twn 0416

This year’s Better News-paper Contest sponsored by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association is ready to receive entries.

Entrants are encouraged to download contest rules and instructions. Those can be found at wnpa.com. Entries are uploaded at BetterBNC.com, a website produced by Small-TownPapers. See Page 8 of this edition to find contest rules, entry fees, applicable dates and other information. Awards will be announced at the annual WNPA convention Oct. 13-15 in Wenatchee.

“Our convention commit-tee has done a remarkable job planning for our annual fall

meeting,” said WNPA Execu-tive Director Marcia Van Dyke. “It will be well worth attend-ing, and we look forward to recognizing all the great work that’s being done at our member newspapers.”

Every WNPA member newspaper is eligible to enter the coveted General Excellence award category without cost. Just submit all issues published in the weeks of Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, 2015 (the last two issues of September). Include your entire newspaper, includ-ing special sections and the clas-sifieds. Don’t miss this chance to show the judges the great work you are doing.

There’s been a change in the top management of the Wash-ington Newspaper Publishers Association.

WNPA Executive Director Marcia Van Dyke last month announced she would retire, and, with her husband Jeff, set off on bicycles for a cross- country tour. Her last day is April 15.

Acting quickly, the WNPA executive board gathered re-sumes, interviewed candidates and formulated a recommenda-tion for the full board of trustees. On April 8, the full board unanimously approved hiring

Fred Obee, a long-time community newspaper editor and manager, as Van Dyke’s replacement.

“It’s hard to believe that I will be hanging up my newspaper hat after 27 years in the business,” said Van Dyke. “It seems like yesterday that I was hired for my first newspaper job at the Skagit Valley Herald. Little did I know

then that I would find the most reward-ing career anyone could ask for. I im-mediately fell in love with this business and over the

years have had the good fortune to find many excellent mentors to guide my way.

“I have had the pleasure to work closely with many of you over the years and some of you I

feel like we were just getting to know each other. It’s inspiring to see the dedication to the news that all of you share. I know that it has been challenging for our industry these past years, but there is one thing I know for sure: There is no group of people more dedicated to finding the truth, holding government ac-countable, keeping a community informed, sharing and circulat-ing the news than the members of WNPA. The challenges facing our industry today will pass and we will succeed because intel-ligent people want well-vetted

news. Our democracy depends on it and we will deliver.”

Obee spent a total of 18 years at the Port Townsend & Jef-ferson County Leader, first as a reporter and in the final 12 years, as the General Manager. Before that he was Editor of the Whid-bey News-Times in Oak Harbor and Editor of the Daily Tripli-cate, a small daily in Crescent City, Calif.

“When I retired from the Leader last July, I honestly didn’t know if I was really retired, on sabbatical or just pausing and

TWN THEWASHINGTONNEWSPAPER

April 2016

Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

2016 WNPA Better NewspaperContestTIMELINEApril 4 (Monday) Begin submitting entries on BetterBNC.comMay 6 (Friday) Deadline for submitting Regular Entries and General Excellence

June 1 (Wednesday) Deadline for submitting Tourism/Community Guide Special SectionsJune 13 to July 8 Judging Period (including Open Website)Oct. 13 to 15 Winners announced at the WNPA Convention in WenatcheeRULES: Download Category List & Rules at www.wnpa.com click BNC tabENTRIES: Upload entries at www.BetterBNC.com produced by SmallTownPapers

1204 4th Ave E, Suite 4,Olympia WA 98506 • www.wnpa.com • t 360 515 0974Contact CJ Burk: [email protected]

PASSWORDS• Contestant Managers who submitted entries last year can use the same email and password as last year; use the Forgot

Password link on www.BetterBNC.com if needed. Contestant Managers submit entries and also control which staff members

at a newspaper are authorized to submit their own entries. Contestant Managers can see and edit all the newspaper’s entries

and account information. • If your Contestant Manager from last year is no longer at your newspaper and you need the account email changed to a new

person, contact CJ Burk (see below).• If no Contestant Manager was active at your newspaper last year, create a Contestant Manager account by first logging in

as a Contestant using use the temporary password bnc (lowercase). • Authorized Entrants who submitted entries in 2015 can use the same email and password information as last year; use the

