2012 New England Newspaper Convention Speakers

Jump to Speaker Sections: Sales/Advertising | Digital | Operations | News | Legal                                  Registration • Main Convention page

Jump to Speaker Sections: Sales/Advertising | Digital | Operations | News | Legal                                 Registration • Main Convention page

News-Oriented Sessions:

Sherry Chisenhall, Wichita KS Eagle VP News and Editor
Presenting with: John Boogert, Deputy Editor/Digital

Session Topic: How to fundamentally restructure your newsroom to become "digital first"

Last year the Wichita Kansas Eagle changed the jobs of nearly all of its staff members in an effort to transform the organization, its functions and workflow to meet the demands of the digital age. Find out how they did it, how it's working, lessons learned and their recommendations for editors that are wrestling with the same issues that they've addressed with this plan.

Sherry Chisenhall is editor of The Wichita Eagle. She was managing editor of The Wichita Eagle for four years before being appointed editor and vice- president/news in October 2004. She has been with Knight Ridder Newspapers for 21 years. Sherry previously worked at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina for 14 years in various positions as an editor, reporter, copy editor and page designer. Prior to this Sherry worked at the Sun Herald in Biloxi Mississippi. She is a native of south-central Illinois and has a B.S. Degree in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

 

Stuart Warner, The Write Coach, LLC (formerly of the Huffington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Case Western University)

Session #1 Topic: Writing for New Media
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Writing for New Media: Research shows that readers read differently online than in print. In this session a Pulitzer-winning former AOL/Huffington Post editor offers 12 Steps to helping journalists break their addiction to long sentences and introductory clauses. (And here's a tip: This works well in print, too).

Session #2 Topic: Making room for the Short Narrative
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How to grab and keep readers' attention by turning quotes into dialogue and Who, What, When and Where into Characters, Action, Setting and Chronology.

Stuart Warner can make you a better writer. He has written or edited three Pulitzer Prize-winning entries and edited three other Pulitzer finalists during almost 40 years at daily newspapers. His writers have won more than 50 other major national awards. Warner launched a Writing for New Media course at Case Western Reserve University, where he also taught Literary Journalism. He was honored as Ohio’s best freelance writer in 2010 and writes a regular column for Cleveland Magazine.

Warner has been invited to speak on writing and journalism at Harvard, Columbia, the National Writers Workshop, the Poynter Institute and many others. He was the writing coach at The Cleveland Plain Dealer for 10 years and was an online national editor for AOL News.

 

John Voket, Associate Editor, Newtown Bee

Workshop #1 Topic: The right way to cover domestic violence

Additional Presenters:
Mary Lauby, Executive Director of Jane Doe, Inc. in Boston
Karen Jarmoc, Interim Executive Director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence

A workshop to assist reporters, copywriters, headline writers and editors with coverage of domestic violence and domestic violence homicides. The panelists will talk about how their respective agencies' media guides can serve as a useful tool to ensure that coverage accurately reflects the experiences of victims and the dynamics of domestic violence. The session will also include a law enforcement professional who can shed some light on how crime, legal and court reporters (and editors) can most effectively cover the judicial-side of domestic violence stories effectively, but with appropriate sensitivity to victims.

Workshop #2 Topic: Working the Scene - Capturing compelling emergency incident photography while building better rapport with emergency responders

Additional Presenters:
Jeremy Rodorigo, also a firefighter and an emergency medical chief and trainer (and former coordinator of Bioterrorism response for eastern CT )
Chris Christo, photo editor, Telegram & Gazette

Whether you are a photographer or a reporter who wants to become a better shooter, our two presenters will preview some of their best incident and disaster scene shots, and then lead a collaborative discussion on how to approach an incident scene prepared to get the best possible photography without compromising the work, or ruffling the feathers of emergency responders. This session will feature Chris Christo - a Worcester native and award-winning Photo Editor for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette who was part of the team that covered the tragic Worcester Cold Storage fire where six firefighters lost their lives. His images of that fire and aftermath were among the shots named as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in the feature photography category. The workshop will also tap the experience of Jeremy Rodorigo who has worked incident scenes as a firefighter and EMT; as Public Info Officer for his local fire company as well as for AMR (American Medical Response) in Connecticut; and as a full-time news photographer for the now defunct Naugatuck Daily News and Naugatuck News. Rodorigo continues to be freelance contributor to several Connecticut newspapers, along with conducting public information officer training for fire and emergency service staffers.

