Could they be any happier? Robin Chan, at left, and Merrily Cassidy, at right, show the kind of joy repeated many times during the news awards ceremony at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention. Both won honors as photojournalists of the year, Chan for weeklies for his work at The Hingham (Mass.) Journal and Cassidy for dailies for her work at the Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Mass.

Donald Trump wasn’t at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention, but he was much in evidence nevertheless.

Almost from its outset, the convention buzzed with an undercurrent of references — negative, but some humorous — to President Trump and his anti-press taunts. That climate surfaced even at the celebratory New England First Amendment Coalition’s awards luncheon on the convention’s first day, Friday, Feb. 24. It continued in a more full-throated way at one of the convention’s major events, Saturday, Feb. 25’s opening session — a panel discussion specifically designed to explore the press under Trump: “The next four years and the press.”

Both nights of the convention ended on the more usual and positive notes of applause, high-fives, hugs and standing ovations for the winners of awards in advertising, marketing and circulation Friday and in news Saturday.

Almost 150 guests attended the Friday evening awards, which featured 55 awards in 28 categories. On Saturday night, 375 people heard the names of 243 awards winners announced in 84 categories.

Linda Conway, NENPA’s executive director, said about 1,000 people attended the convention overall. It was held for the first time at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

The convention featured a dozen vendors who showcased their products or services and 23 panel discussions or workshops, some of them geared to topics bearing on what a Trump administration could bode for the press and the First Amendment.

“I think there is always an interest in covering politics,” Conway said. “We did have sessions that leaned a little bit more towards that.

“What we try to do is offer different sort of tracks: editorial; business-side, geared toward increasing revenue and circulation; sessions geared toward legalities,” Conway said. “We hit the digital aspect as well – sessions on mobile. We try not to gear everything toward one specific track so that people can come from every aspect of newspapers. There’s something for everybody.”

One sign of the prevalence of interest in the subject of Trump and press: The discussion on “The next four years and the press” was the best-attended of the 23 panels or workshops, with about 140 people present.

Bill Kole, New England news editor for The Associated Press, opened that discussion, which he moderated, by recounting what Trump had done or caused just in the prior 24 hours: “blasting … the media” for using anonymous sources; news organizations, including CNN and Buzzfeed, being barred from an informal press briefing at the White House; and Time Magazine and AP boycotting that briefing in protest.

Panelist Bill Ketter, vice president of news for Montgomery, Ala.-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., said: “We’re going through this period here where (Trump) has a base, a very strong base. He has played up that base, that base likes firming down on the press. That’s been only a month. Think of the next four years.”

Panelist Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post, noted that Trump recently “railed against the overuse of anonymous sources.” She called that “weird” in light of his comments during the presidential campaign about being a fan of WikiLeaks and his urging Russian hackers to leak Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“We have to get used to standing for something, and that something is democracy,” Sullivan said. “If we as journalists and news organizations are not going to defend press rights, I don’t know who’s going to do it. I don’t think we should be presenting ourselves as the opposition party.”

The day before, Sullivan received the Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award at the New England First Amendment Coalition awards luncheon. Also presented at the luncheon were the Antonia Orfield Citizenship Award to Donna Green of Right to Know New Hampshire, and the Michael Donoghue Freedom of Information Award to the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine.

During her acceptance speech, Sullivan detailed threats posed by Trump. He has blacklisted news organizations, including the Washington Post, deemed unflattering stories to be fake news, called reporters scum, and asserted that the press is the enemy of the people, she said.

“President Trump shows no understanding of the role of the press in our democracy,” Sullivan said. “I’ve lost some sleep over it, worried about the very survival of American democracy when one of its foundations, a free press, is already under attack.”

The emcee at the luncheon also noted: “The president spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference this morning, and he was at it again, calling us enemies of the people; we make up sources, we’re very dishonest people, apparently.”

That reference to what Trump calls journalists cropped up at other convention sessions, with speakers jokingly denying that they were “enemies of the people.”

At NENPA’s annual meeting Saturday morning, Feb. 25, Michael E. Schroeder, publisher of Central Connecticut Communications, based in New Britain and whose flagship is the New Britain Herald, was elected to succeed Mark S. Murphy, editor of the Providence (R.I.) Business News, as president of NENPA’s board of directors.