Forgot Password link on www.BetterBNC.com if needed. New Authorized Entrants receive an email from BetterBNC.com

asking them to validate their email address. Once they have done so, Authorized Entrants can log in and begin submitting

entries. Authorized Entrants can see and edit only the entries they submit themselves. ENTRY FORMATS• Upload all entries as PDF, JPG, PNG, TIF or via URL to www.BetterBNC.com. The maximum file size is 5 MB. Please use

www.issuu.com or www.realviewdigital.com to enter special sections and large, multi-page entries. www.realviewdigital.com

has been built into the BetterBNC.com site.• Please don’t submit both URL and PDF of the same entry. It confuses judges.• For photo entries, consider providing jpeg and/or a pdf. WNPA plans to use submitted jpegs to create photoboards for display

at the 2016 WNPA convention, Oct. 13-15 in Wenatchee. Please use these specs for jpegs: 180 px/inch, 10” on longest side.TECHNICAL SUPPORT• For technical help getting logged in, making entries and general use of the BetterBNC platform, please use the “Contact

BetterBNC” button at www.BetterBNC.com to initiate a trouble ticket.• For help with rules, eligibility and entry fees please contact CJ Burk (see below).GENERAL EXCELLENCEGeneral Excellence participation is a member benefit. There is no fee. Submit all issues published in both the week of

Sept. 23 and the week of Sept. 30, 2015 (the last two issues of September). Include special sections and the classifieds.

You may wish to create separate pdfs/urls for the newspapers and special sections distributed with these two weeks’

newspapers. CONTEST PERIODSRegular Entries: April 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016 Tourism/Community Guide Special Sections: June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016ENTRY FEES: $6.50/entry for Group I, $8.50 for Groups II & III, $9 for Group IV

Contest rules inthis issuePage 8

See CONTEST, Page 2

Van Dyke Obee

See WNPA, Page 2

Van Dyke retires; Obee chosen to lead WNPA

WILD RIDE

Brian Myrick of the Ellensburg Daily Record won Photographer of the Year honors in the 2015 Better Newspaper Contest for a variety of shots including this action packed rodeo photo.

Newspaper contest website ready to collect 2016 entries

2 The Washington Newspaper April 2016

Officers: Don Nelson, President; Sandy Stokes, First Vice President; Michael Wagar, Second Vice President; Keven Graves, Past President.

Trustees: Sara Bruestle, Eric LaFontaine, Donna Etchey, Scott Hunter, Michael Wagar, LuAnn Morgan and Jill FitzSimmons.

Staff: Marcia Van Dyke, Executive Director; C.J. Burk, Assistant Director.

THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the offical publi-cation of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly by WNPA, 1204 Fourth Ave. East, Suite 4, Olympia, WA 98506.

Marcia Van Dyke: Executive Director: 360-515-5239.

Email: [email protected]

CJ Burk: Accounting and Advertising 360-515-0974. Email: [email protected]. Fax: 360-515-5546

The Washington Newspaper Publishers AssociationEstablished 1887

By Don NelsonThis is not what I expected.As first vice president of the

WNPA board of trustees, I knew I was in line for the presidency about seven months from now – plenty of time to get used to the idea while learning about organizational leadership from board president Lori Maxim.

Then Lori announced that she was leaving Sound Publishing for a terrific job opportunity as director of revenue for Morris Multimedia. That left me next in the chain of command.

So – no palace coup, no rebellious insurgency, no devious maneuvering, no battling for primacy. I’m the inevitable result of bylaws, an innocuous enough manner of succession. The WNPA is a stickler for orderly process in such matters.

I knew it would be a challenge to match Lori’s energy and efficiency. Then, before I learned where the gavel is kept, before I was authorized to sign checks, before my newspaper staff learned to sing “Hail to the Chief,” the WNPA’s incredibly capable executive director, Marcia Van Dyke, announced her retirement.

Marcia has assured the board that her departure was in the works, and she’s earned a happy retirement after a long career of service to this industry. In the past year and a half, Marcia and her assistant C.J. Burk have done an extraordinary job of sorting out the WNPA’s financial situation and establishing reliable procedures for our day-to-day operations. Marcia’s tireless efforts have laid the groundwork for the WNPA’s growth as all of us adapt to seismic shifts in the newspaper business.

