Strategies to acquire and retain digital subscribers, the issue of “fake news”, a window into what it’s like to cover the Trump White House, and a celebration of extraordinary journalist’s … the 2018 New England Newspaper Conference was inspiring and insightful.
Thank you to the speakers and panelists for tackling some tough and relevant topics in our industry today. And thank you to those that came out to listen, share and celebrate.
Check out some photos from the event and congratulations to all the winners!
If you missed the interview with Philip Rucker check out the full recording.
The New England Newspaper of the Year award recognizes the region’s highest quality newspapers based on experts’ and readers’ impression of the quality of their reporting and writing, use of photos, design and presentation, online offering, and overall utility and value (categorized by circulation level).
Weekly Community Newspapers
Circulation less than 5,000: Provincetown Banner (MA) Distinguished Newspapers – Marshfield (MA) Mariner; Milton (MA) Times
Circulation 5,000-10,000: The Source, Madison (CT) Distinguished Newspapers – Vineyard Gazette, Edgartown (MA); The Ellsworth (ME) American
Providence Business News, (RI)
Distinguished Newspaper – UpCountry Magazine; The Berkshires of Massachusetts and So. Vermont; Worcester (MA) Magazine
Weekday Newspapers
Circulation less than 8,000: The Chronicle, Willimantic, CT Distinguished Newspapers – The Milford (MA) Daily News; The New Britain (CT) Herald
Circulation 8,000-14,000: Concord Monitor (NH) Distinguished Newspapers – The Herald News, Fall River, MA; The MetroWest Daily News,
Framingham, MA
Weekday Newspapers, continued
Circulation 14,000-25,000: The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA Distinguished Newspapers – Sun Journal, Lewiston, ME; The Day, New London, CT
Circulation 25,000-35,000: The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA Distinguished Newspapers – Republican-American, Waterbury, CT; Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, MA
Circulation 35,000+: Hartford Courant (CT) Distinguished Newspapers – The Providence (RI) Journal; The Republican, Springfield, MA
Sunday Newspapers
Circulation less than 18,000: The Sun Chronicle, Attleboro, MA Distinguished Newspapers – Sunday Valley News, West Lebanon, NH; Sunday Monitor, Concord, NH; The MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA
Circulation 18,000-30,000: The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA Distinguished Newspapers – The Eagle-Tribune, N. Andover, MA
Sun Journal, Lewiston, ME
Circulation 30,000-45,000: Sunday Telegram, Worcester, MA Distinguished Newspapers – Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, MA; New Hampshire Union Leader
and Sunday News, Manchester, NH
Circulation 45,000+: The Republican, Springfield, MA Distinguished Newspaper – Providence (RI) Sunday Journal
2018 Publick Occurrences Awards
In recognition of New England’s most outstanding journalism in 2018
The Publick Occurrences Award was established in 1990 to recognize individual and team merit at New England newspapers to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper published in America. Four days after it appeared in Boston in 1690, Publick Occurrences was suppressed by the royal governor.
AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year
Karen Florin The Day, New London, CT
The AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year is bestowed by the New England Society of News Editors, and it recognizes an individual for producing journalism of distinction in New England this past year. The award is named in honor of Sevellon Brown, the late editor and publisher of The Providence Journal-Bulletin, founder of the American Press Institute, fellow of the Academy of New England Journalists, and past president and founder of New England Associated Press News Editors Association (NEAPNEA).
Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award
Paul Leighton The SalemNews (MA)
The Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award recognizes an individual who has an exceptional record of commitment to community journalism. It celebrates the accomplishments of someone who, over a sustained period of time, has faithfully served the community for which they are responsible and has played an active, constructive role in contributing to its quality of life.
The New England Newspaper Hall of Fame recognizes the most outstanding newspaper professionals from throughout our six-state region.
Nominees should be people who have made extraordinary contributions to their newspaper(s), the newspaper industry and their communities. NENPA membership is not required to be eligible for the award.
People who have excelled in any area of newspaper operations are eligible — i.e., editorial, advertising, circulation, production, administration.
You may nominate those still working in the industry as well as those who have retired. Posthumous nominations are also eligible.
