The Society of Professional Journalists has partnered with experienced Black and LGBT journalists and educators, including the newly formed Trans Journalists Association, to launch a free race and gender hotline.

The hotline will offer fast answers for uncertain or confused journalists. You’ll speak to Black and LGBT experts who are getting paid for their time. But you don’t pay them. SPJ does.

You will gain confidential and nonjudgmental advice for your specific reporting situation in a calm conversation about controversial topics. This is a business transaction, no different than consulting a First Amendment attorney on a story.

Even if you choose not to follow that advice, you’ll hang up with an enlightened grasp of the race-and-gender issues currently in the news media. And whatever happens on your call, it’s all off the record.

Contact SPJ Race and Gender Hotline

Pulse has launched the second wave of their Covid-19 Impact Survey to help determine the impact of the pandemic on local shopping intentions. It’s not too late for NENPA members to participate for free and gather their own data and use it to drive revenue.

On Sept. 10 Sammy Papert from Pulse told NENPA, “It’s not too late we will keep the survey open for another month. That’ll give us time to process the data and have it on all client sites early in October for the Fall selling season. The only cost is pixels and paper. Everyone will get a copy of the relevant state or regional data; and, we have 30+ clients working to get their sample. We’re glad to help anyone do that!”

Pulse hopes the survey results will help address some of the business uncertainty. Giving local businesses, newspapers, and sales teams a better understanding of the next few months.

It’s simple to participate and Pulse provides the promotional materials. Invite your readers and website visitors to participate in the survey through ads in print, online, through any email news products and social media. Get a minimum sample to the survey, so that Pulse can verify promotion and you are on your way. Once the survey is completed Pulse will send you the survey results.

Pulse provides incentives for your audience to respond. They will award $1,000 to one respondent of the entire survey and promotion materials emphasize that responses are completely confidential.

To participate contact Papert at, (214) 505 – 6420 or spapert@sbcglobal.net.

Find out more information

The digital advertising world changes quickly. Is your sales team up to speed on the latest selling strategies?

Join America’s Newspapers beginning September 16 for a special four-part sales training program developed specifically for sales managers and their teams.

These sessions are free to America’s Newspapers members, NENPA, and other state press association members.

Each one-hour session will focus on a selling skill to compete in today’s competitive environment and provides the perfect opportunity for managers to engage with their team members and coach them to improve their digital sales knowledge and grow revenue.

Presented by Charity Huff, CEO of January Spring, and additional successful sales leaders.

Four Training Modules:

Jump Start Sales – Building Your Pipeline
September 16, 11 am CDT / Noon EDT

Pricing, Packaging and the Value of ROI
September 30, 11 am CDT / Noon EDT

Show, Don’t Tell – The Power of the Case Study
October 14, 11 am CDT / Noon EDT

Audience, Audience, Audience
October 28, 11 am CDT / Noon EDT

By registering, you’re eligible for all four sales training modules.

REGISTER NOW

It’s recommended that you attend the training live to get the full benefit of the sessions and have the opportunity to ask questions. However, the training sessions will be recorded and available for viewing after the sessions are complete.

For registration questions, please contact Patty Slusher, director of programming, America’s Newspapers, at 847-282-9850, ext. 102 or pslusher@newspapers.org.

Editor & Publisher is looking to honor a news publisher who has risen above the rest and accomplished what seems like the impossible, outmaneuvering the competition and outthinking the future while maintaining profitability.

Nominate a deserving New England publisher to join the ranks of 2014 Publisher of the Year, Karen Andreas, Regional Publisher, North of Boston Media Group.

E&P is seeking your assistance in recognizing a leader with business acumen, technical savvy, and a deep understanding of what needs to be done to stay successful, along with the fortitude and tenacity to implement change.

The deadline for nomination is September 21, 2020.

Nominate a deserving New England publisher today!

NENPA U was fortunate to have Peter Lamb present a sales management best practices webinar on August 20, geared towards publishers, revenue officers, and ad directors.

Lamb, president of Lamb Consulting, is a strategy consultant specializing in media companies. He draws on his years of experience working with and advising publishers, sales managers, and reps around the world to share what the best sales managers do every day to guarantee their success.

In the session, Lamb explores some of the most commonly asked questions from sales managers around the world:
– What should my Monday morning meeting format be?
– How much time should I spend in the field?
– Should I close the sale for the rep? Let them sink?
– What contests should I use?
– How do I build a winning team?
– What is the MODEL week for me?

He gives some great ideas and success stories of what the new revenue opportunities are that are working today despite all of the changes from the coronavirus pandemic. Lamb also explores the methodology of new products, and earning revenue from niche products.

According to Lamb, the goal of his consulting practice is “to utilize the sophisticated strategic marketing principles and techniques, learned while doing my MBA at Harvard Business School, meshing them with a hands-on sales approach, to generate new revenue streams for publications and websites. ROI is achieved by focusing on NEW-NEW revenue … from customers that have never used our products before in print or online.”

Peter Lamb can be reached at lambps@aol.com.

On August 25 Adam Clayton Powell III, Executive Director, USC Election Security and Information Project, and John Voket, Associate Editor, The Newtown Bee, presented a webinar for NENPA University about the content of the USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative.

The initiative is a new non-partisan independent project, supported by Google, to provide tools and information to protect U.S. campaigns and elections from cyber attacks. The project is conducting cybersecurity workshops in all 50 states.

The tools and information provided by the project to defend and respond to potential cyber attacks apply to many businesses and people in the public eye – including all media companies and their reporters, editors, and on-air personalities that are at risk for cyber attacks to spread disinformation and misinformation.

These sessions are essential for journalists and anyone involved in elections and campaigns: staffers, candidates, state parties, and state and local election workers. They are designed to educate people in campaigns and elections about best practices to protect and defend against cyber attacks.

The content includes three areas of election security:
– Cyber Safety & Security
– Disinformation and Misinformation
– Crisis Communication

Download Presentation and Resources