 

Gavi Wolfe, Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts

Session Topic: Freedom of information ain’t free: political movement toward public records reform

Government stonewalling getting you down? Tired of playing tug of war for access to public information? Public records laws are indispensable tools for journalists, but the law in Massachusetts is broken. Agencies delay or deny access, records cost too much, and enforcement is non-existent. But there’s hope. Learn about legislative advocacy to update state public records law for the 21st century, what might be politically achievable, and how you can make a difference.

 

Valencia

Howe

Askanase

Milton J. Valencia, Metro Reporter, The Boston Globe
Debra Askanase, Social Media Consultant at SocialBrite.org
Jeffrey Howe, Northeastern University

Session Topic: Is Social the “New” News? And why does it matter if it is?
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In this interactive session, we will consider a few important trends in newspaper reporting: the benefits of a social media presence, the role of crowdsourcing in newspaper reporting, and the changing relationship between news consumers and reporters. In particular, we will discuss how newspapers are using social media effectively and to what end, how social media is changing the way newspaper audiences consume news, and the changing relationship to the news. Join us for this interactive Q&A on social media and the newspaper industry.

Milton Valencia is one of the most successful New England journalists using social media – he has more than 1,400 Twitter followers. As a reporter on the Boston Globe's metro desk, he blends professional and personal updates for a locally engaging, informative news feed. Valencia shares his observations, such as a behind the scenes moment from inside the newsroom, or a series of live-tweets from inside a state court room. @MiltonValencia

Debra Askanase offers strategic consulting to businesses and nonprofit organizations. Debra worked for 20 years in nonprofit organizations in many positions, among them executive director, program director, fundraiser and community organizer. She holds a B.A. from Emory University and an M.B.A. in International Business from Bar Ilan University. Her professional blog, communityorganizer20.com, offers advice, strategies and opinions about using social media in the nonprofit sector. Debra can be often be found chatting away on Twitter at @askdebra.

Jeff Howe teaches multimedia journalism courses. Prof. Howe is an assistant professor on the tenure track with a research interest in multimedia. He is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, where he has covered the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. Prof. Howe previously was a senior editor at Inside.com and a writer at the Village Voice. In 2008, he published the book, "Crowdsourcing: How the Power of Crowds is Driving the Future of Business," and writes the blog Crowdsourcing.com. In his 15 years as a journalist, Prof. Howe has traveled around the world working on stories ranging from the impending water crisis in Central Asia to the implications of gene patenting. He has written for U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post and Mother Jones.

 

Densmore

Bill Densmore, Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow and Media Giraffe Project Director at UMass Amherst
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Craig E. Wills, Chair of the Computer-Science Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Mary Ruddy, principal of the Identity Commons non-profit and the MIT Eclipse Higgins Project
Doc Searls, Senior editor for Linux Journal and alumnus fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University

Panel Q&A Topic: Privacy, identity, trust, commerce: Foundation blocks for 21st-century news?
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Wills

For newsrooms and publishers to thrive online, they must providing a personalized, social service for digital citizens. Key concepts involved are privacy, identity, trust and commerce. Who is taking control of them on the web and what should editors and publishers be doing about it? Join Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow and Media Giraffe Project director Bill Densmore in a fast-paced, Q&A discussion with experts on each.

PRIVACY — Craig Wills, chair of the computer-science department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will update his nationally cited research on apparent privacy violations among advertising and social networks. Willis found over half of 120 websites surveyed leaked sensitive and identifiable information to third-party aggregators without knowledge of the user. How might this affect news sites?

Searls

Ruddy

IDENTITY — Mary Ruddy, principal of the Identity Commons non-profit and the MIT Eclipse Higgins Project, will explain the Obama administration‘s effort to foster private-sector creation of a competitive network of Internet identity providers. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is being embraced by Google, Verizon, Equifax and others. How should the news industry cover, or be part of, these efforts to control user data?