To nominate a colleague in honor of his or her professional achievement and lifetime of contributions, please prepare a letter that describes your nominee’s accomplishments and the reasons why you recommend that he/she should be appointed to the Hall of Fame. Be sure to include any supplemental materials, testimonials, etc. that support your nomination.
Send your nomination to:
New England Newspaper Hall of Fame c/o New England Newspaper & Press Association 1 Arrow Drive, Suite 6 Woburn, MA 01801
The deadline to have your nominee considered for induction at the upcoming NENPA Convention is January 4, 2019.
For further information, please contact NENPA executive director, Linda Conway, at (781) 281-7648, or l.conway@nenpa.com.
Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology. Email questions to him at kevin@kevinslimp.com.
Have we ever experienced a time like this in the news business?
I’ve been noticing a couple of patterns lately, and I wonder if you have been, too.
More for fun than anything, and to keep up with as much as possible in the newspaper business, I created stateofnewspapers.com a few months back. A quick check at the unique visitor stats indicate many of you have been to the site.
To keep relevant content on the site, I try to spend a few hours each week researching the latest happenings related to newspapers, then share what I think is most interesting with visitors. I can’t include all the information I come across.
I’d have to quit my “day job” to do that, but there is a lot going on in the newspaper world and sometimes it’s hard to understand why, as well as how, it is taking place simultaneously.
For instance, over the past few months several community papers across the country closed their doors. But at the same time, new newspapers have been popping up, often in the same towns where previous papers had just closed. It seems that most of the shuttered papers are part of large groups, while most of the new papers are independently owned.
Newspapers are closing and opening at the same time. To those uneducated in the history of newspapers, that would seem mighty unusual.
Community papers aren’t the only ones on contrasting paths. College newspapers were making news over the past two or three years for shutting down their print editions, trimming staffs, and de-emphasizing their roles on campus. Yet over the past few months, there seems to be a renaissance in the collegiate press, with campus papers re-emphasizing the importance of the printed word.
As I research collegiate media, hardly a week goes by that I don’t find one or more editorials, sometimes even front page stories, in college newspapers about the importance of print journalism.
Colleges and universities de-emphasizing print journalism and re-emphasizing it at the same time. That’s a head-scratcher, for sure.
If that’s not enough confusion for one day, how about the latest trend at schools of journalism across the U.S. It seems record numbers of entering freshmen (and grad students as well) are declaring journalism as their majors.
Reading a story on that subject just today in The Washington Post brought to mind all the students who have told me they were changing their majors to journalism over the past year or so. I ran into just such a student in downtown Knoxville just a few weeks ago. She was working behind the desk at the Knoxville Visitors Center and we began talking about her education. You guessed it. She had recently transferred to the University of Tennessee, where I sometimes teach, and had changed her major to journalism.
Then, there is my son’s best friend, Camruin. I like Camruin. He’s a nice guy and a great board game player, who majors in computer engineering at the University.
I suppose I should have written “majored.” Yes, you guessed it. Camruin showed up at my home for a game of Risk recently with big news to share. He had changed his major to journalism.
Many might think Camruin’s game play isn’t the only risky move he is making, but his increased enthusiasm about school has been apparent since beginning his first semester as a journalism student in September.
At a time when many universities see journalism as archaic, students are flocking in record numbers to schools of journalism. It’s confusing to say the least.
Then, there’s my work. Many of you know I had planned to reduce my workload in the newspaper industry this year to focus on publishing books, something that is taking up a lot of my time. One of the factors that induced me to make that decision was the decreasing number of attendees at conventions and conferences over the past few years. Other speakers were telling me they just weren’t getting invites like they used to, and I was seeing fewer conferences bringing in outside experts to speak.
It just made sense to create a backup plan. Then a funny thing happened. My inbox began filling with requests to speak at conventions. In one six-day period in September, I accepted invitations to speak at five conventions.
Apparently I just thought conventions were drifting away.
It seems unusual to me. Just when I’m beginning to believe conventions are becoming unimportant to newspapers, I start hearing from them – a lot of them – again. I’ve also seen an upswing in the number of requests I receive from community papers to provide on-site training and consulting. Again, it’s confusing.