Replacing Marcia was Job One for your newly constituted executive board – me, La Conner Weekly News publisher Sandy Stokes (first vice president), and Nisqually Valley News publisher Michael Wagar (second vice president), plus past president Keven Graves, executive editor and publisher of Sound Publishing’s Whidbey Island newspapers.

Several strong candidates expressed interest in the executive director position, and we interviewed them with the goal of quickly forwarding a recommendation to the full board. We wanted to minimize the gap between Marcia’s departure (her last day is April 15) and the new executive director’s arrival. On April 8, we hired Fred Obee to replace Marcia. CJ remains in place as assistant director.

Sandy will continue in her

role as chairman of the annual convention. She has done a stellar job of lining up a compelling program for our October gathering, and you’ll be hearing more about that soon.

A little bit about my background. I’ve been owner, publisher and editor of the Methow Valley News in Twisp for nearly five years. My most recent job before that was editor of the daily Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon.

I was also editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal in Seattle for 10 years, and have worked as a reporter or editor at newspaper and magazines in Eugene, Oregon, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago and Baltimore. My partner in life is Jacqui Banaszynski, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who was formerly a top editor at the Oregonian and the Seattle Times and now teaches at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Yes, we have a strange life.

I’ve been on the WNPA board for several years. I love what I do here in Twisp, and appreciate my involvement with the WNPA for its professional value and the wonderful personal relationships I’ve developed. You’re my favorite people, and I look forward to hearing from you early and often.

Don Nelson is the Publisher of the Methow Valley News and this year’s WNPA president.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Nelson

Moving ahead as others move onWNPA: Van Dyke planning bicycle trip across U.S.

CONTEST: Convention sponsors soughtSponsors are being sought now for the 129th

Annual WNPA Convention, Oct. 13-15 in Wenatchee, WA. Sponsors are an integral part of the convention and in a variety of year-round promotions.

As a sponsor, you will connect with com-munity newspaper publishers, marketing experts and print and online journalists from across the state. You can demonstrate your product or service or your organization’s sci-

entific, political or social interests from your exhibitor table, located in the center of our convention activities.

If you want an opportunity to access local media publishers in Washington state at one time, this is your opportunity!

WNPA offers a large range of sponsorship levels and benefits. A sponsorship brochure is available for download on our website, wnpa.com or you can call WNPA today at 206-515-5239 for more details.

thinking about new directions,” Obee said. “Now I know the answer to that question, and I am thrilled to help lead WNPA and build on Marcia’s strong performance. She leaves WNPA in a much stronger position than when she took the helm. That will also be my goal.”

Van Dyke she said she feels good about WNPAs future.

“WNPA has undergone some big changes in the past year and a half and I am happy to say that we have a good handle on our finances, our communication with members is improving and we have a strong plan for our future growth. I hope that all of you will lend a hand and volunteer to serve WNPA and some point during your newspaper career. It has been my pleasure to serve as your Executive Director.

Spending almost two years leading this organization has been remarkably rewarding. You have so much to share and learn from one another and you are fortunate to have the WNPA as vehicle for sharing your ideas.

“Well, it’s off into the sunset I ride. Well, into the sunrise to be exact. My hus-band Jeff and I leave on our bicycles this May and head eastward across the country. We will be traveling through many small towns, and I can’t wait to see their newspapers. I’ll send the good ones to WNPA to share with all of you. Keep up the good work. I will miss you all! Thanks for the memories,” Van Dyke said.

Obee begins work imme-diately. CJ Burk continues as WNPA’s assistant director.

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

The Washington Newspaper April 2016 3

By Seattle TimesEditorial Board

THURSDAY’S [March 31] state Supreme Court ruling in a public-records case sends several strong messages to government agencies.

The court upheld a $546,509 Superior Court judgment against the state Department of Labor and Industries finding that it repeatedly delayed the release of records related to lead exposure at Wade’s Eastside Gun Shop.

This newspaper request-ed the records as part of an investigation that revealed thousands of gun owners, workers and their families were exposed to unsafe levels of lead at ranges that received lax scrutiny from health regulators.

The series, “Loaded with lead,” demonstrated the importance of Washington’s strong Public Records Act. It enabled the public to learn about health risks and where government could improve.