John Voket, associate editor of The Newtown (Conn.) Bee, was elected as the board’s vice president; Jeff Peterson, publisher of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., as treasurer; Sean Burke, formerly president and group publisher of Randolph, Mass.-based GateHouse Media New England, as secretary.

James Normandin, chief operating officer of the Manchester, N.H.-based Union Leader Corp., was elected as a member of the board.

Earlier in the meeting, attended by about 15 people, Linda Conway said in her report as NENPA’s executive director that 445 people registered to attend sessions at this year’s winter convention. There were 375 guests registered for the journalism awards banquet Saturday night, Feb. 25; 145 for the Friday night ceremony for advertising, circulation and marketing awards; 275 for the New England First Amendment Coalition’s awards luncheon Friday; and 80 for the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame dinner Friday night, she said.

This year, there were 3,226 entries for the awards contests, up from 3,176 in 2016, Conway said.

About 200 people attended the New England Newspaper Fall Conference in October, down about 15 from the attendance in 2016, she said. Attendance at the Yankee Quill Awards dinner at the conference was up slightly, however, as was the number of entries in the fall conference awards contests, Conway said.

Applications for journalism scholarships granted by a NENPA affiliate organization topped 100, a record, she said. Nominations for induction into the Hall of Fame were up to their highest level too, Conway said.

Conway asked for comments about this year’s convention. The responses included references to “big turnouts” at convention sessions; praise for the effectiveness of signs directing people to convention events; and a compliment for the convention’s being “well-thought-through.”

In an interview after the convention, Conway said: “We had a great turnout for the convention. It was in line with the numbers we’ve had with the last couple of years. Everybody came out of energized and really liked the sessions … ”

The weekend’s sunny weather complemented the convention’s location on Boston Harbor.

“It was a great location, close to everything,” Conway said. “The weather cooperated so people could go outside of the hotel. We had many, many people come up and say that they loved the location.

“All of the reactions and comments have been really positive,” she said. “Everybody seemed to enjoy it. We had people from outside of the industry to help us look at our industry from a different perspective.”

Following are the key award winners for advertising, circulation, and marketing presented Friday night, Feb. 24:

Best Ad Designer, daily: Annie Sharples, The Day, New London, Conn.
Business Innovation, daily: Vineyard Gazette, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
Advertising General Excellence, specialty: Bay State Parent, Millbury, Mass.
Advertising General Excellence, weekly: The Vermont Standard, Woodstock, Vt.

Following are the key awards winners for news presented Saturday night, Feb. 25:

Rookie of the Year, weekly: Kymelya Sari, Seven Days, Burlington, Vt.
Rookie of the Year, daily: Elaine Ezerins, St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger
Photojournalist of the Year, weekly: Robin Chan, Hingham (Mass.) Journal
Photojournalist of the Year, daily: Merrily Cassidy, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
Reporter of the Year, weekly: Walter Bird Jr., Worcester (Mass.) Magazine
Reporter of the Year, daily: Doug Fraser, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
General Excellence, specialty publications: Boston Business Journal
General Excellence, smaller weekly: Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor, Maine
General Excellence, larger weekly: Seven Days, Burlington, Vt.
General Excellence, smaller daily: MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, Mass.
General Excellence, larger daily: Republican-American, Waterbury, Conn.

Elsie Lynn Parini also strutted her dance stuff as she came forward to accept an award for the Addison County Independent of Middlebury, Vt., where she is business manager.

Phillip C. Camp, publisher of The Vermont Standard of Woodstock, Vt., shows his juniors how spry he is as he steps lively to receive the Standard’s award for advertising general excellence for weeklies.

Terry Carlisle, seated, and Earl Brechlin exult at the announcement that the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine, won the general excellence award for smaller weeklies. Brechlin is the Islander’s editor and Carlisle is general manager.

Doug Fraser of the Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Mass., gets a congratulatory hug from Paul Pronovost, executive editor of the Times’ parent, Cape Cod Media Group, after Fraser was recognized as reporter of the year for daily newspapers.

Michael E. Schroeder, NENPA President

John Voket, NENPA Vice President

Jeff Peterson, NENPA Treasurer

James Normandin, NENPA Board Member

This trio from the Addison County Independent of Middlebury, Vt., shows its prize-winning moves as it dances to collect its $50 reward for splitting top honors in the best celebration contest at the advertising, marketing, and circulation awards ceremony at the NENPA convention Friday night, Feb. 24. They are, from right, Christy Lynn, advertising manager, Elsie Lynn Parini, business manager, and Anna Harrington, advertising co-manager.

Panelists for the convention session on “The next four years and the press” were, from left, Carolyn Lumsden, Bill Ketter, Asma Khalid, Rob Bertsche and Margaret Sullivan.

Panel moderator Bill Kole opened the discussion by recounting just what had happened 24 hours prior that showed the deteriorated relations between President Donald Trump and the press.

It’s no secret that the first month of the Trump administration was hectic, but even just the 24 hours leading up to the morning of Saturday, Feb. 25, were busy for both the administration and journalists alike.

At the start of that morning, Bill Kole, New England news editor for The Associated Press, checked his Twitter feed to be “up to the minute” and listed much of what had transpired Friday and into Saturday, including President Donald Trump’s “blasting of the media” for using anonymous sources; news organizations, including CNN and Buzzfeed, being barred from an informal press briefing at the White House; and Time Magazine and AP boycotting that same briefing in protest.

That was just a fraction of what happened in a single day, so “forget the first 30 days,” Kole said.

Kole made his comments at the outset of a panel discussion he moderated that Saturday morning on “The next four years and the press” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention. About 140 people attended the discussion.

“We have to get used to standing for something, and that something is democracy,” said panelist Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post. “If we as journalists and news organizations are not going to defend press rights, I don’t know who’s going to do it. I don’t think we should be presenting ourselves as the opposition party.”

A subject the panelists brought up multiple times was the public’s perception of the news media and whether the public thinks that the press has a bias, especially one against conservatives and the Republican Party.

Panelist Bill Ketter, senior vice president of news for Montgomery, Ala.-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., mentioned that, at his request, a reporter for a Community Newspaper Holdings newspaper asked people at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference whether they thought that press is biased, and the 15 or so people questioned said yes. But they also thought that the president was “going overboard” when he called journalists “the enemy of the American people,” Ketter said.

Perhaps part of that perceived bias comes from there being “too much opinion seeping into coverage of the president,” Ketter said.

Kole added: “Journalists have never been very popular.”

Asma Khalid, a political reporter with radio station WBUR-FM in Boston who followed the presidential campaign for NPR, voiced her concerns about the public’s perception of the media.

“I worry more … about the repercussions of a public that doesn’t trust the press,” she said.

Khalid said journalists are “remiss to think that this is only a conservative assessment.”

She mentioned a recent poll by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University in which trust in the news media to do the right thing was low even among millennials.

Another hot topic during the discussion was the use of anonymous sources.

Sullivan said Trump’s recent comments in which he “railed against the overuse of anonymous sources” were “weird” given his comments during his campaign about being a fan of WikiLeaks and his urging Russian hackers to leak Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Kole said there have been many “good, solid stories with people we can’t identify.”

Sullivan agreed. She said there are “whole subjects we couldn’t deal with without confidential sources,” such as the recent Washington Post story that led to Michael Flynn’s departure as Trump’s national security adviser that “couldn’t be done any other way.”

“We can overuse them,” Sullivan said of anonymous sources.

She told the audience about a policy that existed while she was at The New York Times that “anonymity should only be granted as a last resort.”

Panelist Carolyn Lumsden, opinion editor for The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, suggested that, to avoid overusing and misusing anonymous sources, “individual newsrooms can hold them (anonymous sources) to a pretty high standard,” which could “help over time.”

Panelist Rob Bertsche, a media and First Amendment lawyer for Prince Lobel Tye of Boston, cautioned that the use of anonymous sources opens up the possibility of reporters “being subpoenaed for their (sources’) identities.”

Other topics discussed included how the press might have “blown it” in covering and predicting the presidential election, why Trump won over voters, how journalists should behave on social media, and the parallel some people are drawing between the Trump administration and the Nixon administration in their attitudes toward the press.

Kole joked that the discussion might as well have been called “The next four years of your life” rather than “The next four years and the press.”

The panelists offered ideas on how journalists can navigate those years in a climate that isn’t particularly favorable toward their profession.

Ketter reminded those in the audience to “be fair” and to make sure that both sides of the political spectrum are covered.

Bertsche suggested ways in which journalists can protect themselves, including making sure that they have libel insurance, being aware of anti-SLAPP laws in their state, and turning to lawyers, like him, who offer information about laws protecting journalists as well as advice on issues involving libel and defamation.

Sullivan urged the audience to “not get distracted from the bigger stories” by paying too much attention to fact-checking Trump and following his Twitter account.

Khalid also cautioned that “Trump’s Twitter account can be a distraction.”

Lumsden said it is important that journalists know when to “walk away” from social media and avoid showing “too much snark” and engaging in “digital road rage.”

As the session wound to a conclusion, Ketter and Sullivan made clear the responsibility that journalists have.

Ketter said journalists “must vigorously defend the First Amendment … for the people.”

‘We have to get used to standing for something, and that something is democracy.’

—Margaret Sullivan, Media columnist,
Washington Post

‘I worry more … about the repercussions of a public that doesn’t trust the press.’

—Asma Khalid, Political reporter,
WBUR-FM, Boston

‘(Journalists) must vigorously defend the First Amendment … for the people.’

—Bill Ketter, Senior vice president of news,
Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Montgomery, Ala.

The session about President Trump and the press drew about 140 people, the largest single audience for any of the convention’s 23 panel discussions or workshops.

One thing I like to do is bust myths, and young people don’t read the newspaper? That’s a myth. They don’t read to the degree (of other consumers), but they still read.’

—Gary Meo, Senior vice president, sales director of newspaper media
Nielsen Scarborough, New York City

No two people are the same. Each person has different interests, hobbies, and passions.

There is a beauty that comes with that idea.

But that idea also poses challenges for companies looking to reach their audiences effectively.

Gary Meo discussed those challenges and their solutions in his workshop on “Monetizing audiences: Demonstrating the value of your audiences for advertisers” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

About 30 people attended his talk Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

Newspapers and other businesses need to understand the dynamics of the different audiences they serve, said Meo, senior vice president and sales director of newspaper media at Nielsen Scarborough, headquartered in New York City.

“Newspapers have different audiences by platform,” Meo said.

Companies target those audiences that are most likely to engage in an advertiser’s message, Meo said.

“Advertisers are interested in selling to a portion of the audience, not an entire audience,” he said.

Nielsen Scarborough is a local market analysis service. It serves companies around the country by measuring consumer behavior.

“We measure retail behavior,” Meo said. “We measure all of the local media.”

Studying and understanding consumer behavior is “the way to demonstrate the connection between their brand and your audience,” Meo said.

Meo uses what is known as audience segmentation – dividing a market into segments, each with its own needs and spending patterns.

“How do your readers measure up to the market as a whole?” he said. “This kind of person is more likely (to engage in a certain consumer behavior) compared to a general audience.”

Meo stressed the importance of understanding each segment.

Because each subpopulation of consumers has its own needs, it responds in a different way to a message, Meo said.

Meo segments a newspaper’s audience into four categories:

A little less than half of the newspaper readers in the United States are what he calls “print loyalists”, who consume the newspaper solely in print. That accounts for 4.2 million adults in New England, or 47 percent of the New England adult population, Meo said.

About 20 percent are “dual devotees,” who read the newspaper in print and on one other platform.

Sixteen percent are “digital dignitaries,” reading just on digital devices.

The final 18 percent are “digital omnivores,” who consume the news through a variety of platforms. “We like them,” Meo said. “They’re seeing your advertiser’s message multiple times.”

Meo said the printed newspaper is still a viable contender in the eyes of consumers.

“You don’t want to abandon print just yet, because it’s the largest chunk of your readers …,” he said. “Print is still a big part of our portfolio.”

“One thing I like to do is bust myths, and young people don’t read the newspaper? That’s a myth,” he continued. “They don’t read to the degree (of other consumers), but they still read.”

Meo said 78 percent of consumers engage in the paper via print and on other platforms.

“Print isn’t falling off a cliff,” he said. “It’s still a big part of your audience.”

It is definitely a big part for print loyalists, who read the newspaper only in print.