There is more going on in our industry than I remember at any time in my 25 years as an “expert.” Sure, papers are closing. But we all knew groups couldn’t keep buying papers forever, cutting content, and expect to magically stick around.
At the same time, independent publishers are opening new papers. It’s too early to know how their fortunes will turn out, but I suppose that’s always been the case with newspapers.
Almost 19 years ago, we lived through Y2k. This year, we survived the tariff scare. It’s always something. I suppose that’s why we need journalists…and newspapers.
A New England native and veteran publisher of independently-owned newspapers has been named Chief Operating Officer of Union Leader Corp.
James Normandin will begin his new job on July 1. The position is a new one, overseeing the news company’s advertising as well as its general operations. The announcement was made by Union Leader president and publisher Joseph W. McQuaid.
“Our company and our statewide readers and advertisers are very fortunate that we are able to bring Jim’s talents and work ethic to us at an important time for the news and information business,” McQuaid said. “As were William and Nackey Loeb, Jim is a believer in and advocate for independently-owned news media.”
Normandin, 55, has been publisher of the Worcester, Mass., Telegram and Gazette since last year. Before that, he served as publisher and vice president of Woodward Communications, Inc., which publishes the Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph Herald, the Woodward Media Group (including five weeklies), and Woodward Printing Services. While in Iowa, he launched several successful digital and niche products.
He began his career in his native Massachusetts as advertising director for the Middlesex News. He has also worked as a publisher for Pulitzer Community Publishing and served as group publisher for the Journal Register Company in New Haven.
“As a true New Englander, and a passionate independent newspaper executive, I am excited and honored to join the Union Leader Corporation team,” Normandin said. “Its mission as an independent newspaper in today’s evolving media environment requires a unique commitment and one that I believe strongly in: a commitment that aligns keenly with my core values and underscores the legacy of the Union Leader.”
Like McQuaid, Normandin is a past president of the Independent Newspaper Group. Union Leader Corp. is independently owned with the majority of its voting stock held by the non-profit Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, Inc.
In addition to his COO duties, Normandin will oversee advertising at the Union Leader and Sunday News, UnionLeader.com, and Neighborhood Newspapers. He will be relocating to New Hampshire this summer.
Normandin has served on numerous industry related, educational, private and public foundations, boards and associations during his career. Most recently he served as Chairman of Two by Two Character Education and Development and Director of the Woodward Foundation.
He is a native of Leominster Mass., a 1978 Graduate of Leominster High School and was a recipient of a baseball and football scholarship to University of Connecticut. He is a 1991 graduate of SPPI in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and returned to UCONN in 1996 to study business.
Sponsored Content Panelists & Moderator
Terry Williams (Moderator)
Terry worked for almost 19 years as president and publisher of Telegraph Publishing Co., the publisher of The (Nashua) Telegraph and nashuatelegraph.com and following that company’s recently completed sale to Ogden Newspapers group of West Virginia.
Williams began his news career as a reporter and editor for Foster’s Daily Democrat of Dover and The (Lowell, Mass.) Sun before moving in 1988 to The Telegraph and becoming publisher in 1994. During his time as publisher, Telegraph Publishing expanded aggressively into online and other digital publishing and also acquired or launched several magazines, weeklies and other publications, including New Hampshire Magazine, NH.com and The (Milford) Cabinet. The Manchester-based magazine group was purchased in December by Yankee Publishing Inc. of Dublin.
Active in industry and local organizations during his years in Nashua, Williams has served as president of that area’s Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and as chairman of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce. He is immediate past president of the New England Newspaper and Press Association, an officer of the New England First Amendment Coalition and a member of the publisher’s advisory board for the Washington, D.C.-based Stars & Stripes armed forces newspaper.
Ernesto Burden
Ernesto Burden is a father and Vice President Digital for Newspapers of New England (NNE). He’s been a group publisher at PennWell, vice president of digital media for The Telegraph and NH.com and related sites, as well as digital media director for the Rutland Herald and Times Argus newspapers in Vermont, online editor for The Telegraph and NH.com, and a print editor and reporter with daily and weekly newspapers. He is also a writer, marathon runner, guitarist, and an avid student of the Web, technology, literature, the Catholic faith, and the Spanish language.
