Build trust or lose readers, listeners, and viewers. That’s the challenge facing news organizations these days, says a key speaker for Radically Rural’s Community Journalism Track.

“You can’t change what people think in general about journalism, but you can recognize that peoples’ suspicions about and frustrations with national journalism are often valid,” says Joy Mayer, longtime journalist, professor, and founder of Trusting News. 

Mayer, who will kick off Radically Rural’s community journalism sessions at 10:30 a.m., Sept. 22 at SHOWROOM in Keene, N.H. and live-streamed online, will discuss the mission and work behind her organization since its genesis in 2016. The New England Newspaper and Press Association is helping to sponsor Mayer’s and other sessions at Radically Rural.

During her extensive years working in newsrooms and talking to her students, Mayer has watched as the narratives surrounding the media became more and more muddled in the minds of consumers across the country. The national political landscape and perception of national media have become increasingly polarized and tense. As a result, the burden has fallen on local journalists to take into account and be responsible for what their readers, viewers, and listeners think about what journalism is. 

“There’s plenty of irresponsible, partisan, unhelpful things done in the name of journalism,” says Mayer, pointing to the mass distrust of the media in the U.S. “But, too often, journalists say, ‘there’s nothing I can do about it because people have their mind made up, and I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and hope it gets better.’” 

To address these attitudes, from those who produce news to those who consume it, Mayer and her team have developed strategies that local journalists can utilize to tell a better story about what goes on behind newsroom doors. These new methods for interaction invite readers to see their local journalists’ efforts as distinguished from a larger, national conversation of distrust. 

“We see local journalists struggling with sources who don’t want to talk to them and a lot of myths and assumptions circulating about the business model of local newsrooms,” says Mayer. “It is time to move past these misconceptions in rural communities and promote a strong sense of pride in local news.”

The Trusting News Team believes that newsrooms need to understand the causes of user distrust before effectively taking ownership and prioritize earning back confidence in their work. At its core, Trusting News trains newsrooms to commit to standards of transparency and ethics, dedicate staff time to understanding distrust, explain the purpose, decision-making, and processes of journalism, and actively invite and respond to audience feedback and questions.

While trust is hard to measure, Trusting News is constantly engaging in research that helps news organizations better understand where mistrust stems. At Radically Rural, Mayer will share newly published insights from her most recent research. 

Trusting News invited newsrooms to talk to right-leaning readers in their own communities and was able to collect 91 in-depth interviews that share what people say about their local news and not just the media in general. Journalists who conducted those interviews now have important lessons to share and strategies to deal with that research.

Mayer, who teaches professional journalism both online for the NewsU program and at in-person seminars at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., also goes by the title of audience engagement strategist. 

She will be joined at Radically Rural by Lynn Walsh, assistant director, Trusting News; Peter Huoppi, director of multimedia at The Day of New London, Conn.; and Crystal Good, publisher/founder, Black by God – The West Virginian. 

Mayer and her panel hope to discuss ways in which local newsrooms can empower staff to engage and defend the integrity of the brand they are creating together. The discussion will include topics of race representation in the newsroom, how to work and engage more openly with the community and what it’s like to be a person of color consuming local news.  

Mayer hopes to see journalists, local news consumers, community leaders and organizers, law and policymakers, and government leaders in her audience for her session.

For more information on Radically Rural’s Community Journalism Track and its other sessions, go to www.radicallyrural.org NENPA members can register to attend online or in-person using the code NENPA for a discount.

Story contributed by Annika Kristiansen.

Pulse Research and Metro Creative Graphics, Inc. recently announced a new partnership that will offer a field-proven way to successfully close more sales presentations. 

“Local businesses want to know the shopping opportunity for their business and then how to reach them to get a larger share. The Pulse-Metro partnership provides an effective 1-2 presentation. Here’s the opportunity, and here’s a spec ad idea to reach them,” says John Marling, President at Pulse Research. 

That sentiment is echoed by Rob Zimmerman, President and CEO of Metro, as he points out, “Including a spec ad in follow-up to a Pulse presentation that shows the actual number of households planning to buy increases the close ratio dramatically.” 

The results of this new partnership are already generating excitement in test markets: An ad rep recently shared that she is achieving up to “90% closing ratios” when using the Pulse-Metro combination. 

Why is this approach so effective? The presentation from Pulse Research shows the value of the newspaper’s audience specific to the prospect/customer. The spec ads from Metro show creative ways to immediately reach and connect with those very same buyers. 

Pulse and Metro began integrating their sales and creative solutions at the behest of a few key clients in 2018. Based on direct feedback from sales reps in the field, the integration has progressed and users can now toggle back and forth between the two industry partners’ platforms with ease to quickly produce comprehensive, value-driven presentations for every customer call. 

About Pulse Research: Pulse has been serving newspapers with research and innovative sales solutions for over 36 years. Pulse Sales Tools provides prospecting, call lists, appointment support and presentations along with a great closing resource. Pulse training and certification gets new reps “ready to sell”. The Pulse of America study is the largest annual newspaper audience shopping intention survey. 

About Metro Creative Graphics, Inc.: Metro is the leading provider of advertising, creative and editorial resources designed to help media companies create, sell and profit with their print, web, social and mobile efforts. With an unparalleled dedication to providing the finest resources available for ready-to-use images, spec ads, ideas, stock-quality photos, logos/trademarks, auto manufacturer photos, marketing/sales materials, copyright-free editorial features, print and digital templated sections, and groundbreaking digital ad development tools — plus custom image, ad design and editorial services — Metro remains unmatched in serving the creative and sales needs of today’s media companies. 

Founded in 1975 by Martha Cichelli, Software Consulting Services, LLC (SCS) has been providing software solutions to publishers and publishing groups. Martha’s husband, Richard  Cichelli, joined SCS in 1983 after working for the ANPA Research Institute. 

Richard and Martha have decided, after 45 years, to retire from active participation in SCS, and  Kurt Jackson, SCS’s Vice President, and General Manager has agreed to purchase the company.  

“We are so happy to be able to turn the company over to Kurt who knows the industry so well and who will ensure that SCS continues to provide innovation and excellent service to its customers,” says Martha. 

SCS has an impressive portfolio of corporate customers that include 8 of the top 10 publishing groups in the United States as well as many community-oriented publishers. SCS also distributes FotoWare digital asset management products in the United States. 

“I’m fortunate to have worked with Richard and Martha for many years,” says Jackson, “and I  look forward to the opportunity to continue nurturing and growing the company that Richard and  Martha along with our team have built.” 

SCS will remain headquartered in its new office in Bethlehem, PA, and will continue to focus on innovative technology. “We are committed to remaining a premier tech company in the Lehigh  Valley and are excited about new products we have in the development pipeline,” states  Jackson. 

The deal is expected to close within the next 45 days. 

About SCS: 

SCS offers an extensive line of publishing-related applications, including Layout-8000™. More  than 300 sites producing over 2,000 publications in 10 countries in 5 languages use SCS  mission-critical software every day. Learn more at www.newspapersystems.com.

National Newspaper Association mourns the passing of postal guru Max Heath

The death of NNA’s Postal Chair Emeritus Max Heath, Shelbyville, Kentucky, on July 28 set off a period of mourning across the community newspaper industry.

Heath’s family told the National Newspaper Association/NNA Foundation Boards of Directors last weekend that Heath had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on July 23. His wife, Ruth Ann of Shelbyville, and son Jason of Louisville, Kentucky, were at his side as local friends stopped at a Louisville hospital to pay respects.

Heath was 75. He went into semi-retirement as NNA’s Postal Committee chair in phases during the past several years as the new Postal Team led by NNA Past President Matthew Paxton, publisher of The News-Gazette in Lexington, Virginia, and Brad Hill, CEO of Interlink, began to pick up his many duties. Heath remained as a consultant to the committee until his death.
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NNA Foundation Director Dennis Richardson passes

Dennis Richardson, owner of Magic Valley Publishing Co. and beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away suddenly and peacefully at his Camden, Tennessee, home on Monday, July 26.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 23, 1951, he was the youngest of seven children. His father was a sharecropper who provided well for his family but passed away when Dennis was 2 years old. After graduating from Joelton High School, Dennis attended the University of Tennessee at Martin where he studied engineering. He transferred to UT Knoxville, Tennessee, to study journalism, but returned to finish at UT Martin where he graduated and met his wife, Lisa Hatley.

He began his newspaper career at the Paris Post Intelligencer (PI) as sports editor. After a couple of years at the PI and a short time at the Carroll County News, he was hired as editor of the Weakley County Press in Martin, Tennessee, by Randal Benderman, who became his lifelong mentor in newspaper publishing. Dennis left the Weakley County Press and moved to Clarksville to work as a copy editor at the state’s oldest continuously publishing newspaper, the Leaf-Chronicle.
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