State Headlines

Public Notice promotion 

Thanks to Maria Lopez Garcia and the Rio Grande SUN we have new promotional ads letting the public know they now have several options to find notices: in print, the NMPA website, sunshineportlanm.com and now newmexico.gov.   The state websites do not upload our content, they only provide a link to the existing website.  Please run the ads as space permits.  Not only does it let the public know where to find these notices, it will also be instrumental in the upcoming legislative session to make legislators aware of how the newspaper industry has made these notices accessible and a clear message to any outside interests that have thoughts of creating new public notice websites that newspapers already have that covered.   No other medium can deliver public notices to the public in print and online like newspapers can.  Session begins January 17th thank you for helping to spread the message.    Find the ads online at NMPA Public Notice Ads.  

These numbers were disseminated recently by Mort Goldstrom, VP for advertising at the Newspaper Association of America.

Here are numbers we should be presenting to our advertisers.  It is hard to argue with a number like $25.8 billion spent by advertisers in US newspapers in 2010 during a down economy.  Several positive facts to dispute doom and gloom and negative reports that we find printed in our own pages on an all too often basis.       

Newspapers by the numbers:

102 million: The number of American adults who read a newspaper in print or online every Wednesday.

112 million: The number of unique visitors to newspaper websites in August 2011.

57%:  The percent of 18-24 year olds who read a newspaper in print or online in the past week.

$25.8 billion: The amount spent by advertisers in US newspapers in 2010.

7 in 10: The number of adults reading a newspaper in print or online in the past week.

$10 billion: The amount of consumers spent on buying newspapers in 2010.

$3 billion: The amount of web ad revenue recorded by newspapers in 2010.

19 million:  The number of adults who accessed newspaper content on their smartphones or tablets in a typical month.

79%:   Percentage of all American adults who took action on a newspaper ad in the past 30 days.

77:  The number of newspapers with apps for tablets.   

One family came to Clovis from Arizona to care for sick parents, and medical expenses wiped out their savings. Another family is uncertain if their place of employment may be closing.

The ending points are all the same for about 300 families. They're coming to the Salvation Army because they need help making Christmas a special time.

Every day until Christmas, a local family in need of assistance for the holidays will be profiled in the CNJ and PNT. Donations will be accepted through the end of the year, but, to aid in distribution, Co-Officer Rachel Gallop said the Salvation Army is asking clothing or toy donations be made by Dec. 16.   

The Clovis News Journal and Portales News-Tribune sponsor the Empty Stocking Fund and will continue to accept donations until the end of the year.  Read more   

ANNOUNCING THE NEW MEXICO PRESS WOMEN

2012 EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATIONS CONTEST

New Mexico Press Women (NMPW) invites entries for the 2012 Communications Contest, recognizing excellence in print or electronic media, books, photography, advertising, public relations, graphic arts, blogs/websites, and academic journalism throughout New Mexico. You don't have to be a member of NMPW to participate in this open competition.

The contest is meant to improve professional skills with critiques from judges and by rewarding communications that are skillfully executed, well directed to their target audience, and achieve their objectives.

Entries must be postmarked by Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. To be eligible, the work must have been distributed, published or broadcast between Jan. 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.

The National Newspaper Association is working to preserve essential postal delivery, so that its member newspapers may continue distributing their publications in a timely manner through the U.S. Postal Service. NNA sent a letter to its members Dec. 7.  Read the letter 

Webinar Training

There are a series of upcoming webinar training sessions offered through Inland Press.   NMPA members are afforded special member prices through co-sponsorship of these convient training sessions.  Please take a look at the upcoming topics on the left hand side of this newsletter.   Clicking on the title will bring you to the registration page and provide additional information.  

Industry News

Around the Industry

In $2.5 Million Judgment, Court Finds Blogger Is Not a Journalist

Academics and Web thinkers have spent a lot of time jawboning about whether a blogger fits the definition of a journalist. It's an endless discussion, but this week in Oregon, the debate turned costly for one blogger.

Although the defendant is a self-proclaimed "investigative blogger" and defines herself as "media," the record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the law.  Read more   

Lee Enterprises files for bankruptcy

Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, filed for prepackaged bankruptcy early today in an effort to refinance about $1 billion in debt. 

