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Customer satisfaction is key in digital marketing


Customer satisfaction is
key in digital marketing

By Alison Berstein
Bulletin Correspondent

“People know what they’re looking for; they just don’t know where to get it from.”

Robert Scanlon, digital director of New England Newspapers Inc., based in Pittsfield, Mass., and publisher of The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield and its sister publications, discussed that predicament at the New England Newspaper Conference Oct. 12.

Scanlon was one of the panelists at the discussion, titled “Digital marketing services.”

To best reach customers, newspapers should take advantage of all of the marketing tools available to them, the panelists said.

“We’ve really figured out our process,” Scanlon said. “Now we’re in a really good spot where we have digital sellers, multimedia reps, an in-house operation team that helps fulfillment.”

“That’s pretty much the name of the game — making sure the customer is happy with the campaigns,” he said.

The panel was one of three roundtable sessions that kicked off the conference, held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

Tim Brady, advertising director of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, moderated the session.

“Digital space is a space that we want to challenge,” Brady said. “Everybody has different models, but that can change in minutes or seconds.”

For a newspaper to succeed, it needs to harness today’s panoply of digital assets – especially mobile, the panelists said.

“If you’re not mobile-friendly, you’re getting penalized by Google and you’re not giving your customers a good experience,” said panelist Daryl Hively, founder of digital agency Guarantee Digital, based in Hartland, Wis. “You’re just setting yourself up for a conversation 30 days from now where they say it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because you gave your customer a crummy experience.”

Added Scanlon: “It’s like having a boarded-up store.”

Newspapers should pay close attention to the need of customers to give them a positive experience, panelist Shawn Palmer said.

“Your best new customers are your current customers,” said Palmer, senior vice president and chief revenue officer of Record-Journal Media Group, based in Meriden, Conn.

“Be the smartest and most educated, with the most options for them. We start with what the customer needs,” he said.

A publication being locally accessible is a huge step in learning and meeting customer needs, Palmer added.

“We’re local and we’re in our markets every day; that’s our advantage,” he said. “We have that credibility. There’s a lot of value to what we do, small weekly or a larger daily.”

New England lends itself to ample opportunities for a publication to build local connections with its clientele, the panelists said.

“This is New England. This is very small; people are very traditional,” Palmer said.

In 2016, Record-Journal Media Group discussed and began conducting more in-house operations, which Palmer found to be “extremely successful.”

“That local connection really helped us,” he said. “Our customer could sit down with the designer and talk about the designs.”

Brady sees potential in digital services as a tool for newspapers.

“There’s a number of opportunities for everybody, and you’re all engaging in some fashion,” he said.

Brady surveyed the audience members to see who worked for a digital-only publication and who worked for a publication that is a mix of traditional and digital.

All of the audience members answered that they worked for publications that are combination traditional and digital.

Hively said he was pleased with such a digitally-minded turnout.

“Be the backstop for newspapers who want to get into digital services,” he said.

A newspaper does not need a full team of digital experts, as long as a small margin of that team is familiar with digital skills, Hively said.

“You don’t have to hire 10 people to make this work,” he said.

“A clear indictor of who’s going to do really well is there’s at least one person who’s responsible and who understands digital,” he said. “If you’re just going to put this as another product for the print rep to sell, you’re going to get very limited results.”

Hively thinks that embracing digital tools of the trade will give publications a bright future.

“We’re looking for big things in ’18,” he said.

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Bouknight elected NESNE president

 

 

 

Bouknight elected NESNE president

Paula Bouknight, assistant managing editor for hiring and development at The Boston Globe, was elected president of the New England Society of News Editors at the society’s annual business meeting during its Journalism Conference, part of the New England Newspaper Conference Oct. 12 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

“I’m honored to accept this promotion,” said Bouknight, who had been vice president. “I have some great ideas for NESNE.”

Bouknight replaces Richard Lodge, managing editor of The Daily News of Newburyport, who served as NESNE’s president for the past two years. Emily Sweeney, a staff reporter for The Boston Globe, was elected vice president. Charles St. Amand, a member of the society’s board of governors and former editor of the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg, Mass., was elected to the vacant position of secretary-treasurer.

 

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Design is: How it works

Ed Henninger design
Ed Henninger design

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

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs.

That’s it. In one brief sentence.

Of course, readers want a newspaper that looks right … and feels right. They want the look and feel of their paper to reflect their community.

But what they want most of all is for their newspaper to work right for them.

Ask readers, and they will tell you they want:

TEXT that is legible, with size and spacing that makes it comfortable to read.

DESIGN ELEMENTS like standing heads, section flags and columns sigs that are simple and clean.

CONSISTENCY of those design elements throughout the entire newspaper.

DISPLAY FONTS that are readable, crisp and appealing.

SHORTER STORIES that are written clearly and flow easily.

EDITING that makes those stories even easier to follow.

PHOTOS that grab reader attention because they have interest, information and impact.

PAGE STRUCTURE that makes it easier for readers to see what goes with what.

SPACING between packages that helps readers see that structure.

COLOR USE that makes sense.

TINT BLOCKS that add impact — but don’t make type difficult to read.

SEQUENCING that makes the different content areas of your newspaper (e.g., news, opinion, sports, features … ) easy to follow.

CONSISTENT placement of that content from issue to issue.

We can give readers all of those. And, in the process of doing that, we can rid our newspapers of those elements that create clutter and confusion.

If we start with how design works, it just makes sense that we’ll create a better design.

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Obituaries

Francis John ‘Frank’ McKenna

Francis John “Frank” McKenna, 65, of Dalton, Mass., and formerly of Newark, N.J., died Oct. 28 at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass., after a brief illness.

McKenna was chief financial officer for The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass., and its parent company, New England Newspapers Inc., based in Pittsfield. He had been employed there for 14 years, beginning in 2003.

McKenna began his career at the Herald News of West Paterson, N.J. He later was chief financial officer of the North Jersey Newspaper, based in Somerville, N.J., and then vice president and director of internal audit at the Media News Group headquarters in Denver.

He participated in the handling of Media News Group’s buying of the Berkshire Eagle and its two sister newspapers in Vermont, the Bennington Banner and Brattleboro Reformer in 1995.

