NEW HAMPSHIRE
RHODE ISLAND
None reported
A strategy for organizing your advertisers’ information
I was talking to Greg, a veteran sales manager “Our sales team knows the importance of asking questions and gathering the right information,” he said. “But the key is to write it down accurately and keep it organized. When sales people review their notes later, they need to be able to move as quickly as possible to the next step in the process, whether that’s a proposal or the first ad in a new campaign.
“To deal with the challenge, I put together a simple format for note-taking,” he explained. “It has evolved over time, and I’m sure it comes from a combination of ideas I’ve seen in training programs and books over the years. Our team likes this approach, because it saves time and gives them a track to follow.”
Greg’s format can be used by anyone who takes notes in a meeting where several topics are covered. Although a sales person goes through a progression of questions, a conversation sometimes veers into other areas, and an important point can get lost in a sea of notes. “Simply use a legal pad and divide it into four sections,” he said. “Draw a line from top to bottom and another line from left to right. Label each quadrant with the titles you want – and you’re all set. On the next page, you can continue the same four categories or use four new ones.
Here’s a look at Greg’s favorite quadrants:
- Put audience information in the top left quadrant. “This is for notes about the advertiser’s target audience,” Greg said. “Their demographics, their interests, their age ranges, and especially their buying motives. What about the similarities and differences between their existing customers and the customers they want to attract?”
- Put information about products and services in the upper right quadrant. “This tightens their focus,” Greg explained. “Don’t let the advertiser get away with puffed up generalities like ‘fantastic’ or ‘incredible.’ Dig for specific features and benefits. When you review the notes, you’ll see some connections between audience motivators and product benefits.”
- Write history notes in the bottom left quadrant. According to Greg, this is the place for the advertiser’s previous marketing experiences. What worked? What didn’t work? What media vehicles were used? What kind of budget did they allocate? In their opinion, what could they have done differently to generate better results?”
- Put notes on ad plans in the bottom right quadrant. This is the spot to write ideas for new ads. Do some special tactics come to mind? What about testimonials? Or tie-ins between print and digital promotions?
“The system works like a charm,” Greg said. “If the advertiser mentions a product fact while history is being discussed, there’s no problem. Just put that product note in the proper section. We use this format in other meetings, too. For example, in creative strategy conversations, we may label the sections Offer, Headline, Illustration, and Schedule.”
It’s all about writing it down the right way. Worth a try, isn’t it?
(c) Copyright 2018 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
Enterprise reporting goes beyond the obvious
When it comes to interviewing reporter candidates, many editors want to see examples of so-called enterprise reporting.
I just finished serving as a judge for several reporting and writing categories for the Washington Newspaper Publishing Association, and I can tell you that the winners across the board took an enterprising approach to their work.
So what is that mystical form of journalism that can make or break one’s future job or award prospects?
I’ve heard several definitions: A story that wouldn’t have been done if the reporter had never been born; a story where the reporter zigged while everyone else zagged; a story that everyone wondered about but that was never dug into.; a story that teaches the reader something.
The bottom line is that enterprise reporting is mainly about going beyond the obvious. Like most important things in journalism, curiosity, originality and hard work all play critical roles.
Here is a glance at some forms of enterprise that may spur you to try something new.
Investigations. This is the highest level work we can do. Uncovering wrongdoing, holding the powerful accountable for their actions, supporting the underdog, highlighting inequality, providing potential solutions – all noble efforts.
Explanatory reporting. These pieces break down complex topics into manageable bits that are then organized into a meaningful narrative to help readers make sense of the world around them. Typically, they answer questions like why, how much, what does it mean, who is affected, what are the unintentional outcomes, why does something matter and to whom?
Profiles. Somewhat of a lost art in newspapers, powerful profiles are now done mostly in magazines but shouldn’t be considered out of reach for any writer. Well-rounded profiles create a window into the world of the powerful, the powerless, the outlandish or even the mundane among us. Keep an eye out for “targeted profiles” in which a newsmaker pops up quickly and deserves a deeper look told concisely and with timeliness. Be sure to meet people where they live, get outsider views of the subject, and use stories within the story and strong details to bring a subject to life.
