WWW.ANANEWS.COM MAY 2012

Now accepting entries for ANA contests - Don’t wait! Enter now!

The Arizona Newspapers Associa-ti on is pleased to welcome Steve But-try, Director of Community Engage-ment & Social Media for Digital First Media and Journal Register Co., as the keynote speaker for the 2012 Annual Meeti ng & Conventi on on Sept. 29, in Scott sdale.

Butt ry was named Editor of the Year

in 2010 by Editor & Publisher. He has spent more than 40 years in the news business: learning, reporti ng, edit-ing, teaching and building. Butt ry will share his insights into creati ng new revenue streams with ANA members

Get a taste of what Butt ry has to off er by reading his newspaper ideas on page 7.

In additi on to Butt ry, the team at ANA is hard at work putti ng together a great conventi on schedule that will have you screaming: “Show me the money!” Every session will focus on how newspapers can increase reveue with diff erent tools, products and ideas.

Registrati on opens soon!

Randy Litt le | Northern Kentucky University

Newspaper innovator Steve Buttry to speak at ANA convention

Entry packets for the 2012 ANA contests, including the Excellence in Adverti sing competi ti on and the Bet-ter Newspapers Contest have been mailed to publishers, editors and ad managers. The entry informati on and rules are also available online at

htt p://ananews.com/contest for your viewing pleasure.

ANA will conti nue to uti lize the htt p://bett erbnc.com online entry sys-tem, as we have the past three years.

Please direct all contest questi ons to Perri Collins at (602) 261-7655 ext.

110 or p.collins@ananews.com. The deadline for ALL entries is 4 p.m., JUNE 1, 2012.

The awards presentati on will take place at the 2012 Annual Meeti ng and Fall Conventi on, Sept. 29, 2012 at Chaparral Suites in Scott sdale, Ariz.

Page 2 | May 2012 ■ ANAgrams

Educational events always a crowd-pleaserIn November 2011, the Arizona Capi-

tol Times launched the Capitol Road Show, an effort to engage people out-side Maricopa County in state politics and the legislative process.

The idea for the Capitol Road Show came about from a brainstorming ses-sion about the annual Citizen Govern-ment Guide, a guide to civic participa-tion in state and local government that highlights Arizonans serving in appointed positions on state regula-tory boards, commissions and agencies. “We have been producing it for a long time and thought it was getting a little stale. We wanted to perk it up a bit and add content that would help the public learn more about the legislative process and get involved,” said Times publisher Ginger Lamb.

Then someone tossed out an idea for the Capitol Road Show and everyone liked it. “It seemed like a natural for us to share knowledge about what hap-pens at the Capitol and take our prod-ucts on the road across the state to gain awareness,” said Lamb. “We wanted to create statewide collaboration amongst those who are most interested and an entry portal for those wanting to get more involved,” she said.

The events are held in cities and towns around the state, and feature panels of local elected officials and staff and community members discuss-

ing various aspects of government. Recent topics have included: How a bill becomes a law, how the state budget process unfolds and the latest on the redistricting plans.

Between 40-75 people attend each of these events, with some of them sub-scribing to the printed paper and many subscribing online.

“Events are a great way to increase your revenue, reach a different audi-ence and expand your brand in the marketplace. Our audience in print, online and at events overlaps to some

extent but the events always bring new people to us,” said Lamb.

The Arizona Capitol Times plans to continue this event as long as possible: “As long as groups contact us to come visit their communities”, said Lamb. And as long as sponsors like Centu-ryLink and Hardsale Communications are willing to participate.

While none of the other Dolan papers doing anything similar yet, they have been following the Times’ success with great interest.

At a time when almost anyone can publish information online and call it news, communities continue to embrace traditional media outlets as the #1 source of local information. But as tech-nology and news consump-tion habits change, news-papers must adapt to new model of revenue if they want to thrive in the digital age.

Enter multiple revenue streams.

Even in a good economy, it makes no

sense to put all your eggs in one basket. To ensure the success of your business,

you must diversify. Accord-ing to the Pew 2012 State of the Media report, the most successful (and therefore sus-tainable) sites are those with a range of revenue streams.

Make no mistake: adver-tising is no longer the only potential revenue stream. In Arizona, several newspa-

pers are tapping into new (and old!) streams. This entire issue of ANAgrams

is full of ideas newspapers can use to drive traffic, increase revenue and build community.

A lot has been written and said about the decline of newspaper industry, most of it negative. Make those fools eat their words. Start experimenting with new revenue concepts now.

Perri Collins is the communications manager at the Arizona Newspapers Association. She is always interested in finding out what new and creative strategies local media organizations are using to build buzz and make money.

Newspapers must diversify

May 2012 ■ ANAgrams | Page 3

Losin’ it for your communityLast year, Wickenburg Sun Assistant

Editor Janet DelTufo had had enough with feeling sluggish and out-of-shape. When a friend recommended that she watch The Biggest Loser on TV to stay motivated, she got an idea. And got a whole town motivated.