Martin Langeveld, former publisher of New England Newspapers and now a board member, said in the Berkshire Eagle’s obituary on McKenna: “What Media News Group would do during the 1990s when they bought an operation — or would just kick the tires — they brought Frank along. He was the guy they trusted for the numbers.”

McKenna’s daughter Amie Brown said in his obituary: “He just had a head for numbers. It was amazing what he could do with numbers and a spreadsheet … He was all self-taught on computers.” Alan English, publisher of New England Newspapers, said in the obituary: “He was an irreplaceable resource for this company with his knowledge.”

Besides his daughter Amie, McKenna leaves his mother, Sarah; his wife, Sharon; a son, John; four grandchildren; a brother.

David Norman Walsh

David Norman Walsh, 75, of Bangor, Maine, and formerly of Mount Desert Island, Maine, died Oct. 20 in his home.

He was a reporter, photographer and editor for The Bar Harbor (Maine) Times; Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald; The Weekly Packet, based in Blue Hill, Maine; Island Ad-Vantages; based in Stonington, Maine; and the Castine (Maine) Patriot.

In 2002, Walsh and his wife, Marcia, launched a weekly newspaper, The Bangor Broadside.

He leaves a son, Noel; a daughter, Rachel; two grandchildren, Jonathon and Sarah; two sisters; two brothers.

Lois Marston Duquette

Lois Marston Duquette, 68, of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, died of a cerebral aneurysm Oct. 3 at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.

Duquette founded the then-Old Orchard Beach Sun Times, a weekly, in 1989 with her husband, Ralph, and sold it in 1991.

She leaves three children, William, Nicholas and Heather, and five grandchildren, Emmanuel, Annabella, Andrew, Evan and Vivienne.

Calhoun J. ‘Cal’ Killeen, Jr.

Calhoun J. “Cal” Killeen, Jr., 67, of West Newbury, Mass., died Oct. 31 at Portsmouth (N.H.) Regional Hospital.

From 1980 to 2002, he was editor of The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass. From 2004 to 2010, he then was an editor at Seacoast Media Group, based in Portsmouth, until he became an editor from 2011 to 2015 for the Packet Media Group, based in Manalapan, N.J.

“Cal was a good editor, and had us working as a team,” Victor Tine, who was city editor under Killeen for 21 years and is now retired, said in Killeen’s obituary in the Daily News. “We became a better newspaper under his leadership. He was very reader-oriented, and organized the paper so readers could navigate easily.”

Jim Vaiknoras, a Daily News photographer, said in the obituary: “Cal was a good leader in the newsroom, and reporters who worked under him went on to The Boston Globe, New York Times, and many other publications.”

He leaves a wife, Wendy; two daughters, Kelsey and Kara; a sister; a brother.

Lewis Carter Cuyler

Lewis Carter Cuyler, 84, of Pittsfield, Mass., died Nov. 3 at his home.

Cuyler began his more than 20-year career with the former North Adams (Mass.) Transcript, eventually becoming its executive editor.

In 1980, Cuyler resigned from the Transcript in a dispute with management after he refused to reduce the number of staff members.

He then established his own business, Cuyler Ink, which provided freelance writing services and sound slide shows.

In 1987, Cuyler became the business editor for The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield. Cuyler also wrote a weekly ski column and was a member of the New England Ski Writers Association for many years.

He taught journalism at the University of Massachusetts and the then-North Adams State College.

He wrote several books, including “Short Bike Rides in the Berkshires” and “Ernestine Bayer, the Mother of Women’s Rowing in the United States.” He co-authored “Skiing in the Berkshire Hills” with Lauren Stephens. He self-published his memoirs, titled “On Being a Human Verb.”

He leaves his wife, Harriet, two daughters, Alexandra and Juliana; four grandchildren; two sisters; a brother.

Michael P. Saucier

Michael P. Saucier, 46, of Phoenix, Ariz., and formerly of Whitinsville, Mass., died at home Nov. 1 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.

Saucier began his career at Stonebridge Press Inc., based in Southbridge, Mass. He was editor in chief of its Southbridge Evening News.

He had been a copy editor for the Boston Herald, TheStreet.com, based in New York City, and the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. He was foreign and city editor at The New York Sun.

He also had been a press secretary for New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

He moved five years ago to Phoenix, where he founded and owned Soss Communications, a public relations consulting business. He also was editor of Frontdoors magazine, based in Phoenix and focused on philanthropy.

He leaves his wife, Fernanda; his parents, John and Betsy; a daughter, Flora; a brother.

Rosemary A. Hanson

Rosemary A. (Donohue) Hanson, 78, of Westford, Mass., died Oct. 7.

For many years, she was editor in chief of the Westford Eagle.

She leaves her husband, Ronald; three children, Rosemary, Darrin and Monica; four grandchildren; a great-grandson, Jack.

William Robertson

William Robertson, 90, of Dayton, Maine, formerly of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, died Oct. 19 at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

He was a reporter and an assistant city desk editor for a year at the then-Evening Gazette of Worcester, Mass.

He leaves his wife, Cheryl; two sons, Jeffrey and Jamie; two daughters, Bonnie and Lori; a stepson, Shawn; a stepdaughter, Lianne.

Jpeg

Paul ‘Sully’ Sullivan

Paul “Sully” Sullivan, 78, of Amesbury, Mass., died Oct. 28 in Amesbury.

Sullivan began his journalism career at a newspaper in Beverly, Mass., and then was a reporter at The Daily Item of Lynn, Mass. He later became a reporter and columnist for the Boston Herald for 32 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was known for his daily Celebrity column at the Herald. He interviewed many celebrities, including Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise and Mother Teresa. His stories varied from breaking news events to updates on retired celebrities.

Joe Sciacca, the Herald’s editor in chief, described Sullivan in the Herald’s obituary on him as “one of those people who was born to be in a newsroom. As a young reporter, I would watch Paul bang away at the keyboard and knew that the end result would always be incredible writing. There was always an energy, a passion, a sense of humor, a populist style.”

Also in the Boston Herald obituary, Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, said Sullivan was “an all-around sort of deadline wizard. He was a great rewrite. With every short window, he could turn out great prose … (W)hen stuff broke, editors went to him. He was such a wordsmith.”

After retiring from the Herald in 2001, Sullivan taught journalism and media ethics courses at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Mass., for 14 years.

He leaves his wife, Carol; two sons, Jim and Scott; two grandchildren.

A tribute to Paul Sullivan from a Boston Herald columnist and former colleague, Joe Fitzgerald

Elaine Budd

Elaine Rounds Budd, a former resident of East Haddam and Clinton, Conn., died Sept. 25.

She was a mystery book reviewer for The Hartford (Conn.) Courant and Lakeville (Conn.) Journal.

Budd also was a beauty editor for the Scholastic Inc.’s Co-Ed Magazine.

She was a longtime Mystery Writers of America member and won an Edgar for her first book, “Thirteen Mistresses of Murder.”

Budd leaves a son, Jonathan, and a daughter, Tracy.

Thomas J. Donovan 

Thomas J, Donovan, 78, of Easton, Mass., and formerly of Medway, Mass., died Oct. 12 at Morton Hospital in Taunton, Mass.

He was a reporter for the former Boston Record American and its successor, the Boston Herald, for 25 years.

Thomas leaves two children, Kerry and James; a granddaughter, Kristen; a sister, Mary; his former wife, Eileen Sarah Walsh.

Lynn Reale Wolbarst

Lynn Reale Wolbarst, 67, of Sharon, Mass., died Oct. 11 at home.

She was an investigative reporter at the former Canton (Mass.) Courier.

She leaves two children, Amy and David, and 11 brothers and sisters.

Rita Henley Jensen

Rita Henley Jensen, 70, of New York City, died Oct. 18 in Manhattan.

She had written for The Advocate of Stamford, Conn.

Before that and after graduate school, Jensen was a general assignment reporter for the Paterson (N.J.) News. She won eight awards for investigative journalism.

Soon afterward, she wrote for The Advocate and for the American Lawyer, based in New York City and the National Law Journal, based in Washington, D.C. She also freelanced for The New York Times, the Chicago-based ABA Journal, and Ms. Magazine.

Jensen then founded Women’s eNews in 1999 as a project of the National Organization for Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 2002, Women’s eNews became an independent organization, based in New York City. In 2016, Jensen left Women’s eNews, retaining the title of editor-in-chief emerita.

She received many awards, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni award.

She leaves two daughters, Ariel and Shasta, and four grandchildren, Anthony, Emily, Henry and Jane.

Nancy Hess Spencer

Nancy Hess Spencer, 94, of Providence, R.I., died Oct. 22 in Rhode Island.

Hess was a writer at the then-Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin in 1943 while her father was sports editor there.

After that, she was employed in the advertising business and was the first woman in Rhode Island to obtain an executive position in an advertising agency.

She leaves two daughters, Deborah and Susan; two nephews, Peter and William; a niece, Nancy.

Carlene R. (Hagen) Miller

Carlene R. (Hagen) Miller, 82, of Andover, Mass., died Oct. 14 after a brief illness.

Miller was a writer after college for the former Boston American.

She leaves four children, Paul, Ruth Ann, Karen and Susan; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren.

Frederick M. ‘Fred’ Walsh

Frederick M. “Fred” Walsh, 74, of Quincy, Mass., died Oct. 13 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

His 50 years in the newspaper industry began at the former Boston Record American.

At the time he retired, he was employed in the composing room of the Boston Herald, a successor of the Record American.

He was a member of the Boston Newspaper Printing Pressmen’s Union Local 3.

Walsh leaves his wife, Elaine; three children, Dr. Karen, Mark and Linda; six grandchildren; a brother.

Leo J. Jean

Leo J. Jean, 92, of Ayer, Mass., died Oct. 23 at Apple Valley Center in Ayer.

Jean was a Linotype operator for several years at the Waltham (Mass.) News Tribune and the former L’Etoile Star of Lowell, Mass.

He leaves a wife, Margaret; two sons, Kenneth and Michael; a daughter, Kathleen; six grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; five siblings.

Virginia Campbell Downs

Virginia Campbell Downs, 92, of Ossining, N.Y., died Oct. 10 at Victoria Home in Ossining.

Downs wrote feature stories for publications, including the Vermont Life of Montpelier, Vt,, Yankee Magazine, based in Dublin, N.H., and The Boston Globe.

She was a writer for more than 50 years and an author of books, including “Life by the Tracks: When Passenger Trains Steamed through the Notch,” “Mansions and Meadows: Lyndon the Way It Was,” and “Voices from the Kingdom.” She was a co-author of “A Prison Story.”

Downs was a trade publication editor in New York City.

She wrote numerous oral histories, including profiles of residents of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and fellow residents of her retirement home in Shelburne, Vt.

She leaves a daughter, Margaret; two sons, Peter and Tom; four grandchildren.

Ray Barron

Ray Barron, 93, of Nahant, Mass., died Oct. 15 at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Mass.

He had been a columnist for the Boston Herald; New England Ad Week, based in New York City; Downbeat Magazine, based in Chicago; and the Boston Post Gazette.

He was the founder and for almost 40 years president of Barron, Hillman and Mellnick of Nahant, Mass. After that, he was public relations director for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Barron also was a television and radio commentator and the author of several books.

He leaves two daughters, Robin and Karen; a granddaughter, Kerry; a grandson, Kyle; a great-granddaughter; two sisters.

Charles Turek Robinson  

Charles Turek “Chip” Robinson, 55, of Rehoboth, Mass., died Oct. 14 in Seekonk, Mass. 

He had columns published in Yankee Magazine, based in Dublin, N.H., and the Rehoboth Seekonk (Mass.) Reporter. Stories of his appeared in The Providence (R.I.) Journal.

Robinson wrote “Asleep Beneath the Meadows: The Indian Archaeology of Rehoboth, Massachusetts,” “True New England Mysteries, Ghosts, Crimes, and Oddities,” “Native New England – The Long Journey,” “The Turn-of-the-Century Rehoboth Memoirs of Anna (Hass) Morgan,” and “The New England Ghost Files.”

