by the Inland Press Foundation.

Also participate in the New Business Development Conference, Aug. 5-7, at the Doubletree Hotel Chicago in Arlington Heights, Ill., and receive

a DVD containing the latest revenue-generating ideas from papers across the country!

Category 2: Special Sections• Travel / Tourism / Transportation• Arts / Entertainment• Sports• Marketing Materials, Collateral Items & Incentives• Environment & ‘Going Green’• Business / Industry• Health, Family & Youth• Education / Career• Vendor Support• Shelter• Glossy Publications

your staff...

Category 1: New Products / New Revenues• Theme Pages• Stand-Alone Publications• Online Products or Services• Newspapers Fighting Cancer• Non-Traditional Initiatives• Other

Deadline is July 9

MAY 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For more, see page 5, visit NBDN-Inland.org or call (847) 795-0380.

Energize your staff Enter the 2011

Newspaper Business Development Contest

Give your staff a reason to stay motivated and optimistic about the future in these uncertain times. Enter the 2011

Newspaper Business Development Contest, sponsored by the Inland Press Foundation.

Also, participate in the New Business Development Conference in August, and receive a DVD containing the latest revenue-generating ideas from papers across the country!

Category 1: New Products / New Revenues• Theme Pages• Stand-Alone Publications• Online Products or Services• Newspapers Fighting Cancer• Non-Traditional Initiatives• Other

Category 2: Special Sections• Travel / Tourism / Transportation• Arts / Entertainment• Sports• Marketing Materials, Collateral Items & Incentives• Environment & ‘Going Green’• Business / Industry• Health, Family & Youth• Education / Career• Vendor Support• Shelter• Glossy Publications

Contest Deadline is June 24!

APRIL 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

This graph is part of the presentation Mike Blinder, president of The Blinder Group, encourages ad reps to use during sales calls. “I call this the [former professional hockey player] Wayne Gretzky skate-to-where-the-puck-is-going page,” Blinder said. “I say, look, Mr. Advertiser, even in tough economic times, local online spending is rising, and if you’re not there, your competitor may be.” Dollar amounts represent billions. Graphic by Michelle Finkler, based on

blinder Group data

To sell digital, keep your offers simple, avoid jargon and price it rightbe a part of, even if they can’t fully articulate its benefits.

“My team is telling me on the phone that the numbers haven’t changed in the last eight years. Half the advertisers we call on hate their website; they’re not jazzed about them,” he said. “Our line is that they don’t hate them, they think they’re in redevelopment all the time.”

In such cases, it helps to offer advertisers a link to a landing page they’ll actually like. “It can be as simple as a PDF of a print ad, or it

can be more robust, with the adver-tisers’ contact, email, even a Google Map showing their location,” Blinder said.

However, sales staff was trained to avoid the use of technical jargon when selling digital. “We always lead with audience,” Blinder said. “I always say we sell audience, not technology. We sell four things: reach, frequency, offer and imme-diacy. Well, reach is the audience and that audience is defined as ei-ther young/old, rich/poor, near/far, man/woman. It always boils down

to that.”Pricing will be determined by

your market, “but we strive for a $10 CPM for local advertising,” Blinder said. “I think we should all be aware of the fact that the small dogs in our market are still spending digital dol-lars,” Blinder said. “And the ques-tion is how are we going to get a piece of that action? You’ve got to look at it like this: If I don’t sell this, my competitor will sell it.”

Contact: Mike Blinder, mike@blindergroup.com

Hotel information:

The Oxford Hotel in Denver. Phone: (303) 628-5400. Rooms are $180 a night, single or double occupancy.

Cut-off date for this rate is Monday, Aug. 15.

For more, visit InlandPress.org.

Don’t miss this exclusive gathering of top media executives managing multiple properties from around the country!

InlandWorks for You

2011 Group Executives Conference

Local online spending went up

$02002

$1.7 $2.1 $2.7

$4.8$5.7

$8.7

$13.1

$18.2

$21.6$22.7 $22.9

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008p 2009 2010 2011 2012

$10

$15

$20

$25

$5

Local businesses advertising online to

top $22B by 2012

By Adolfo MendezEDIToR

Looking for ways to help your advertisers reach the “recession-proof” consumer? Look no further than online, said Mike Blinder, president of The Blinder Group in New Port Richey, Fla.