Lynn Santa Lucia
Lynn Santa Lucia is director of content at BG BrandLab content studio at the Boston Globe which specializes in business-to-consumer content strategy and execution, with a focus on storytelling for impact.
Fake News and Misinformation Panelists
Paul Pronovost
Paul Pronovost is the Executive Editor of the Cape Cod Media Group, responsible for all content in the Cape Cod Times, CapeCodTimes.com, CapeCodOnline.com and PrimeTime Cape Cod. He also oversees The Cape Codder, Provincetown Banner, The (Dennis-Yarmouth) Register, Sandwich Broadsider, Bourne Courier and The (Mashpee-Falmouth) Bulletin.
The Cape Cod Times has been New England’s Newspaper of the Year 10 of the past 13 years and Cape Cod Media Group’s print and digital products have received several top prizes in regional competitions, including the Thomas K. Brindley Public Service Award, the Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award and Editor & Pubilsher’s prestigious EPPY Award. In 2016, the Times was named national Newspaper of the Year and Pronovost was named Editor of the Year by GateHouse Media Inc., the Times’ parent company, which owns more than 200 daily newspapers across the country.
Before coming to the Cape in 2000, Pronovost worked at several weekly and daily newspapers in Greater Boston, including the Dover-Sherborn Suburban Press and the Medfield Suburban Press. He was the Metro Editor and Managing Editor at the Cape Cod Times before his current role.
An enthusiastic believer in the future of media, Paul has been a champion of several efforts to evolve in the digital age, including the Dow Jones “Future of Content” project and GateHouse Media’s “Digital Next” project.
Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Saint Anselm College and a Masters in Public Administration from Suffolk University. He was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2009 and 2010, and is past president of the Massachusetts Press Association. He has been involved in many community leadership endeavors, including the Salvation Army, Community Leadership Institute and Cape Cod Young Professionals. He also has coached for many years with the Barnstable Youth Soccer Association and has led a Destination Imagination team with the Barnstable Public Schools’ Gateway program.
Paul grew up in Medfield and now lives in Cotuit with his wife, Patricia. The couple have two daughters: Leslie, a nursing student at Simmons College, and Marguerite, a freshman at Barnstable High School.
Peter Huoppi
Peter Huoppi is director of multimedia at The Day. Over the past 11 years in New London his work has ranged from solo short-form video stories to producing and directing live multi-camera webcasts of high school sports. Most recently he served as producer and editor on the podcast series Case Unsolved, and was The Day’s newsroom liaison for the Trusting News project, which aims to help journalists earn the trust of news consumers. His work has earned first place awards in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest and the Eppy Awards, as well as two New England Emmys. Prior to The Day, Peter was a staff photographer at The Burlington Free Press. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and is writing his master’s thesis for the University of Missouri.
Aimee Rinehart
Aimee Rinehart manages training and international projects at the Information Disorder Project at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The ID Project fights misinformation by creating experimental journalism projects, undertaking research on those projects, and using research results to build resources and training for journalists and the wider public. She has worked online since 1996 for newspapers, magazines and nonprofits and was a digital founder at nytimes.com.
Media and First Amendment lawyer by profession, and still a reporter at heart. I help writers, editors, bloggers, and media and other companies convey their message to the public while minimizing the risk of liability for defamation, invasion of privacy, and copyright and trademark infringement. On a typical day I may be drafting a social media policy, fighting in court for access to public records, training reporters about legal risks, vetting anything from a newspaper article to a documentary film, or defending a website against a libel claim.
Emily Sweeney (Moderator)
Emily Sweeney is a journalist at The Boston Globe and author of the books Boston Organized Crime, Gangland Boston, and the forthcoming title The Legend of Dropkick Murphy. She has been a staff writer at the Globe since 2001, and currently serves on the board of the New England First Amendment Coalition and the New England Society of News Editors.
Tom Zuppa
Tom Zuppa is managing editor/days for The Sun of Lowell and Nashoba Valley Voice. He leads Digital First Media’s Lowell cluster efforts on public records and First Amendment issues.
Todd Feathers
Todd Feathers is a general assignment reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader. He previously worked at the Lowell Sun and MuckRock, a nonprofit that assists journalists, activists and anybody else interested in public records with their requests.