The Biggest Loser Wickenburg 2011 was a community sponsored weight loss contest that started with one journalist and spread to the local news-paper and then throughout the com-munity.

“I was so inspired by what I had seen and I had heard about other companies doing their own Biggest Loser contests, so I decided that a community-wide contest would be good for Wicken-burg,” said DelTufo. She approached Publisher Kevin Cloe with the idea and he was excited about getting the com-munity involved. Soon, the entire staff of the Wickenburg Sun was partici-pating. The newspaper held its own company-wide contest in conjunction with the larger community-wide one.

DelTufo challenged residents with one question: Can Wickenburg lose a ton? Contestants provided a waiver from doctor that allows them to par-ticipate and each participant received memberships to the Wickenburg Community Hospital Fitness Center. Everyone in the readership area of The Wickenburg Sun was invited to apply to enter the contest.

The contest lasted 20 weeks, through all the major food holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The news-paper sales department went to local businesses to drum up prizes and every week stories appeared in the paper, giving updates and encouraging the community to join in.

Wickenburg Sun Editor Tamara Thomas said in a January column in the paper, “Anytime a good idea … has such a positive life-changing impact on so many, it deserves a great deal of recognition.”

The total recorded weight loss in

the 20-week period was 1,287 pounds between 109 people.

Bonus: After the Wickenburg Sun’s corporate headquarters got wind of the contest, it began devel-oping a well-ness program for its western U.S. properties. Wellness programs can return as much as six times their cost to companies that sponsor them, according to Harvard Business Review (December 2010).

But is Wickenburg ready for round two? The contest was so successful,

the Biggest Loser Wickenburg will be starting another challenge again this summer that will run through Dec. 27.

“I will be getting after them again this year,” said DelTufo.

While the Wickenburg Sun did not see

a large increase in revenue from this venture, it mobilized its community on an issue and affected positive change, a service the newspaper has been provid-ing to the community since 1934.

What community issues and events does your news organization support?

“Anytime a good idea … has such a positive life-changing

impact on so many, it deserves a great deal of recognition.”

-- Tamara Thomas

Page 4 | May 2012 ■ ANAgrams

Let’s make a dealThe Payson Roundup’s parent

company began rolling out deal programs in most of their newspapers last year. The Roundup officially launched http://paysondealz.com in November and has been very successful at creating a new revenue stream.

The Pew research Center reports that daily deals accounted for 5% of US newspapers’ overall digital revenue in 2011. And there is plenty of room for growth. Only one in six (16.7%) con-sumers use daily deal sites, according to a 2011 study by Cornell University.

Newspapers can compete with giant sites like Groupon and Living Social because they have something these companies don’t: large local audiences that are still used to turning to newspa-pers for coupons, and a sales force with established local relationships.

There has been so much demand in Payson, they are considering chang-ing from a weekly deal (one deal every seven days) to a new deal every three days.

The deal arrangements are specific. Deals must be compel-ling: At least 50% off or more.

The Payson Roundup stands 100% behind each deal and will buy back a customer’s deal if they are not satisfied. However, only one person has requested a refund since the program started.

All sales personnel have been trained on the deal program, so they can answer questions and sell it, but in the beginning, “It was good to have one person on the ground, pitching it to lo-cal businesses,” said Davis.

In addition to its own website, PaysonDealz.com, the deal is also promoted in a quarter-page ad in the Tuesday and Friday issues, online on payson.com and paysonmarketplace.com, as well as twice per week by email

and on Facebook.“Getting a valid, work-

able email list is the key,” said Davis.

“It’s the most important aspect of this whole process.” Davis recom-

mends collecting email address by hold-

ing drawings for prizes (donated by advertisers) at local events.

“With this program, we’ve been able to generate much-needed funds,” said Payson Roundup advertising represen-tative Bobby Davis.

Things to remember when starting a deals program:- Educate businesses on what to expect

when they place a deal with your paper

- Market the deal online AND in print- Building an email list is key- Work with a reputable daily deals

vendors

Three easy ways to spice up banner adsA significant number of bloggers are making good money

from the advertising on their blogs. About 30 percent of bloggers make more than $500 per month from their blogs, according to ProBlogger. How much is your newspaper mak-ing from the advertising on its website? Maybe it’s time to spice up those banner ads. Here are three ways to do just that.

1. Why just place an ad? Why not save readers some mon-ey by offering a coupon to a local establishment? Tie it in to a print coupon and you’ve just double-teamed your readers.

2. Add a map. Are you trying to drive consumers to local retails stores and restaurants? Why not add a simple interac-tive map to your ads? You can add a map using flash, or even an HTML link to a Google map, or use a service like sponge-cell.com to add functionality.

3. Add a calendar tool. Is your newspaper into event mar-keting? Do you frequent advertise community events? What about a banner ad that instantly add the event to a reader’s Google calendar with one click? This would be ideal for pro-moting special sales, festivals and workshops.

“Getting a valid, workable

email list is the key.”

May 2012 ■ ANAgrams | Page 5

The original location-based serviceDuring the housing boom of the early

2000s, Yuma realtors could not fi nd a good map in the community to use to show prospecti ve home buyers where to look for homes. The maps they did fi nd were plasti c and hard to write on. But then the local newspaper came up with a soluti on.

The Yuma Sun has been printi ng maps of the Yuma area for almost a decade. It began with the Yuma area, but they now also print maps of the sand dunes, the Colorado River and Algodones, Mexico.

“We’ve sold maps like crazy,” said Yuma Sun publisher Joni Brooks.

The Sun teamed up with other orga-nizati ons such as the State of California waterways department, the BLM and Metro Maps to build on their previ-ous work. They sold adverti sing space to local businesses, let their graphics department create an appealing design

and made the maps available for free to residents and visitors alike at hotels, the visitors bureau, the chamber of commerce, RV parks and other local businesses, including – you guessed it! – real estate offi ces.

The response from the community has been positi ve. “As a result of seeing our river map, we had a river commu-nity approach us to print a map of their subdivision,” said Yuma Sun Adverti sing Director Lisa Reilly.

While other organizati ons already print maps in Yuma, the Yuma Sun’s maps have really hit home within the community. They’ve gone through 30,000 copies of the river map this year alone and the city of Yuma maps have been very popular with winter visitors.

And more maps are coming. In ad-diti on to the new voti ng districts and mall maps, the Yuma Sun gets many requests for hiking maps and plans on including them in its Outdoors maga-zine in the fall.

Revenue from maps exceeded $28,000 and plans to fi nalize a map website are in the works.

The devil’s in the detailsIt’s exciti ng to see Arizona newspa-

pers stepping up to the digital plate and learning about the diff erent off erings at each newspaper.

However, it’s the litt le things that can trip you up someti mes.

For example, what good is sending out a weekly newslett er or community calendar, if it doesn’t link back to your site? Everything you send to customers and potenti al customers must provide value for them AND for your newspa-per. If it’s not building relati onships, branding your publicati on, driving traf-fi c or building revenue, then what is the purpose? Sure, everyone gets excited about the next big thing, but whether it’s interacti ve ads or Pintrest you must have a plan before you jump in..

Stop just throwing money at a solu-ti on. Western News&Info Digital Direc-tor Richard Haddad believes in develop-ing realisti c, sustainable plans.

When Western began contemplati ng an upgrade to their digital properti es, Haddad decided to take the budget elsewhere. Instead of toying with mi-

cropayment and paywall systems, the Western team improved their e-invoice and easy pay systems to make it simple and hassle-free for customers to renew subscripti ons.

“We didn’t pour money into apps, but we did make our newspaper sites as mobile-friendly as possible,” he said.

Western is not the only Arizona chain staying close to their roots. In early 2011, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers released their fi rst community guide: a 6”x9’ full gloss full color booklet loaded with informati on about the community, including informati on on city services, demographics, city parks, city council bios, uti lity informati on, voter precincts and informati on, school informati on, church info, civic and community or-ganizati on info, and a calendar with a year’s worth of events.

It was distributed to all new residents in the newspaper’s zip code, with a single copy of the Casa Grande Dispatch and a subscripti on form.

The simple guide was successful among adverti sers, brought in read-

ers and welcomed new residents by informing them where to fi nd the best news source in town. Casa Grande has now added this guide to their lineup of annual products.

Another example: If you’re promoti ng content with a QR code, make sure that the landing page the code is linked to is mobile-friendly. What good is it to cre-ate this fabulous additi onal content if it takes 20 minutes for the page to load on a smartphone and then the user dis-covers they can’t see it anyway because it’s all fl ash-based?

Easy of use is very important when dealing with digital. That’s one reason why sites like Craigslist and Drudge Re-port gets so many visitors: They’re easy for people to manuever and fi nd infor-mati on. Don’t make visitors struggle to get what they need. Give them what the want and what they need quickly and simply, and watch they conti nue to turn to your products for the latest local news.

And don’t forget: The devil’s in the details!

Page 6 | May 2012 ■ ANAgrams

15 favorite tips for a profitable websiteGary Sosniecki owned three weekly

newspapers and published a small daily in Missouri during a 34-year newspaper career. He currently is a regional sales manager for Townnews.com specializ-ing in weekly newspapers.

Sosniecki gives you his 15 favorite tips for a profitable website:

1. Believe in your site. Enthusiasm is contagious. With a positive attitude and a solid plan, you’re halfway home.

2. Protect your franchise. If you don’t take the lead on the Internet in your town, someone else will. Anyone you’ve ticked off with a news story – or anyone who thinks you’re making too much money – can start a website in competition with you for a few hundred dollars. And national news aggregators like Topix, American Towns and others already have Web sites in your town, maybe even using your own news to compete with you.

3. Know your market. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all technology. Just because something worked for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. Be flexible, be creative, and don’t be afraid to experiment with your website.

4. Bigger is better: Use IAB ad sizes. If you sold ads in the 1980s, you re-member when newspapers adopted Standard Advertising Units (SAU) to make it easier for advertisers to place ads in multiple newspapers. The same standardization in ad sizes has come to online, with the same goal. And the ad sizes recommended by the Interac-tive Advertising Bureau are bigger than what were common on newspaper Web sites a decade ago. The bigger sizes are more effective for your advertisers.

5. If you want to sell online ads, keep enough free content to lure readers. To paraphrase a speaker I heard a couple of years ago, if you’re going to hook readers, have some bait on that hook. And if you’re going to hook advertisers,

you need some readers. If you insist on locking down your site, don’t lock down so much that you invite free competitors.

6. Make them click it. Impressions are good, clickthrus are better. Top-of-mind awareness is great, but when a reader clicks on a banner ad, it’s like walking through the front door of the advertiser’s business. Create that “urge

to click” in your banner ads. Best example I’ve seen was for a car dealer in Alberta: “Shop in your underwear! Search our site now.” Irresist-ible!

7. Appeal to young deci-sion-makers. They “get it.” Sometimes you’re selling to young people who, unfor-tunately, don’t believe in

newspapers as much as we do. Make sure you ask about online.

8. Sell after the sale. Online traffic reports reinforce to your advertiser how smart he or she is for buying with you. They also make you look like the Internet expert in your community. Make sure your advertisers get online traffic reports monthly.

9. Monitor performance. Tweak before the customer tells you to. If the advertiser isn’t getting acceptable traf-fic – see No. 8 – change the ad. Online stats give you an opportunity you never had in print – to see how many people read each ad. Take advantage of that knowledge to help your advertisers succeed.

10. Complement your newspaper, don’t compete with it. You can dupli-cate some content safely with minimal impact on your print circulation, but also use your site for supplemental material: extra photos of school events, news releases from the extension ser-vice, video clips from basketball games, columns from your state legislators, sermons from local preachers. Which brings me to…

11. Keep it current. News updates generate more traffic, which helps your

advertisers. Breaking news is what sets your website apart from your print product. Even the smallest weekly newspaper, with minimal effort, can post some breaking news between print editions to keep readers com-ing back: death notices, school sports, extreme weather, school closings, boil orders, election results. Make your weekly paper a daily paper online.

12. Be the “You Tube” of your town. Credit this tip to the Grand Island Independent’s Jack Sheard, who gave a great presentation on online video at the 2008 National Newspaper Associa-tion convention. Jack’s suggestions for video subjects include news events, weather, sports, press conferences, band concerts, graduations, parades, festivals and other school events.

13. Think outside the box, even if we don’t know the size of the Internet box yet. Who is to say that the next great idea for making money with newspaper websites won’t come from you?

14. Promote, promote, promote. Never miss a chance to promote your website in your newspaper, and vice versa. Keep a supply of ready-made house ads – from 1x1 fillers to full-page road maps of your site’s features – and run them frequently. Include your do-main in folio lines, Yellow Page ads and billboards. The Advance-Monticellonian in Monticello, Ark., displays its website on a big-screen TV visible to customers who visit its office.

15. You paid for it, use it. Don’t waste the features built into your site. I hate when newspapers don’t use their online poll. A good local poll question, changed every week, is a great way to build traffic to your site. If you can’t think of a poll question, use this one courtesy of David Keller of the Morgan County Herald, McConnelsville, Ohio: “Coke” or “Pepsi.” Here’s another: “Gin-ger” or “Mary Ann.”

Sosniecki conducts programs and workshops on community newspapers and the Internet. He may be reached at gsosniecki@townnews.com.

May 2012 ■ ANAgrams | Page 7

Newspapers don’t need new ideas; here are lots of ideas for new revenue streamsSteve Buttry’s blog post (below), origi-nally dated April 29 2011, was reprinted with permission.

Alan Mutter documents the no-longer-surprising fact that newspaper advertising revenues continued to fall for the 20th straight quarter in the first three months of 2011.

This decline comes at a time when the economy has been grow-ing for nearly two years, turning around declines in broadcast, magazine and online advertising. Mutter closes: “Clearly, newspapers need new ideas. They need to develop a broad array of targeted content and advertis-ing solutions to serve diverse audiences across the web, mobile and social media.”

Actually, newspapers don’t need new ideas. They need to unshackle themselves from their old advertising-and-circulation model and start serious pursuit of the dozens of ideas already presented for developing new revenue sources. Here are some ideas (not all mine and not new here, but not yet in wide use, at least by newspaper com-panies):

Develop the must-have driving app for your community. I first outlined this idea two years ago in my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection. I am not aware that any news organiza-tion has tried it yet. Mutter notes that the newspaper ad decline has been most severe in automobile advertising, falling from $5 billion in 2004 to $1.1 billion last year. Auto manufacturers and dealers have built better tools than the newspaper want ads section for selling cars.

Buying a car is a job most people need help with only every few years. It was an easy job to disrupt. But driv-ing is a task many of us do daily, and it presents abundant opportunity. Com-munity news organizations are well-positioned to offer one place where

drivers can compare gas prices, buy in-surance, find parking spaces, check the traffic, get emergency service, schedule maintenance, rent a car and download coupons for tires and service. And if you develop that app that drivers can use daily, it may also be the best vehicle for advertising auto sales.

Offer commissioned life stories instead of formulaic obitu-aries. I proposed this last summer and I am not aware of anyone who is trying it. You start with obituaries, but this model can expand to life stories about the living, occasioned by weddings, anniversaries, retirements or huge egos. I have fleshed

out the idea into a business plan, but have not published it yet. Anyone who’s interested can email me: stephenbut-try@gmail.com.

Daily deals. Newspapers are belat-edly getting into the daily deal game. This is a classic case of an opportunity missed because of newspapers’ re-lentless focus on declining forms of revenue. It will be interesting to see how newspapers’ efforts work here. Groupon and Living Social are far ahead in developing this opportunity, though I think we are early in the history of daily deals.

Direct transactions. This will be more challenging than daily deals, because it will require developing ways to fulfill orders and interface with business customers’ inventory systems. But I believe community businesses are more interested over the long haul in selling their merchandise and services regularly than in the huge discounts and brief spikes involved in daily deals. The rewards here will be worth the time and money it will take to meet the challenges.

Newspaper executives like to talk about the difficulty of shifting from the dollars they used to get in print adver-tising for the dimes they can charge

for online ads. While I like John Paton’s answer (“start stacking the dimes”), I think we should pursue the possibilities of stacking digital dollars (sometimes hundred-dollar bills) through direct transactions. Sawbuck and MediaOne are plays by media companies to trade in the declining revenue stream of real estate advertising for an actual piece of real estate transactions by becoming a licensed real estate broker.

Quality Consignment, the Ogden Standard-Examiner’s thrift shop is an-other example of how newspapers can trade up, exchanging the dimes of tra-ditional classified ads for second-hand appliances for the dollars of selling the merchandise directly. If you don’t want to get in the consignment business, maybe you trade up by partnering with a local consignment shop that probably does little, if any, advertising anyway.

As I noted in the C3 sections on wed-dings, births, retirements and gradua-tions, gift registries can become potent channels for direct transactions (not to mention reservations for celebration venues and lodging for out-of-town guests).

Local search. Some news organiza-tions are making headway here. But every community news organization should offer a directory that offers businesses without websites (amaz-ingly, still a lot of businesses) a de facto website with a multi-faceted entry in your directory, offering photos, videos, coupons, menus, maps, user reviews, reservations, direct-sales and archival content about the business. Even for many businesses with websites, this can offer a better place to showcase their products and services, and a place that will show up higher in search re-sults. That’s the key to mastering local search. Don’t think of it as taking on Google, though you will develop a place where some people will turn first when they are searching for local answers

Continued on page 8

Page 8 | May 2012 ■ ANAgrams

and businesses. But if you do it right, your listings will also show up high when people search in Google or other search engines.

Calendars. Again from C3, I think newspapers have been woefully slow to develop the digital possibilities of calendar information that they have always gathered (I counted 11 calen-dars once in a weekly newspaper). Calendars can be standalone websites or a dynamic part of your news site. They should offer direct transactions: buy tickets for a concert, movie or athletic event or register for a class. Multiple vendors offer calendar pos-sibilities. Or you can develop your own, as The Oklahoman did with Wimgo, the best calendar I’ve seen with newspaper roots (it’s expanded nationally from its Oklahoma City start).

Social media. Community news organizations can help local merchants develop social connections in the com-munity. News websites using ads (check out the possibilities offered by Now-Spots) that feature social media con-tent can offer more meaningful ads to businesses — timely, easily updated ads that build a business customer’s social media connections.

Blog networks. One of my biggest disappointments in the TBD experi-ence is that we did not pursue the full possibilities of selling ads (and coupons, deals, direct transactions and other commercial possibilities) through a net-work of local blogs and sites. Someone is going to demonstrate the rewards in such a network.

Mobile applications. As I’ve noted before, newspapers have a long his-tory of helping businesses make ads. The smallest newspapers I worked for routinely made up “spec” ads for local merchants who were better at baking bread or selling tires than they were at making ads. A news organization today needs a strong mobile app. Once you have developed that ability (whether the ability is on your staff or with a

contractor or a vendor such as Verve Wireless), you have a valuable service you can offer to businesses, helping them develop and market their own mobile apps.

Mobile apps and websites offer other possibilities for media companies. Can you partner with local businesses and individuals who develop apps, selling ads on their apps and helping them promote the apps? Can you help provide members of your local blog network with apps or better mobile sites and sell ads and coupons on their apps and sites?

Location. I think location-based ads, coupons and transactions present tremendous opportunities. Community news companies may be in the best position to develop those possibilities. Or they may watch someone else beat them to another revenue stream.

Data. Dan Conover does an excellent job of describing the possibilities of finding revenue streams from structur-ing our content better as data through the use of a semantic content manage-ment system (no, it’s not developed yet; you could hire Dan and develop another revenue stream by selling your SCMS to other media companies).

Memberships. Steve Outing is ex-ploring the potential of membership models for news organizations. See more at http://testkitchen.colorado.edu/2010/10/should-we-give-news-membership-models-a-chance/.

Community funding. I love the Spot.us model of seeking community funding for specific stories pitched by freelancers. Could a news organiza-tion apply that approach to funding of entire beats that are not attractive to advertisers but are essential to the community? If you’ve cut back on your sports staff, perhaps you could use community funding to restore coverage of particular teams.

Direct content sales. I am not op-posed to news organizations selling their content. I just think it’s futile to demand pay for digital news content. But if you produce quality content,

some people will want to buy that con-tent in high-value forms. Most news-papers get a small but steady revenue stream from the sales of photographs their staff shoots at high school sports contests and other community events. But they typically publish only a small minority of images that staff photogra-phers shoot. What if you posted all (or nearly all) of your unedited photos (and raw video), along with do-it-yourself tools parents (and others) could use to order prints, posters, DVDs, t-shirts and other merchandise?

Related products. Newspapers are pretty good at producing and market-ing books and t-shirts relating to big news events (when I was at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, we produced a book about the 2008 flood and t-shirts of our front page the morning after the 2008 election). But we can do a better job of offering individual or small lots of t-shirts, books, DVDs and the like. Texts from Last Night offers the oppor-tunity to order a t-shirt of any of the funny texts it publishes. Newspapers could offer custom t-shirts of any front page, story, headline or quote, from either the newspaper or the website. They could offer limited-edition books or DVDs with coverage of a local high school team’s sports season. You could set a price and a minimum order num-ber and not produce the book unless it will make money.

Archives. I suspect the small fees that most newspapers collect by charging for access to their archives could be exceeded by opening (and promoting) archives, with advertising by targeted topics and keywords and DIY tools for people to create booklets, DVDs, post-ers, t-shirts and other merchandise showing your archives.

Steve Buttry is Director of Community Engagement & Social Media at Jour-nal Register Co. & Digital First Media. He continues to speak on journalism and consult media organizations. He has worked in the news business since 1971.

Continued from page 7Buttry: Newspaper ideas

May 2012 ■ ANAgrams | Page 9

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Several big circulation gainers charge for online access, almost none of losers doSteve Myers, Poynter

New figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that nationally, daily circulation was up .68 percent for digital and print at the 618 papers reporting; Sunday circula-tion was up 5 percent at the 532 papers reporting. But some papers did better than that, and some did worse.

Three of the five newspapers that posted the largest percentage gains in Sunday circulation now charge for online access (The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times and Newsday), while four of the five with the largest drops do not, and one, the Los Angeles Times, only started to charge in March.

When looking at daily circulation, two of the five papers that gained the most charge (The New York Times and News-day), while none of the five biggest losers do. See table:

Paywalls are on the horizon at more papers. Gannett, which owns the Detroit Free-Press, is planning to charge for online access to all its sites except USA Today. MediaPost reported in February that the Chicago Tribune is planning to charge for online access in some way; some other Tribune websites now charge.

NetNewsCheck noted that The Seattle Times recently said that its main and mobile website would remain free “for the time being.” MediaNews put up paywalls at some of its sites in August, but not at The Denver Post.

The Washington Post, however, has not demonstrated any interest in charging for online access, “not in the short term, and maybe never, if I read the tea leaves correctly,” wrote Post Ombudsman Patrick Pexton in March. Warren Buffett,

News organization % circ gain/loss Digital pay planNew York Times +73.05% Daily YesOrange County Register +53.48% Daily NoNewsday +33.21% Daily YesDenver Post +23.43% Daily NoNewark Star-Ledger +21.67% Daily NoDallas Morning News +87.38% Sunday YesHouston Chronicle +55.95% Sunday NoNew York Times +49.56% Sunday YesSan Antonio Express-News +38.67% Sunday NoNewsday +36.77% Sunday YesWashington Post -7.84% Daily NoSeattle Times -6.63% Daily NoDetroit Free Press -6.27% Daily NoPhiladelphia Inquirer -5.36% Daily NoChicago Tribune -5.17% Daily PlannedWashington Post -15.66% Sunday NoCleveland Plain Dealer -.46% Sunday NoSeattle Times -.12% Sunday NoChicago Tribune -.1% Sunday PlannedLos Angeles Times +.41% Sunday Yes

whose Berkshire Hathaway holds Post stock, disagrees with that approach, saying in February, “You shouldn’t be giving away a product that you’re trying to sell.”

Page 10 | May 2012 ■ ANAgrams

The truth about postal reformBy Reed Anfinson, president of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of the Swift County (MN) Monitor-News

Now that US Senate has passed a bill, S 1789, to reform the ailing US Postal Ser-vice, critics are trying to disable the bill on its way to the House of Representa-tives. Business Week recently catalogued unhappy stakeholders, including postal unions, postal management and some Republicans who wrongly think the bill burdens taxpayers.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, whose own bill awaits action in the House, blasted “special interests.” But Business Week says, “Considering how many people are unhappy with the bill, it isn’t clear which special interests Issa is referring to.”

Some see Senate bill as the inevitable product of the sausage machine. But it is neither a budget buster nor processed meat. It is the expression of a better vi-sion of the Postal Service.

If you consider that survival of the service means maintaining the circulatory system for a $1.1 trillion mailing indus-try - or in other words, making sure cash, greeting cards, packages and newspapers and magazines arrive on time, the Senate bill is good medicine.

Consider some of the alternative fixes. Issa’s bill would let USPS immediately

end Saturday mail, close half the mail processing centers and thousands of post offices, and put a new board of political appointees in charge. The new board would be expected to trim workers’ benefits and maybe wages, and direct the Postmaster General to favor profit over service.

At the other extreme might be Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who wanted to keep everything open. Labor unions back-ing him say that USPS will heal as the economy heals. Then there is the White House’s notion: to raise postage rates.

For Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Joe Lieberman, I-CT, neither extreme is suited to long-term survival of USPS.

To many experts, Issa’s approach is like-ly to frighten away businesses that mail. The Lieberman-Collins bill agrees that USPS needs a more flexible, less costly workforce. It keeps mail flowing through

today’s network while cost-cutting is underway. For example, they would end Saturday mail delivery in two years, but only if USPS has taken other big steps to-ward financial viability. They would allow the closing of postal plants now, if USPS preserves local mail delivery speed.

Is their bill the product of compromise, or of a different vision?

Consider:--The Postal Service’s plant-closing

plan is based on a desire to amass more mail at automated urban centers, where costly machines sit idle much of the day. To optimize machines, USPS would haul mail much farther. But the hauling would slow the mailstream, particularly in small towns and rural areas that are far from mail plants and create a set of second-class citizens who would get and send mail more slowly than urban dwellers. It would also hamper smaller communities’ quests for economic development.

- Many Americans say they wouldn’t miss Saturday mail. But USPS builds its system around senders, not receivers. Who would be hurt by a 5-day delivery regime? Anyone who depends on timely mail delivery. Shutting down the system two days a week—three when Monday holidays occur—would create delay, ac-cording to the Postal Regulatory Com-mission. Then there are those who need prescriptions delivered when they are at home; small-town citizens who get the newspaper by mail and businesses need-ing 6-day cash flows.

- Closing small post offices seems a no-brainer to city dwellers who spot those one-room POs at the roadside on the way to the beach. Surely not all are needed. But rather than closing them entirely, USPS could have circuit-rider postmasters to open them a few hours a day. That is affordable if worker benefits are brought into line with the private sector. For those communities, a circuit rider could con-tinue their links to the world.

- The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate bill would cost $33.6 billion, adding to the federal deficit. But postage-

payers, not taxpayers, carry that burden. Taxpayers face a liability as the funder-of-last resort only if postage revenues dry up - which is more likely to happen if the mail slows to a crawl.

Finally, members of Congress may dif-fer on how they see USPS. Is it a corpora-tion? Is it a government agency respon-sible for binding the nation together?

Fact: it is a Government-Sponsored Enterprise or GSE, more like Fannie Mae than like IBM or the Defense Department. It has to use business tools, but carry out a public mission. And it has enormous power in the marketplace. Consider, for example, its new Every Door Direct Mail program, which directly competes with many private businesses. Members of Congress who mistakenly see postal reform as an exercise in deregulating a company may actually unleash a power-ful federal agency, while those who look to raising postage so generous worker benefits can continue could pull the plug on the economic engine that keeps jobs alive.

It isn’t compromise that is needed, but a clear-eyed vision based on a full understanding of the needs of all whom the Postal Service serves. Postal man-agement today has an impossible task, expected to accomplish business goals without the cost-controlling tools busi-nesses have, and expected to achieve government ends without federal sup-port. Congress owns this confusion. Only Congress can fix it and it will continue to need to fine-tune its solutions as commu-nications cultures change. No bill passed today will avoid the need for legislation in the future. Neither “deregulating” it nor hiking rates will get USPS to stability. Nor will abrupt and disruptive approaches to labor costs.

Senators Collins and Lieberman, along with co-sponsors Tom Carper, D-DE, and Scott Brown, R-MA, have devoted endless hours to understanding the challenge and to crafting the next steps toward fixing it. Their approach deserves considerably more respect than it is getting.

THE DETAILS:Friday, May 18. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.Walter Cronkite School of Journalism555 N. Central Ave.Phoenix, Ariz., 85004

THE COST:$20 for SPJ or ONA members / $40 for non-members(Registration fee includes breakfast and lunch.)