Survey story. These stories require talking to a wide range of people on a single topic, then synthesizing their reactions into a cohesive narrative.
Trend piece. Editors (and readers) love trend pieces. By examining a new or oozing topic from both a micro and macro perspective, the writer can develop a level of authority and provide context that will help readers understand what’s new, what’s hot, what’s no longer hot, what’s troublesome, what’s fascinating, and then tell them why that is true. Be sure to never overstate and remember the “To be sure…” paragraph that quickly indicates to the reader that there may be one or several other sides to the issue in order to provide a sense of balance, but which essentially informs them you’re only breaking off one piece at this time.
Case study. This is an offshoot of the trend piece in which the writer uses one example, examined in depth, to provide compelling evidence that the trend exists. These are great follow-ups to trend pieces or can be a segment within a trend piece that is evidentiary in nature. They can be about a person, an event, an industry – anything that shines a focus on an example that proves a thesis.
First-person. Rarely used, but often effective and entertaining. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally doing something, trying something, experiencing something yourself and writing about it from the “I” perspective. These can be both hard-hitting or fun.
Day-in-the-life. A derivative of the case study, this story form requires patience to be with someone or something for one entire day in order to bring readers into close proximity of what life is like over a 24-hour (or 8- or 12-hour period.) Can be highly personal and impactful.
Q and A. This technique allows a reader to share in the interaction between a proxy (the reporter) and a subject in a direct and meaningful way. Be sure to ask at least one or two “make-them-squirm” questions. This is best when done with someone highly provocative or outspoken or who has been thrust into the news either by their own volition or by events outside their control.
Tick-tock. This is a blow-by-blow version of one crazy day or event from the viewpoint of either one person or many people. This requires deep sourcing and interviewing but can lead to electric storytelling that hooks and holds readers. Great for looking back at breaking news events, tragedies or triumphs.
Narrative. A high-level form of storytelling, this in-depth feature format has the classic elements of fiction: a central character, plot, conflict, setting, theme, expository writing, rising action, resolution, epilogue.
All of these enterprise categories require more forethought, more hustle and more work than typical daily coverage, but the work is more invigorating and readers will thank you.
At the Supreme Court, a day of infamy for religious freedom
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At the Supreme Court, a day of infamy for religious freedom
By Charles C. Haynes
June 26, 2018 will be long remembered as a day of infamy for religious freedom in America. On that date, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s order restricting entry into the United States for nationals of seven countries, five of which have majority Muslim populations.
The 5-4 decision in Trump v. Hawaii is nothing less than a proclamation that hostility toward Islam and discrimination against Muslims is now the official policy of the United States of America.
If this sounds too harsh, consider that earlier this term this same Court invalidated a ruling of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission because of perceived hostility by two commissioners toward the Christian faith of a Colorado baker (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission).
Just weeks later, the Court tells us that overwhelming evidence of government hostility toward Muslims and Islam should be ignored in the name of protecting “national security” and upholding presidential powers. In other words, hostility by the government towards Christians is a violation of the First Amendment, but hostility by the government towards Muslims is not.
Granted, the Trump administration did everything possible to make Presidential Proclamation No. 9645 palatable to the justices by cleaning up some of the more egregious flaws of the first two versions that were soundly rejected by lower courts. But the core purpose of the ban was never “national security,” but rather a ham-handed, transparent effort by Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to implement a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
If Trump was really focused on national security, his administration would have addressed any “inadequacies and risks” in the vetting system long before now. Instead, the administration has continued to push for a ban – any ban – so the president could declare victory. It matters not to Trump and his advisors that the current Muslim ban adversely affects millions of people, including countless families and individuals, many of whom are American citizens.
“National security” is the fig leaf Trump has used to implement his anti-Muslim policy. Everyone with ears to hear the president’s anti-Muslim rhetoric knows that this is true. In an administration filled with people who have a history of animus toward Islam – starting with National Security Advisor John Bolton – this is not surprising. What is astounding is that five Supreme Court justices have decided to ignore the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s intention to discriminate against Islam and Muslims.