TRUST — At Harvard‘s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Doc Searls has been leading a multi-year, open-source effort, and is author of a forthcoming book. He wants to create software and a network that will allow the public to trust their personal data — their personas — with a new class of vendor-relationship managers (VRM), who answer to individuals, not to marketers and advertisers. Learn how Searls‘s Project VRM vision may differ from what the Obama administration is backing, and why it might represent an opportunity for news organizations.

COMMERCE — Bill Densmore will provide a brief update on the New England Common research collaboration among the Reynolds Journalism Institute, Clickshare Service Corp. and a group of New England newspapers that are testing the idea of a shared-user network for information commerce. He‘ll also reference his August, 2011, RJI report, "From Paper to Persona," which calls for formation of an independent, non-profit Information Trust Association to provide stewardship over trust, identity and privacy issues.

 

Earl Brechlin, Editor, Mount Desert Islander

Session Topic: Make your front pages appeal to the widest possible audience
Download Slide Presentation | Headline Words Handout | Universal Themes Handout

This is an interactive session where you‘ll explore the intriguing concept of "universal themes" that you can use to broaden the appeal of your front pages.

 

Holt

Sansoucie

Robert Holt III, veteran photojournalist; former Assistant Managing Editor, Director of Photography, and Director of Operations and Technology for the St. Louis Dispatch; and former Director of Industry Marketing for Scitex America
Dhyana Sansoucie, Presentation Editor at the Standard-Times and Cape Cod Times

Session Topic: How to truly leverage the full power of your photography

Photographs have a huge amount of appeal for readers. However, if you don‘t play them correctly you‘re wasting much of the power they hold to engage your audience. At this session you‘ll find out how it ought to be done.

 

Bertsche

Calixto

Rob Bertsche and Asya Calixto, Prince Lobel

Session Topic: Avoiding libel, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement in a digital world

A comprehensive, lively overview of the major legal issues facing reporters and editors preparing copy for newspapers and their web sites. Led by a newspaper-journalist-turned-media-lawyer, this fastmoving program is the perfect primer for new reporters, as well as a useful brush-up for those who are more experienced. Emphasis will be placed on the latest digital and online legal issues.

Robert A. Bertsche is a nationally known media lawyer with a litigation and transactional practice. He is devoted to protecting clients’ First Amendment, intellectual property, business and employment interests.

Asya Calixto is an associate in Prince Lobel's Media and Intellectual Property and Internet Law Practice Groups. Asya concentrates her practice in media and intellectual property litigation and prepublication review.

 

Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President

Session Topic: New tools to enhance your election coverage

Project Vote Smart is a premier non-partisan, political research organization. Looking towards the 2012 election, Project Vote Smart president Richard Kimball will describe and demonstrate several free and trusted information systems and resources that are now available to members of the news media, and discuss the many ways reporters can use Project Vote Smart‘s on-call researchers and factual and relevant information during the upcoming election year – including a unique new, web-traffic driving, automated tool called VoteEasy that newspapers can deploy to help voters determine which candidates most closely represent their own views on key issues.

 

Swayze

Heckman

Andrew Swayze, Raise Your Voice
Meg Heckman Concord Monitor

Session Topic: New ways for newspapers to foster civic engagement
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News stories routinely generate calls to legislators, letters to school boards, and donations to advocacy groups. And many reporters get into the news business motivated by the fourth estate‘s power to "inform the citizenry" and shine a spotlight on problems that need fixing. But the Web now makes it possible for news sites to not only report, but to also offer ways for readers to act. How can papers facilitate the kind of civic engagement that is core to their mission (and valued by readers!) while maintaining needed objectivity? Join Andrew Swayze, co-founder of Raise Your Voice, and Meg Heckman of the Concord Monitor, who has been piloting The Voice article tool to discuss this important issue.

Meg Heckman has spent the last decade using new media and narrative nonfiction to document life in rural New England. She's currently the online editor for the Concord Monitor where she experiments with new ways to use technology to cover tiny town governments, presidential politics and everything in between. Meg graduated from the University of New Hampshire, and has completed fellowships with the Poynter Institute and the New York Times Foundation. In addition to daily work for the Monitor, she's written for Poynter.org and the Center for Digital Ethics and Public Policy at Loyola University. In her spare time, Meg skis, practices yoga and teaches writing.