THE WORKSHOPS:Entrepreneurial JournalismEntrepreneurship. It’s a term once used for business-minded go-getters. Until relatively recently, its attachment to journalism has been relatively non-existent, especially to front-line reporters. In the new and emerging journal-ism economy, everything is up for grabs. Universities are teaching entrepreneurial journalism. Books, such as Mark Briggs’ of the same name, are being written. What does it all mean? Where does every journalist, from the up-and-com-ing student to the seasoned newsroom manager, fit in this new field? Hear from one journalist turned innovator and entrepreneur who’s been leading the charge in this expand-ing space.Trainer: Retha Hill, Arizona State University

SEO, Google and YouSearch Engine Optimization may come off as a dirty word full of sinister page view-trolling connotations. But it’s a necessary tool all journalists in an online age should know how to use. So, too, should journalists be aware of the free tools — many from Google — at their disposal to help in the reporting, gathering and presentation of news. Learn what techniques and tools to immediately incorporate into your work.Trainer: Daniel Petty, Denver Post

Visual StorytellingVisual storytelling is no longer reserved for those who just work in television. Working on the Web means journalists in all media need to find creative ways to provide information to their audiences. We’ll show you how you can use pictures to tell your story, even if none are (obviously) available.Trainer: Victoria Lim, freelancer

From Their Grubbies to the Web: How to Acquire Govern-ment Data and Post it OnlineThis session will teach you how to get data out of govern-ment agencies, clean it up, then post it on your website as a table, chart or map using free, simple Google Fusion Tables. It’s so easy most house cats can do it! You’ll learn the right lingo to use in dealing with agencies, tips for finding data-bases, and how to provide the information to the public in a visual, interesting and ethical manner.Trainer: David Cuillier, SPJ FOI Trainer, University of Arizona

Social Media as a Reporting ToolPinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, Google Plus, Quora. Social networks sprout by the minute, but which ones should you focus on, and how can you use them to find news, crowdsource information and generate leads? We’ll give you ideas for how to curate information, what you should consider in the verification process and how to publish it all, with specific case studies.Trainer: Daniel Petty, Denver Post

Mobile Newsgathering: Why the Smartphone is the Most Important Journalistic Innovation Since the Reporter’s NotebookYou’ll learn the basics of how to use hand-held devices as a journalistic tool. With the help of social media, apps and some gear, you’ll immerse yourself in the best practices for reporting, editing and sharing stories to any media platform with your smart phone.Trainer: Deb Wenger, SPJ Newsroom Trainer, University of Mississippi

Copyright for the Copycat Age: What Every Journalist, Newsroom Manager and Publisher Needs to Know About Legality, Privacy and Copyright LawsFair use. Copyright. Trademark. Invasion of privacy. Do you know what these terms actually mean? Sure, every jour-nalist, publisher and station owner does in theory, but in practice do you know how the laws governing use of images, content and other creative materials really affect your work? In the age of online journalism and digital/social media, how are the legal rules of the road changing?Trainer: Gregg Leslie, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

SPJ-ONA JournCampMay 18, 2012 | Phoenix, Ariz.

ANA CalendarMay 11-12 NFOIC 2012 FOI Summit, Madison, WisconsinMay 14-18 “Unlocking Financial Statements” webinar, Reynolds Center, freeMay 17 ANA board meetingMay 18 SPJ-ONA JournCamp, Cronkite School, PhoenixMay 18-19 “Revenue Camp for Journalism Entrepreneurs” webinar, PoynterMay 19 Arizona Press Club Awards Reception, The Duce, PhoenixMay 24 “Defining your role in Newspaper 2.0” webinar, Online Media CampusMay 28 Memorial Day-ANA offices closedJune Watch for details on upcoming classified webinars from Janet DeGeorge this summerJune 1 ANA 2012 contest deadlineJune 12 ”Passive third-party revenue streams for your website” webinar, Inland Press AssociationJune 14 “Using smart push messaging to engage readers after app download” webinar, Inland Press AssociationJune 26-28 “Economics 101 for journalists” webinar, Reynolds Center, freeJune 30 Social Media Day, District American Kitchen, PhoenixJuly 4 Independence Day-ANA office closedJuly 5 ANA Bowl KICKOFFJuly 10 “Finding local stories in BLS data” webinar, Reynolds Center, freeAug 1-4 Unity, Las VegasAug 13 “Telling great stories” webinar, Reynolds Center, freeAug 15 Notification of ANA contest winnersAug 16 ANA board meetingSept 3 Labor Day-ANA office closedSept 20-22 National Association of Press Women annual conference, PhoenixSept 27-29 Arizona Interscholastic Press Association annual conferenceSept 28 ANA board meetingSept 29 ANA Annual Meeting and Fall Convention ANA Excellence in Advertising and Better Newspapers Contest awards receptionOct 4 National Newspaper Association annual conference, Charleston, South CarolinaOct 30 Cronkite Luncheon, PhoenixNov 22 Thanksgiving-ANA offices closedDec 25 Christmas-ANA offices closed

Looking for more webinars? Check out the ANA training calendar at:

http://ananews.com/calendar