Let’s be very clear: under the First Amendment, the President of the United States may not favor one religion over another. As Justice Sotomayor explains in the opening lines of her blistering dissent: “The United States of America is a Nation built upon the promise of religious liberty. Our Founders honored that core promise by embedding the principle of religious neutrality in the First Amendment. The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle.”
What remains of religious freedom in America – especially for religious minorities – if the government supported by the Supreme Court can “sanction a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity toward a disfavored group, all in the name of a superficial claim of national security,” to quote Justice Sotomayor?
Surely this is the Dred Scott decision of First Amendment law. And like that decision, we can only hope that Trump v. Hawaii will one day be overturned and discarded on the dustbin of history where it so justly belongs.
Charles C. Haynes is founding director of the Religious Freedom Center. Contact him via email at chaynes@freedomforum.org, or follow him on Twitter at @cchaynes3.
Kevin picks five papers
Kevin Slimp
Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology.
Email questions to him at
kevin@kevinslimp.com
Kevin answers reader’s question: “Who is doing things right?”
Community Newspapers Who Do Things Right
Over the past week or so, I received an email from a publisher asking if I could send examples of community newspapers who are doing things right. His plan was to contact these publishers to learn if he could benefit from their experiences. I told him I would give it some thought and send him a list of papers and contacts, but now I can’t seem to find his message hidden in the thousands of emails that have filled my in-box in the days since his message arrived.
I could have included papers I’ve visited over the past year in Kansas, Nebraska, Arizona and other places, but I decided five was all that would fit in this space, os here is my 2018 “Doing things right” list.
The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal, Virginia
When Elsa Verbyla invited me to visit her newspaper on the shores of Eastern Virginia, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After arriving, I was most surprised by the accents of the good folks of Mathews, a town just down the road from Gloucester. But that’s another story for another day.
My second biggest surprise was meeting with the staff of the Gazette-Journal and learning first-hand how much they love their newspaper. I spent two days with the group discussing everything from sales to circulation to design. I learned about great ideas they’ve had to increase circulation and maintain readership in an area like many, where a big-city daily threatens to absorb their readers.
No worry, though. The folks of Gloucester and Mathews, I learned, love their newspaper. Like many of the most successful papers I run across, so do the staff members. As I visited with them, it was hard to find one who had been around less than 10 years.
“Oh, I’ve been here 20 years,” one told me. Another, “15 years and counting.”
With multiple sections, plenty of advertising, and no shortage of stories, it’s no wonder The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal makes my list of favorite newspapers.
Madelia Times Messenger, Minnesota
The first time Michelle Van Hee invited me to visit her paper in Madelia, I had to get out a map. In all my travels across Minnesota, I didn’t remember Madelia. Now, it’s a regular stop for me. After three trips to visit The Madelia Times Messenger, it makes my list of my favorite newspapers.
One of the best examples of the Messenger’s spirit is their leadership following a fire that destroyed much of their downtown in 2017. When I last visited her town, Michelle couldn’t wait to show me the renovation of the downtown area.
What makes Madelia’s paper special? I could create a long list, and it would begin with genuine care for the community. Everything is local. Stories are local. Advertising is local. Ownership is local.
Michelle cares about her product, and it shows. She has folks like Ed Henninger come in to work on the Messenger’s design. I’ve been there several times. The newspaper is part of her family, and she cares for it that way.
I wasn’t surprised when I looked at their website that Michelle and her staff now publish five newspapers in the area. I remember when there was only one.
The Standard Banner, Jefferson City, Tennessee
I’ve been to Jefferson City to work with the staff of The Standard Banner many times through the years, and I’m still surprised each time I visit.
When I visited just last week, I asked Dale Gentry, publisher, “How is business?”
For some reason, I wasn’t surprised with his answer.
“Business is great!” he beamed. “Especially the last two months. Things are going really well.”
Why are things “great” in Jefferson City? Just spend a day with the staff of the newspaper and you will know.
Like the paper in Gloucester, Virginia, staff doesn’t come and go at The Standard Banner. You will find folks who have been on staff for decades. I remember meeting Kim Cook, designer, when she showed up early for my first Newspaper Institute in 1997.
I didn’t count the pages, but I bet the page count of twice-weekly paper in Jefferson City rivals that of the metro 40 miles away.
