SNA recently conducted an audience development webinar designed to provide members with information they can use immediately to grow circulation revenue while reducing operational costs.

Steve Wagenlander, director of audience development at the Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina was the one and only speaker on this webinar and boy did he deliver. Wagenlander is a true industry professional with experience in every facet of circulation. The more than 100 people who registered for this webinar were glued to their computers for almost 90-minutes while Wagenlander covered everything from distribution methods to internal reporting.

Full Article | Comments (0)

After much anticipation, SNA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Editorial Contest. Newspapers from across North America responded to our call, submitting their best and brightest work. Judged by the Journalism Department faculty of Loyola University Chicago, School of Communication, this year's contest heralded magnificent results.

Taking the lead with the most winning entries among companies is Metroland Media Group Ltd. with a whopping 93 winners. They are followed by Journal Register Company with 71 and Black Press with 55. Rounding out the company leader board is Lee Enterprises, Inc. with 35, GateHouse Media, Inc. with 25, American Community Newspapers II, LLC with 20, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. with 19, Consumers News Service, ThisWeek Community Newspapers also with 19, Holden Landmark Corporation with 15 awards, The World Company with 13 and Southern Newspapers, Inc. with 11 awards.

Full Article | Comments (0)

Even amidst a bad economy, newspapers will benefit in 2010 from the housing meltdown.

By Tanya Henderson
Advertising & Membership Relations Director, SNA

Someone once said that during tough times a bar will still do business; people celebrate when times are good and commiserate when they are bad. That’s kind of the thing that’s happening with real estate advertising in newspapers in 2010.

As the frenzy of home buying has come to a screeching halt, newspapers will still see a decent increase from 2009 (16%) and surprisingly, online overall will be down 4% while local online will be going up. So how is this happening?

Full Article | Comments (0)

Lessons on how to become innovative

By Deb Shaw
Editor, Suburban Publisher

If there was an overriding theme in the lessons taught by Mark Briggs at the SNA Foundation’s first webinar of the New Year it was that, in order for innovation to be practiced at any company, people need to stop planning and start doing.

To illustrate his point, Briggs described a friend who now works as Chief Tech Officer at a local startup in the Seattle area but who had previously worked in a corporate environment in which he managed hundreds. In his former corporate life, the friend tells Briggs that he spent about 80% of his time planning and about 20% doing; in sharp contrast, at the startup company where he now works, he spends only about 5% of his time planning and 95% doing. Marked difference. Old thinking/new thinking; old normal/new normal; legacy company/startup company. There are lessons here folks.

When Briggs took center stage in mid-January to lead the Innovation At Work: An Introduction webinar, he attracted quite an audience — both in quantity and diversity — which speaks volumes about the desire among suburban and community media company staffers to further their practices and thinking when it comes to breaking new ground at their legacy newspaper companies. Briggs’ webinar attracted almost 140 registrants and virtually every job title was represented. Publishers, editors, web managers, ad sales account execs and managers, audience development supervisors, market research folks and more — you name it and that registration list had it. Another testament to the appeal of this topic among local media types.

Full Article | Comments (0)