The deadline for Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) to be considered for American Journalism Project grants in 2021 is July 12th.
For the rest of this year, AJP is prioritizing providing growth capital to local nonprofit news organizations with a viable plan to dramatically increase the scale of their organizations in pursuit of meeting their communities’ information needs. Organizations seeking grants must have the vision and ambition to grow significantly to become a primary source of local original reporting for their communities. (We recognize that what “primary source” means will vary depending on the local news ecosystem; it can be a collaborative vision, and it must ultimately be rooted in growing to meet the currently unmet critical information needs of the diverse communities in the geographies served.) We are currently prioritizing organizations serving or seeking to serve regions that are either an entire state or a large population area.
Please take a look at our site for more information about our grantmaking criteria, and for the link to our LOI form.
Pulse Research recently launched the next wave of the Pulse of America Shopping intent research survey to help support your sales team and local businesses. It’s an easy, no-cost opportunity for NENPA members to quickly acquire localized next 12-month audience shopping data for over 550 business categories.
Your sales team will use the new shopping information to successfully prospect, secure more appointments and generate far more revenue!
We have recorded a short presentation by Sammy Papert, who has represented Pulse in New England for many years, In it, he goes over how the survey works, how to promote it, the type of shopping data you will have access to for your sales teams, and answer some frequently asked questions.
Respondents will share their intent to purchase across 12 MONTHS. As state-after-state opens up this will provide valuable guidance to customers and prospects and allow newspapers to more easily talk about annual commitments.
All respondents can enter a contest once completing the survey to have a chance to win $5,000. You read that right!
Sending an email works best, followed by an intercept or pop-up, social media posts, and ads in paper and online.
Newspapers that are interested in capturing their own sample will have a unique URL assigned for local respondents. Something like https://www.pulsepoll.com/marketname.
Once the survey is completed Pulse will provide current localized results and send you the survey findings. The results will give your sales team information to connect with prospects and advertisers with information for and about their businesses.
Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., re-introduced the Local Journalism Sustainability Act for the 117th Congress, a bipartisan bill that seeks to help local newspapers sustain financial viability through a series of three tax credits.
The New England Newspaper and Press Association, along with America’s Newspapers and other organizations around the country, supports the passage of this legislation.
“Local journalism is a bedrock pillar of communities across the United States,” said Rep. Kirkpatrick. “Unfortunately, journalistic endeavors throughout the country face major economic struggles that put the future of many publications in serious jeopardy. These struggles existed before COVID, but the pandemic only made them more severe. We need to make sure these publications can sustain themselves through this crisis and beyond, and I believe the credits in this bill make significant progress in providing a pathway to that sustainability.”
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act offers a series of three tax credits aimed at sustaining and providing a pathway to viability for the local journalism industry in the years to come. The first credit works to incentivize annual subscriptions to local papers that primarily produce content related to local news and current events and can also be used for non-profit publications. The second credit is a five-year credit for local newspapers to employ and adequately compensate journalists. The last of the three credits is a five-year tax credit that incentivizes small businesses to advertise with local newspapers, as well as local radio and television stations. You can learn more about the credits HERE.
The proposed credits in the Local Journalism Sustainability Act will encourage Americans to subscribe to local publications, help those publications retain and compensate journalists, and provide businesses and publications alike with much-needed advertising dollars.
Free Editorial and Editorial Cartoon Available For Reprint
This editorial column by Dean Ridings, CEO, America’s Newspapers is being made available to members of NENPA, and other press associations for reprint.
Download and reprint this editorial and editorial cartoon to support the passage of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act!
We need your effort and focus in educating our federal representatives on this matter now. As a leader of your organization, please call your local representatives (US House and Senate) and let them know of the serious challenge facing your newspaper and local journalism and that we need their leadership by co-sponsoring this bill. We are seeking 100 co-sponsors from across this country and political ideology.
Educate your readers through local editorials on the tenants of this act, and why supporting local journalism and the ecosystem that serves it will only enhance the place they call home. An editorial and editorial cartoon are available for reprint from America’s Newspapers (see links below).
Let us know the response you get from your representatives.
Thank you, in advance, for your good work on behalf of the newspaper industry!
The Google News Initiative (GNI), in partnership with the Local Media Consortium (LMC), announced the publication of the GNI Advertising Revenue Playbook, a comprehensive guide for small and midsize news organizations on how to successfully monetize web content and grow digital advertising revenue. This is one of the pillars of GNI’s Digital Growth Program, which also includes audience development, reader revenue, data and product.