Penalties can encourage prompt release of records. They also discourage of-ficials from manipulating disclosures for political reasons, such as withhold-ing embarrassing records until after a vote.

The law allows penalties up to $100 per record for each day they’re withheld. In this case, per-record pen-alties ranged from 1 cent to $5, the latter for records withheld even after a court ordered their release.

Public agencies are created by the people to serve the people. Yet some continue to flout public-re-cords law or seek to weaken it through courts and the

Legislature.Thursday’s 5-4 ruling

reinforced the law.It further clarified an

exemption for “open inves-tigations,” which agencies cannot use as a blanket excuse to keep records secret. L&I failed to show disclosure jeopardized its investigation of Wade’s. The courts also found that L&I used this exemption to withhold records after its investigation was complete.

The courts also took L&I to task for withhold-ing records as a courtesy to companies involved. Companies were given a chance to obtain court orders blocking the release of sensitive information, but failed to do so before the state’s deadline. Still, L&I continued withhold-ing records. These are public servants, not private servants.

A minority on the court dissented, taking issue with per-page penalties imposed by a lower court, even though the law gives judges discretion here. A signifi-cant penalty was warranted because of L&I’s flagrant violations.

The remaining questions are whether Gov. Jay Inslee will hold anyone account-able for this costly violation of state law and how the state will prevent this from happening again.

Editorial board mem-bers are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Ryan Blethen, Bri-er Dudley, Mark Higgins, Jonathan Martin, Thanh Tan, William K. Blethen (emeritus) and Robert C. Blethen (emeritus).

Kathy Brooks of the Shelton-Mason County Journal took first place in the Color Pictorial category in Groups 3 & 4 in the 2015 Better Newspaper Contest for this sunset shot with riders in the distance.

Sea-Tac Council receives Key Award

Members of the city council of SeaTac were presented a Key Award by the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) recently, in recognition of their promi-nently posting a plaque containing the preamble to the state Open Public Meetings Act in the coun-cil chamber at SeaTac City Hall.

The large Plexiglas plaque, approximately five feet wide and two feet tall, was presented to the city on January 12 by a group of citizens supportive of government transparency. It quotes the following words, which also appear in the state Public Records

Act: “The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agen-cies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain con-trol over the instruments they have created.”

The plaque is mounted on the front wall of the council chamber in full view of the audience and where council members can see it at every meet-ing.

The award was presented by WCOG President Toby Nixon to SeaTac Mayor Rick Forschler and the other council members in a

brief ceremony during the council’s regular business meeting on February 23.

“The Coalition believes those three sentences to be the most important words in the entire Revised Code of Washington, and we quote them often.” said Nixon. “The SeaTac City Council could have placed this gift in a stor-age room or private office where nobody would see it, but they gave it a place of honor in their chamber where they and everyone who comes to council meetings will be remind-ed of the proper relation-ship between the people and their government. This is a great example for other agencies around the state, and they are to be commended for it.”

The Key Award is

presented by WCOG in recognition of a single good act in support of open government. Anyone aware of such acts may nominate recipients for consideration by the WCOG board by submit-ting the nomination form found at http://washing-toncog.org/award-nomi-nations.

Washington Coalition for Open Government is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the people’s right to know what their govern-ment is doing. Member-ship is open to the public. For more information, contact WCOG at 6351 Seaview Avenue NW, Se-attle, WA 98107-2664, on the web at www.washing-toncog.org, or call (206) 782-0393.

Seattle Times lauds court’s records ruling

City posts plaque about open meetings

The Washington Newspaper April 2016 4

By Kevin SlimpThere is a rule of

thumb which almost al-ways proves to be true at newspaper conventions: attendance drops drasti-cally on Saturday morn-ing. There are plenty of theories on the subject from “too much fun on Friday night” to “head-ing home to be with the kids.”

Whatever the cause, you can imagine my sur-prise when I walked into a room in Des Moines, Iowa, two days ago and realized it would be necessary to add chairs. Honestly, I didn’t expect many folks to show up for a Saturday morning session where we would primarily be looking at

num-bers, but show up they did.

