june 2012 colorado editor

legislative roundupweighty issue

colorado Inside: Silverton newspaper gets its historic marker. PAGE 2

Official publication of the Colorado Press Association / coloradopressassociation.com / Vol. LXXXIII, No. 6 June 2012

editor

LEADVILLE on page 8

POSTAL on page 4 SESSION on page 6

INNOVATION on page 4

In a continuing effort to gain addi-tional insight into positioning Colorado newspapers to compete in the digital age, the Colorado Press Association Board showed tremendous foresight with eyes on the future by deciding to send me to the 2012 West Coast Inno-vation Mission, a training opportunity through the Local Media Foundation.

The mission included visits to some of the world’s most successful technol-ogy companies and media houses. The agenda exposed me to some of the best and most innovative minds in media and technology.

The following are points I believe most relevant to the CPA membership and Colorado media outlets:

• Social media and digital innova-tion strategies are key to engaging readers, driving future revenue and maintaining audience. Travis Mayfield, director of digital social strategy at Fisher Interactive Network (@travis-mayfield) in Seattle, encouraged our organizations to allow each individual within a newspaper company to al-low their own personalities to shine through on Facebook and Twitter.

Social media training is a drumbeat, according to Mayfield, and it isn’t for everyone. Allow employees to play in the space where they are comfortable, but help them develop their voice and

gather a following.

By Claire Martin The Denver Post

LEADVILLE — People in this scrappy mountain town are delighted to be a little less substantial than they were in January — 2,357.2 pounds less substantial, to be precise.

Nearly 200 people initially signed up in January when the Leadville Her-ald Democrat, the local newspaper, announced it was sponsoring Get the Lead Out, a community weight-loss challenge. The competition founder, Herald Democrat advertising direc-tor Karen Rinehart, was stunned at the response.

“We were hoping for 60 people,” she said.

Instead, 196 people, all in teams of four or more, registered for the 16-week competition. The mayor and his wife signed up, along with the city clerk and three members of the City Council. Teachers from the lo-cal schools formed teams. In a town where Anglos and Latinos often self-segregate, Get the Lead Out drew people from both communities.

The 2012 Colorado General As-sembly session began with a unified bipartisan message of the need to jumpstart Colorado’s economy and create jobs and ended with nasty partisan rhetoric over a failed mea-sure to recognize civil unions and the first special session since 2006.

The fact that Colorado’s legis-lature was under split control with Democrats holding a 20-15 advan-tage in the Senate while the House was under a narrow 33-32 Repub-lican majority created both a tense election year environment and an ef-fective checks and balance system. A variety of proposals that were closely identified with one party passed the first house only to be quickly dis-patched in the other body.

Improved revenues allowed for a relatively non-contentious budget process. The legislature was able to restore the senior property tax ex-emption and maintain state support to local school districts at the cur-rent level.

There were significant bipartisan successes, most notably a proposed constitutional amendment that has been referred to voters in Novem-ber to update Colorado’s personnel system. Other significant successes included a comprehensive proposal to address early literacy, a revamp of the Colorado Energy Office and leg-islation to fix the Colorado Benefits Management System, the long ma-ligned computer system to provide public assistance.

The last week of the regular ses-sion reached a crisis point over leg-islation to recognize civil unions. The bill passed the Senate and the House Judiciary, Finance and Ap-propriations Committees with one Republican joining Democrats in each committee to allow the bill to pass each committee by one vote. On the next to last day of the ses-sion, the civil unions bill, along with dozens of other Senate bills that had not passed the Senate and been in-troduced in the House until the closing days of the session, died on the calendar after majority Republi-cans put the House into recess when Democrats attempted to force action on the civil unions bill.

A number of the issues that were lost on the calendar were salvaged through amendments to other bills on the last day of the regular session. Gov. John Hickenlooper called for a

The National Newspaper Asso-ciation today added its voice of firm opposition to that of other news-paper organizations in opposing a plan by the U.S. Postal Service to intentionally divert advertising from newspapers to national advertising aggregator Valassis Inc.

NNA’s comments were directed to the Postal Regulatory Commis-sion, which is considering a pro-posed Negotiated Service Agree-ment between USPS and Valassis that would provide 20 percent to 34 percent postage rebates to Valas-sis if it produces one million new pieces of mail within 12 months af-ter the agreement is implemented. The target for this new business is

Innovation A story that begins at the plate

Local Media Foundation 2012 West Coast Innovation Mission attendees spent a day at the Google-plex in Mountain View, CA. The mission, intended to give newspaper executives insight into some of the most innovative media and technology companies in the United States and Canada, included 20 executives from around the world.

samanthajohnston

cpa executive director

200 of town’s residents weigh in and shed 2,400 pounds in community weight-loss challenge

Getting the lead out in Leadville

NNA opposes USPS plan to divert newspaper ads to aggregator

postal issue

Unified start, but testy end to session

2 colorado editor June 2012

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The historical marker for the Sil-verton Standard & the Miner news-paper was unveiled and dedicated May 5, in a celebration attended by about 100 people.

The marker was presented to the Standard by the Society of Profes-sional Journalists, making the Sil-verton Standard the only Colorado newspaper to receive such a designa-tion.

SPJ President John Ensslin was on hand to unveil the marker.

“I told the (SPJ) Board, ‘You’ve got to vote for this,’” Ensslin said.

Ensslin, a reporter for The Bergen (N.J.) Record, said his friends found it puzzling that he would be traveling to Silverton to stay only a couple of hours for the ceremony.

“But this is the most special thing I’m doing for a long time,” Ensslin said.

“When I think of what the pio-neers did to start this paper and keep

it going, it just does my heart good.“The real reason we presented you

with this award is the unbreakable bond between the community and this newspaper,” Ensslin said.

Bev Rich, chairman of the San Juan County Historical Society, which acquired the newspaper in 2009, said the historical society is proud to have

taken on the project to save the his-toric newspaper, which was facing possible closure at that time.

“I can’t think of anything the his-torical society has done that’s more important,” Rich said. “How thankful we are to have a newspaper.”

Silverton Mayor Chris Tookey also spoke at the dedication ceremony.

“We’re just so excited that every-body got together and somehow kept our newspaper alive,” Tookey said.

County Board Chairman Ernie Kuhlman noted that the Standard & the Miner is the only official newspa-per the county has ever had.

“And hopefully it will remain so,” Kuhlman said. “We appreciate very much the efforts put into saving the Silverton Standard & the Miner.”

Mark Esper, editor and publisher of the Standard & the Miner, recount-ed some of the hardships faced by operators of the newspaper since its founding in 1875.

He expressed thanks for the news-paper pioneers and all past editors and publishers who managed to keep the newspaper afloat. And he thanked the historical society for stepping in to save the Standard in its time of need.

“Most of all I want to thank the community,” Esper said. “Without overwhelming community support this newspaper could not survive.

