Jim Santori

By Deb Shaw

Newsroom leaders in community and suburban media companies today are challenged to do more with less, to multi-task with multimedia, to overcome technical obstacles which often include arcane front end systems & out of date equipment, and to deal with seemingly endless hurdles be they competitive pressures, fiscal restraints, or warp speed changes in consumer expectations relative to new media. The business these days is definitely not for the faint of heart.

But, for those who have got the tenacity and willingness to position their companies to take full advantage of the audience-attracting new and emerging methods of content delivery and the inevitable economic rebound, there’s probably never been a more seminal time for true leaders to guide the way in local newsrooms.

Full Article | Comments (0)

The Millbury-Sutton Chronicle (August 6, 2009)

By Deb Shaw

Imagine buying a twenty-one year old local weekly newspaper in 2007 and then factor in the economic chaos and industry commotion that’s ensued in the interim. With the aid of hindsight and 2009 style wisdom, would you do it again? No doubt Gareth Charter would, and for very good reason. The property has seen continuous growth in both circulation and ad revenue since the new owners, Holden Landmark Corporation, took over two years ago and the future continues to look very bright indeed.

The Millbury-Sutton Chronicle in suburban Worcester, Massachusetts was previously owned by local residents Alec and Andree Belisle who were and remain very deeply rooted in the community. “They know everyone in town,” says Holden Landmark Publisher Charter who credits their deep roots and uncompromising commitment to a local, local, local mission as ingredients in the initial appeal. In fact, Alec continues to be active in the community and sits on the board of the local credit union.

Full Article | Comments (0)

Site to be launched by LocalPoint Media — owned by 19 community newspaper companies and Suburban Newspapers of America’s for-profit affiliate SNI, in partnership with Metroland Media Group

Community newspaper companies from across the United States have joined forces to launch zip2save.com, a comprehensive national aggregation site that will feature online preprints, coupons, deals, travel specials and more. The site will go live on October 1.

Full Article | Comments (0)

Innovation. Creativity. Risk Taking. Just some of the words used by the judges of the SNA 2009 Advertising & Promotion Contest when describing the entries.

“I noticed the smaller the paper, the better the concepts and the more willingness to take risks.”
Scott Brandon, Originalist President, The Brandon Agency

Full Article | Comments (0)

Rita Walters and team at their weekly sales meeting at the Peace Arch News in Surrey, British Columbia.

Maybe it is true that really great sales people are born that way. There’s a lot of debate on the issue but in the case of Rita Walters, it was definitely some innate talent that enabled her to walk into a local shopping mall many moons ago with zero sales training and walk out 3 hours later with the advertising program she and her partner designed completely sold out.

The way the story goes is that in the late 70’s, with only a basis in customer service from her stint in the banking industry, she joined forces with her new husband Bob to start up a home-buyers magazine in Calgary, Alberta. They soon decided to expand into selling coupons on the back of cash-register tapes and hubby inspired Rita to go to the local mall to sell the promotion with the promise that he would give her all the sales training she would need.

Full Article | Comments (0)