The playbook is designed to instruct both publishers who do not yet have a digital advertising business or would like to better understand the basics of programmatic advertising and those who already have a digital advertising business but are looking for ways to improve their strategies or gain new insights to improve revenue. Through its six chapters, the playbook provides an in-depth and step-by-step look at the basics of digital advertising, improving audience engagement and website performance, developing sales solutions, building an advertising team and managing ad campaigns.
Along with the release of the playbook, GNI and the LMC will be hosting a series of free workshops that align with the playbook’s content. Starting on June 1, the workshops will feature experts from GNI, the LMC, and other digital media speakers and consist of four sessions during the month of June. Anyone interested in attending the free workshops can register here.
Our life record has always been on display in some fashion — if someone had the time and skills to pore through official files in the county courthouse or newspaper archives.
This column expresses the views of Gene Policinski, senior fellow for the First Amendment, Freedom Forum.He can be reached at gpolicinski@freedomforum.org, or follow him on Twitter at @genefac.
The digital era has made more information about more people available more easily than ever before. A recent search for “how easy is it to search a person’s history?” turned up 114 million hits on how to find criminal histories, financial information and any mention in the news.
There’s an undeniable lure to the idea of erasing from public view an embarrassing moment, a long-ago minor crime or a past accusation later dropped or cleared.
Now a growing number of news outlets are also aiming to right past wrongs or acknowledge that the original reasons to publish had ranged from casual indifference to habit to outright racial bias.
RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN
“Whether we recognized it or not, we played a role in holding back those who tried to move on from their mistakes,” the Bangor (Maine) Daily News posted about its “right to be forgotten” policy, one of many now offering avenues to essentially “unpublish” identifying information, news reports or photos.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution program is reportedly aimed mostly at people whose official records have been legally expunged. The Boston Globe “Fresh Start” policy includes updating past coverage and changing how accessible stories are in search engines. Among items that could be wiped: Minor crimes long in the past, as well as stories and photos “that involve potentially embarrassing, non-criminal behavior.”
Stories remain on the Bangor news site, searchable only there — not on Google or other outside search engines. “Wherever possible, we will remove the original social media posts promoting the stories. In other words, the average person doing a Google search will not find out you were arrested for marijuana possession at a gravel pit party in 2004.”
RIGHTING PAST WRONGS
Some newsrooms have noted that with crime stories, prejudice and bias — at news organizations and in the criminal justice system — produced thousands of stories over the years unfairly focused on people of color and the poor. The Globe editors said, “The movement for racial justice has touched every part of society, including our newsroom, and we see this as a step we can take to improve what we do.”
WHERE IT GETS COMPLICATED
If there are good reasons for news outlets to consider “fresh start” programs, there are good reasons to be cautious too.
There are the close calls: What to do with people who took plea deals — declaring their guilt in a court — given that plea offers are many times rife with underlying racial bias and social and economic pressures? Can non-judicial organizations properly determine what took place perhaps decades earlier?
Then there is the clearly established fact that many of us already don’t trust a free press to tell the truth. Inevitably, skeptics will see removal of past negative information as further evidence of a suspect relationship with truth. Without public support, the First Amendment protections for that press can be decimated by lawmakers eager to dispense with critics and watchdogs.
More: You Can’t Have Democracy Without a Free Press
These new policies could instead do more to restore public confidence in the press by openly declaring the criteria for reviewing requests, making the decision process a transparent one and having a diverse panel or group make a final decision.
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow Deborah L. Dwyer and an advisory group have developed a website to assist newsrooms with addressing past practices, managing current “unpublishing” requests and setting polices for the future. More than 50 news operation policies are noted on the site.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Perhaps the best course is to acknowledge the failings, whatever the cause, of journalism that reflected the bias of the times, while doing a better job going forward — not just reporting the immediate elements of crime, but the aftermath: Was the arrest dropped, was a conviction obtained or, as we have seen in the new attention being paid to police-related violence, are there patterns in enforcement that insult justice or support it?
As Globe Senior Assistant Managing Editor Greg Lee Jr., in an April discussion sponsored by the Reynolds Institute and the News Leaders Association, said, “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make the right decision based on a case by case and making sure that anyone who’s involved is treated properly.”
John Celestino, an accomplished newspaper executive, has been appointed publisher of the North of Boston Media Group of eight newspapers, effective immediately.
John Celestino, Publisher, North of Boston Media Group
Celestino has worked in the newspaper business for more than three decades, including 14 years with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News in advertising as a sales representative and executive.
The North of Boston Media Group includes The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, The Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times, The Newburyport Daily News, Andover Townsman and The Haverhill Gazette in Massachusetts. It also operates the Derry News and the Carriage Towne News in New Hampshire.