 

Ron Welby, GM Journal Register Company Connecticut Cluster, formerly President/Salesman at R. Paul Associates, LLC and The Welby Group, LLC
Bob Kempf, VP/GM, Digital Services at NPR
Chris Eck, GM at Propel Marketing
Courtney Hollands, Senior Lifestyle Editor at Boston Magazine
Kate Kelleher, Director, Product and Operations at Propel Marketing
Jonathan Biddle, Director, Software Development at Propel Marketing

Session Topic: Newspaper Strategies using the Newspaper Next Principles

Ron will narrate a provocative and frank discussion on newspaper strategies starting with the Newspaper Next Project that produced WickedLocalPlymouth.com. The Gatehouse Media New England team won 7 awards for best local newspaper site in 2007 for the Wicked Local project. Join this reunion of these talented disruptive innovators. The distinguished panel will consist of the original staff lead by Bob Kempf, now VP/GM, Digital Services at NPR, Chris Eck, GM at Propel Marketing, Courtney Hollands, Senior Lifestyle Editor at Boston Magazine, Kate Kelleher, Director, Product and Operations at Propel Marketing and Jonathan Biddle, Director, Software Development at Propel Marketing. They will discuss how the Newspaper Next principles were successful during the Wicked Local launch. In addition, we will discuss how the principles can be applied to pure-play companies, broadcast, magazines and newspapers. Come with lots of questions and be prepared to participate in this fast-paced informative event.

 

Srinandan Kasi, EVP and Chief Operating Officer NewsRight, LLC

Session Topic: NewsRight – Sustaining Journalism by Bridging the Digital Economic Gap

Over two-dozen news organizations with a rich and diverse news heritage are founding investors in NewsRight, a new venture that seeks to bridge the digital gap between organizations who invest in original news reporting and businesses whose products and services rely on original news content and media analytics. As the spread of news becomes ever easier, more immediate and more powerful, organizations investing in news content need efficient ways to license their content for a broad range of uses across an array of digital platforms and devices. NewsRight owns and operates the News Registry, which registers nearly a million professionally edited news items each month and measures their publication and consumption analytics, covering thousands of websites and billions of impressions. Learn how NewsRight is working to become a convenient and reliable source for qualitynews content, analytics and audience data.

Srinandan (Sri) Kasi is an information industry professional who brings 20 years of experience with strategic initiatives at the intersection of media, law and information technology. Most recently, Kasi was on the management committee of The Associated Press, in his capacity as vice president, general counsel and secretary of The Associated Press, with global responsibility for AP’s legal affairs and governance matters. Prior to joining the AP in 2004, Kasi was a corporate transactions lawyer in New York City with a focus on corporate ventures and alliances in the information technology sector. Kasi began his career as a scientist at IBM, with product development responsibilities in the microelectronics area. Kasi holds a law degree from Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, a doctoral degree in the physical sciences from the University of Houston and an undergraduate degree in the physical sciences from the University of Madras, India.

 

Peter Doucette, VP Boston Globe

Session Topic: Audience Growth & Monetization

Peter Doucette of The Boston Globe will discuss their strategy for growing audience across the paper’s print and digital product portfolio. He will provide insight into the early success of the Globe’s “two-brand strategy,” new product innovation, audience development and keys to optimizing digital adoption.

As Executive Director of circulation sales & marketing, Peter Doucette is responsible for all consumer-facing aspects of circulation and audience development. He joined The Boston Globe in 2007 and has served in a number of roles including: director of circulation marketing, where he was the architect of the premium-focused circulation strategy which was a critical component in the financial turnaround of The Boston Globe in 2009. Prior to that, Mr. Doucette was the director of acquisition marketing, where he developed direct marketing campaigns targeting new Globe subscribers. Previously, he served as Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Grand Circle Corporation, a leading travel operator for age 50+ Americans travelling abroad. Peter is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, with a BBA in Finance.

 

Jump to Speaker Sections: Sales/Advertising | Digital | Operations | News | Legal                                 Registration • Main Convention page

Digital-transformation Sessions:

Heidi Cohen, President, Riverside Marketing Strategies, interactive marketing expert and NYU professor

Session Topic: 10 Ways to exploit your local revenue opportunities

2012 is going to be the year of local driven by the convergence of social media and mobile. Is your newspaper ready to take advantage of this latest media marketplace disruption? If not, then this IS the session for you! We‘ll examine the emerging trends in today‘s connected content ecosystem to show you opportunities your organization can exploit to increase profitability. This session will present 10 tactics you can take back and put into action. So come ready to use this session to brainstorm new strategies for your media entities.