“The research shows that your online audience is a recession-proof audience, which is likely the main reason online advertising continues to rise with local advertisers,” Blinder said during a recent Inland Webinar. “In our tough economic conditions, people are looking to reach someone who is most apt to spend money, and I call that a re-cession-proof audience. You can call it whatever you want.”

That’s one of the points Blinder said he made when training hun-dreds of sales reps representing about 20 websites owned by the Journal Register Company in Yard-ley, Pa. John Paton, CEO of the Journal Register Company, and his “digital first” strategy have become well-known in the publishing in-dustry, and Blinder has seen first-hand how management drives this mantra from the top down.

“They’re screaming, ‘Digital first, digital first, digital first!’ and there’s a lot of pressure on JRC to sell

digital right now,” Blinder said.The Journal Register Company’s

ad reps raised more than $1 million in digital revenue during a recent campaign, he said, with the ads sold evenly distributed among existing advertisers, new advertisers and businesses that hadn’t advertised recently, Blinder said.

John Krivosheyff, corporate di-rector of sales development and training for the Journal Register Company, said two-thirds of the sales made were possible because sales reps had an existing relation-ship with the prospect. Krivosheyff also attributed much of new online advertising revenue to keeping ad offers simple.

“One of the reasons I think we have good retention on the con-tracts we sell is we manage all ex-pectations,” Blinder said. “We manage click expectations, we manage expectations as far as the results that will be performed from this. Our philosophy is simple: We bring them easy, desirable, simple solutions that they can grasp,” he said.

Blinder said his experience work-ing with small-business owners—he says his company calls around 5,000 advertisers every year—convinces him that they believe the Internet is something they need to

PAGE 8 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | MAY 2011

Hotel information:The Oxford Hotel in Denver. Phone: (303) 628-5400. Rooms are $180 a night, single or double occupancy.

Cut-off date for this rate is Monday, August 15.

For more, visit InlandPress.org.

InlandWorks for You

Group Executives ConferenceDon’t miss this exclusive gathering of top media executives managing multiple properties from around the country!

September 14-16 Denver, Colo.

Attend Inland’s 2011

PAGE 8 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | JUNE 2011

Hotel information:The Oxford Hotel in Denver. Phone: (303) 628-5400. Rooms are $180 a night, single or double occupancy. Cut-off date for this rate is Monday, August 15.

For more, see page 11. Register online at InlandPress.org.

InlandWorks for You

Group Executives ConferenceAttend Inland’s 2011

Don’t miss this exclusive gathering of top media executives managing multiple properties from around the country!

September 14-16 | Denver, Colo.

JUNE 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 19

Training

Stay competitive with Inland Research

Newspaper Industry Compensation Survey Employee Attitude Survey

• An extremely powerful tool to determine how competitive you are today and to track trends and future hiring plans.

• Survey form and final results available in Excel 5.0 and can be imported into most HRIS programs.

• Nearly 100 newspaper-specific positions measured, including seven online positions.

• Includes a comprehensive industry benefits survey.

• Custom and regional reports available.

THE INDUSTRY STANDARD IN COMPENSATION PLANNING BOOST MORALE AT YOUR NEWSPAPER

Increase job satisfaction, longevity and productivity. Assess management performance, personnel policies, the value of benefits packages. Pinpoint and correct sources of discontent, inefficiency and turnover. Identify programs that are already maintaining high morale. Enhance not only your bottom line, but the quality of your product and your newspaper’s reputation in the community. Knowing how your employees think about the company they work for can make your newspaper run more efficiently, enhance its quality, and assist you in reassessing your company after work force reductions.

The 2010 NICS is now available to participants! For additional participation and report details, contact Karla Zander, human resources research manager, at 847-795-0380 or kzander@inlandpress.org.

Contact Karla Zander (info at left) for more information or to schedule your survey. To view a sample survey, visit SurveyMonkey.com/s/SampleEAS.

InlandWorks for You

Teresa Amabile is one of those thinkers I like to track. She’s a professor and director of research at the Harvard Business School and frequently rolls out research that challenges conventional wis-dom.

Take motivation theory, for ex-ample. When Amabile surveyed 600 managers in dozens of compa-nies about what they believed mo-tivated their employees, she got these conventional results:• Recognition • Incentives • Interpersonal support • Clear goals • Support for making progress

Sounds right. All are legitimate factors of motivation. But here’s what Amabile discovered when she compared the survey to a multiyear study tracking the day-to-day ac-tivities, emotions and motivation

levels of hundreds of knowledge workers in a wide variety of

settings. The order is wrong. The chief motiva-

tor for the workers was in last place

on the manager’s list: a sense of personal progress.