“I don’t want to be the last editor of the Silverton Standard,” Esper told the crowd. “Please don’t let that hap-pen.”

It’s been an interest-ing mix of material that has ended up in my inbox today. A story on National Public Radio’s website reports that 23 percent of Americans age 18-24 read a PRINTED newspaper yesterday. Not an online edition of The New York Times or an iPad edition of a magazine. 24 percent report having read an actual, honest to goodness, printed newspaper yesterday. These numbers came from the Pew State of the News Media study.

I love it when media outside the newspaper world report on our suc-cesses. Maybe it’s time we did a little of that ourselves.

When I was invited to speak at Memphis University a few months ago, I was surprised to learn that the students had actually voted to have their activities fees increased so they could receive three daily newspapers each day.

Speaking of The New York Times, the latest figures indicate that 10 percent of their print subscribers are 18-24 year olds. More readers in that age range subscribe to the print version than the online version. I don’t have any facts and figures

in front of me, but I can’t remember a single friend in college that subscribed to a newspaper when I was in school. I’d love to know how these figures correspond to the numbers 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

I received an email from TV News Check this morn-ing that included lots of information about TV news around the United States. What caught my eye was the

lead story, “Papers Offering More And Better Video News.”

The story, found at tvnewscheck.com, tells how newspapers are creat-ing video on par with, and many times better than, TV websites.

According to writer Diana Marszalek, “In fact, some of the newspapers’ video content is so good that it has beaten material produced by TV news departments when it’s gone head-to-head in awards competitions.”

That reminded me of a story by Kurt Anderson in New York maga-zine six or eight years ago. He was predicting the future of journalism online when he wrote, “I can easily imagine newspapers’ Web-video portals becoming the TV-journal-ism destinations of choice for smart

people – that is, in the 21st century, the dominant nineteenth-century journalistic institution, newspapers, might beat the dominant twentieth-century institution, TV, at the premium part of its own game.”

And this headline from the May 1, 2012 issue of ADWEEK added more kindle to the flames, “News-papers See Gain in Daily, Sunday Circ: Thanks to paywall, ‘NYT’ daily circulation soars 73 percent.”

Yes, The New York Times is do-ing well with their online edition. But print is doing well of late, as well.

The infamous website newspa-perdeathwatch.com reports that 14 U.S. daily newspapers have closed since 2007. I found it more than a little humorous that some of those papers were from outside the U.S. But hey, when you’re having a death watch, who needs to be bothered with facts.

OK, I got this next number from Wikipedia. So it might or might not be anywhere close to accurate. But according to Wikipedia, there were 1,457 daily newspapers in the U.S. in 2007. If 14 of those closed, that would be a decrease of less than 1 percent. Please check my math. I was being generous by leaving in the dying papers on the death watch list

that weren’t actually in the United States.

Add this to a non-scientific survey conducted by the National Newspaper Association this year that indicates close to half (46 per-cent) of respondents at community newspapers held steady or showed an increase in the circulation over the past ten years, and I’d say things don’t look nearly as gloomy as many would like for us to believe.

And why do they want us to believe that the newspaper business is within – what is it now, 6? – years of its certain demise? You’ll have to ask them that. I don’t believe it for a second.

Latest numbers boost confidence for papers of all sizes

Ensslin on hand to unveil marker Newspaper honored for its longevity and community support

Society of Professional Journalists president John Ensslin presented San Juan County Historical Society chairman Bev Rich and Silverton Standard & the Miner editor, Mark Esper, with the SPJ historical marker on May 5.

Numbers Point UpKevin Slimp

Institute ofNewspaper [email protected]

It’s been an interesting mix of material that has ended up in my inbox today. A

story on National Public Radio’s website reports that 23 percent of Americans age 18-24 read a PRINTED newspaper yesterday. Not an online edition of Th e New York Times or an iPad edition of a magazine. 24 percent report having read an actual, honest to goodness, printed newspaper yesterday. Th ese numbers came from the Pew State of the News Media study.

I love it when media outside the newspaper world report on our suc-cesses. Maybe it’s time we did a little of that ourselves.

When I was invited to speak at Memphis University a few months ago, I was surprised to learn that the stu-dents had actually voted to have their activities fees increased so they could receive three daily newspapers each day.

Speaking of Th e New York Times, the latest fi gures indicate that 10 percent of their print subscribers are 18-24 year olds. More readers in that age range subscribe to the print version than the online version. I don’t have any facts

and fi gures in front of me, but I can’t remember a single friend in college that subscribed to a newspaper when I was in school. I’d love to know how these fi gures correspond to the numbers 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

I received an email from TV News Check this morning that included lots of information about TV news around the United States. What caught my eye was the lead story, “Papers Off ering More And Better Video News.”

Th e story, found at tvnewscheck.com, tells how newspapers are creating video on par with, and many times bet-ter than, TV websites.

According to writer Diana Marsza-lek, “In fact, some of the newspapers’ video content is so good that it has beaten material produced by TV news departments when it’s gone head-to-head in awards competitions.”

Th at reminded me of a story by Kurt Anderson in New York magazine six or eight years ago. He was predicting the future of journalism online when he wrote, “I can easily imagine newspapers’ Web-video portals becoming the TV-journalism destinations of choice for smart people – that is, in the 21st cen-tury, the dominant nineteenth-century journalistic institution, newspapers, might beat the dominant twentieth-century institution, TV, at the premium part of its own game.”

And this headline from the May 1, 2012 issue of ADWEEK added more kindle to the fl ames, “Newspapers See Gain in Daily, Sunday Circ: Th anks to paywall, ‘NYT’ daily circulation soars 73 percent.”

Yes, Th e New York Times is doing well with their online edition. But print is doing well of late, as well.

Th e infamous website newspa-perdeathwatch.com reports that 14

U.S. daily newspapers have closed since 2007. I found it more than a little hu-morous that some of those papers were from outside the U.S. But hey, when you’re having a death watch, who needs to be bothered with facts.

OK, I got this next number from Wikipedia. So it might or might not be anywhere close to accurate. But accord-ing to Wikipedia, there were 1,457 daily newspapers in the U.S. in 2007. If 14 of those closed, that would be a decrease of less than 1 percent. Please check my math. I was being generous by leaving in the dying papers on the death watch list that weren’t actually in the United States.

Add this to a non-scientifi c survey conducted by the National Newspaper Association this year that indicates close to half (46 percent) of respondents at community newspapers held steady or showed an increase in the circula-tion over the past ten years, and I’d say things don’t look nearly as gloomy as many would like for us to believe.

And why do they want us to believe that the newspaper business is within - what is it now, 6? - years of its certain demise? You’ll have to ask them that. I don’t believe it for a second.

Contact Kevin for moreinformation about working

with your group

Invite Kevin to your next conference or training event!