"How-to" Clinics: Sign-up for an individual appointment with Heidi throughout the 2-day convention

Heidi Cohen is the president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, an interactive marketing consultancy. Over the course of her career, Heidi has acquired deep experience in integrated, direct, digital and social media marketing across diverse product categories. Heidi Cohen simplifies the complex concepts behind today’s evolving integrated marketing challenges.

Among Riverside Marketing Strategies’ clients are the New York Times Digital, AccuWeather.com, CheapTickets, and the UJA. Additionally, Riverside Marketing Strategies works with numerous other online media companies and e-tailers.

Prior to starting Riverside Marketing Strategies, Heidi held senior-level marketing positions at The Economist, Bertelsmann’s Bookspan and Citibank. She started her career working in a local family-run weekly newspaper.

Since 2002, Heidi has taught marketing at a variety of universities at the graduate level including New York University, where she received the university’s Outstanding Service award, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey and CUNY-Hunter College. In addition, Heidi has developed and delivered corporate training.

Website: HeidiCohen.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/heidicohen
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heidicohen
Twitter: @HeidiCohen

 

Schlein

Rattey

Michael Schlein, CEO for Pointslocal
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Chris Rattey, director of product development at Boston.com
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Session Topic: Cultivating Engaged Audiences and Transforming Marketing Relationships with Social Data

Boston.com and Pointslocal have embarked on an aggressive path to integrate social data throughout many editorial and marketing initiatives in 2012. What is the strategy guiding these initiatives? What are the tools available to publishers seeking to leverage social and hyperlocal tools to engage more directly with their audiences and advertisers? What should publishers be focusing on to ensure they are an important part of consumers' social conversations? Chris Rattey will demonstrate and preview several uses of social and hyperlocal data within Boston.com; Michael Schlein will present an overview of the platform and tools available for aggregating, analyzing, curating and presenting social data in interactive, informative and engaging visualizations; but the session will culminate in a discussion of potential new uses and ideas for how best to integrate and manage our social role in the daily life of newspapers, audiences and advertisers.

Michael Schlein specializes in providing tools to harness, understand and visualize social and geographic data to support a wide variety of publisher business opportunities. Chris Rattey has been in the digital publishing industry and the New York Times Company in various roles since 1999.

 

Mel Taylor, Mel Taylor Media

Session Topic: Running your newspaper website as a profit-first business
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This eye-opening session is not about online sales tips and traffic drivers. It‘s not a 'future is bright if we only change' lecture. Rather, we‘ll call out the 800 lb. elephant in the room: Why don’t we run web like print? (where profit and realistic business tactics always come first) Mel Taylor Media has first-hand knowledge of these issues and the specific fixes that should be considered and applied. Mel Taylor has spent over 15 years working with both traditional media and online-only ventures in their pursuit of building profitable, online businesses. Mel‘s ability to clearly communicate the issues and actionable remedies will make this session immediately valuable to all who attend. The session will also offer analysis & recommendation delivered in a framework that will resonate with publishers, owner / operators, COO, CEO, and CFO‘s.

Mel Taylor is co-founder of 360 Media Alliance; the fastest growing group of Newspaper executives dedicated to Re-inventing the Business of Local Media. Mel is one of the highest-rated industry speakers at conferences like INMA, Inland Press, SNA and the Key Executive Mega Conference. This web-sales pioneer & business consultant has successfully trained over 5,000 local media executives from companies like Tribune Newspapers, Philly.com, Fox-TV and Clear Channel Radio, as well as hundreds of independent hyper-local websites. In addition, Mel Taylor Media provides financial advisory services to equity firms and other investment concerns looking to place proper valuations on a Newspaper's digital assets. For more details: www.MelTaylorMedia.com

 

Kempler

Rozio

Adam Kempler, Chief Web Officer, Celsius Technology Group
Anthony J. Ronzio, New Media Director, Sun Media Group

Session Topic: Creating new revenue streams from your online content

We'll walk through examples of how to monetize all the different types of content you offer (or should be offering!). A session chock full of new ideas, we'll look at different ways to integrate, extend and monetize news, events and calendars, galleries, directories, classifieds, obituaries and even the weather. We'll also explore some inexpensive or free tools you can use to add these features to your site. Finally, we'll talk about how you can better target your online ads based on consumption, behavioral targeting and geo targeting.

