NENPA Fall Conference

Photo by Ryan McMahon, e-Bulletin staff
Ken Doctor presented at the 2011 NENPA Fall Conference, suggesting that the press is in an "identity crisis" and needs to tap into digital advertising in order to build revenue.

In October each year NENPA conducts a one-day conference for hundreds of top executives from the newspapers in New England. The day is typically centered on a theme that is especially relevant and timely for our members, and it includes several speakers, panels and sessions that each addresses a different aspect of the common theme. The conference is usually headlined by a well-known expert or luminary.

The centerpiece of the NENPA Fall Conference is our annual New England Newspaper of the Year awards luncheon at which we honor the very best newspapers in the region. This is a unique competition, because, unlike any other designation of this sort in the newspaper industry, the winners are judged by the audience. Panels of newspaper readers are invited to take part in in-depth focus groups to decide upon the winners. Plus, the final session of the conference features video highlights of the focus group jury deliberations and expert analysis of the attributes and characteristics that set the winning newspapers apart.

The awards luncheon also honors the recipients of NENPA’s annual Publick Occurrences awards, the Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award, the Allen B. Rogers Award for the best editorial of the year in New England, and the New England Journalism Educator of the Year.

NENPA has an uncommon approach to the Newspaper of the Year judging and the follow-up session at the conference that presents an analysis of the focus group results epitomizes the two-pronged goal of the NENPA recognition programs – both to pay tribute to the star performers at newspapers in our region while simultaneously helping all of our members identify truly successful practices that they can adopt for their own publications.

The NENPA Fall Conference is held each October at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick, MA.

For more information, please contact:
Megan Sherman
m.sherman@nenpa.com
781.320.8042