Latest figures boost confidence of newspapers of all sizes

[email protected]

Audit Burea of Circulation March 31, 2012 report

kevinslimp

colorado editor 3June 2012

news in briefHarrop joins MetroWest as managing editor

MetroWest Newspapers an-nounced May 7 that Christopher Harrop has joined the company as managing editor of the company’s

four commu-nity newspapers: The Brighton Standard Blade, the Commerce City Sentinel, the Carbon Valley Farmer & Miner and the Fort Lupton Press.

Harrop, 29, joins MetroW-est after a stint

as an editor on the YourHub team at The Denver Post. Previously, he was senior assistant editor at Aurora Media Group, publisher of The Au-rora Sentinel, The Buckley Guardian and Life Science Aurora.

He replaces Kevin Denke, who left MetroWest in April to serve as the public information officer for Brighton 27J School District.

“To be back in a community newsroom is huge for me,” Harrop said. “I’m excited to connect with this community and help our team of journalists serve our readers better.”

Harrop began his career in jour-nalism in April 1999 with freelance assignments at The Kansas City Star. He later served as managing editor of the Collegian newspaper at Kan-sas State University in Manhattan, Kan., where he received his bachelor degree in history.

Harrop, an Oklahoma native who moved around frequently as “an Army brat,” moved to Colorado in 2005 and spent more than a year as a copy editor and designer at Mile High Newspapers in Golden before moving on to The Aurora Sentinel in November 2006, where he served as night news editor before being promoted to senior assistant editor in 2010.

“To me, community news is the job I’ve always wanted to do,” Harrop said. “There are hundreds of places for you to get the ‘big’ stories on the state, national and global level. But often the biggest stories are the ones only the local paper can tell properly.”

To reach him with comments and questions, email [email protected] or call 303-65-2522, ext. 225. You can also follow @MetroEditor on Twitter for news and updates from the com-munity.

Herald Democrat bids farewell to longtime reporterMarcia Martinek Herald Editor

A big change is coming at the Herald Democrat. For those few who don’t know (and I still trust in the efficacy of the Leadville grape-vine), Ann Wibbenmeyer, Herald reporter, is leaving. Her last day was

Friday, May 19.Ann started

with the newspaper in December 2004, not long after her graduation from Northern Colo-rado University, which means her tenure is more than seven years.

During this period of time, she has been involved in any number of stories. I’m not sure which ones she will remember best, but I’m guessing the list will include: the synagogue fire, the Aspen Leaf fire, the Great Mine Drainage Tunnel debacle, the Mt. Elbert helicopter crash, the career-fair tasting inci-dent, the night the hospital board fired the hospital administrator and two board members walked out, and the tragic graduation-night ac-cident where two young Leadvillites were killed.

I know she will remember for sure the night when we both waited

downtown in the cold for Nick Palmer to come home from the Iraq War for the last time.

Add to that untold numbers of city council, commissioner and school board meetings, and races – can’t forget the races. That’s just for starters. Things in Leadville are seldom dull.

Ann is a Leadville native, and it’s somewhat unusual to have a reporter with such a long tenure in the community she writes about. When she first expressed interest in the job, her dad was running for county commissioner and I had to tell her that if he were elected, she couldn’t have the position due to a conflict of interest.

That didn’t happen, but I expect that she has found her long associa-tion with the community both a blessing and sometimes a curse.

She has been in a position to gather information from a num-ber of sources – a good thing. But sometimes these same sources have made it more difficult. When people have known a person since

third grade, they tend to take things personally when that reporter is just trying to do her job.

For example, there’s one indi-vidual who still calls from another town and leaves phone messages complaining that Ann and the newspaper have ruined her life. It seems this individual did something incredibly stupid, got caught, and Ann wrote the story.

The life of a reporter includes many similar incidents where some-one takes pot shots at the messen-ger. We’re guessing this is something that Ann won’t miss.

As editor, what I will miss most are our often-lengthy conversations on these topics: Is it fair? Is it ac-curate? Is it consistent with what we have done in the past?

Ann has been a volunteer with Young Life for a number of years, and I have valued her rapport with the Lake County High School students. In fact, once she’s gone, we may be emailing her photos asking, “Do you know this kid?”

Ann is leaving the newspaper

but not leaving Leadville, so she will become one of the Herald alums around town. As far as her future plans are concerned, you’ll have to ask her, but we all certainly wish her well.

Our new reporters started Mon-day, May 21. But that’s another story for another time.

Reprinted with permission from the May 17, 2012 edition of the Her-ald Democrat.

New sports reporter on board for the Craig Daily PressCraig Daily Press Staff

There’s a new face in the news-room at the Craig Daily Press.

Nathan Wag-genspack, 22, be-gan Thursday as the newspaper’s sports reporter, responsible for covering Moffat County School District athletics and local sports, clubs and com-munity events.

Waggenspack graduated in 2011 from the University of Dayton in Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and has worked as a news reporter for the Dayton Daily News.

The Kettering, Ohio, native said he’s excited to work in Moffat County.

“I’m looking forward to working with sports again and also with high school kids,” he said. “The enthusi-asm and passion they have for their sports makes my job a lot more enjoyable.”

Daily Press Editor Joshua Roberts said Waggenspack was the clear choice for the position, which generated interest from candidates around the country.

“We had 16 months with a great sports reporter in Josh Gordon, and while we were happy he was able to move on to the next phase in his career, we were sad to see him go,” Roberts said. “Nathan, we think, brings a lot of the same qualities Josh did. He’s a big sports fan, eager to get out and cover local athletes, and he’s a guy who just needs a chance to show what he can do.

“We have high hopes for Nathan, and we think people will enjoy his work and working with him.”

Away from the office, Waggens-pack enjoys running and biking. He is an avid fan of the Green Bay Packers, New York Mets and Uni-versity of Dayton men’s basketball team.

He said he plans on exploring the outdoor recreation opportuni-ties offered in the Yampa Valley.

“There are a lot more exciting opportunities outdoors here than there were in Ohio,” he said. “A state park in Ohio is like a below-average park here, so I’m looking forward to enjoying those places, especially Dinosaur National Monument.”

Waggenspack can be reached at 875-1795 or [email protected].

Harrop

Wibbenmeyer

Waggenspack

Denver VOICE: A newspaper and instrument of hope for homelessBy Diana Kurniawan Denver VOICE volunteer writer

Denver, one of the growing metropolises in the U.S., is no stranger to poverty and homeless-ness.

This year’s Point-In-Time study, conducted by Metro Denver Homeless Initiative on one cold, January night, counted 12,605 homeless men, women and children.

The city needs a solution. Or a number of solutions.One is to provide jobs for

the homeless to sustain a stable income to help with basic neces-sities.

The Denver VOICE, an independent nonprofit newspaper covering Metro Denver, is one of them. The street paper, published to shine a light on the issues of homelessness, provides a means for people living on the streets or just barely making rent to earn an income.

It started in 1997 as a newspaper by the homeless for the homeless. After publishing sporadically, it ceased publication in 2006.