 

Wayne Reuvers, Board Director, IDS

Session Topic: How to Monetize Advertising on the Web and Mobile

Wayne Reuvers, the founder and Chief Strategy Office of LiveTechnology Holdings, will discuss how newspapers can leverage the next generation of search to recapture the local online and mobile advertising market by allowing users to find every product and every service local businesses have to offer. He will detail the vertical markets best suited for this type of portal and offer recommendations on how newspapers can monetize this content. Reuvers founded LiveTechnology, an interactive consulting, information publishing, and content management company and has worked with 35 Fortune 500 companies to identify market opportunities.

 

Jump to Speaker Sections: Sales/Advertising | Digital | Operations | News | Legal                                Registration • Main Convention page

Sales/Advertising-Oriented Sessions:

Mel Taylor, Mel Taylor Media

Session Topic: Hyper-local revenue review
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Learn about who is making money in hyper-local, how they‘re doing it, and how to apply those best practices to your newspaper. Online revenue specialist, Mel Taylor provides case studies on those pulling in substantial revenue with their hyperlocal sales efforts.

Mel Taylor is co-founder of 360 Media Alliance; the fastest growing group of Newspaper executives dedicated to Re-inventing the Business of Local Media. Mel is one of the highest-rated industry speakers at conferences like INMA, Inland Press, SNA and the Key Executive Mega Conference. This web-sales pioneer & business consultant has successfully trained over 5,000 local media executives from companies like Tribune Newspapers, Philly.com, Fox-TV and Clear Channel Radio, as well as hundreds of independent hyper-local websites. In addition, Mel Taylor Media provides financial advisory services to equity firms and other investment concerns looking to place proper valuations on a Newspaper's digital assets. For more details: www.MelTaylorMedia.com

 

Matt Lindsay, Mather Economics

Session Topic: Advertising customer analytics and effective ad pricing strategies
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This session will discuss tactics for maximizing print and digital advertising revenues by using advertising customer analytics. The approaches to advertising pricing described in this session are applicable to markets of all sizes and use methods applied successfully at newspapers, broadcasters, and transportation companies.

Matt is the President of Mather Economics, an economics consultancy in Atlanta, GA. Matt has worked as an economist for over seventeen years as an industry practitioner of applied economics and as an economic consultant. Prior to Mather Economics, Matt worked for Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and as an Economist for United Parcel Service. Matt has worked with over ninety publishers, including 26 of the top 100, in the areas of circulation pricing, retention, and customer profitability, and his work has helped generate millions in incremental circulation revenue for his publishing clients. Matt’s clients have included several Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries. Matt has a Ph.D. in Economics.

 

Richard Farrell, Tangent Knowledge Solutions

Session #1 Topic: Selling advertising has nothing to do with "selling"

Believe it or not, selling advertising has nothing to do with "selling" — selling by its very nature often produces the exact opposite effect. Learn how to gain control over the sales process and truly differentiate yourself from the competition.

Session #2 Topic: You may be selling the exact opposite way your customers are buying

Solution-based selling isn't the solution, it's the problem — learn to transition your ad sales force from a solution-based sales strategy to a problembased strategy.

Richard P. Farrell is President of Tangent Knowledge Systems. Having been responsible for sales and business development for nearly 25 years, Richard brings a tremendous depth of experience and results to his audiences. His passionate, provocative and interactive style encourages audience participation, learning, and improvement while providing practical, usable “time tested” information. Richard stresses a non-selling posture that allows the sales person to play the role of a “change agent” rather than a product-centric transactional sales person.

He has worked with a range of companies from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups in helping them optimize their performance by assessing their sales people, sales processes, management structure and strategies. In working with his clients Richard has helped identify performance gaps and provided sales plans to help track, measure and execute objectives to increase the company’s bottom line.

Today in his role of President of Tangent Knowledge Systems, Richard continues to actively sell, prospect and manage client relationships in addition to the high performance training and development programs he personally conducts.