The Standard Banner has been on my favorite list for a long time, and isn’t leaving any time soon.
Kanabec Group, Minnesota
When Wade Weber first invited me to visit his paper in Mora, Minnesota more than a dozen years ago, I had no idea how much I was going to grow to love the folks at his newspapers.
Since then, Wade has added a few nameplates to his collection, but each is distinctively local and it shows. Beautiful design, quality writing, beautiful printing, and local focus are the hallmarks of the papers in the Kanabec group.
In a recent trip to Cambridge, to visit with Wade’s staff there, I was reminded of the reason people get into community journalism in the first place. I saw pride in each face of the 30 or so staff members as we looked at their stories, photos and pages.
What makes their newspapers stand out? Topping the list would be the local focus and the attention to quality.
The Neepawa Banner & Press, Manitoba
My list couldn’t be complete without mentioning The Neepawa Banner & Press in Neepawa, Manitoba. Over the past few years, I’ve come to really appreciate the work Ken Waddell and his staff do in Manitoba.
I’ve never seen Ken without his brown brimmed hat and a smile on his face. His enthusiasm spreads throughout his newspaper and it shows.
I’ve met with his staff multiple times to look at their papers, discuss strategy, and plan new ventures. The newspaper has great designers, editors and writers who care about their community.
Ask Ken about his secret, and the answer is always the same. “We keep it local.”
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear from Ken or Kate Jackson, Banner & Press editor, with ideas to discuss.
No wonder readers love their paper.
Plenty more out there
It’s never easy comprising a list like this. There are plenty of other papers, just as worthy, that could be included, but these five should give you a good start.
Bordeleau’s career built on passion, ethics
By Leila Habib Bulletin Correspondent
‘It’s not about your byline. It’s about making sure you do the best job you can when you are reporting a story because it’s a reflection on the profession. It’s a reflection on every other journalist there trying to do the right thing. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you publish anything.’
— Karen Bordeleau,
Veteran Journalist,
Journalism Professor
“You could tell stories, real stories, of people in this amazing way.” 
That was Karen Bordeleau’s first thought after reading Tom Wolfe’s “The New Journalism,” which she received on her 16th birthday. That book, along with the Watergate scandal, spurred her interest in journalism, which would turn into a successful career.
“The fact that it forced a state to bring down a president by diligent reporting amazed me, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Bordeleau, a Rhode Island native, said about the Watergate coverage.
The beginnings
Bordeleau began her journalism career with an internship at The Kent County Daily Times in West Warwick, R.I. Her first front-page story, about a class trip to Austria where she and her classmates misjudged their skiing levels, was published when she was 18.
“Intermediate in New England is not the same as intermediate in Austria,” Bordeleau said with a laugh, describing the unexpected difficulty of the slopes the students would ski down. “We made it down in one piece, but barely.”
She wrote about the experience.
“I had a byline, and all my parents’ friends were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this story,” she said. “All this attention, it was kind of fun.”
Bordeleau pursued a bachelor’s degree at Northeastern University’s journalism school. She landed her first co-op internship at The Call of Woonsocket, R.I., and immediately found herself drawn to the energy of the newsroom.
“When people are reporting on important topics, there’s this energy that is very difficult to explain,” she said. “You want to be a part of the group that’s shining light in dark places and making a difference and changing laws and changing the way government behaves.”
‘When people are reporting on important topics, there’s this energy that is very difficult to explain. You want to be a part of the group that’s shining light in dark places and making a difference and changing laws and changing the way government behaves.’
— Karen Bordeleau, Veteran journalist, journalism teacher
Making history
After graduating from Northeastern in 1982, Bordeleau returned to the Kent County Daily Times in 1989 and the Call in 1994, both newspapers where she previously interned, as an editor.
Bordeleau became a reporter at The Providence (R.I.) Journal in 1996, climbing the ranks until becoming, in 2013, its first female executive editor.
Bordeleau said of her role as executive editor: “It’s like guiding a child or raising a child. You’re always protecting the child. It is always protecting the integrity of the brand no matter what you do, no matter where you are.
“You are constantly aware that you’re representing these two groups of individuals and that your success is their success,” she said about being a female journalist. “It’s making sure that you’re making the right decisions because if you make a mistake, it reflects on the profession. It also reflects on other women, so you really have this incredible responsibility to make sure you get it right.”
Humanizing lost lives
In February 2003, a fire in a West Warwick nightclub, The Station, killed 100 people. The Providence Journal launched a nearly year-long investigation into the fire, uncovering fire code violations and the installment of a flammable sound insulation material. The Journal then contacted and interviewed the families of victims to depict the lives that were affected.
“There was just no reason for 100 people to perish,” Bordeleau said. “We wanted people to understand what we lost in that, who we lost in that.”
The coverage made the Journal a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Bordeleau was one of the two primary editors for the series.
Bordeleau took her passion for naming the voiceless to Pakistan, where she was invited to participate in a journalist exchange program by the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C. While teaching news management and advanced reporting courses in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi in 2015, Bordeleau noticed that publications would report the number of terrorist attack victims, but not give any context about who they were.
‘You have to be smart, but you also have to have a high level of emotional intelligence in order to understand what motivates people, how to manage people, and how to get them to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s not just about writing and reporting stories when you’re an executive editor. It’s about teaching others why it’s so important for us to do it this way, and both of those individuals taught me that.’
— Karen Bordeleau
“It’s unnerving because they don’t really explain or hadn’t explained who these people are and the impact of that loss,” she said.
Bordeleau decided to bring that into her classroom curriculum for the working professionals taking her courses in Pakistan.
“I was explaining how we did the Station fire and challenging them to tell their country who is lost in these impacts,” she said.
In December 2014, there was a terrorist attack on a school in Pakistan that killed 141 people, 132 of whom were children.
After taking Bordeleau’s news management course, a Pakistani online editor led an initiative to locate the children’s families and discover who the victims were, similar to the coverage of the Station fire.
“It explained to Pakistan what was lost in that terrorist attack. It wasn’t that 141 people died. It was that these were people, and that they’re not there anymore. They’re not going to grow up and be doctors, or veterinarians, or teachers, and that was very impactful,” Bordeleau said.
Marginalized voices first
In addition to The Station series, Bordeleau oversaw a year-long explanatory piece titled “Race in Rhode Island,” published in 2015 by the Providence Journal.
There was an obstacle to covering that topic.
“How could we tell this story with a white staff?” Bordeleau said.
To alleviate that obstacle, a group of 16 people was formed to serve as “eyes and ears in diverse communities.” Bordeleau said members of the group, which included the president of the NAACP, a Muslim doctor, and a Latino professor, would meet for a few hours every month.
“We wanted to make sure that we were telling the right stories, not just the stories that white people think are important,” she said.
Even with the presence of the sounding board, Bordeleau felt nervous about covering certain stories, such as a story about the “n-word,” and “minority.” Bordeleau sad that the pieces were received well, however, and showed that minority communities aren’t a monolith.
“We interviewed on video a lot of community leaders who had different things to say about it,” Bordeleau said. “It was really important to understand that just because you’re black doesn’t mean that everybody who’s black thinks the same thing about the word. It was really important for us to show that people have different opinions.”
‘When people are reporting on important topics, there’s this energy that is very difficult to explain. You want to be a part of the group that’s shining light in dark places and making a difference and changing laws and changing the way government behaves.’
— Karen Bordeleau
Passing the torch
Bordeleau has received many awards, including the Judith Brown Spirit of Journalism Award in 2016 and the Yankee Quill Award in 2014. She was named one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in Rhode Island by Rhode Island Monthly in 2014 and was named one of the Top 10 Women to Watch in Media by Editor & Publisher in 2013.
She was elected president of the New England First Amendment Coalition in January, has been selected as a Pulitzer Prize juror twice, and has served on the board of directors of a nonprofit housing developer in Rhode Island called Women’s Development Corporation and of the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting at the University of Rhode Island.
That list of recognitions and accomplishments does not include all of her distinctions, and it does not include what Bordeleau considers her most important achievement.
“My two daughters,” she said. “They’re just great people who contribute significantly to their own professions. To watch that is the most tremendous feeling, to watch them go about doing what they do.”
Between her family and career, Bordeleau finds time for herself on the competitive ballroom dance floor.
“It keeps me sane, the artistic expression,” she said. “Sometimes, when you’re in a newsroom, everything’s in your head. You’re always thinking and processing information. When you dance, it’s what’s in the heart, and it’s nice to have that balance.”
Bordeleau didn’t get to this point alone. She notes that William Kirtz, one of her Northeastern journalism professors, and Thomas Heslin, the Providence Journal executive editor before her, were important mentors in her life.
“You have to be smart, but you also have to have a high level of emotional intelligence in order to understand what motivates people, how to manage people, and how to get them to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing,” she said. “It’s not just about writing and reporting stories when you’re an executive editor. It’s about teaching others why it’s so important for us to do it this way, and both of those individuals taught me that.”
Bordeleau is continuing her 20-plus year teaching career. She began teaching in 1996 at the University of Rhode Island, and later has taught at Emerson College and Northeastern University, focusing on newswriting and journalism ethics.
“I don’t think you can accomplish anything good unless it’s through the filter of ethics. It’s about maximizing truth and minimizing harm, and you always have to make decisions based on those two truths,” she said. “It’s not just about writing pretty stories; it’s about making sure you go about it in the correct way.”
‘Who doesn’t like hanging around 20-year-olds? When I leave the classroom, I am so jacked because the students are so passionate about learning about this profession. It’s really just their enthusiasm that’s just a reminder about why I went into it and why I stay in it.’
— Karen Bordeleau
Being in a classroom rejuvenates Bordeleau’s love for her field, as she learns about the newest social media trends while cultivating her students’ passions for journalism.
“Who doesn’t like hanging around 20-year-olds? When I leave the classroom, I am so jacked because the students are so passionate about learning about this profession,” she said. “It’s really just their enthusiasm that’s just a reminder about why I went into it and why I stay in it.”
Bordeleau also taught two journalism ethics courses earlier this year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University as an Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor of Journalism Ethics.
“I’m really humbled to have been invited to teach there,” she said.
Maintaining integrity
In the era of fake news and alternative facts, Bordeleau thinks that one of the most important roles of journalists is to protect the integrity of the profession.
“We’re seeing so many assaults on this profession, and they’re faceless,” she said. “There are some people in government today that are trying to chip away at the respectability of the profession by attacking it. But people need to know that journalists have integrity.”
Bordeleau thinks that that can be achieved by verification and accuracy.
“There is a huge amount of verification that goes on before a story is published because we have an obligation … not just to tell the story, but to tell it in an accurate way,” she said.
Bordeleau thinks that that responsibility extends beyond borders.
“One of the most important contributions that us journalists can make is to not just concentrate on our own journalism in this country … but to also make sure that we share our information with journalists in fledgling democracies, because without journalism, you don’t have a democracy,” she said.
She advises young journalists to remember that being a journalist is more than about being an individual journalist.
“It’s not about your byline. It’s about making sure you do the best job you can when you are reporting a story because it’s a reflection on the profession. It’s a reflection on every other journalist there trying to do the right thing,” she said. “Make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you publish anything.”
Ya gotta have a plan
Ed Henninger
Design
ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting.
Website: www.henningerconsulting.com
Phone: (803) 327-3322
WANT A FREE evaluation of your newspaper’s design?
Just contact Ed: edh@henningerconsulting.com | (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
In one of my recent weekly Henninger Helpful Hints, I mentioned that it was important to have a consistent position for the jumps from page 1.
“Decide where your jumps will go,” I said, “and then put them there in every issue. That’s right, every issue. You can do this if you plan your paper. After all, you always know where your obits page is gonna be, right? And the opinion page? And the sports front? And Classifieds?”
One reader replied: “No, Ed, I do not know which pages my obits, sports, editorial, or classified will be on each week. How can I, when each week I receive my thumbnail and I am instructed not to put obits on certain pages because certain advertisers don’t want to be near them?
“If I am lucky enough to have color ads in front, my editorial page, usually page 4, gets bumped to page 6 because of press limitations. I only jump page 1 stories and they all jump together, but not to the same page every week.
“When your paper fluctuates between 10 and 16 pages — down from 26 to 32 a few years ago — it’s impossible to dedicate certain pages each week. Same for sports — it gets whatever two pages are available. Classifieds depend on overall advertising as well. Welcome to my small-weekly world.”
I feel for her. Shoehorning her news content into a much tighter paper is difficult enough, but not having a plan makes the job a nightmare.
Many newspapers pay little attention to consistent organization from issue to issue. For example, content that readers find important—such as obituaries and comics—will float throughout the paper. In one issue, the obits will be on page 6. In the next, they could be on page 8. And in still another issue, obits could be on page 5.
Readers have a right to expect consistency from you, and you get that consistency by creating a sequencing plan.
Sequencing is the logical, orderly and consistent placement of elements within your newspaper.
A good sequencing plan strives to give readers key content in the same place with each issue.
There are three approaches to sequencing:
- Page number. The Opinion page is page 4. Always has been, always will be. If you’re reading this week’s editorial, you’re on page 4.
- Position: Sports front is always the first page of the B section.
- Relative position: Legals are always placed just before classifieds. Or comics are always on the page following classifieds.
To draw up a sequencing plan, you need key people be involved:
- The publisher, who will tell us whether we can increase our page count, or whether she’s willing to accept moving the Opinion page if it helps to better organize the paper.
- The advertising director, who will help by looking for win-win situations where he can get better advertising space by making some trade-offs with editorial for page position.
- The editor, who works with the ad director and the publisher to achieve those trade-offs while looking out for the interests of the reader.
- The designer, who has to make the plan work with every issue, and may know some reasons why a particular move may not work.
- The press chief, who will be able to help you by identifying color positions and working out how the paper breaks down on the press.
- The ad layout person. This is the person who actually dummies the ads into the paper—and usually knows better than anyone else why a particular florist is upset when her ad is not on the obits page.
Yes, I understand that at some newspapers, one person may perform two or three of these tasks. The objective is to get editorial, advertising and production all helping each other to build a better paper.
Working together, these key people take a list of “must” content and form a plan that puts that content into the same sequence issue after issue after issue. Yes there will be exceptions, but you can’t deviate from the plan if you don’t have a plan.
A sound sequencing plan will help you to create a newspaper that is better organized, more predictable and easier for your advertisers and your readers to use.
And who doesn’t want that?
New England Newspaper Awards Entries: Deadline Is July 12th
Once again this year the New England Newspaper & Press Association will identify our region’s very best daily, weekly and specialty newspapers, and recognize them with the prestigious “New England Newspaper of the Year” award.
This is a one-of-a-kind competition – it is the only distinction in our industry that is judged by the audience members. New England newspaper readers will be appointed to evaluate the entries from a news consumer point of view and decide which deserve the honor of being named “Newspaper of the Year”. Plus, all newspapers in the contest will receive in-depth feedback from the judges about the strengths and weaknesses of their publication (on both print and digital platforms) and how their paper stacks up compared to similar-size papers in our region. Each editor that enters will receive a summary scorecard with the readers’ ratings across a range of attributes that are typically associated with quality newspapers, along with written verbatim comments.
Mail Entries To: NENPA , 1 Arrow Drive, Suite 6, Woburn, MA 01801
Entries are also being accepted for five other prestigious awards:
Publick Occurrences Awards
This award recognizes individual or team stories, series, spot news coverage, columns or photojournalism that ran in print and/or online. Editors should view this entry as their “very best work of the year.”
Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award
This award recognizes the best editorial on a local subject that ran in New England in the past year.
New England First Amendment Award
This award will recognize a New England newspaper for its exceptional work inupholding the First Amendment and/or educating the public about it.
Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award
This award celebrates the accomplishments of someone who, over a sustained period of time, has faithfully served the communityfor which they are responsible and has played an active, constructive role in contributing to its quality of life.
AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year
This award 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 awards will be presented at the New England Newspaper Conference on Thursday October 11, 2018 in Natick, MA. This conference is one of the most prestigious functions in the newspaper industry. This event includes expert speakers, the New England Newspaper Awards luncheon and the New England Academy of Journalists’ Yankee Quill Awards Dinner. If you are interested in sponsoring or being an exhibitor at the event email Christine at c.panek@nenpa.com. Registration and more information to come!