MNPA Panelists- Anonymous Sources: Law, Policies and Practices
Peter J. Caruso, Esq.
Atty. Peter J. Caruso, Sr. has counseled over 3,000 family and business clients in real estate, 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.
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.
Wayne Phaneuf
From reporter to editor, from historian to historical writer, his broad experiences are demonstrative of someone who has taken his personal growth and experiences as a journalist to guide at least two generations of new journalists into careers of serving their readers. As a historian, he works steadfastly to ensure today’s readers are able to put the news events of their lives in perspective of the past.
Mike Bello
Mike Bello has been deputy city editor at the Boston Globe since 2005, overseeing spot and crime news coverage for the metro section of the newspaper. Bello has also worked at the Boston Herald, serving as copy editor, Sunday city editor and executive city editor during an 18-year career at the newspaper. He also worked at WBZ-TV as chief assignment editor from 1991-93.
Bart Pfankuch is an investigative reporter for South Dakota News Watch, online at sdnewswatch.org. Write to him at bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org
More art than science. More craft than vocation. More a calling than a profession.
All these statements are true about our chosen field of journalism. Taken together, they shine a light on the maddening beauty of reporting and writing — the fact that one can become good, even great, at journalism but never master it.
Once a journalist understands that perfection is unattainable, and mastery only a mystery, it stands to reason that we should all embark on a career of constant discovery and realize that our education never ends.
This is important for journalists both young and old. The young-uns should heed the advice of elders (and their fellow newbies who are showing promise or trying new techniques), model best practices of more seasoned veterans, and certainly read, read, read the work of others to pilfer practices they use successfully.
However, it is critical also for veterans to keep eyes and ears open to learning new methods and relearning approaches perhaps forgotten.
The best journalists are lifelong learners, and they understand there’s no shame in admitting you don’t know it all, and that there is value in accepting advice given by colleagues at any level, including those younger or less experienced.
Even after nearly 30 years in the business, I am frequently humbled in the best way possible by the realization that I still have a long road to hoe in order to do my best work either in the field or at the keyboard.
I still remember lessons taught years ago by mentors who likely did not even realize they were mentoring. There was the editor who told me that when one wishes for a certain outcome that they have “druthers” and not “rathers” as I had quoted a folksy source. I have never forgotten the moment that Dave Zweifel, an elder statesman editor in Madison, Wisc., nonchalantly dropped a scrap of paper on my lap with the word “sheriff” written on it. I was 21, and from that day forward, I never again misspelled that word that to this day still looks odd to my eye.
Lately, as I have moved out of the editing chair and back into the role of reporter and writer, I still receive advice and input that helps me sharpen my game. Just the other day, a very seasoned colleague reminded me that “a period is a writer’s best friend.” As I considered his words, I realized that he was right – I was packing too much into some sentences and inadvertently diluting the meaning of passages crammed full of data and ideas that sounded right to me but became garbled when read aloud.
Just as those of us who are more experienced in newsgathering or storytelling should be willing to share our techniques and tactics with the next generation of journalists, we old dogs must also be open to accepting input from those with fresh minds and a better understanding of the reach of new media and information outlets.
The biggest impediments to accepting and absorbing constructive criticism are ego and attitude. More than once as an editor or writing coach I have provided colleagues or students with a tip or a suggestion: don’t over alliterate; rely mainly on verb-subject-object form; use details to add meaning and not distract; capture scenes and characters but don’t lose sight of the news; make the stylebook your friend to add credibility to your work.
I accept rebuff a time or two, as I know it is not always easy to receive advice and I know there were times years ago when I too thought I had the tiger by its tail. However, it won’t be long before I or others who provide constructive criticism give up and go silent. That makes it incumbent on all of us to keep our minds open and receive advice with grace.
In presentations on writing and reporting, I urge reporters to seek knowledge or story ideas from wherever or whomever they can. I tell of the time an ad salesperson alerted me to a new industry coming to town that would employ hundreds and whose arrival generated for me numerous front-page stories. I share with them the time a news assistant told me about white rats that escaped from a pet store, bred like rabbits and then infested her neighborhood (if ever there was a fun front-page reader, that was it!) I remind them of how I learned of a clothesline bandit in a small town after stopping for a soda and chatting up the store clerk.