“On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs,”Anabile writes, “or when they receive support that helps them over-come obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or en-countering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.”This correlates with my own ex-

perience coaching journalists con-sidering a new career. Yes, they are worried about the dismal state of the newspaper industry. Yes, they feel overworked by doing more with less. But what drives many of them to consider leaving journalism is a sense that they are stalled, locked in a cycle of tedious work with few prospects for learning new skills. Companies have swept away programs for personal and profes-sional development, and with them the optimism that comes from life-long learning.

If there’s any good news in this for newsroom managers it is this: Sustaining colleagues’ sense of per-sonal progress is within your con-trol. How?• Negotiate clear and meaningful

goals. • Include people in decisions that

affect their work and their life. • Be courageous and inventive

about fighting for resources.• Learn to coach and teach, not just

supervise. • Offer recognition and feedback,

especially about progress.

Managers need to remember that negative events generally have a greater effect on people’s emotions, perceptions and motivation than positive ones. Helping people feel a sense of personal progress will mitigate the negative and facilitate the positive.

Recommend reading: “What Re-ally Motivates Workers” by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer.

Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb 2010.

Edward Miller, a personal and professional

coach to journalists and news executives in the U.S., Finland and Sweden, is the former editor and publisher of The Morning Call in

Allentown, Pa. He can be reached at (770) 402-1210. This article originally appeared in “Reflections on Leadership,” Miller’s weekly

e-mail essay on newsroom management and leadership.

How do you know what employees consider to be important?Leadership

Edward MillerMarietta, Ga.

The newsroom of the Northwest Herald, owned by Shaw Newspapers in Dixon, Ill., is part of a corporate culture. “Our culture, the SHAW CULTURE, is one characterized by a sincere recognition that our associates are important, significant and valuable,” the company states. image supplied

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

discover new revenue sourcesAttend Inland’s Advertising Executives Conference

Even veteran newspaper advertising department managers will benefit from Inland’s annual conference for advertising executives. Why? Because the program is developed by some of the best and brightest minds working in newspaper advertising today.

If you’d like to secure new revenue and learn new ways newspapers, or news media companies, can evolve as an advertising medium, then plan now to attend this upcoming conference.

June 15-16

Doubletree Hotel Chicago

Arlington Heights, Ill.

For program details, see page 5, call (847) 795-0380 or visit InlandPress.org.

Inland News

enue (about 20 percent) and a decline in circulation expenses (about 9 per-cent). The traditional measurement for successful circulation departments has been 46 percent.

Traditional Wisdom measurements are benchmarks developed over many years and commonly accepted as the industry standard.

“The validity of those standards are put to the test via the Inland/MFM Na-tional Cost & Revenue Study, which shows what the ‘real’ practice is for a given newspaper,” according to Tim Mather, Inland’s financial studies man-ager.

The National Cost & Revenue Study for Daily Newspapers is considered the industry standard for analysis and serves as a valuable benchmarking and budget-ing tool for newspaper companies. In-land’s findings, derived from 178 daily newspaper participants, reflect realities

for newspapers of 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 circulation.

Designed to help newspapers work “smarter, not harder,” the 2010 Na-tional Cost & Revenue Study covers financial reporting for 2009, the most recent year for which there is data. The 2010 study results were released to participants May 25, continuing an earlier publication schedule started last year.

The latest study also reveals reduc-tions in staffing levels with 4.6 to 4.9 full-time employees (FTEs) per 1,000 daily circulation. The traditional mea-surement for staffing has been 5.3 FTEs per 1,000 daily circulation.

To compare more “traditional wis-dom” with the 2009 facts, visit Inland’s website, InlandPress.org.

For questions or comments regard-ing the National Cost & Revenue Study or the findings here, contact Mather via e-mail at tmather@inlandpress.org or by phone at (847) 795-0380.

Profitability: Analyze your newspaper with Inland study

Salaries: NICS results similar to surveys from other industries

Continued from page 1

ing managers saw salary increases in the range of 12 percent.

Robert J. Greene, CEO of Reward $ystems Inc. in Glenview, Ill., has served as quality control consultant to the NICS for more than 10 years. “The 2010 NICS showed the same pattern of smaller salary increase budgets as have other major surveys that measure market rates across industries,” said Greene, who holds a doctorate. “The variable compensation numbers gener-ally declined, which is to be expected as profits are squeezed since incentive plan payouts are typically tied to rev-enue and/or profits.