Help fight the newsprint tariffs on Canadian newsprint
A Message From the News Media Alliance
On July 17, 2018, the International Trade Commission will hear testimony on the preliminary tariffs. We have asked Members of Congress to testify or submit comments for this hearing, and describe the impact of these tariffs on their local newspapers and jobs in their districts /states. We are also asking them to argue that U.S. newsprint producers will be harmed by the tariffs as their customers reduce their consumption of newsprint by cutting pages; reducing days of delivery, …etc. Relatedly, the Secretary of Commerce (who has an important and distinct role in the newsprint case) expressed interest in receiving information from newspapers on the impact of the tariffs on their businesses. We need your help to promote newspaper participation in an industry survey so that we can collect data that can be shared with Members of Congress and the Department of Commerce. We ask that newspapers answer as many questions as possible by July 3.Additionally, the Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers coalition has initiated a citizen and employee petition against the tariffs that will be sent to the ITC around the July 17 hearing. Right now, we have over 2,800 signatures, far short of our goal of 10,000. Please consider signing the petition. The preliminary tariffs are currently costing publishers and printers hundreds of millions of dollars.
We Hate “False News” Even More Than We “Hate” On Social Media
We hate false information on social media even more than “hate speech” or personal attacks, says the 2018 State of the First Amendment survey released Thursday by the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute.
The same survey also found that a majority of us want the social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to do the false news takedown, not some government authority or official truth czar.
Overall, 83 percent of Americans agree that social media companies should remove false information, compared to 72 percent who agree such companies should remove “hate speech” and 68 percent who would have personal attacks taken down.
Those with a high school education or less were significantly more likely (87%) than those with a college education (77%) to agree that false information should be removed. There were no statistically significant differences among income groups.
The survey was conducted by Fors Marsh Group, an applied research company based in Arlington, Va., which speculates that those less educated may rely more heavily on social media as a source of news and therefore worry more than others about whether they are getting truthful information.
We strongly believe that social media companies should on their own initiative be monitoring and removing such objectionable content. But hold off on those free expression celebrations: When asked directly, respondents were about evenly split on whether to go a step further and empower the government to require those companies to “monitor and remove.”
In total, the survey sample included 1,009 adult respondents, with a margin of error of 3.7 percent — meaning it’s likely that if you asked another 1,009 adults the same questions, the results might go up or down by 3.7 percent.
When it comes to speech on campus, the survey showed that the public leans toward hearing from controversial speakers over cancelling invitations to speak — though support drops significantly when the speech is likely to cause violence.
Solid majorities favored going ahead with such speakers at colleges and universities even when the remarks were likely to offend some groups or individuals (55%).The nation was closely divided (51%-45%) on withdrawing an invitation if the speaker was likely to provoke “large-scale protests from students” or when the speech was supported by public funds (47%-46%). Small percentages in both cases declined to response or “didn’t know.”
Only when violence was likely to occur did 70 percent favor withdrawing an invitation to speak.
The survey found that the more we know about our First Amendment freedoms, the less likely we are to agree with placing limits on those freedoms.
But again, the warning buzzer sounds: As found consistently over the last 21 years of survey results, many of us know very little about those basic rights. According to this year’s survey, 40 percent of us cannot even name one First Amendment freedom. For the respondents who could, unprompted, name a First Amendment freedom, freedom of speech (56%) was the most commonly recalled, followed by religion (15%), press (13%), assembly (12%) and petition (2%). Two percent mistakenly guessed the right to vote, while the right to bear arms (9%) was the most common mistake.
Anything less than overwhelming support for freedom of religion and free expression brings cold comfort to those who see democracy’s base as resting on both. Even finding that about three-quarters of respondents (74%) see a role for the news media in holding government accountable, a slight uptick from last year’s 68 percent, means that around one in four of us does not see the news media as such a needed “watchdog.”
We can take heart that this year’s survey findings bend toward free expression and freedom for the press. But, we ought to be more than just concerned that a sizeable number of us seem willing to disavow those core freedoms for one reason or another — or can’t even be bothered to remember them.