Whether accepting story ideas or tips on how to improve copy and strengthen stories, we must all keep our eyes, ears and minds open for there is so much to learn and only one lifetime to learn it.
Ed Henninger is an independent newspaper consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting. WANT A FREE evaluation of your newspaper’s design? Email edh@henningerconsulting.com or call (803) 327-3322 IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you might be interested in Ed’s books: “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints.” With the help of Ed’s books, you’ll immediately have a better idea how to design for your readers. Find out more about “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints” by visiting Ed’s website: www.henningerconsulting.com
I’m a friendly guy. Most people who know me genuinely like me…and I like them..
I can be a strong friend. I can stand by you when you need me to. I can help you when you’ve got a problem. I can just be there by your side when you need support.
But…I can also choose to not be your friend if I think it matters.
So, let me get this out there briefly and clearly: I am not a friend of writers…or designers.
I am not here to be your friend.
I am here to remind you that it is your job to be a friend to the reader.
So…to writers:
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to do an outline on a complex story.
Don’t tell me you have to write long to tell the full story.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to get quotes.
Don’t tell me news story writing cramps your style.
Don’t tell me you’re in the business of writing.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to improve your craft.
Don’t tell me you missed deadline…again.
And for you designers…
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to plan.
Don’t tell me you never get enough space to do a good design.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to communicate with writers.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to create infoboxes.
Don’t tell me you have to run photos too small so you can fit them in with overwritten stories.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to study up on typography. And color. And page structure. And spacing.
Don’t tell me you missed deadline…again.
If you tell me any of these things…well…I’ll still be your friend. But then, I’ll give you that virtual kick in the pants to remind you that you can do better. And I’ll help you do better…if you’ll let me.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: john@johnfoust.com
Back when I was in the ad agency business, I made a logo presentation that turned into a fiasco. It was an uncomfortable reminder of the importance of a presentation environment.
This particular client was a real estate development company which was on a fast growth track. They were going through a name change and needed a sleek new brand identity for their newspaper ads, stationery and signage. We had been through preliminary meetings and this was the unveiling of (what I thought was) the final version of the logo.
The meeting started innocently enough. Dan, the company president, and I were in his office. We reviewed our previous strategy conversations and I summarized their long-term corporate image plans. When I showed the logo design, his face lit up in a big smile. He said, “That’s exactly what we need,” and described the steps they could take to replace their existing logo. Then he said, “Let’s get a second opinion,” walked out of his office and returned a minute later with their office manager. When she frowned and said she liked the old logo better, I could see Don’s enthusiasm fading. She had not participated in our strategy meetings – and she had no knowledge of the reasoning behind a logo change – but all of a sudden, she had become a key influencer in the decision process.
Dan said, “Wait here. Let’s get another opinion.” He invited several more people into his office. Within minutes, a group was huddled around his desk, critiquing the logo that I had spent so much time designing. They seemed to be competing with each other to see who could make the most negative comments. It was a selling nightmare. They ignored my efforts to steer the conversation back on track.
The incident seems comical now, but it wasn’t funny when it happened. One person said she didn’t like the logo, because it had one of the colors in the Romanian flag. I checked later and learned that the Romanian flag is blue, yellow and red (I also learned that she was born in Romania, the only possible explanation for such a strange comment.)
It was no surprise that Dan rejected the logo design. Although he was a corporate executive, he frequently struggled with decisions. His attempt to get objective input from others had created a chaotic decision-making environment. The only solution was for me to go back to the drawing board to tweak the idea. When I presented that one, I explained that he was the only one in the company who was in position to make a fair judgment. I truly believed that he was uniquely qualified to see the big picture and make the decision. Fortunately, he took the compliment to heart and we had a positive one-to-one meeting which resulted in a sale.
The lesson was crystal clear. Too many opinions spoil a presentation. Do everything you can to limit the number of decision makers in the room.
(c) Copyright 2018 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
The New England Newspaper of the Year
The 
The B
Nominations are now being accepted for the 