“Due to reductions in staffing levels in many papers, people are being asked to do more while at the same time their rewards are limited due to economic pressures.”

The study is co-sponsored by Inland Press Association, four national and regional associations and nine state as-sociations. The co-sponsors are: MFM/INFE International Newspaper Finan-cial Executives, New England News-

paper & Press Association, Newspaper Association of America and Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association and state associations in California, Colo-rado, Florida, Georgia, Hoosier State (Ind.), Iowa, Nevada, New York and North Carolina.

Newspapers pay for the study based on their circulation size. Newspapers that participate in the study also may order regional, custom and other tar-geted studies. For further information on the compensation survey, contact Inland at (847) 795-0380.

Continued from page 1 “Due to reductions in staffing levels in many papers, people are being asked to do more while at the same

time their rewards are limited due to economic pressures.”

robert J. greene, Ceo of reward $ystems inc.

Reach new heights with Inland’s General

Performance Assessment

GPAPAGE 4 the inlander | inlandpress.org | JuLY 2010

InlandWorks for You

Questions? Please contact Tim Mather, Inland’s

financial studies manager, at tmather@inlandpress.org or

by calling 847-795-0380.

A confIdenTIAl MonThly benchMArkIng resource for dAIly newsPAPers

• Receive your Executive Summary• Make the Top 10 List• Compare your performance to other papers• Real-time data

N ewspaper executives have indicated a desire to have more timely data by which to evaluate the performance

of their newspapers. Inland’s monthly General Performance Assessment may also be used as a supplement to Inland’s National Cost & Revenue Study for Daily Newspapers. It is a confidential survey in an electronic format for both data submission and distribution.

The GPA is applicable for daily newspapers of any size! Performance categories include gross profit, circulation, advertising, labor, EBITDA, electronic/digital media, accounts receivable and capital expenditures. Output is in the form of percentages, percentage point changes, percent of revenue, and percent change vs. prior year, without exposing the underlying data.

New Business

Development Conference

New Business

New Platforms

New Revenues

Attend In

land’s 2010

August 5-6 | D

oubletree

Hotel

Chicago | A

rlington H

eights,

Ill.

Informative and motivational speakers on:

• Breathing New Life Into Your Products

• Newspapers and the Economic Recovery

• Latest on Paid Content Models

• Mobile Strategies: E-Readers, iPads and M

ore

• Events, Contests and Partnering for Community Connections

and Profits

• The New Competitors: Who Are They and How Do W

e

Compete and Win?

• Social Media and Branded Content

* Attendees receive Great Idea DVD that

includes all contest entries

Conference registration opens at 9:30 a.m.

on Thursday, Aug. 5, followed by sessions

from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Friday, Aug.

6, sessions run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,

when the conference adjourns.

Inland PressInlandPress.orgAssociation Foundation

For more, visit NBDN-Inland.org or call (847) 795-0380.

Co-sponsored by Florida Press Association.For more information, see page 5, call (847) 795-0380 or visit InlandPress.org.

Major Contributors

Thank You

Journal Gazette Foundation, Inc.Fort Wayne, Ind.

Brehm Communications, Inc. San Diego, Calif.

Forum Communications CompanyFargo, N.D.

John MathewSierra Vista, Ariz.

Cox Media GroupAtlanta, Ga.

Miller Group Charitable Trust Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation c/o NewsTribuneLaSalle, Ill.

Bliss CommunicationsJanesville, Wis.

Dolph Simons Family FundDouglas Co. Community Foundationc/o Dolph Simons IIIWorld CompanyLawrence, Kan.

The Hutchinson NewsHutchinson, Kan.

The New MexicanSanta Fe, N.M.(Memorial gift for Morley Cowles Ballantine, Durango Herald)

Delphos Herald, Inc.Delphos, Ohio(Includes memorial gift for Wally Lage)

R. John MitchellRutland HeraldWorchester, Vt.

Eagle NewspapersSalem, Ore.

Athlon SportsNashville, Tenn.

Gary MeyerWest Sherburne TribuneBig Lake, Minn.

Record-EagleTraverse City, Mich.

Teresa M. ChebuharSan Antonio, Texas HDS Premier ConsultingLaguna Niguel, Calif.

Bellefontaine ExaminerBellefontaine, Ohio

General & Memorial Contributions

Inland appreciates donations to the Inland Press Foundation as received from the following supporters: