The SNA Foundation has sponsored three NewsU e-learning modules to help editors and their newsrooms make the transition to multi-media publishing: Leading an Online Newsroom: What You Need to Know, Build and Engage Local Audiences Online and Layout Driven Editing: A Seminar Snapshot. These are FREE of charge, thanks to the SNA Foundation and a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and already over 2,000 suburban and community journalists have already taken these interactive, self paced and relevant courses — enroll today and start learning. Many editors are using the courses as training tools with staff. Learn more

By Deb Shaw

In a recent post on SNA’s editorial forum, I asked “What are some of the challenges that editors are facing when it comes to managing an online newsroom?” An editor from Maryland posted a summary of challenges that seem fairly universal:

1. Getting old print reporters to follow a 15-minute deadline.

2. Staying on top of breaking news while maintaining the integrity of the facts.

3. Competing with the blogs and local news Web sites that will throw up any old press release in minutes, while we're still on the phone trying to confirm information and build on the release.

4. We're striving, like everyone else, to find ways to keep from giving everything away when we're a paid publication. It seems like a losing battle.

Let’s go in order to discuss some of the solutions that peers have discussed in webinars, in the NewsU e-learning courses that the SNA Foundation have sponsored and in response to direct inquiries about overcoming these challenges.

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David Joyner is executive news editor for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

From a presentation by CNHI Executive News Editor David Joyner with some excellent points worth sharing and discussing.

Summarized by: Jim Santori, Publisher, The Free Press, Mankato Magazine, Minnesota Valley Business Magazine, The Land

#1 Begin with Page One.

• Basics: Do you read the paper daily? Does everyone in your newsroom? Is Page One prominent in the newsroom beside that of the local competition? Is Page One compelling, interesting, informative, satisfying?
• Lead story: Does the top story compel me to read, act or react? Do verbs reach out and pull me into the headline, then into the story? Will the headline stop me as I walk by the box?
• Lead photo: Does a dominant photo convey action or emotion?
• Why do I care? Does each story give me a clear reason to keep reading? How does it affect me? Why do I care? Imagine yourself as an average reader — your mother, your neighbor — not the editor or publisher of a local newspaper.
• Does it make sense? Do you understand the stories? Are obvious questions left unanswered? Are stories bogged down in process, government speak, jargon, clichés, acronyms?
• Non-local stories: Are they relevant? Why will readers care about that national story? Why does it matter to them?

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By Deb Shaw

In a highly anticipated recent SNA webinar about Real Estate Advertising Online, a large audience took part in the web based seminar to hear what Peter Conti of Borrell Associates had to say about the current state of real estate online ad spending, and in particular, to better understand where the market is headed as it relates to community newspapers.

Conti more than delivered — he not only provided a good basic understanding of current and forecasted online ad spending but served up a healthy dose of strategic moves that local newspaper companies should be implementing now to capture their share of the tremendous growth that’s forecasted for online advertising in general and for the real estate category in particular.

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Jon Rust, center, with Jack Robb, right, and Gareth Charter share a moment in Kansas City last week.

By Deb Shaw

Crowned with crystalline blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, Kansas City opened her arms to hundreds of media professionals last week and the embrace was strong and renewing. The spectacular weather and surrounding Country Club Plaza district with its stunning architecture and lively fountains seemed to mirror the disposition of those gathered for the SNA Fall Publishers’ and Advertising Managers’ Conference — confident, eager and bullish in their continued pursuit of leveraging the unique position that community media holds in markets across North America.

According to E&P’s Jennifer Saba, who moderated the keynote session, “I was pleasantly surprised when I landed in Kansas City earlier (last) week for the Suburban Newspapers of America annual fall publishers' conference. The mood was extremely lively — not wake-lively either. I'm not the only one who noticed. Take it from John Cribb, principal of Cribb, Greene & Associates, who surely has one of the most difficult jobs in the world as a newspaper broker. Cribb noted a change in attitude this year compared to last: Community newspaper publishers and executives have a sense of optimism that was nowhere to be found in 2008.”

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