He leaves his mother, Bea; sister, Anna; an uncle, Stephen; an aunt, Lila; cousins.

Alan Lancaster

Alan Lancaster, 74, of Saxtons River, Vt,, and formerly of New York City and Long Valley, N.J., died Feb. 5.in his home after a lengthy illness.

He was a newspaper columnist for the former Valley Times Journal from 1994 through 1996.

He leaves his wife, Constance; his stepmother, Ellen Whitman; two children, Christopher and Sarah; three grandchildren.

Patricia Mulford Ahrens

Patricia Mulford Ahrens, 95, of Gladwyne, Pa., and formerly of Suffield, Conn., died Oct. 24.

Ahrens was the Suffield correspondent for the former Hartford (Conn.) Times.

She leaves a son, Leavitt; two daughters, Mary-Margaret and Patricia; nine grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren.

M.K. Merelice

M.K. Merelice, 77, of Brookline Village, Mass., died Oct. 1 at her home.

Merelice contributed articles, essays and poems to The Christian Science Monitor, based in Boston, before she retired.

She had no survivors.

Natalie Wallace Murphy

Natalie Wallace Murphy, 97, of Reading, Mass., died Sept. 12 at the Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading, Mass. 

She was employed with The Christian Science Monitor, based in Boston.

She leaves three children, Douglas, Nancy and James; eight grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren.

The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Ajoa Addae, Jenna Ciccotelli, Nadine El-Bawab, Angela Gomba, Nico Hall, Joshua Leaston, Kaitlyn Mangelinkx, Monica Nair, Georgeanne Oliver, Rebekah Patton, Casey Rochette and Cayley Ross, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Speaker’s advice: Be your audience

‘If you’re creating something for 28-year-old guys, you have to staff it with 28-year-old guys.’ -- David Woronoff, Publisher, The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C.
‘If you’re creating something for 28-year-old guys, you have to staff it with 28-year-old guys.’ — David Woronoff, Publisher, The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C.

By Alison Berstein
Bulletin Correspondent

David Woronoff has some simple advice about the newspaper industry:

“If you break it down, ‘news’ is a lot more important than ‘paper.’ We’ve got to get these folks connected to us.”

Woronoff was a featured speaker at the New England Newspaper Conference Oct. 12 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

He is publisher of The Pilot, a twice-a-week newspaper in Southern Pines, N.C.

One way to get connected with an audience is to staff a publication with its target audience, Woronoff said.

“If you’re creating something for 28-year-old guys, you have to staff it with 28-year-old guys,” he said.

“We were trying to create a product for 20-somethings and we had one 20-something on our team,” he said. “I got the 20-something gal and told her ‘Go get every other 20-something’ (to help create the product).”

Connecting with the audience means taking into consideration the needs of that particular audience, Woronoff said.

He used a Pilot product — The Sway, a digital newsletter in the Pinehurst and Southern Pines area of North Carolina – as an example of a local publication that is engaged in its community and its readership.

“What we try to do is think about what our readers want,” he said, noting different demographics such as new mothers or single women looking for a partner.

Each demographic has unique needs, he said.

“We’re trying to come up with products and ideas around those tasks,” he said. “If you want to serve your market, you have to figure out how to get the news into their hands.”

Woronoff encouraged audience members to embrace digital platforms such as Facebook as part of their marketing strategy.

“The Pilot is 97 years old. For 95 of those years, we were blessed with geographic isolation. Now the world changed: We’ve got Facebook, Google, Yelp, Amazon,” he said.

“Social media is a big part of your marketing and your way to disseminate. Facebook and Instagram are the two social medias that we use most,” he said. “This is the best way for us to get our information out there.”

Woronoff has long since tried to convince his two daughters – now in their early twenties – to read the newspaper. When they went off to college, they told him that they received their news from The Skimm, a daily digital newsletter that, with its punchy style, seemed to be getting the job done in communicating the news to millennials.

And so The Sway: Your Insider’s Guide to the Pines – a free twice-weekly email newsletter – was born.

“We created The Sway as a way to get digital people to hang their hat on,” Woronoff said of the publication, which is known as a “survival guide” to The Pines of North Carolina. “We do have one banner ad at the bottom of the newsletter; the rest is sponsored content to get our advertisers in the game.

“If you haven’t started a digital agency, I highly recommend it,” he said. “It’s a way for us to sell sponsored content and have a conversation with our advertisers that we would never have before.”

The Sway has more than 6,600 subscribers, and Woronoff said he wants to reach out to each one.

“That’s 7,000 people, and a lot of them don’t read the paper,” Woronoff said. “It’s a way for us to get in and talk to them.”

Woronoff showed a video made by The Sway team and shot in the style of “The Office,” about the company culture of The Sway. The video depicted witty and hearty comments about the making and operations of the newsletter.

That lighthearted style reflects the culture at the Pilot, Woronoff said.

“Fun is one of our core values at the Pilot,” said Woronoff, who refers to The Sway as a “sassy” publication. “It’s a way to demonstrate that while most of our products are print, we can do video.”

When asked by an audience member whether readers will take a publication like The Sway seriously, Woronoff said the newsletter balances legitimate news stories with less charged content.

“The news comes from the newspaper,” he said. “We have real news on there as well as silly stuff. We don’t run all of the stories on the website. We just pick the ones we think are going to be of interest to those folks.”

Woronoff is a proud resident of Pinehurst, N.C. – golf capital of America, he said – and sees potential in his town as a budding audience, he said.

“We’re an old town that became a new town with young folks. I want to aggregate all these young folks,” he said.

“We believe we exist to serve our community, not the other way around,” he said.

Woronoff invited publications to “start with simple things” to interact with their communities in ways that newspapers traditionally have not done.

“Start a book club. As soon as we did, the local hospital said, ‘Can we pick a book about cancer for your book club?’ We have 40 to 50 women in our bookshop per month buying a book. They show up and have a great time,” he said.

Woronoff is optimistic about a publication garnering an audience if that publication is invested in its audience.

“We want to create products that will make our community proud,” he said. “If that’s your guidepost, you’ll be successful.”

He also was optimistic about the potential of those in the audience at the conference.