“I’m thrilled and honored to be entrusted with the proud tradition of the local journalism these newspapers and their related magazines represent,” said Celestino. “The group has some of the most talented people in the business and together we can build on their foundation of excellence.”
Jim Falzone, the group’s general manager, said he is pleased Celestino has joined the North of Boston Media Group, bringing rich experience in newspaper management, advertising, marketing and audience growth.
“John’s broad knowledge of print and digital will add to our strong management team as we respond to the changes in the newspaper business and move smartly forward in serving our communities with content they want and need, both online and in print,” said Falzone.
Celestino comes to the group as publisher of three New York dailies: The Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, the Niagara Gazette and the Plattsburgh Press-Republican. He will continue to oversee those papers as a regional publisher for CNHI, LLC, parent owner of the publications and the North of Boston Media Group.
In addition to his experience at the Philadelphia newspapers, Celestino spent more than 12 years at The Press of Atlantic City in circulation, audience development and advertising executive positions. He also served briefly as business development director for Brainworks Software, an advertising software company, before joining CNHI in 2017.
He is a graduate of Temple University, with a degree in communications and advertising.
“North of Boston is one of the top opportunity markets in New England,” said Celestino. ”We will be unrelenting in informing the communities with news they value and in helping businesses succeed.” The North of Boston MediaGroup are all CNHI newspapers. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, CNHI is a leading provider of local news and information, offering a wide array of print and digital products in more than 130 communities in 23 states. For more information about CNHI, please visit www.cnhi.com.
Editors at New England Newspaper & Press Association member publications are invited and encouraged to apply for a $500 stipend for one of their 2021 summer interns.
There are two stipends available this year and they are awarded to aspiring community journalists in honor of former New England Press Association Executive Director Bob Wallack.
If you would like NENPA to consider your intern for this special award, please submit a letter that briefly outlines:
Your intern’s background and aspirations
The type of experience you’ll be providing for him/her in the coming months
The level of contribution that you expect the intern to make at your newspaper this summer
Why you believe this intern merits this special compensation. (In other words, will the money be well spent on this student?)
Please submit your nomination by Wednesday, June 30, 2021, to Linda Conway, l.conway@nenpa.com, use the subject line Summer Intern Stipend.
About the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Fund
Bob Wallack
Longtime New England journalist and former New England Press Association Executive Director Bob Wallack died in January 2014 after a brief illness at the age of 63.
Bob’s career in community journalism spanned over four decades, and took him to three different New England states. He worked for a variety of daily and weekly community newspapers in positions ranging from reporter, general manager and publisher. He also served as Executive Director of the New England Press Association during the 1990s.
Former colleagues of Bob’s have launched a fund in his memory that will support both community journalism and young people in our industry — two of Bob’s lifelong passions. In addition to this stipend for interns, NENPA bestows an annual Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award, recognizing a New England newspaper man or woman for exemplary community journalism. Previous recipients include Steve Damish of The Enterprise in Brockton, Mass.; Thor Jourgensen of The Daily Item in Lynn, Mass.; Stanley Moulton of the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Mass.; Ray Duckler of the Concord (NH) Monitor; John Flowers of the Addison Independent in Middlebury, VT and Edward W. Forry of the Dorchester Reporter, Dorchester, MA.
The American Press Institute, in partnership with New England Newspaper & Press Association, has developed a survey to benchmark digital subscriber retention practices among publishers.
Are you interested in comparing your subscriber retention strategies to those of other publishers? When you participate in this survey, you’ll be able to compare your responses with other organizations in New England (and nationally) to discover which tactics and strategies are being used most frequently. You will learn innovative ways other publishers are using to engage and retain subscribers, members, and donors.
In this questionnaire, we are inquiring about your news organization’s strategies and tactics used for retaining and lessening the churn of your digital subscribers. The survey should take approximately 10-12 minutes to complete. Your responses will be valuable in several ways:
We will combine your responses with those of many other news publishers to produce benchmarking that you can learn from and use to measure your own operations against.
We can privately evaluate your responses to offer feedback or assistance (if requested) to improve these strategies.
The results will also help ongoing American Press Institute projects that focus on retention.
Newspapers of New England, Inc., a family-owned news organization with publications serving readers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, recently announced a series of leadership changes.
Current NNE president and CEO Aaron Julien will move into the role of chairman. He replaces longtime NNE chairman John Kuhns, who is retiring. Chuck Goodrich will assume Julien’s role. Meanwhile, Dan McClory is being promoted from chief financial officer to chief operating officer of NNE. McClory will maintain his role as publisher of the Valley News.