The topic was “What’s Really

Going on in the Newspaper In-dustry.” My plan was to discuss results from my most recent survey, com-pleted only days before the Des Moines confer-ence. It was obvious the attendees really wanted to know my thoughts on that topic.

After completing a major survey, I attempt to discuss one or two findings in each of my subsequent columns

for newspaper industry readers until we have covered the most rel-evant findings. As with previous studies, there is enough information to write books about the state of the industry, but I will stick to the most interesting discoveries.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking dis-cussion in Des Moines revolved around news-paper ownership. Before sharing survey results, I gave the group a little quiz. Their mission was to guess how North American newspaper publishers responded to the survey. Not to an-swer the questions in the survey as they related to their own newspapers.

When asked to guess the percentage of newspapers that are independent, not related to any group or other newspapers, most of the attendees guessed the number would be pretty low. They were surprised to learn that 53 percent of newspapers in the U.S. and Canada are independent, without any relationship to even a small group.

I found that most interesting because most of the folks in the room were from independent publications, not part of a larger group. Yet they assume that most of their brethren are from large

newspaper groups. And as I discussed in a previ-ous column, independent papers reported better health and more growth than those that are part of a group.

There were several other questions where most publishers guessed their papers were dif-ferent from most others. When the numbers are broken down, however, we find that ownership plays a bigger role than anything else in deter-mining how newspapers respond. Most indepen-dent papers respond very similarly to most ques-tions, as do most small, mid-sized and large

group newspapers.Today, I would like to

focus on one interesting correlation: page count vs. newspaper health. Most newspapers, 53 percent, responded their page count was rela-tively unchanged from three years ago. That is 20 percent higher than the number which reduced the number of pages over the past three years. While 33 percent reported fewer pages, 12 percent answered that they have increased the number of pages.

We could argue all day whether newspapers are healthier as a result of having more pages, or whether healthier papers produce more pages because they are in better shape. I would guess that, as in most topics of disagreement, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

There is, however, no doubt newspapers that report a higher page count than three years

Let’s grow your digital revenue!

Realize new revenue this year with our 5-day Focused Sales Event! You keep

88% of all revenue sold.

Digital Training & SalesTrish Kinney • 406-334-3625 • www.digitalsalescoach.com

“I have open weeks this spring - call me!”

Have a legal question? Call the WNPA hotlineWNPA members can call the hotline five times a year for:• Pre-publication emergency review of a story, letter or advertisement.• Analysis of a demand letter or some other challenge to something that has already been published.

Call (206) 801-7510or email [email protected]

MicheleEarl Hubbard

Which came first? More ads or more pages?

Slimp

See SLIMP,

“Eighty one percent of newspapers that increased the number of pages re-port better overall health than three years ago.”


ago also report signifi-cantly increased health over those same years. An astounding 81 per-cent of newspapers that increased the number of pages report better overall health than three years ago.

That figure is even more amazing when compared to newspapers with decreased page counts over those same years. Of those, only 17 percent report improved health over the same period.

Among the larg-est group, made up of papers which report the same number of pages as three years ago, 38 per-cent indicate improved health since 2013.

This discussion could easily turn into a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” conversa-tion. I would suggest there are enough re-

sponses to persuade me that one of the indicators of newspaper health is page count as compared to previous years.

For some newspapers, decreasing the number of pages and staff mem-bers is a sure way to improve the bottom line. But if these 859 publish-ers and other newspa-per executives can be believed, decreasing the number of pages has a high chance of leading to diminished health, rather than increased profits.

I’ll stop there. If you’re fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate, enough to be in one of my audiences in Roches-ter, New York; Amarillo, Texas; Pittsburgh, Penn-sylvania; or Mitchell, South Dakota, over the next few weeks, I’m sure we’ll find plenty of time to discuss these surveys in more detail.

SLIMP: Which came first: More ads or more pages?Continued from Page 4

Bunting award entries sought; deadline May 31

The Washington Coali-tion for Open Government is now accepting submis-sions for the Second Annual Kenneth F. Bunting Award in journalism. Named for the late Seattle Post-Intelli-gencer Associate Publisher and WCOG Founding Board member, Ken Bunting, the award honors exceptional journalism that supports and demonstrates the importance of open government and transpar-ency.