“I can’t reiterate enough that if we can do it, you can do it better than us,” he said. “There’s no secret formula. I don’t know anything that you don’t know.”

‘We’re an old town that became a new town with young folks. I want to aggregate all these young folks.’   — David Woronoff

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‘Extraordinary work’ honored at New England Newspaper Awards

By Alison Berstein, Bulletin Staff

Wayne Braverman, at left, emcees the New England Newspaper Awards in front of an audience newspaper executives from every state in the region

Bulletin photo by Jonathan Polen

The 2017 New England Newspaper Awards featured 10 multiple winners, led by The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass., and the Concord (N.H.) Monitor and its sister Sunday newspaper with four awards.

The Berkshire Eagle won two Publick Occurrences awards and its daily and Sunday editions were both named distinguished newspapers as runners-up in their circulation categories of the newspaper of the year competition. Three of its sister publications also won awards, the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer in the Publick Occurrences competition; the Manchester (Vt.) Journal as a distinguished newspaper in its weekly newspaper of the year circulation category; and UpCountry Magazine, based in Pittsfield, Mass., as newspaper of the year in the specialty publications category.

The Monitor won Publick Occurrences awards for both its daily and Sunday editions. The Sunday Monitor was recognized as newspaper of the year in its circulation category, and Ray Duckley, a Monitor columnist, received the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award.

“This year’s awards once again demonstrate that the newspaper industry remains strong, as evidenced by the number of winners, whose extraordinary work shows the powerful impact they continue to make on people’s lives,” Linda Conway, executive director of the New England Newspaper and Press Association, commented after the awards ceremony.

About 180 people attended the awards luncheon, held during the New England Newspaper Conference Oct. 12 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., Seven Days of Burlington, Vt., and The Providence (R.I.) Journal each won three awards.

The Courant was named newspaper of the year for its daily and Sunday editions in their circulation categories, and received a Publick Occurrences Award.

The distinguished newspaper award plaque received by The Newtown (Conn.) Bee rests in the lap of an audience member at the awards ceremony.

The Patriot Ledger was named newspaper of the year in its circulation category and its Sunday edition was honored as a distinguished newspaper. The Patriot Ledger also won a Publick Occurrences Award.

Seven Days won a Publick Occurrences Award and two special awards: the Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award, given to Seven Days and its political editor, Paul Heintz, and the AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year award for Heintz.

The Providence Journal received distinguished newspaper honors for its daily and Sunday editions, and a Publick Occurrences Award.

Four newspapers won two awards apiece: the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass., as newspaper of the year in its circulation category and a Publick Occurrences Award; The MetroWest Daily News of Framingham, Mass., as distinguished newspaper for its daily and Sunday editions; the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, for distinguished newspaper in its circulation category and a Publick Occurrences Award; the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn., as newspaper of the year for its Sunday edition and for distinguished newspaper for its daily edition in their circulation categories.

Those 10 newspapers won a total of 28 of the 57 awards presented.

The other newspaper of the year winners in their circulation categories were The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.; The Day of New London, Conn.; the Sunday Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.; the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine; the Provincetown (Mass.) Banner; and the Martha’s Vineyard Times of Vineyard Haven, Mass.

The New England Newspaper of the Year awards recognize publications that have made notable strides in the past year, granting awards in 13 categories for both winners and distinguished runners-up.

Publick Occurrences Awards honor the year’s most outstanding journalism by individuals and teams at New England newspapers.

The following are all of the award winners at this year’s ceremony:

Special Awards

Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award:
Seven Days and Paul Heintz, Burlington, Vt
“Advocacy for the passage of Vermont media shield law”

From left, Paula Routly, publisher and co-editor of Seven Days; Schroeder; award namesake Morley Piper; and Paul Heintz, Seven Days’ political editor

AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year:
Paul Heintz, Seven Days, Burlington, Vt.

Schroder with Heintz and Michael Donoghue, retired veteran reporter for The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press and the award’s first recipient.


Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award:
The Gloucester (Mass.) Daily Times, “City must move to restore faith in police, department” by David Olson

 

Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award:
Ray Duckler, Concord (N.H.) Monitor

Schroeder with Ray Duckler, news columnist for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor

Newspaper of the Year

Winners and distinguished runners-up

Weekday newspapers

Circulation less than 8,000
Winner: The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
Distinguished: The Milford (Mass.) Daily News

Circulation 8,000-15,000
Winner: Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass.
Distinguished: The Herald News of Fall River, Mass.
The MetroWest Daily News of Framingham, Mass.

Circulation 15,000-25,000
Winner: The Day of New London, Conn.
Distinguished: Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine
The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass.

Circulation 25,000-35,000
Winner: The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass.
Distinguished: Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn.
Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Mass.

Circulation 35,000 or more
Winner: The Hartford (Conn.) Courant
Distinguished: The Providence (R.I.) Journal

Sunday newspapers

Circulation less than 18,000
Winner: Sunday Monitor of Concord, N.H.
Distinguished: The MetroWest Daily News of Framingham, Mass.
Sunday Valley News of West Lebanon, N.H.

Circulation 18,000-30,000
Winner: Sunday Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.
Distinguished: The Sunday Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass.

Circulation 30,000-45,000
Winner: The Sunday Republican of Waterbury, Conn.
Distinguished: The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass.

Circulation 45,000 or more
Winner: The Hartford (Conn.) Courant
Distinguished: Providence (R.I.) Sunday Journal

Weekly community newspapers

Circulation less than 4,500
Winner: Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine
Distinguished Newspapers: The Cabinet of Milford, N.H.
Andover (Mass.) Townsman

Circulation 4,500-8,000
Winner: Provincetown (Mass.) Banner
Distinguished: The Newtown (Conn.) Bee
Manchester (Vt.) Journal
The Inquirer and Mirror of Nantucket, Mass.

Circulation 8,000 or more
Winner: Martha’s Vineyard Times of Vineyard Haven, Mass.
Distinguished: The Ellsworth (Maine) American

Specialty Publications

Winner: UpCountry Magazine of Pittsfield, Mass.
Distinguished: The Charlotte (Vt.) News

 

Publick Occurrences Awards

Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine: “Caged in van No. 1304”

Keene (N.H). Sentinel: “Sounding the Alarm” series

The Daily Item of Lynn, Mass.: “Am I a bigot?”