The bankruptcy was expected. Two weeks ago, the Davenport, Iowa-based publisher announced it would file for bankruptcy "on or about Dec. 12" as part of a debt refinancing plan it had successfully negotiated with creditors.  Read more

Survey: Readers prefer community paper for news

COLUMBIA, MO-Readers in areas served by community newspapers continue to prefer the community newspaper as their source of local news and advertising, according to the 2011 results of an annual survey conducted by he National Newspaper Association and the research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. The survey is in its sixth year. Following consistent trends, the study shows that 74 percent of people in communities served by a newspaper with circulations under 15,000 read a local newspaper each week. They prefer the printed copy to the online version, with 48 percent saying they never read the local news online. Read more    

SNA Changes Name to Local Media Association

After forty years, Suburban Newspapers of America is changing its name. Local Media Association was recommended by a committee (including the SNA board of directors and the SNA marketing committee) that represented nearly 30 member companies. It was an intense five month process that included an enormous amount of healthy debate. The membership received ballots on December 1 and when the voting ended today, the motion had carried. In fact, SNA members supported the name change by a ratio of 5:1.  Read more     

Major Media Companies Launch Common Online Shopping Platform

A consortium of eight leading media and publishing companies -- Advance Digital, A. H. Belo Corporation, Cox Media Group, Gannett Co., Inc., Hearst Corporation, MediaNews Group, The McClatchy Company, and The Washington Post Co. --  announced the formation of a joint venture in connection with the launch of a common online shopping platform to help advertisers reach consumers making purchasing decisions.  Read more 

Mobile traffic to newspaper websites increases 65 percent in past year

Newspaper publishers increased page views to their mobile content by 65 percent on average in September compared to the same month one year ago, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Many newspapers reported triple-digit page view increases to their mobile sites and apps, demonstrating that newspaper content remains a leading choice for consumers across their multiplatform offerings. Read more   

Google launched a news-reading app called Currents on Thursday, something it has been working on for some time - ever since it was a much-rumored skunkworks project called Propeller - and much of the coverage of the new app has called it a challenger to existing tablet and iPhone news-readers like Flipboard and Zite. But while Google Currents is superficially similar to these other services, there are some important differences that make me wonder whether Google really understands how media has changed and is changing. For a company that's usually so forward-thinking, Currents as it stands now is more than a little disappointing.   

The Naked Retweet Dilemma  

Twitter is causing new headaches for journalists. This time, it's over the question of whether and how reporters should retweet information and links to their followers.  Those two little RT letters seem fairly innocuous. Twitter's help center has a wide scope for guidelines on why to retweet:  Read more   

GateHouse Media Launches Private Exchange

The group of publishers launching private online ad exchanges is getting bigger, with this week's addition of GateHouse Media, which owns hundreds of local daily and weekly newspapers around the country, along with their associated Web sites.

Access to the private exchange, powered by Casale Media's real-time bidding technology and management platform, is restricted to a small group of agency trading desks and demand side platforms at launch.

The new Private Exchange is only open to buyers selected by GateHouse and Casale, allowing the publisher to ensure that only suitable brand advertisers gain access to its online inventory.  Read more  

Warren Buffett Buys 'Omaha World-Herald' Newspaper  

Another sizeable metropolitan daily newspaper has changed hands this week, with the acquisition of the Omaha World-Herald Company, publisher of The World-Herald, by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the investment company founded by billionaire investor and Omaha native Warren Buffett.

The purchase price of $200 million included $150 million in cash and the assumption of $50 million in debt by Berkshire Hathaway, according to Buffett, who provided details of the deal in an interview with The World-Herald. The deal also gives Berkshire Hathaway possession of a handful of daily and weekly newspapers located in smaller towns around Nebraska and Iowa.

Study finds frequent newspaper readers are more trusting

A study out of Washington State University shows that people who are frequent readers of a daily newspaper tend to be more trusting of others than those who read newspapers less frequently. The effect holds for both residents of small towns and big cities, even though researchers found small town residents are more trusting in general than city dwellers.  It underscores the importance of newspapers in their communities. By reinforcing feelings of trust, the researchers said, newspapers can help make communities better places to live. When people trust each other, they are more likely to work together to improve their communities. Read more      

Send updates of new hires, promotions, retirements, memorials, etc to  director@nmpress.org.  We will print the news in this section each month.