But a year later, the paper was revived by Rick Barnes, a busi-nessman and philanthropist.

What began as a specialized publishing in 1997, became a publication highlighting the issues of homelessness for the

general public, with a program that is more supportive of the people selling it — helping them improve their selling skills and find resources to move beyond life on the streets.

And the VOICE isn’t the only one.

The Denver street paper is a member of a growing industry and two associations — the Inter-national Network of Street Papers (INSP) and the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA), which support street papers around the world with col-laborative conferences and online support.

Reading the Denver VOICE, readers get a varied dose of local news as well as pieces written by the homeless. This writing opportunity (for which they are paid) provides the individual the chance to creatively portray their interpretations on their personal experiences in life.

Poetry, essays and other cre-ative writings have been featured by the Denver VOICE, written by the homeless for the public.

The Denver VOICE’s mission is to facilitate a dialogue, address-ing the roots of homelessness by telling stories of people whose lives are impacted by poverty and homelessness. But beyond that, those that sell the paper make the real connections, and start the real dialogues, with their customers,

who become regular supporters of the individuals and sometimes even friends.

The Denver VOICE vendor program is critical to its goal, and is a source of income for those who are in progress to work their way out of homelessness. The individuals that sell the VOICE purchase papers for 50-cents and sell it for a suggested $2 dona-tion.

“Denver VOICE’s vendor program gave me the chance to pay for my storage bill and some simple needs,” said Dionne Gilbert, who lived on 16th Street Mall after leaving a domestic vio-lence situation. She’ll be vending the VOICE for a year come July, and now lives in an apartment off Federal.

Along with the vendor pro-gram incentive, Denver VOICE collaborates with the District 6 Police Department and the Down-town Denver Partnership (DDP) to train vendors in customer service, sales education and com-munication.

The 2010 Denver VOICE Report data showed that of those living in housing after vending the VOICE, 48 percent reported using money from vending to completely pay for their rent or co-pay rent, and 91 percent reported that they paid for food, sundries and living supplies with money from vending the VOICE.

How can you help?The Denver VOICE is looking for volunteers to help with the vendor program, marketing and editorial, and you can donate items or funding by contacting Kristin at [email protected] or visiting www.denvervoice.org/donate.


INNOVATION from Page 1• Part of each newspaper’s social media

strategy should include a definition of what the newspaper’s voice is — casual, entertaining, informative, and the programming that will ap-pear in the social strategy.

“You can’t take what’s in your core product and translate it to social media,” Mayfield said. “You have to have a plan and then execute the plan.”

Stories must grow on all platforms and be different according to the voice of each platform.

• Identify elements likely to be shared and ensure they are shared. These elements must be interesting, and if possible, contain a social aspect. Identify such postings and make it live. Quickly. Very quickly.

• The iPhone is one of the most valuable tools available to reporters in the field.

Any photo or video that can be sent back to the newsroom or posted online is more valuable than your competitor’s non-photo or video.

* Websites and social media sites should have everything your local audience wants to read. Newspapers have to stop being afraid to link to a competitor’s website.

Link to local sites all the time. We want our consumers to feel like they

aren’t missing anything on our website. Even if we didn’t generate the content, if our audience wants to read it, make it available to them so they know your site will give them everything they need. This eliminates a reader’s need to go elsewhere.

* “You can’t take tradition and make it cool,” said Jenny Kugliin, general manager of content and social media at Fisher Interactive Network.

Fisher Interactive realized that we cannot continue to take the same content we put in print and online and rebrand it for 17 to 34 year olds. Newspapers must have content on plat-forms specific to the audience. Check out their product at Seattlepulp.com.

• It’s vital we have digital evangelists in our operations. People with feet on the floor spreading the digital word, making sure that digital content is spectacular and advertising sales teams understand, appreciate and sell the products. Digital will fail if there isn’t a constant drumbeat.

• There are a million and one opportuni-ties to partner with technology companies. We should be less inclined to recreate every wheel and more inclined to forge symbiotic relation-ships with technology companies. We can all win in the end.

• When trying to decide which efforts your newspaper should allocate resources to “the greatest filter is to follow the money,” said Gordon Borrell, chief executive officer of Borrell & Associates. The Internet is not simply an ad-vertising tool — it’s a utility and we have to build our businesses beyond the core business model.

• Advertisers aren’t buying eyeballs or read-ers anymore.

They want audience. Audience is achieved through a combination of print and digital solutions.

Local news gets traffic, but advertising content in a digital space is where audience is “leaning forward.” They’re ready to buy and on the edge of their seat.

Print advertising reaches the audience that is leaning back. Digital advertising reaches the au-dience leaning forward. Digital sales reps must be selling results, and results are in targeted display.

Borrell said targeted display was only 22 percent of the revenue pie in 2011, but will reach 87 percent of the pie by 2016.

• Borrell said people are 40 percent more likely to check their email than they are to go to the web. Email solutions should always be a part of your digital portfolio.

• Really cool ideas with no revenue attaché shouldn’t be part of your product portfolio.

Spending time on cool ideas with no mon-etary reward limits the amount of time that you will spend on revenue producers. The key to producing good content and keeping journalism alive is revenue to support the noble mission.

• “Ideas come from everywhere. Anyone can come up with a good idea, no matter where they work in the company,” said Chris Connelly, people operations at Google.

Work environments have to be conducive to conversation and idea exchange. Working in silos means you can’t benefit from what others around you are saying.

“If you give people freedom, they will amaze you,” he said.

• Adam Burnham at Digital First Media drove home the idea that audience is what we are selling and reaching.

“Sales reps should be selling audience, not products,” he said.

Advertising sales consultants are solution wizards, selling every solution that meets a cli-ent’s need, not selling the products they are most comfortable with.

Innovation is created in a space when there is time and flexibility to be creative and to think larger than today’s project or tomorrow’s newspaper.

The brightest ideas come from the ability of a great mind to work on a project of interest. It can be small scale at conception, and once vetted, can be scaled for the market and have allocated resources.

The most interesting people I met, who have developed the best ways to monetize digital and make a real audience engagement impact haven’t been afraid to fail.

Sure, a pro forma and a business plan are important, but more important is the willing-ness to try everything. Inevitably, we’ll swing and miss, strike out on some things.

But, the opposite is also true: there will be major successes, home runs.

None of that’s possible, however, without first

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Craig Daily PressP.O. Box 5Craig, CO 81626

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C R A I G D A I L Y P R E S S

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EDITOR

466 YAMPACRAIG, COLORADO 81625



Special Services• Advertising design and copywriting available at no

additional charge. Photographs taken at no extra charge. (Must be scheduled one week prior to publication.)

• Proofs and tearsheets provided on request.Terms of Payment• Net due 30 days from statement date, 1.5% per

month (18% annum) will be charged on all past due accounts.

• New advertisers who wish to establish an account must submit a credit application with acceptable credit references.

• Advertising from accounts more than 30 days past due cannot be accepted unless cash payment is made.