 

Mike Blinder, Blinder Group Multimedia Revenue Generators
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Session Topic: Real world multimedia ad revenue success stories from 2011
Panel Members:
Catherine Nelson, VP/General Manager, Rutland Herald/ Times Argus
John Krivosheyff, Director of Sales Development, Journal Register Company/Media News Group-Digital First Media
Shannon Dunnigan, CEO of RadarFrog.com, GateHouse Media

This session will provide details on how New England newspapers are generating new digital (and print) revenue. In addition to a concise overview of audience and advertising research, Mike Blinder will quickly review the latest methods of training, staffing and compensation that are working. Then, he will host a panel that will share insights from recently deployed, highly successful sales programs that generated significant new online revenue. Attendees will take away exact methods of pricing and packaging, target advertiser categories and actual sales materials used "in the field" to close new business. In some cases not only new Web revenue was created, but sizable new print dollars were achieved as well.

It was in the early 90s that Mike began to work for media companies managing online sales initiatives. It was his great success in creating multimedia sales strategies that created a demand for Mike's services to consult others world wide on their offerings. Newspaper groups, radio and TV stations, even SAP software and CitiBank, have hired Mike in the past to assist them in planning effective sales strategies of their multimedia offerings.

Today over 250 media companies world-wide are clients of Mike's company: The Blinder Group, a Florida based firm that assists in maximizing sales for their clients, through effective sales training/revenue generation programs. Hearst, Media General, CanWest, Quebecor, Media News Group, Scripps, The New York Times, Regional News Group, Hindu Times, Northcliffe Newspapers and Axel Springer are just a few of the companies that avail themselves of Mike and his team of "Street Fighting" multimedia specialists, who are experts at training traditional sales people on how to embrace new concepts in selling media.

One of Mike's mottos is "train in the car as well as the classroom," which means that Mike's company has made thousands of sales calls on small, medium and large advertisers in a "4-legged" sales call setting with traditional ad reps, closing millions of dollars of new business for client media companies, all over the world!

 

Mark French, Advertising Director of The Republican, Springfield, MA

Session Topic: Re-engineering your advertising sales staff
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In this challenging media and competitive environment a newspaper advertising sales staff must be much more sophisticated than ever before. We‘ll discuss effective ways to hire, train, compensate, organize and deploy your sales force to meet today‘s challenges and exploit your opportunities.

 

Jump to Speaker Sections: Sales/Advertising | Digital | Operations | News | Legal                                Registration • Main Convention page

Operations-Oriented Sessions:

Paul Briand, President of New England Newspaper Operations Association (NOA)
Additional Presenters:
Jim Falzone, Eagle-Tribune, MA
Shawn Stabell, Times Argus, VT
Alan Laskey, Portsmouth Herald/Seacoast Media Group, NH
Session is co-sponsored by NOA.

Session Topic: Emergency planning and preparedness — how to stay ready

Especially in light of the weather disasters that New England experienced this past year, production directors from throughout the region will offer insight, tips and guidelines for preparations that every newspaper ought to have in place — with special consideration to the fact that now many papers outsource their printing.

 

Jim Gore, Pressline Services

Session Topic: The innovative "three-around" press configuration

The Cincinnati Enquirer is making a bold switch this year to an innovative "three-around" press configuration that promises increased productivity, substantial newsprint savings and a compact, easy to read format with added color that readers embrace. Find out what's involved in this intriguing new printing technology.

 

Matt Lindsay, Mather Economics

Session Topic: Print and online subscriber pricing strategy
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This is a discussion of pricing, retention and profitability. Learn about circulation pricing strategies that yield incremental revenue while maximizing circulation volumes, as well as bundle pricing strategy that maximizes revenue from both digital and print subscriptions. The session will include case studies showing how these strategies have performed in large and small markets. This session will provide insights that can yield immediate revenue gains as well as guidance for long-term pricing strategy.

Matt is the President of Mather Economics, an economics consultancy in Atlanta, GA. Matt has worked as an economist for over seventeen years as an industry practitioner of applied economics and as an economic consultant. Prior to Mather Economics, Matt worked for Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and as an Economist for United Parcel Service. Matt has worked with over ninety publishers, including 26 of the top 100, in the areas of circulation pricing, retention, and customer profitability, and his work has helped generate millions in incremental circulation revenue for his publishing clients. Matt’s clients have included several Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries. Matt has a Ph.D. in Economics.