The Republican of Springfield, Mass.: “Springfield narcotics detective’s threats create chaos in the legal system”

The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass.: “Danger Zone: Pedestrian safety in Quincy”

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting in Boston: “Behind the wall: Suicides in Massachusetts county jails”

The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass.: “The Digital Divide: Broadband in the Berkshires”

The Connecticut Health I-Team of New Haven, Conn.: “Desperate Choices: Giving Up Custody for Care”

The Hartford (Conn.) Courant: “Hartford schools: more separate, still unequal”

Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer: “Andy’s Journey: The Struggles Through ALS”

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: “Fatal Flaws: An Agency in Crisis”

Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting in Hallowell, Maine: “Single Parents in Poverty: The Crisis No One Will Name”

Providence (R.I.) Business News: “The (Still) Looming Crisis”

Worcester (Mass.) Magazine: “Unresolved: A search for justice”

Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass.: “Under the Table”

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: “Unsilenced: Survivors speak out about sexual assault”

The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass.: “Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art: Building 6 debuts”

The Providence (R.I.) Journal: “Pot & Profit”

Seven Days of Burlington, Vt.: “Death by Drugs”

 

 

 

 

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2017 Yankee Quill Award winners

Robert J. Ambrogi and Robin Young stand in front of the engraved names of the more than 200 Fellows of The Academy of New England Journalists and Yankee Quill Award winners whom they joined this year.

 

Robert J. Ambrogi and Robin Young stand in front of the engraved names of the more than 200 Fellows of The Academy of New England Journalists and Yankee Quill Award winners whom they joined this year.

Bulletin photo by Jonathan Polen

Yankee Quill winners reflect on past, today’s state of news

Jesse Goodman, Bulletin Correspondent

During the 57th Annual Yankee Quill Awards ceremony Oct. 12, the journalists who were honored talked about the importance of perseverance in journalism and the roads they took on their career path to be at the place they are now.

Three Yankee Quill Awards were presented, one posthumously.

The recipients were Robert J. Ambrogi, executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, author, and practicing lawyer; Robin Young, co-host of “Here and Now” on National Public Radio and based at WBUR-FM in Boston; and James Franklin, an 18th century Colonial printer and editor of the New England Courant in Boston.

We wouldn’t be here without the women who came before us.’
— Robin Young, Co-host, “Here and Now,” WBUR-FM, Boston

They are now Fellows of The Academy of New England Journalists, which presents the Yankee Quill Awards annually through the auspices of the New England Society of News Editors. The award is the highest individual honor given by fellow journalists in the region. Selection for the award is not based on any single achievement but rather on a broad influence for good during a career.

Young spoke during her acceptance speech about the winding route her career took, from being one of five women working in 1973 at WSKB-TV, also known then as TV38, in Boston. She worked behind the scenes as an assistant director who was second in charge behind the director. She then became the co-host in 1976 of “Evening Magazine” on what was then called WBZ-TV, Channel 4, in Boston.

Young discussed some of the sexism she experienced in the industry, including having to be a fill-in secretary at TV38 even though that wasn’t her job.

“We wouldn’t be here without the women who came before us,” Young said.

Young has won many awards throughout her career, including five Emmy Awards for her television work, two CableACE Awards, numerous regional Edward R. Murrow awards.

Young described her fascination with local newspapers she would read while going through the communities where they were published, and using ideas from them to do her own stories.

“Today, I cannot start the day without reading the papers,” Young said. “I can’t imagine being in the town and not knowing what’s going on, or what they’re celebrating.”

‘I’m mindful that we’re at a time where government has little respect for law or journalism.’
— Robert J. Ambrogi,
Executive director,
Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association

Ambrogi, who has published two books related to law, spoke about the bond between lawyers and journalists in the face of a presidential administration that does not want to share information. He is recognized as a leading crusader for reform of Massachusetts’ public records law, and helped obtain approval of the first update of that law in four decades and of an overhaul of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.

“I’m mindful that we’re at a time where government has little respect for law or journalism,” Ambrogi said. “We’re more than 30 years past the passing of FOIA, and the government is more secretive than it’s ever been.”

Ambrogi received the Massachusetts Bar Association’s President’s Award in 1993, and the 2011 Fastcase 50, which honors lawyers who are courageous innovators and visionaries. Ambrogi has co-hosted the award-winning podcast “Lawyer2Lawyer.”

Franklin established the New England Courant in 1717 to vent his concerns about the Colonial government, and was considered to be the first practitioner of “yellow journalism.”  Franklin was arrested in 1722 for scandalous libel.

Ben Franklin, James’ younger brother, wrote for the New England Courant, as Silence Dogood. James Franklin later published a newspaper in Rhode Island called the Rhode Island Gazette.

Linda Levin, a former reporter and photo editor at The Providence (R.I) Journal and a former journalism professor at the University of Rhode Island, accepted the award on Franklin’s behalf.

Levin said she could not find a relative of Franklin to give the award to, but that she did know of a place it could be kept.

Levin said she planned to give the award plaque to The Newport (R.I.) Daily News, the successor to the Rhode Island Gazette, which was James and his wife Ann’s newspaper.

More than 50 people attended the awards dinner in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

Ambrogi and Young pose with their Yankee Quill Award plaques next to William B. Ketter, chairman of the Academy of New England Journalists and emcee of the award ceremony.

 

 

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Award tokens: Storytelling, advocacy, dogged reporting, strong local points of view

By Jesse Goodman, Bulletin Correspondent

 

‘As time went by, the digital world came to be. The newspaper world started to feel more irrelevant. But coming here and seeing these examples of journalism just blew me away.’

-Ray Duckler,
news columnist,
Concord Monitor

                                                                      Bulletin photo by Jonathan Polen

Ray Duckler, a news columnist for the Concord (NH) Monitor, has done it all in his 30-plus-year career.

Duckler, recipient of this year’s Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award, has demonstrated his award-winning storytelling abilities, as evidenced in his introduction, delivered by Wayne Braverman, emcee at the New England Newspaper Awards luncheon Oct. 12.