There are many ways for journalism to support and demonstrate the impor-tance of open government laws, including; stories that could not have been written without use of the Public

Records Act, Open Public Meetings Act or other open government laws.

To be eligible, the work submitted must be substan-tially about Washington State and published during the time period of June 1, 2015 to June 1, 2016. The award can go to either the journalist, a team of reporters or organization, but preferably to named individuals. Entrants can download the Bunting Award Nomination Form at www.washingtocog.org.

The deadline for submis-sions is May 31. Entries will be judged by legal ex-perts and media profession-als who sit on the WCOG Board of Directors.


New squad for hire to critique newspapersBy Sara Bruestle

The BeaconA “groovy” squad of journal-

ists is now available for hire to examine the quality of Washing-ton’s community newspapers.

The Hit Squad, inspired by the hippie TV show “The Mod Squad,” is comprised of three Washington Newspaper Publish-ers Association trustees who together offer more than 50 years of journalism experience and fresh sets of eyes to member and non-member newspapers looking to improve.

Eric LaFontaine, Sara Bruestle and Michael Wagar, who serve on the WNPA’s Editorial & Journal-ism Education Committee, have teamed up to offer their construc-tive criticism of a newspaper’s print and web products, as well as its social media presence.

“The Hit Squad will burst into your journalism efforts and offer solid, reasonable and groovy

suggestions for upgrades,” said Wagar, who is the squad leader.

“We’ll take a deep look at your news-paper, your website and social me-dia practices and give you a thoughtful examination of everything from use of photos, writing and reporting skills and digital advertising, to the best cyberspace practices.”

“The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968-1973, followed the lives of three hip undercover cops – Peter “Pete” Cochran, Julie Barnes and Lincoln “Linc” Hayes – who fight crime in Southern California.

Instead of fighting crime, the WNPA squad will examine newspapers and websites on the

whole, looking at the overall quality of coverage, connection to the community, writing, editing, headlines, photography, layout, design, typography, advertising and more. If members “dig it,” or if they don’t, they’ll let staff know why and offer solutions.

The squad’s mission is to provide staffers with in-depth feedback – in written and verbal reports – to help them “keep the faith” and make improvements to the overall journalistic quality of their work, in print and online.

MEET THE HIT SQUADEric LaFontaine (aka Pete)

is the publisher of the Sun Tri-bune. He has worked in jour-nalism for 14 years, including 10 years as a publisher.

In addition to a strong editorial and photography background, LaFontaine has been at the tip of the spear of the newspaper digital revolution.

Sara Bruestle (aka Julie) is the editor of the Mukilteo Beacon and chair of the WN-PA’s Membership & Bylaws Committee. She has been a journalist for 11 years, includ-ing six at The Beacon.

Bruestle, who has been a copy editor as long as she has been a reporter, has a sharp eye for great photography, lay-out and design. She has won eight WNPA awards.

Michael Wagar (aka Linc) is the publisher of the Nisqually Valley News, regional executive

editor for Lafromboise Com-munications Inc., and chair of the WNPA’s Editorial & Journalism Education Committee. He has won several Blethen awards as a reporter and an editor.

After first reporting for 10 years, Wagar has been lead-ing newsrooms for the past two decades, and has jump-started sev-eral weekly and daily papers.

Want to hire The Hit Squad? The cost is $50 for WNPA members; $100 for non-members. All proceeds go toward WNPA operations.

Mail three copies of one com-plete issue of a specified date to: Washington Newspaper Publish-ers Association, 1204 Fourth Ave. East, Suite 4, Olympia WA 98506.

Provide a newspaper website (url link) and any login and pass-word, if required.

Call WNPA Executive Direc-tor Fred Obee at 360-515-5239 for more information.

Bruestle Wagar La Fontaine


The following employ-ment ads are excerpts of ads posted on WNPA’s website. For the complete ads and the full list of employment opportuniites, go to wnpa.com.

ADVERTISING SALESASSISTANT ON WHIDBEY

The Whidbey News Group, with weekly news publications in Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley, has an immedi-ate opening for a full-time Advertising Sales Assis-tant.

The Ad Assistant works directly with the adver-tising team, keeps track of customer contracts and orders, handles ad proofs and copy, prepares sales materials, prepares internal reports and makes telephone sales calls.