 

Matt Skibinski, Press+

Session Topic: Newspaper ecommerce strategies

This will be a discussion of the value of paid models online — including ecommerce options such as paywalls, meters, geo-targeting and print-digital combos. The discussion will focus on the results at papers that have implemented these strategies, lessons learned, tradeoffs, etc. Also, learn about ways to bypass Apple's 30% commission on iPad apps and retain control over your subscriber data.

 

Lerner

Farrugia

Miller

Richard Lerner, President, Clickshare Service Corp. Download Slide Presentation
John Winn Miller, Publisher of the Concord Monitor Download Slide Presentation
Gary Farrugia, Publisher of The Day
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Session Topic: What happens if we install a paywall?
Download Audio from Presentation (70Mb, 1hr 12 min)

This panel that will provide an overview of the online subscription management approaches that are currently being used by publishers in our region. This is your chance to learn how various approaches work, benefits/drawbacks and tradeoffs, the results papers have experienced so far (in terms of audience levels and advertising impact), and what‘s involved if you were to consider each approach for your own paper. The overview will be followed by reports from New England publishers who will discuss how their approach is working so far, lessons learned, tips and recommendations for others, etc.

 

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Legal-Oriented Sessions:

Bertsche

Caruso

Rob Bertsche and Peter J. Caruso II of Prince Lobel

Session Topic: Social Media without tears: emerging legal issues

A practical overview of the rapidly growing body of law governing the use of social media. Interactive workshop will cover social media policies for newspapers and web sites; how to manage copyright risks; applying the FTC endorsement guidelines; special issues when using Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter; and safely operating an online sweepstakes.

Robert A. Bertsche is a nationally known media lawyer with a litigation and transactional practice. He is devoted to protecting clients’ First Amendment, intellectual property, business and employment interests.

Peter J. Caruso II leads the firm’s Advertising and Promotions industry group. He specializes in the representation of traditional and online media entities, advertising agencies, and marketing organizations in development, structure, compliance, production, and advertising and promotional package execution. Peter skillfully balances the client’s creative vision with his depth of knowledge and expertise in the area of regulatory oversight.

 

Pyle

Calixto

Jeffrey J. Pyle and Asya Calixto of Prince Lobel

Session Topic: The fight for access: State of the law 2012

Hear about the latest developments in FOIA, public records, and open meetings law in New England, and hear strategies for prevailing over government secrecy.

Asya Calixto is an associate in Prince Lobel's Media and Intellectual Property and Internet Law Practice Groups. Asya concentrates her practice in media and intellectual property litigation and prepublication review.

Jeffrey J. Pyle is a trial lawyer specializing in First Amendment and media law. He has represented clients in state and federal court in a wide variety of civil cases, including libel claims, civil rights cases, and commercial disputes. Jeff also provides prepublication review services to media companies, advising them on how to avoid liability for such claims as defamation, invasion of privacy, and copyright infringement.

 

Peter Caruso, Caruso & Caruso, LLP

Session Topic: Can we protect our news content? What are our rights?

What are a newspaper's rights regarding the content it generates, and what can broadcast or online competitors get away with when lifting our copy?

Atty. Peter J. Caruso, Sr. has counseled over 3,000 family and business clients in real eatate, estate planning, asset protection, corporation issues, land development, personal injury settlements, family and business disputes. Representing newspapers, lending institutions, family businesses, corporations in transactions and litigation in all courts. Currently Chairman of the Merrimack Valley Community Foundation, Inc., and on the Board of Directors of Essex North District Boy Scouts, Lawrence Boys & Girls Club, Merrimack Valley Conveyancers Association; Past President of NCAMA, and Andover Racquets Club; Massachusetts Bar Fellow; member of American Bar Association; counsel to Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, Inc. Atty. Caruso has represented media organizations throughout New England including, NENA, NEPA, NCAMA, is involved with newspaper access issues, advertising acceptance practices and news reporting. Atty. Caruso has represented the media in the Willie Horton case, Pamela Smart case, Alan Eagleson case, and many investigative series.