Duckler once wrote a story about how the closing of a bridge that led to the Monitor’s office forced him to take a 3.4-mile detour.

“Further research revealed that I could have driven to Miami and halfway back in the extra time it took me to reach work,” Duckler’s story recalled about the total miles his detour piled up for him during the bridge’s reconstruction.

Duckler also spent a year documenting a refugee family, including meeting them when they landed at the airport.

He has gone up against political operatives without backing down. He investigated a former priest, who was expelled from the Roman Catholic Church and ended up as a Unitarian Universalist minister two years later.

In his acceptance speech, Duckler said: “As time went by, the digital world came to be. The newspaper world started to feel more irrelevant. But coming here and seeing these examples of journalism just blew me away.”

Duckler was one of four winners recognized for special awards during a luncheon ceremony at the New England Newspaper Conference, held in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

Seven Days of Burlington, Vt., and its political editor, Paul Heintz, won the Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award for helping to create a shield law for reporters in Vermont. The presenter and namesake of the award, Piper, noted the significance of their efforts.

“It is noteworthy to commend Seven Days in this important endeavor,” Piper said.

The award, which is given for working to uphold the rights and freedoms of the First Amendment, highlighted the work the publication did in the wake of the subpoenas of two reporters covering a high-visibility sexual assault case, which eventually led to the campaign for a shield law and its approval by the Vermont legislature.

Heintz, who played a major role in the shield law campaign, also was honored with the AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year award.

Heintz covered the 2016 bid of Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, for the Democratic presidential nomination and continued after Sanders’ failed campaign to ask tough, bold questions, such as those about controversial land deals Sanders’ wife, Jane, made when she was president of Burlington (Vt.) College.

Heintz also investigated the ability to purchase the same kind of gun used in the Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016 in Orlando, Fla., in which 49 people were killed. He reported that all it took in Vermont was $500, with no mental health checks, which shocked readers, even in a loose gun law state like Vermont. His persistence as a journalist and his innovativeness led him to being honored as this year’s recipient.

The Gloucester (Mass.) Daily Times was honored with the Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award. The work that was recognized was written by David Olson. It was about the firing of former Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello, and demanded answers to what happened and how an “angel” anti-opioid program fell apart.

Campanello established the “angel” program in 2015 to allow drug abusers to give up their drugs at the police station in exchange for treatment, without being arrested. The program drew national attention and acclaim to itself and Campanello. In October 2016, Campanello was fired for the destruction of and tampering with evidence in an investigating into allegations against him. Two women had lodged complaints against Campanello for inappropriate conduct. When Campanello was asked to turn in his city-issued phone, he said it was stolen from his office; he later returned it with its content deleted.

The Daily Times’ continual push for answers and transparency forced Gloucester officials to explain a leave of absence for, and suspension and subsequent firing of, Campanello.

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Keynote speaker Yunt: Papers’ survival depends on open minds, communication

Bulletin photos by Alison Berstein

By Alison Berstein
Bulletin correspondent

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Bulletin photos by Alison Berstein

‘If there’s one thing you walk away with today: Am I communicating as broadly, openly, effectively, as I need to be?’


— Tom Yunt,
Chief operating officer,
United Communications Corporation,
Kenosha, Wis.

“I’m not convinced that we’re dead, I’m not convinced that we’re dying. I’m convinced we’re in a very interesting transition in our lifespan,” Tom Yunt told the audience at his keynote speech Oct. 12 at the New England Newspaper Conference.

During his speech, titled “The Newspaper sur-THRIVAL Guide,” Yunt spoke about maintaining a good attitude in a shifting newspaper climate

“It involves change, and we all know how humans react to change,” he said at the conference, held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass. Yunt is chief operating officer of United Communications Corporation, based in Kenosha, Wis., which owns The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., and the Foxboro (Mass.) Reporter.

Surviving – and thriving – as a newspaper also involves “a lot of soul-searching because that clock is ticking very, very fast,” Yunt said.

“Yesterday the future began, so you’ve got to start changing today,” he said.

Change starts at the local level, Yunt said.

“Let’s look inside our own communities and companies,” he said. “Are you creating a culture of performance, accountability, meeting the needs of your community? Are we really trying to shake up the status quo?

“If there’s one thing you walk away with today: Am I communicating as broadly, openly, effectively, as I need to be?” Yunt said.

When asked by an audience member how to encourage that culture of communication, Yunt suggested creating an interdepartmental dialogue.

“Bring multiple departments into all-news meetings,” he said. “Start with small groups, and then all-hands meetings.

“We’ve got to get into the mindset that we’re not these departments and these silos; we’re one homogeneous, cooperating, collaborating industry,” he said.

This transparency among employees enhances not only a company’s product but also the company itself, Yunt said.

“The best form of management is what I call management by walking around,” he said. “If you want to know what’s going on in your operation, talk to your line-level employees, closest to the challenges you’re facing in your markets.”

A successful company reaches out into the general community as well as internally, Yunt said.

“Really listen to your community,” Yunt said.

He suggested that newspapers create reader advisory panels or send editors to Chamber of Commerce meetings to get feedback from local residents. “What keeps you awake at night?

What do you like about us, not like?”

“We’re still an industry that writes and edits papers for writers and editors. And we’ve got to

change that, big time,” Yunt said. “How do you write a paper in the newsroom and not

engage the community?”

Yunt warned against the dangers of companies not being receptive to change.

“We have discovered the enemy, and this is us,” he said.

“There’s this old ‘This is the way we’ve always done things in the past’ mentality. That old concrete wall that existed; those days are over,” he said. “We have to create an environment where everyone is working toward a common goal.”

Yunt called this mentality “a going-out-of-business business philosophy.”

“If any of you are walking through your newspaper plants and you hear one of two things: ‘This is the way we’ve always done things in the past’ and ‘This is the way we’ve always done things around here’ – I’m going to tell you right now that those two quotes are two of my biggest pet peeves,” said Yunt, who entered the newspaper business in 1977.

Fostering a culture of open communication and open minds will help a company not only for the current era but also exponentially for the future, Yunt said.

“The problem is we tend to look historically backwards and not progressively forwards,” he said.