Requires excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a fast paced deadline-oriented environment.

Base hourly wage plus

sales commission. We of-fer a great work environ-ment, health benefits, 401k, paid holidays, vaca-tion and sick time. Please e-mail your resume, cover letter, and a few samples of your work to: [email protected]. Sound Publishing is an Equal Opportunity Em-ployer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace. Visit our web-site at www.soundpublish-ing.com to learn more about us!

REPORTER INPORT ANGELES

Reporter sought for Port Angeles staff opening with the Peninsula Daily News, a six-day a.m. newspaper on Washing-ton’s beautiful North Olympic Peninsula, which includes the cities of Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend and Forks.

Bring your experi-ence from a weekly or small daily – – from the

first day, you’ll be able to show off the writing and photography skills you’ve already acquired while sharpening your talent with the help of veteran newsroom leaders. This is a general assignment reporter position in which being a self-starter is required.

Our circulation area covers two counties, in-cluding the Victorian sea-port of Port Townsend, the sunshine town of Sequim, the “Twilight” country of Forks, five Native Ameri-can tribes plus wild rivers and the “mountains to the sea” city of Port Angeles.

Compensation includes medical, vision, life insur-ance, 401(k) and paid va-cation. The PDN, nearly a century old, is a communi-ty-minded, family-focused local newspaper and Web enterprise that is the main news provider for the North Olympic Peninsula. Check us out at www.pen-insuladailynews.com.

If you meet the above qualifications, email your resume and cover letter addressing how you fit our requirements, to [email protected]. No phone calls, please.

REPORTER INBATTLEGROUND

The Reflector news-paper seeks a full-time reporter to work up to 40 hours each week. The reporter will participate in all coverage areas including but not limited to general news, local politics, community events and business.

The successful candi-date will have previous newspaper experience, must be highly produc-tive and have the ability to work well with a small staff. Candidate will display an entertaining and informational writing style. Reporters are often asked to cover night and weekend events.

The Reflector news-paper is a community-based weekly newspa-per in northern Clark County, Washington,

with a circulation of about 29,000 and is part of family-owned Lafromboise Commu-nications Inc. with an office located in Battle Ground, Washington.

The paper serves all northern Clark County communities and some in southern Cowlitz County. The Reflector has been in business for more than 100 years and enjoys a unique relationship with an extremely-engaged and loyal readership.

Those interested who feel they meet the quali-fications required of the position should submit a formal letter of applica-tion, resume, references and 3-5 writing samples to: Laura Venneri, The Reflector Newspaper, P.O. Box 2020, Battle Ground, WA 98604 or email the documents to [email protected].

GRAPHIC DESIGNER IN CENTRALIA

The Chronicle is seek-ing a highly motivated graphic designer who is able to multi-task ef-fectively. The candidate

must be organized and have excellent verbal and written communica-tion. A successful candi-date has a strong atten-tion to detail, deadlines and is a team player. The perfect match would create effective and eye catching designs, while working in a fast paced environment.

Job requirements are designing and producing advertising pieces, news pages, web ads, signs, etc.; prior graphic design experience; experience with the Adobe Creative Suite; be detail oriented and have multi-tasking ability; work and col-laborate together with other staff members; and must be willing to work as part of a team.

Interested parties should mail, email or bring in a cover letter and resume.

Examples of design work are encouraged. Send application materi-als to: Kelli Erb, Design Director, [email protected], The Chronicle, 321 N. Pearl St., Centra-lia, WA 98531.

WNPA JOB BOARD

If you are not audited by CVC you’re missing out

on additional data that can increase revenue in

2016. View the new expanded 30 question survey

template at research.net/r/cvc2016. For a CVC

information package & discounted WNPA

price quote call (800) 262-6392, or

email [email protected].

SEMULOVSKAEPSATADRUO

“What were you thinking?”

Don Gronning of the Newport Miner, won first place in the Color Feature category in Group 2 for this photo of the Kalispell Pow Wow.