• Ads that require payment in advance include those from advertisers who have not established credit privileges and advertisers who have been placed on a cash-only basis; political ads; and going-out-of-business, bankruptcy and transient ads (such as circus, carnival, etc.). These ads must be paid for by deadline.

• Advertisers billed at contract rate who fail to fulfill the contract terms will be billed at the appropriate earned rate retroactively. All contract discounts are cancelled on advertising more than 60 days past due.

• Applicant agrees to pay Steamboat Pilot & Today/Steamboat Today/Craig Daily Press for all expenses they may incur to enforce collection of any amount due for advertising placed at open or contract rates including reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs in connection therewith.

Legal Policies• The terms Steamboat Pilot & Today, Steamboat

Today, and Craig Daily Press hereafter referred to as the “company,” as used herein are meant to include the newspapers and their related publica-tions, their employees, owners, officers, agents, and contractors.

• The company reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time.

• The company is not bound by any terms or con-ditions printed or otherwise appearing on order blanks, advertising forms or copy instructions

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• The company shall not be liable for any failure to print, publish, or circulate all or part of any issue in which advertising accepted by the company is contained if the failure is due to circumstances beyond the control of the company.

• The company shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. In the event of errors that materially affect the value of the advertisement, if at fault, the company will be responsible only for the space in which the error occurred. Liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertise-ment in any subsequent issue or the refund of any moneys paid for the advertisement. Any request for adjustment on billing that may be open to question must be made within the month following the month in which the pur-ported error occurred.

• Unfulfilled advertising contracts will be short-rated to appropriate earned level at end of contract term.

• We reserve the right to revise advertising rates at any time. In the event advertising rates increase during contract term, Company will provide 30 days written notice to Advertiser. Advertisers who do not accept new rates may elect to cancel adver-tising agreement without penalty, by providing notice in writing to Company at least 10 days prior to the effective date of the new rates.

• Advertising contracts will automatically renew for consecutive terms unless Advertiser notifies the Company in writing 10 days prior to contract expi-ration date.

466 Yampa AvenueCraig, CO 81625(970) 824-7031Fax (970) 824-6810www.craigdailypress.com

adverTiSing deadLineSCancellation deadline is the same as the order deadline. If an ad is cancelled after the deadline, there will be a charge equal to 50% of the cost of the space reservation.

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{ }Committed to a Community Partnership Since 1891 | Published Monday through Saturday.

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Weekly Frequency Rates 4 Weeks 13 Weeks 26 Weeks 52 WeeksSigned agreement required. Unfulfilled con-tracts will be short-rated to the appropriate earned level at the end of the contract term. Four inch minimum size. A minimum of two identical ads must run each week.

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Pickup Rate Any ad that publishes at open rate in a Steamboat or Craig newspa-per — Craig Daily Press, Saturday Morning Press, Steamboat Today or Steamboat Pilot & Today — may be picked up for one or more additional days in any of those newspapers within seven days for $6.85 per inch. Annual Bulk Rates 129-388 inches 389-1249 inches 1250-3000 inches 3000+ inchesMust run contracted inches in twelve months. Signed contract agreement required. Unfulfilled contracts will be short-rated to appropriate earned level at end of contract term.

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13 weeks$34$108

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26 weeks$32$100

26 weeks$2.29$7.85

52 weeks$30$95

52 weeks$2.17$7.41

COLOR RATES Large Space Color Rates (18-70 column inches)

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Our publications are the source of news in Moffat County. Our newspapers are read throughout Moffat

and Routt Counties and beyond. The Craig Daily Press is distributed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Press

run is 3550. Saturday Morning Press press run is 9500.

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1

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Innovation Mission attendees from left: Rory Moulton, digital project manager for Swift Com-munications, David Schmall, director of digital development, Swift Communications, Inc., Joe Boydston, vice president of technology and new media, Daily Republic.

An eye toward the future

Plan shows favoritism to one customer, NNA saysPOSTAL from Page 1

per advertising, which USPS pointedly seeks to divert to the mail. In its request, USPS said it believed private distribution services were “increasingly” attracting saturation advertis-ing from the mailstream and that the Valassis deal is intended to bring it back.

NNA called the deal “unjust and unrea-sonable,” and said the Postal Service should try to get the newspaper business back rather than creating favoritism to one customer. NNA said the proposal violates the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which requires the Postal Service and the PRC to take into account the effect upon the market-place of USPS actions. In addition to being inherently unfair, NNA said, USPS failed to account for the fact that many newspaper advertising shoppers and TMC publications are in the mail at a higher rate than Valas-sis currently gets, let alone the discounted rates it would have under the proposal. The NSA would cause USPS to lose mail volume as newspapers leave the mail in disgust and mail revenues from mail pieces being unnec-essarily discounted.

NNA President Reed Anfinson, publisher of the Swift County (MN) Monitor-News, said that although the proposal appears to target only large newspapers, in fact it will affect many newspapers of all sizes. He said reaction to the proposal within the industry was swift and negative.

“Many of us cannot figure out why the Postal Service, with which we each spend thousands of dollars each year, would want to jeopardize this relationship to chase a special deal with one customer. NNA’s postal experts

have examined the proposal and believe it would harm not only our own industry but the Postal Service’s own viability as well,” An-finson said. “When you consider that one of the Postal Service’s obligations is to bind the nation together, you just have to shake your head at an idea like this. Here is one very bad idea that pulls us apart. NNA hopes the Postal Service has second thoughts about it and that the PRC makes it clear that special rate cuts that target the advertising markets are inherently unfair and anti-competitive.”

NNA Postal Committee Chair Max Heath joined in the NNA comments and assisted Landmark Publishing, which operates large and small newspapers, in expressing its own opposition.

“As most people know, I am the first to cheer the Postal Service when it does some-thing right. And I am willing to criticize it when it goes off track. This idea is so far off track that I cannot imagine what postal man-agement was thinking. It is simply a big post-age giveaway that does nothing but disrupt the markets,” he said.

“The NSA could take free-standing insert business—paying regular Standard Mail car-rier-route prices—from newspaper-owned shoppers and divert it to prices 20 percent to 32 percent lower, which is a lose-lose propo-sition for us and USPS,” said Heath. “USPS marketers fail to have any understanding of how much Standard Mail business is brought to them by newspaper customers.”

The PRC’s decision on the proposal is likely to come within two weeks. The law requires action within 45 days of the Postal Service’s filing, which was April 23, 2012.

coloradopressassociation.com


edhenninger

With the powerful design software we have at our fin-gertips these days, we have many more options for most design elements—even those we may consider minor parts of a page.

That’s good.But with the capabilities

that design software gives us, even those minor elements can be tweaked, tuned, twitched and twisted.

That’s not good.Take, for example, a simple ele-

ment like the frame on a photo. For most of us who have been de-

signing for some years, a photo frame has always been constructed from a .5-point rule, as in example a in the illustration. No big, deal: just place a .5-point frame on the photo to give it an edge and a bit of visual pop.