Meo said the average age in that group is 54.

“People who read the printed paper exclusively are older,” he said. “We lament that our readers are getting older, but they’re an important group.”

Consumers in that group tend to be well-to-do, and therefore are valuable to the retail industry, Meo said.

Being a fan of the printed newspaper also translates into engaging with print advertisements, Meo said.

“They interact with print advertisers, they cut the coupons,” he said.

About one in five consumers are “dual devotees,” reading the newspaper in print and on one other platform, Meo said.

That is a younger group, with an average age of 48, Meo said. Forty-nine percent are millennials, he said.

“When you introduce digital into the mix, your audience gets a lot younger,” he said.

Those consumers pursue investments and use credit cards, Meo said.

They also are valuable to the travel industry, because they are more likely to travel, Meo said.

Members of the third group, digital dignitaries, read solely on digital platforms.

“They are definitely connected. They are digital natives,” Meo said of that group, whose average age is 39.

Advertising to them requires strategy on the part of digital advertisers, Mao said.

“They do not like to be advertised to on their mobile phones,” he said. “It has to be interesting, compelling, relevant.

“It’s all about relevancy,” he said. “They see their mobile phones as their property, their space, and they don’t want advertisers encroaching on that space.”

The final group, news omnivores, engages with newspapers and other businesses on a variety of platforms.

Their average age is 43 and they are valuable to the technology industry, Meo said. Digital omnivores use technology in their cars, such as satellite radio and wireless capabilities.

Those active, highly engaged consumers provide an abundance of opportunity for advertisers to reach out, Meo said.

“If you’re running advertisements on all of your platforms, your omnivore readers are seeing those ads on those platforms,” he said.

‘Print isn’t falling off a cliff. It’s still a big part of your audience.’

—Gary Meo

‘Advertisers are interested in selling to a portion of the audience, not an entire audience.’

—Gary Meo

This year is definitely the year of video for news organizations, according to Al Getler, former publisher of The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press.

What is so convincing?

The amount of time per week that people spend watching video surpassed the amount of time people spend on social media and increased by more than a minute from 2011 to 2015, according to statistics Getler presented at a workshop at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention.

“You have to add video to your mix,” he said.

Getler, accompanied by Ryan Mercer, visuals coach and photo and video editor at the Free Press, discussed how news organizations can integrate a video strategy into their coverage and how to get past not wanting change in a newsroom.

Mercer, a five-time Edward R. Murrow Award recipient, demonstrated how he uses his phone to live-stream a news scene – if not setting up a tripod for his phone, then attaching his phone to the top of his DSLR camera when he is on assignment – with tools, such as an iPhone, that journalists are familiar with and accessories varying in prices for different newsrooms.

Keeping video in mind when covering something enables Mercer, and the Free Press, to do Facebook Live streaming video coverage and then have a plethora of footage to cut – from the live stream and from his other cameras — into a more polished video to upload with the story or as a story itself, adding details that can’t always be captured in text.

Mercer discussed a video of an off-duty police officer who fatally shot a man last fall in Winooski, Vt. Mercer used only footage from the body camera the officer was wearing. He blurred out the actual shooting.

Mercer said that at the time questions arose about both the officer and the man shot, and that the video helped clear up some of the questions. A debate developed about whether the officer had to shoot the suspect. Friends of the suspect said he didn’t carry a weapon. Police were initially reluctant to release the video, which led to more questions than answers until it was released. The officer was off-duty and was an officer from another county, so some people were angry that he was at the scene. The video demonstrated that the officer had been called in and that the suspect approached the officer with one hand behind his back, after the officer asked him to put his hands in sight, in the instant before the shooting.
Mercer said of the editorial decision to run the video as it was, with only partial censoring: “(W)e thought (it was) really, really important to get the context and facts straight. As unpleasant as this was to watch, without seeing all that in one package you are not getting all the facts you need to properly digest all that information.”

Getler said other newsroom departments can make use of video too. Sports can capture moments of action and crowd reactions, and government meetings can be broadcast as breaking news, especially when the video features an impromptu speech by an elected official.

Video increases the amount of content people consume from a news outlet, and can tell a story in a nonlinear way, and sometimes video-first stories can lead to interesting text stories that make use of the video package, Getler said.

Getler and Mercer said one of the greatest advantages to incorporating a video strategy is the convenience and quickness with which it can give a news outlet a leg up over others. And doing so breaks newsrooms out of the habit of not risking anything.

“It helps you compete with people you otherwise wouldn’t,” Getler said. “It’s your job to own your news and break it and get out there before the competition does.”

About 20 people attended the workshop on “Adding a video strategy” Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.
(To see a video of the “Adding a video strategy” on the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s Facebook page under that title, please click here.)

‘You have to add video to your mix.’

—Al Getler, Former publisher,
Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

‘(Video) helps you compete with people you otherwise wouldn’t. It’s your job to own your news and break it and get out there before the competition does. ‘

—Al Getler

‘To sell these kinds of ideas, you’ve got to be thoughtful and creative. You’ve got to think what (companies) are trying to accomplish with their businesses.’

—Dan Cotter, Director of sales development and training,
GateHouse Media New England

Putting on events with sponsoring businesses is an advertising play that requires higher-level deal-making, planning, and execution, according to a presentation at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

Dan Cotter, GateHouse’s director of sales development and training, and Troy Goodwin, special events account manager for GateHouse, described during the presentation GateHouse’s foray into pitching and putting on events for local businesses. Fifty people attended the presentation, titled “How to make more money selling events,” Friday, Feb. 24, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

“To sell these kinds of ideas, you’ve got to be thoughtful and creative,” Cotter said. “You’ve got to think what (companies) are trying to accomplish with their businesses.”

Cotter and Goodwin described how, after some struggles with sales pitching, GateHouse was able to put on events for sponsors such as Stop & Shop, Hood Milk, Edelman Financial Services, and Bertucci’s. GateHouse Media New England has six dailies, 98 weeklies, and 168 local news websites in five New England states.

Goodwin said that, from the pitching process and beyond, publishers hosting events for businesses should form strong relationships with their clients.

“It becomes a whole (other) level of a relationship. It’s not just selling a product to them. It’s selling the idea of working together with them,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin and Cotter said publishers should include their event sponsors heavily in the event planning process and allow those sponsors to customize their event advertising in creative ways, keeping them engaged and invested in the event. Moreover, the sponsors might even shoulder a majority of the planning work because they are impassioned.

Targeting the right local businesses to pitch to is a crucial prerequisite for any events, Cotter said. He said publishers should find companies that don’t usually advertise, because events often attract nontraditional ad clients because of the exciting opportunity those events present to bigger organizations and businesses.

“What we try to do is figure out what the event is about, who it would benefit, and then go out into the market and figure out who we could help,” Cotter said. “Prospect among businesses that are right for the event; forget about who your day-to-day customers are.”

Goodwin said that, after choosing the right target, salespeople should pitch to businesses in person from the top-down, avoiding miscommunication and less receptive middle managers.

“Go right up to the top from the get-go, because once you move down, there’s a requirement to work with us,” Goodwin said.

Middle managers such as regional ad representatives often reject pitches for events, based on budget constraints. And ad agencies focus too much on pricing and minutiae than big-picture event coverage, he said.

Cotter said that, instead, approaching a company’s vice president or director with a solid sales pitch is a safer bet because executives have more control over budgeting and are more willing to spend money on a good investment.

“If you bring in a new idea that’s going to differentiate them from their key competitors, they’ll find the money,” Cotter said.

Both Goodwin and Cotter suggested initially sending emails to clients to create interest as opposed to calling them, because executives don’t answer calls and prefer reading something on their own time. They also suggested doing pitches in person, which avoids being cut off over the phone.

From there, prospective event hosts should focus on giving clients what they want and helping them grow their businesses through pre-event, event, and post-event coverage in their publications rather than selling different tiers of ad packages, Cotter and Goodwin said. They said price levels should be starting points from which clients should customize their own ideal packages.

“The bottom line is over-deliver value to sponsors, especially in the first year. It’s really hard to get traction with these events,” Cotter said.

“Get grabby – the idea should be to tell businesses to come to us with (their) dreams, and then we’ll negotiate a price,” he said.

‘It’s not just selling a product to them. It’s selling the idea of working together with them.’

—Troy Goodwin, Special events account manager,
GateHouse Media New England