2016 WNPA Better Newspaper

ContestTIMELINE

April 4 (Monday) Begin submitting entries on BetterBNC.comMay 6 (Friday) Deadline for submitting Regular Entries and General ExcellenceJune 1 (Wednesday) Deadline for submitting Tourism/Community Guide Special SectionsJune 13 to July 8 Judging Period (including Open Website)Oct. 13 to 15 Winners announced at the WNPA Convention in Wenatchee

RULES: Download Category List & Rules at www.wnpa.com click BNC tabENTRIES: Upload entries at www.BetterBNC.com produced by SmallTownPapers

1204 4th Ave E, Suite 4,Olympia WA 98506 • www.wnpa.com • t 360 515 0974Contact CJ Burk: [email protected]

PASSWORDS• Contestant Managers who submitted entries last year can use the same email and password as last year; use the Forgot

Password link on www.BetterBNC.com if needed. Contestant Managers submit entries and also control which staff membersat a newspaper are authorized to submit their own entries. Contestant Managers can see and edit all the newspaper’s entriesand account information.

• If your Contestant Manager from last year is no longer at your newspaper and you need the account email changed to a newperson, contact CJ Burk (see below).

• If no Contestant Manager was active at your newspaper last year, create a Contestant Manager account by first logging inas a Contestant using use the temporary password bnc (lowercase).

• Authorized Entrants who submitted entries in 2015 can use the same email and password information as last year; use theForgot Password link on www.BetterBNC.com if needed. New Authorized Entrants receive an email from BetterBNC.comasking them to validate their email address. Once they have done so, Authorized Entrants can log in and begin submittingentries. Authorized Entrants can see and edit only the entries they submit themselves.

ENTRY FORMATS• Upload all entries as PDF, JPG, PNG, TIF or via URL to www.BetterBNC.com. The maximum file size is 5 MB. Please use

www.issuu.com or www.realviewdigital.com to enter special sections and large, multi-page entries. www.realviewdigital.comhas been built into the BetterBNC.com site.

• Please don’t submit both URL and PDF of the same entry. It confuses judges.• For photo entries, consider providing jpeg and/or a pdf. WNPA plans to use submitted jpegs to create photoboards for display

at the 2016 WNPA convention, Oct. 13-15 in Wenatchee. Please use these specs for jpegs: 180 px/inch, 10” on longest side.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT• For technical help getting logged in, making entries and general use of the BetterBNC platform, please use the “Contact

BetterBNC” button at www.BetterBNC.com to initiate a trouble ticket.• For help with rules, eligibility and entry fees please contact CJ Burk (see below).

GENERAL EXCELLENCEGeneral Excellence participation is a member benefit. There is no fee. Submit all issues published in both the week ofSept. 23 and the week of Sept. 30, 2015 (the last two issues of September). Include special sections and the classifieds.You may wish to create separate pdfs/urls for the newspapers and special sections distributed with these two weeks’newspapers.

CONTEST PERIODSRegular Entries: April 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016 Tourism/Community Guide Special Sections: June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016

ENTRY FEES: $6.50/entry for Group I, $8.50 for Groups II & III, $9 for Group IV

Postal rates set to decline, but will service be worse with cuts?

Community newspapers face the classic good news-bad news scenario in an announcement that postage prices will decline April 10.

The good news is that the First Class Mail stamp price will fall to 47 cents and mailing classes used by newspapers will decline 3 percent to 5 percent.

The bad news is that the financial relief is temporary, and the consequences could be severe to the already-worrisome service levels.

National Newspaper Associa-tion President Chip Hutcheson, publisher of The Times-Leader in Princeton, KY, testified to a Senate committee in January that NNA supported the freeze in rates contemplated by Sen. Thomas Carper’s iPOST bill, S. 2051, rather than the tempo-rary rollback. He said a survey of NNA members indicated that more than two-thirds were concerned about harm to their businesses in declining service standards. Though postage is costly, members felt that if stable rates avoided further deteriora-tion in service, they were willing to pay the price.

“We can’t be unhappy at a rate rollback, particularly when we objected to the increase in the first place, ” Hutcheson said, “but the higher rates happened and we have adjusted. Now we think a rollback is going to lead to worse pain in the future. We think the Postal Service now goes back to bleeding red ink. We had urged Congress to act quickly to pre-vent this pain point. I have to say, to my great regret, that Congress has failed the mailing world by not letting USPS truly reform its costs rather than just slashing service.”

twn 0416

Documents