Some editors feel they really need a 1-point box (as in example b) to give their photos impact, and some-times to help with press work. The 1 point is a bit clunky, but readers don’t seem to mind.

Also acceptable (I’m using this look in a redesign right now) is a thick-thin combination, to give a classier look to your photos. In exam-ple c, it’s 4 points wide, but it could be a bit thinner, depending on the qual-ity of your reproduction.

One of my favorite approaches—especially for feature photos—is to use a soft shadow with no frame, as in example d. This provides a subtle, elegant look—provided the shadow

itself isn’t too dark. In this example, it’s only 50 per-cent. And the offset is only 3 points, with a shadow size of 5 points.

I’m convinced that these four looks can work well for most newspapers.

But that powerful soft-ware will let you do, well...things you just shouldn’t do. I haven’t shown any, but here are some examples:

Thick, colored frames.Frames made from repeated small

objects, such as purple bunnies on on Easter photo package.

Thick-thin frames of one color, with another color in the gap. Ex-ample, a red thick-thin combo with green in the gap for a Christmas photo.

Frames made from wavy lines.These usages (and countless oth-

ers!) tend to call attention to the frame. But the purpose of a frame on a photo is to help call attention to the photo.

Let’s use a frame that works well...and keep the usage consistent.

ED HENNINGER is an indepen-dent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. Offering comprehensive newspaper design services including redesigns, workshops, staff training and evalua-tions. E-mail: [email protected]. On the web: henningercon-sulting.com. Phone: 803-327-3322.

By Betsy McLaughlin

Gretchen Kowalczyk had a dream one night about starting a newspaper. She came into school the next day and shared her dream with friends Kalli Anders and Charlee Hawkins. They put their heads together and came up with The Taylor Twist, official publica-tion of the student body at Taylor Elementary School. The fifth grad-ers enlisted help from teacher’s aide, Ms. Cather, and with support from Principal Jennifer Morrell and a small grant from Palisade Altrusa, the newspaper took shape.

The Taylor Twist is published monthly and is done entirely on-site at Taylor Elementary, mostly during morning and lunch recess. The girls set up the paper on the computer using Microsoft Word, then print it on the school printer.

Since the initial issue in Decem-ber of 2011, the students have been writing, producing, folding and dis-tributing about 375 copies of each issue.

Following the December roll-out, there were issues printed in January, February and March and a final April/May issue is expected soon.

The paper features news about

Taylor students and events, a ‘Mys-tery Employee’ of each month, and other special features such as puz-zles and cartoons. They asked for New Year’s resolutions in January and are considering a feature for the final issue on 5th Grade memories.

The students installed a mailbox near the main office for sugges-tions, story ideas and submissions by other students or staff. They in-vite feedback and contributions and have added cartoons by fellow stu-dent Colby Burnham.

The pre-school and kindergar-

ten teachers each receive an issue to share with the classroom, and each student in the upper grades receives a copy.

Since the paper’s three editors will all be moving on to Mt. Gar-field Middle School next year, The Taylor Twist will be looking for students to carry on the excellent work begun by Kalli, Gretchen and Charlee.

Reprinted with permission from May 17, 2012 edition of the Palisade Tribune.

From left, Charlee Hawkins, Gretchen Kowalczyk and Kalli Anders, fifth graders at Taylor Elementary School, showing off the latest issues of The Taylor Twist.

Friends create the Taylor TwistSchool newspaper started as a dream

The same photo with (a) a .5-point frame, (b) a 1-point frame, (c) a 4-point thick/thin frame and (d) a drop shadow with no frame.

Framing the photo

SMALL WEEKLY FOR SALE Small weekly in Colorado mountain

community. Grosses about $120,000. Good opportunity for young couple starting out, or older “downsized” journal-ists. Easy news beats. Monopoly situation. All buildings and equipment included in sale price; you can walk in on Monday and put out a paper on Tuesday. Current owner will stick around to help with tran-sition. Beautiful location. Price includes office building and residence. June price reduced to $230,000 from $270,000. Price reductions will continue until the paper is sold. Call 970-873-8850.

ONLINE WINTER SPORTS PUBLICATION FOR SALE

An online publication focusing on the sport of snowshoeing. One print edition published in 2005. Print still a possibility with solid brand in place. 4,000 e-mail subscribers. Grosses $30,000 per year in advertising. No physical assets to acquire. Owner (and founder) will help with transition. Can be located anywhere. Price includes full Wordpress website, brand, access to writers, and subscriber list: $210,000. Call 303-332-4993.

CRIME/COURTS REPORTER NEEDEDThe Greeley (Colo.) Daily Tribune

is seeking a full-time reporter to cover crime and courts in our community. We’re seeking an aggressive reporter who can post breaking news quickly to the web and then follow up with a great story for print. Job duties will include covering breaking stories involving police, fire and rescue units, as well as covering the highlights in our district and county court system. We’re a 7-days-a-week print newspaper and 24/7 web operation. Experience is a plus but not a require-ment. Do you have a passion for crime reporting? A burning desire to produce high-quality print journalism while also keeping the website fresh? A strong knowledge on how to use social media to complement your reporting and expand our newspaper’s brand? If you meet these qualifications, send your resume and cover letter to Editor Randy Bangert at [email protected].

COPY EDITORSSeeking part-time and full-time expe-

rienced copy editors: Must have newspa-per experience and know AP style. Please specify part time or full time. Flexibility to work at several offices is preferred. Please contact Mikkel Kelly at Colorado Community News weekly newspapers: [email protected].

cpa marketplace


SESSION from Page 1

special session for May 14 through 16 to address civil unions and six other issues. Ultimately, four of the seven issues on the call, includ-ing civil unions, died and just three passed.

This year’s session was successful on issues of importance to newspa-pers. At the top of the list was the passage of House Bill 1169.

The Colorado Press Associa-tion supported the bill to overturn a flawed decision by the Colorado Court of Appeals in the case of Hendricks v. City of Fort Morgan that said governments could con-duct business in a public meeting by secret ballot. CPA was also able to amend House Bill 1036, which would have made all civil and ad-ministrative investigative files con-fidential. The bill was amended to make all such files public as soon as investigations were closed.

CPA also participated in a series of negotiations related to access to voted ballots. The voted ballots bill was SB 155, which was one of the bills that died on the calendar as part of the civil unions discussion. The provisions of SB 155 were added to HB 1036 and approved.

