State Headlines

NMPA Convention

Save the Date!  Oct 25 - 27. Tamaya Resort and Spa.   

Foundation golf tournament at Twin Warriors on Thursday afternoon.  

Advertising sessions Friday afternoon.  

General sessions all day Saturday.  

Awards Banquet Saturday night.    

Vendors, silent auction, raffle prizes and more.    

Two great promotions:  Register three employees to the workshops and the fourth is free!   Bring more employees to the workshops than you did last year and be entered to win an iPad!   

Session agendas will be sent out in early September.  

** Governor Susana Martinez has been invited to be the keynote luncheon speaker.    Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center will conclude our Saturday sessions. ** 

Better Newspaper Contest   

Starting Sept. 1, online readers of Clovis Media Inc. will be asked to take a short survey to access full versions of stories.

The company that owns the Clovis News Journal, Portales News-Tribune, Quay County Sun and Cannon Connections is partnering with Google to implement a survey component on its sites.  Read more   

The city of Santa Fe and other New Mexico governing bodies cannot keep "draft documents" secret merely because they are not considered final, according to a letter issued Wednesday by the state Attorney General's Office.

Taos Town Manager Oscar Rodríguez has released to The Taos News a report detailing a violation of the Subcontractors Fair Practices Act that occurred when Silva's Excavation performed work on the town's Eco Park project.

A San Juan College Board member made allegations Tuesday, Aug. 7, that the board has been acting in violation in the Open Meetings Act. Matthew Tso voted against a plan to redistrict the voting boundaries for College Board members, and later stated it was because the board did not allow for public input on the process. Read more  

SANTA FE, N.M.-Citizens have a right to access public records kept by an independent contractor on behalf of state or local governments in New Mexico, the state Court of Appeals ruled in a decision welcomed by open government advocates.

The court's ruling is important for preserving government transparency, particularly in an era when governments are privatizing many public services, Dolph Barnhouse, a lawyer for the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government said Monday.

At issue in the case was the reach of one of New Mexico's main governmental sunshine laws, the Inspection of Public Records Act. Read more  

The national satirical-news weekly, The Onion, has ceased publication in Santa Fe.

The latest local publisher, John Clema, confirmed Thursday that the final Santa Fe edition was distributed on Aug. 2, but hinted that he is working on a way to begin publishing again.

The Portland, Ore.-based owners of the Santa Fe Reporter have purchased the Independent Weekly of Durham, N.C.

Mark Zusman and Richard Meeker, publisher and editor, respectively, of Portland's Williamette Week, acquired the Reporter in 1997 from Hope Aldrich.

Aldrich, a former writer at the Reporter, purchased the Santa Fe weekly from Richard McCord, who founded the paper with Laurel Knowles in 1974.

As the reign of terror continues at the Taos County Administrative and Judicial Complex, the latest casualty is the public's right to know.

Ever since Jacob Caldwell was axed as county manager July 10, it's been nearly impossible to get answers in a timely manner and sometimes, we're not able to get them at all.

The Taos News has made at least a dozen requests for information, often about basic county operations, some formal, some informal.

But county's staff has gone out of its way to delay or wriggle out of providing certain information that should take only minutes to produce.  Read more 

SANTA FE, N.M.-Gov. Susana Martinez has begun posting the names and salaries of classified state employees at a new online location after a judge ruled last month that she remove the names from the online New Mexico Sunshine Portal.

Martinez added the names of classified workers, their titles and salaries to the Sunshine Portal last year. That added to a previously available list of employees exempt from civil service protection.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council sued, saying the law authorizing the Sunshine Portal called only for the exempt employees to be included. Read more  

Political advertising guidelines

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.     Find the ads online at NMPA Public Notice Ads.  

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.  

Around the Industry

PRC OK's Valassis deal with USPS

Arlington, Va. - The Newspaper Association of America is stunned by the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission's decision today to approve an anti-competitive and damaging negotiated services agreement (or special contract rate) between the U.S. Postal Service and Valassis Direct Mail.

"NAA believes this decision is contrary to law, and will challenge it immediately and vigorously in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit," said NAA Chairman James M. Moroney III, CEO and publisher of The Dallas Morning News.

Prior to the decision, NAA and its members called on Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe to acknowledge the overwhelming opposition expressed by the newspaper industry and others in the mailing community during this proceeding, and urged him to withdraw this special deal that benefits only one mailer.

New training program focuses on game-changing strategies for newspaper executives and managers in partnership with Poynter

Arlington, Va. - The "Transformation Tour," presented by the American Press Institute with The Poynter Institute, kicks off this September to provide game-changing strategies for newspaper leaders to grow audience, develop content and drive revenue.

The workshops focus on seven topics critical to the success of the newspaper industry, with the first two topics in the series being offered in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C. In an effort to make the workshops easily accessible to participants, e-learning modules will be created for each topic, including videotaped sections from each session. 

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