“Here’s the challenge I would say to each and every one of you: Let’s talk about planning going forward,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to build a sustainable business model, not only for 2018 but beyond. If you’re not talking about succession planning in your company, shame on you.”

To help move forward, a company should focus on content and revenue operations, Yunt said.

“I like to focus on the things I can control,” he said. “Content in print, digital, mobile, email, Web. Revenue: advertising, digital circulation. Those are what most of us in this room need to focus on. That’s going to be our win or our loss.”

Another part of the strategy of planning for the future is finding a mentor for the company, Yunt said.

“Never ever, ever discount how important mentoring is to a culture and organization,” he said.

“Who within your organization, and we all have those folks, has a great attitude and aptitude?” he said. “What could they do for us in a year from now, in three years from now? Who is going to back us?

“If they don’t exist, how do we move forward?” he asked.

That investment in human resources is crucial for a newspaper’s survival, Yunt said.

“The only reason I stand in front of you today is I worked for some companies that really believed in investing in their people,” Yunt said. “I had some terrific mentors.”

At the end of the day, that human connection is what drives a publication, Yunt said.

“The bottom line is, it should be local, local, local,” he said. “How do we find a way to create enough bandwidth in our newsroom to decide what matters? Step back and ask our readers, our communities, our consumers, our advertisers and partners … ‘What kind of content would you like to see in your local community newspaper?’ ”

“The two biggest assets we have are valued employees and customers,” he said.

With a locally-driven framework, a company can stand up to giants of the industry, Yunt said.

“With every threat typically comes opportunities,” he said. “How can we collectively and collaboratively work together to compete with the Amazons of the world? Create a series of discussions, talk to local retailers.”

“Be unique. Local, local, local. Sell differently than your competitors. Last but not least, you have to absolutely love your customers,” he said.

Yunt encouraged publications to embrace the unique traits of that publication and its community.

“What can you afford to do really, really well and better than others?” he asked.

He concluded with a message of hope for the audience:

“When you go back to your workplace tomorrow, if you can create an open environment where there are no walls, that is the environment you want to create.”

‘Be unique. Local, local, local. Sell differently than your competitors. Last but not least, you have to absolutely love your customers.’    – Tom Yunt

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Insights, inspiration and awards planned for Oct. 12 N.E. Newspaper Conference

By Daniel McLoone, Bulletin Correspondent

Speakers at this year’s New England Newspaper Conference

This year’s New England Newspaper Conference will feature expert speakers and roundtable and panel discussions that will focus on topical issues on the news landscape. The other highlights of the conference, to be held Thursday, Oct. 12, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass., are two key award events: the New England Newspaper Awards luncheon and the Yankee Quill Awards dinner.

Headlining the conference will be keynote speaker Tom Yunt and featured speakers David Woronoff and Glen Johnson. Each will discuss an area of interest for newspaper executives and other journalists

The conference’s morning session will begin with roundtable discussions.

The roundtable topics are:

  • “Are carriers independent contractors or employees? How recent decisions may impact your newspaper.” The discussion will be led by publishers and lawyers.
  • “How to handle the handlers: PR & public safety – Bridge or barrier to info?” sponsored and led by the New England Society of News Editors.
Shawn Palmer
  • “Digital marketing services,” a panel discussion featuring Shawn Palmer, senior vice president and chief revenue officer of RJ Media Group in Meriden, Conn.; Daryl Hively, founder and chief executive officer of Guarantee Digital and The Digital Media Lab in Hartland, Wis.; Robert Scanlon, digital director of The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass., and its parent company, New England Newspapers Inc.

“You can read about initiatives that other newspapers are implementing, but when you get in a room and you hear firsthand from somebody what they’ve done, what made them successful in doing it, and you learn their strategy, it’s really helpful,” Linda Conway, NENPA’s executive director, said of the roundtables. “Having that back-and-forth discussion with a Q&A period allows people to get key tips and take it back to see how it applies to their market.”

Yunt, chief operating officer for United Communications Corporation, based in Kenosha, Wis., and owner of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., will speak later on how newspapers are changing. His topic is “The Newspaper Sur-THRIVAL Guide: Newspaper 101 in the 21st Century.”

“Tom is going to provide some insight and inspiration for the publishers and the executives who want to truly leverage the opportunities that they face in the contemporary news media landscape,” Conway said. “He’s going to be talking about the future of the industry and changes we must make to thrive.”

Yunt’s keynote speech will follow a talk by Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot of Southern Pines, N.C. His topic, “Break out of the familiar to increase your revenue and audience,” will provide insights into new ideas that newspapers can use to adapt to changing sources of revenue.

“David is going to talk about different ways that his newspaper has transformed (itself) and alternative products that they’ve come up with to try to generate new revenue streams for … newspapers. His group is working on some exciting things,” Conway said.

The New England Newspaper Awards luncheon will follow Yunt’s presentation, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. The awards luncheon will feature the following honors: the 2017 New England Newspapers of the Year; the Publick Occurrences Awards; the Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award; the Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award; the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award; and the AP New England/Sevellon Brown Journalist of the Year.

The afternoon portion of the conference will kick off with Johnson’s talk on “From breaking the news to making the news.” Johnson is a longtime political reporter and former top aide to U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

After Johnson’s talk, a panel will discuss “Using analytics to drive newsroom decisions.”

The New England Society of News Editors’ annual meeting to elect new officers concludes the afternoon session. The evening program will begin with the New England Society of News Editors and Yankee Quill cocktail reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

The conference will conclude with the Yankee Quill Awards dinner.

Those being honored this year are Robert Ambrogi, founding editor of Lawyers USA, editor in chief of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, and executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association; and Robin Young, a veteran television and radio journalist and co-host of National Public Radio’s “Here & Now” program on WBUR-FM in Boston. A posthumous award will be given to James Franklin, the older brother of Benjamin Franklin and a Colonial printer, publisher and author.

The price for the all-day conference, including the awards luncheon, is $109 a person. Admission for the luncheon only is $79 a person.

Tickets for the Yankee Quill Dinner are sold separately and are $85 a person.

Rooms at the Crowne Plaza are available at a discounted rate of $159 a night.

More details about the conference and registration information are available here.

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