CPA also supported SB 102, which repealed Colorado’s crimi-nal libel statute and HB 1229 which clarified publication requirements for legal notices. The bills below are of interest to CPA members (Bill/sponsors/topic):

• SB 24/Harvey/Holbert/concerning residential nonprofit corporations. — The bill concerns activities of residential nonprofit corporations. It includes a provision that members don’t need to be notified of meetings where decisions will not be made. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• SB 30/Jahn/Liston/concern-ing foreclosure. — The bill contains a variety of provisions relating to foreclosure of property. It does not change anything related to the legal notice advertising requirements, but was amended to create provisions for counties to make more efforts to return excess value to homeowners through use of unclaimed property statutes. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• SB 31/White/Bradford/concern-ing federal mineral leases. — The bill concerns processes related to dis-tricts established to enter in federal mineral leases. It contains a provision that requires there to be legal notice advertising of a public hearing before such districts may be dissolved. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• SB 44/Guzman/Pabon/concern-ing theft of transit. — The bill concerns the crime of theft of transit by people who ride public transportation without paying. It was amended in the Senate Transportation Committee to automati-cally seal conviction records. — CPA position: Seek amendment to make sealing requests follow existing law. — Status: Amended as requested by CPA and passed legislator, awaiting action by governor.

• SB 51/Bacon/Massey/concerning school district service contracts. — The bill requires specific analysis before a school district may enter into a contract for services. It contains a provision that all service contracts by school districts must be available for public inspection

on district websites. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed legislature, awaiting action by governor.

• SB 71/Giron/Duran/concerning loan modification remedies prior to foreclosure. — The bill establishes pro-cesses that must be offered to modify loans prior to foreclosure actions. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed senate judiciary committee, postponed indefinitely by Senate Ap-propriations Committee.

• SB 79/S. King/Stephens/con-cerning Safe 2 Tell. — The bill makes modifications to the Safe 2 Tell program for students to report criminal offenses. It maintains current confidentiality provisions. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• SB 84/Lambert/Swalm/concerning PERA transparency. — The bill makes information about public employment retirement accounts of elected officials and members of the governor’s cabinet public. — CPA position: Support. — Sta-tus: Postponed indefinitely by Senate Finance Committee.

• SB 101/Nicholson/Bradford/con-cerning local improvement districts. —The bill establishes processes to make changes to local improvement districts. Changes must be noticed through legal notice advertising. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed Senate, House Local Government and Appropriations Committees, died on House Calendar.

• SB 102/Brophy/Nikkel/repeal criminal libel laws. — The bill repeals criminal libel. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Signed by governor.

• SB 105/Steadman/Levy/concern-ing collateral consequences. — The bill concerns issues involving the consequences of being convicted of crimes. It allows sealing of petty offense and municipal convictions under the same timing and process to seal petty offense drug convictions. — CPA posi-tion: Monitor. — Status: Passed Senate, postponed indefinitely by House, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Commit-tee.

• SB 135/Lundberg/Murray/con-cerning online election night returns. — The bill provides resources to facilitate faster, statewide reporting of results on election night. — CPA position: Sup-port. — Status: Passed State, Veterans and Military Affairs and Appropriations Committees and second reading in Sen-ate, died on Senate calendar.

• SB 153/Morse/concerning sun-shine in litigation. — The bill makes more information from on-going litigation available to the public. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Postponed indefinitely by Senate Judiciary Com-mittee.

• SB 155/Heath/Court/concern-ing transparency in elections. — The bill establishes the procedures for the public to inspect voted ballots. The provisions of the bill were amended into House Bill 1036 after the bill died on the House second reading calendar. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Passed Senate, House, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, died on House calendar.

• SB 164/Heath/Massey/concern-ing private postsecondary institutions. — The bill addresses laws concerning private institutions of higher education. It contains a provision that requires the Department of Higher Education to obtain and maintain records of defunct institutions and makes such records public. It also requires that records related to collection of surety to protect students’ tuition payments be public. After the bill died on the House calendar, its provisions were amended

into HB 1155. — CPA position: Moni-tor. — Status: Passed Senate, House, Education, Finance and Appropriations Committees, died on House calendar.

• SB 175/Carroll/Gardner/concern-ing court time periods by seven-day periods. — The bill makes adjustments to time periods for filing court docu-ments so that all periods are in seven day increments so that no filings are due on weekends. It leaves all public notice requirements in place, although in a few cases, the extension requires an additional notice to be published. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed General Assembly, awaiting action by governor.

• HB 1010/Baumgardner/Giron/concerning reissue of ditch share certifi-cate. — The bill establishes the process to reissue a lost certificate for shares in a ditch. It contains a provision that requires public notice through legal notice advertising before the certificate can be reissued. — CPA position: Moni-tor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1016/Balmer/concerning ex-parte communication at the Public Utilities Commission. — The bill further defines impermissible ex-parte commu-nication by Public Utilities Commission-ers. It contains a provision stating that communications between the com-missioners are public records. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Postponed indefinitely by House Transportation Committee.

• HB 1036/J. Kerr/Boyd/concerning clarification of open records. — The bill modifies an existing provision of the Open Records Act that investigatory re-cords may be withheld to specifically in-clude criminal, civil and administrative investigations. The bill was amended to limit its scope to investigatory files of ongoing external investigations of state agencies or concluded investigations where no action is taken. The bill was amended to include the provisions of SB 155 after SB 155 died on the House calendar. — CPA position: Monitor after amendment to narrow scope of bill. — Status: Amended as requested by CPA and passed General Assembly. Also amended in conference committee to include the provisions of SB 155. Await-ing action by governor.

• HB 1053/Gardner/Giron/concern-ing victim’s rights. — The bill contains a variety of provisions concerning victim’s rights. There is a provision encourag-ing records custodians to redact the social security numbers of victims and witnesses before releasing records. — CPA Position: Monitor. — Status: Passed General Assembly, awaiting action by governor.

• HB 1062/Barker/concerning Peace Officer Employment Protections. — The bill limits how employers may oversee and discipline peace officers. It contains a provision that a hearing involving a peace officer is closed unless the officer chooses for it to be open. — CPA posi-tion: Oppose provision that closes hear-ing. — Status: Amended as requested by CPA and postponed indefinitely by House Local Government Committee.

• HB 1066/Priola/concerning Off-Highway Vehicles. — The bill contains a variety of provisions related to when and how vehicles such as ATVs and snowmobiles may be operated on pub-lic roads. It contains a provision that registration and ownership records of off-highway vehicles are public records. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Lost on third reading in House.

• HB 1067/McCann/Aguilar/concerning Campaign Finance and Reporting Requirements for RTD and School Board Elections. — The bill limits campaign contributions for RTD and school board elections and establishes requirements when such contributions must be disclosed to the public through the Secretary of State. — CPA position:

Support reporting requirements. — Sta-tus: Postponed indefinitely by House, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

• HB 1074/J. Kerr/S. King/con-cerning Court Access to Records of Conservators. — The bill establishes the right of courts with jurisdiction over conservator relationships access to re-cords of the conservator. It requires the court to maintain the confidentiality of such records. — CPA position: Seek amendment to clarify that confidential-ity is maintained only for records that are otherwise confidential. — Status: Amended as requested by CPA and signed by governor.