“By adjusting responsibilities and spreading the work out, we can spend more time and attention on finding new funding solutions while also managing daily operations – without increasing management staffing,” Julien wrote in a company-wide message. ”This past year has been our toughest ever, but the fact is we’re in good shape thanks to your hard work, as well as the difficult choices we made to ensure our long-term success.”
Goodrich has spent 35 years in the newspaper industry, primarily at dailies and weeklies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He served as president and CEO for a division of Community Newspaper Company in Massachusetts and was a longtime publisher and senior executive for its successor companies. “I”m excited to join the talented team at NNE and look forward to building on what has been accomplished,” he said.
For the rest of this year, AJP is prioritizing providing growth capital to local nonprofit news organizations with a viable plan to dramatically increase the scale of their organizations in pursuit of meeting their communities’ information needs. Organizations seeking grants must have the vision and ambition to grow significantly to become a primary source of local original reporting for their communities. (We recognize that what “primary source” means will vary depending on the local news ecosystem; it can be a collaborative vision, and it must ultimately be rooted in growing to meet the currently unmet critical information needs of the diverse communities in the geographies served.) We are currently prioritizing organizations serving or seeking to serve regions that are either an entire state or a large population area.
Perspective: What to know about ‘unpublishing’ policies
Who wouldn’t want to get a “fresh start?”
Our life record has always been on display in some fashion — if someone had the time and skills to pore through official files in the county courthouse or newspaper archives.
The digital era has made more information about more people available more easily than ever before. A recent search for “how easy is it to search a person’s history?” turned up 114 million hits on how to find criminal histories, financial information and any mention in the news.
There’s an undeniable lure to the idea of erasing from public view an embarrassing moment, a long-ago minor crime or a past accusation later dropped or cleared.
Now a growing number of news outlets are also aiming to right past wrongs or acknowledge that the original reasons to publish had ranged from casual indifference to habit to outright racial bias.
RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN
“Whether we recognized it or not, we played a role in holding back those who tried to move on from their mistakes,” the Bangor (Maine) Daily News posted about its “right to be forgotten” policy, one of many now offering avenues to essentially “unpublish” identifying information, news reports or photos.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution program is reportedly aimed mostly at people whose official records have been legally expunged. The Boston Globe “Fresh Start” policy includes updating past coverage and changing how accessible stories are in search engines. Among items that could be wiped: Minor crimes long in the past, as well as stories and photos “that involve potentially embarrassing, non-criminal behavior.”
Stories remain on the Bangor news site, searchable only there — not on Google or other outside search engines. “Wherever possible, we will remove the original social media posts promoting the stories. In other words, the average person doing a Google search will not find out you were arrested for marijuana possession at a gravel pit party in 2004.”
RIGHTING PAST WRONGS
Some newsrooms have noted that with crime stories, prejudice and bias — at news organizations and in the criminal justice system — produced thousands of stories over the years unfairly focused on people of color and the poor. The Globe editors said, “The movement for racial justice has touched every part of society, including our newsroom, and we see this as a step we can take to improve what we do.”
WHERE IT GETS COMPLICATED
If there are good reasons for news outlets to consider “fresh start” programs, there are good reasons to be cautious too.
There are the close calls: What to do with people who took plea deals — declaring their guilt in a court — given that plea offers are many times rife with underlying racial bias and social and economic pressures? Can non-judicial organizations properly determine what took place perhaps decades earlier?
Then there is the clearly established fact that many of us already don’t trust a free press to tell the truth. Inevitably, skeptics will see removal of past negative information as further evidence of a suspect relationship with truth. Without public support, the First Amendment protections for that press can be decimated by lawmakers eager to dispense with critics and watchdogs.
More: You Can’t Have Democracy Without a Free Press
These new policies could instead do more to restore public confidence in the press by openly declaring the criteria for reviewing requests, making the decision process a transparent one and having a diverse panel or group make a final decision.
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow Deborah L. Dwyer and an advisory group have developed a website to assist newsrooms with addressing past practices, managing current “unpublishing” requests and setting polices for the future. More than 50 news operation policies are noted on the site.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Perhaps the best course is to acknowledge the failings, whatever the cause, of journalism that reflected the bias of the times, while doing a better job going forward — not just reporting the immediate elements of crime, but the aftermath: Was the arrest dropped, was a conviction obtained or, as we have seen in the new attention being paid to police-related violence, are there patterns in enforcement that insult justice or support it?
As Globe Senior Assistant Managing Editor Greg Lee Jr., in an April discussion sponsored by the Reynolds Institute and the News Leaders Association, said, “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make the right decision based on a case by case and making sure that anyone who’s involved is treated properly.”
You can reach Gene Policinski at gpolicinski@freedomforum.org.