• HB 1077/Gardner/Tochtrop/concerning investments of the Fire and Police Pension Association. — The bill establishes the right of the FPPA to keep investment strategies related to its investments confidential if FPPA can prove competitive harm. The competi-tive harm provision was added at CPA’s request during an interim committee hearing last fall. — CPA position: Moni-tor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1082/Soper/concerning Pre-vailing Wage on Public Works Projects. — The bill requires prevailing wage to be paid on public works projects. It contains a provision that the Depart-ment of Labor and Employment list all violators of the law on its website. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Postponed indefinitely by House Local Government Committee.

• HB 1110/Williams/Carroll/concern-ing Regulation of Appraisal Manage-ment Companies. — The bill adds appraisal management companies to regulation of appraisers. It contains pro-visions strengthening confidentiality requirements related to complaints and investigations against entities regulated in these practices. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed General As-sembly, awaiting action by governor.

• HB 1118/Conti/Harvey/concern-ing Transparency in School Collective Bargaining. — The bill requires collec-tive bargaining negotiations to be open to the public if school board members or school district administrators are involved. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Passed House, postponed indefinitely by Senate, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

• HB 1125/Ramirez/Steadman/concerning impounded animals. — The bill address issues about requirements on animal control officials if animals are impounded. Existing public notice requirements are maintained. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1126/Gerou/Roberts/concern-ing On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems. — The bill updates statute involving individual waste treatment systems. Existing public notice require-ments are maintained. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor. — Change from last report: None.

• HB 1138/Kafalas/Hudak/concern-ing Poverty Impact Statements. — The bill allows for a limited number of bills to be analyzed for their impact on people in poverty. The analysis will be developed and made public at the same time as fiscal notes. — CPA posi-tion: Monitor. — Status: Postponed in-definitely by House, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. — Change from last report: None.

• HB 1148/Sonnenberg/concerning Neighborhood Revitalization Areas. — The bill establishes the processes to establish a neighborhood revitaliza-tion area. Notice of new areas are to be made on government websites, unless there is no such website in which case legal notice advertisements are to be made in newspapers. — CPA position: Seek amendment to require notices in newspapers. — Status: Postponed

indefinitely by House Local Govern-ment Committee. — Change since last report: None.

• HB 1151/McCann/S. King/concern-ing human trafficking. — The bill estab-lishes a variety of criminal penalties for human trafficking. It allows the criminal records of people who can prove that they were sold as part of a human traf-ficking enterprise to petition for such records to be expunged. — CPA posi-tion: Monitor. — Status: Passed General Assembly, awaiting action by governor. — Change from last report: None.

• HB 1156/McCann/Johnston/con-cerning foreclosure information. — The bill makes changes to requirements about what lenders must tell property owners subject to foreclosure. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Postponed indefinitely by House Economic and Business Development Committee. — HB 1169/Gardner/Brophy/concerning secret ballots in open meetings. — The bill prohibits secret voting in public meetings except to elect leadership of public bodies. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1209/Gardner/Carroll/con-cerning the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act. — The bill implements a recommendation from the Commission on Uniform State Laws on how elec-tronic legal material is transmitted. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by Governor.

• HB 1224/Becker/Lambert/con-cerning A Consolidated Communica-tions System Authority. — The bill creates an authority to oversee consoli-dation of communication systems used by law enforcement agencies through-out the state. The authority is subject to open meetings and records laws. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1229/Murray/Scheffel/concern-ing definition of publication. — The bill defines publication for purposes of le-gal notice advertising. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Signed by governor.

• HB 1243/Todd/concerning Appointments to State Boards and Commissions. — The bill requires ad-ditional outreach of vacancies for state boards and commissions. The outreach includes advertising. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Postponed indefi-nitely by House, State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

• HB 1251/Hullinghorst/Heath/concerning Enterprise Zones. — The bill contains numerous provisions relating to enterprise zones including one that beneficiaries of enterprise zone credits be listed on internet. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Postponed indefi-nitely by House Finance Committee.

• HB 1252/Nikkel//Spence/concern-ing Transparency in Higher Education Finances. — The bill requires higher education institutions to make their financial information available to the public online. — CPA position: Support. — Status: Passed House Education and Appropriations Committees, died on House calendar.

• HB 1293/Todd/K.King/concerning recall elections. — The bill concerns recall elections. It requires legal notice of all such elections. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed General As-sembly, awaiting action by governor.

• HB 1329/Scott/Nicholson/con-cerning county treasurers becoming public trustees. — As introduced, the bill would have eliminated the public trustee in El Paso, Mesa and Weld coun-ties and shift the duties to the county treasurer. It has been amended to have trustee budgets be submitted to county commissioners and to subject trustees to procurement rules and state audits. — CPA position: Monitor. — Status: Passed General Assembly, awaiting ac-tion by governor.

Legislature in review


obituaries

Mark Faenza Internet Sales Representative

Record-Journal Meriden, CT

“The Local Media Association Sales Certification Course was one of the first things I did as a new employee of the Record-Journal. As a recent college graduate, I had no sales experience and this course gave me the skills I needed to launch my career. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to sharpen their sales skills.”

Lorraine May Director of Sales Training

Sound Publishing Poulsbo, WA

“I find the course to be very helpful for new sales representatives in understanding the skills it will take to be successful in their profes-sion. I found it also motivational for seasoned sales executives to re- examine their own current habits and see if they’re utilizing all of the tools that it takes to be at the top of their game!”

The Local Media Association Media Sales Certification Program delivers training for a changing media environment resulting in a highly proficient sales representative capable of maximizing revenue opportunities.

• Sales Certification Through a Leading Industry Association

• Developed in Partnership with Borrell Associates and MotivateAmerica

• Easy-to-Follow Webinar Format

• Low Cost Alternative to In-House Training

• Outstanding Results

Local Media Association has consulted with some of the leading media companies in America and together with Borrell Associates and training specialist Kevin McCrudden, President of Motivate America created a data driven webinar training series. The webinar programs are “self-directed” and can be taken at home or in the office at your staff’s own pace.

The FoLLowing Courses Are CurrenTLy AvAiLAbLe:

basic Print Certification prepares a Media Sales Representative to present a “solution” to the client in an effective and persuasive presentation, providing details of a current product that matches their needs or a creative solution that provides a positive outcome.

basic online Certification covers much of the same materials as the Basic Print certification program with the addition of online specifics, so that representatives can successfully answer clients’ questions, as well as present effective solutions that drive client value and generate ROI.

basic Print & online Certification combines the Basic Print and Basic Online Certification programs for sales environments that require their media salespeople to sell media products that combine print with online.

The FoLLowing Courses wiLL be AvAiLAbLe

nexT MonTh:

Advanced online Certification is designed for media sales reps who have been actively selling online advertising for some time and are looking to advance their skills.

Media sales Manager Certification is for those who are competent in the topics covered in the basic and advanced courses and are ready to lead other sales representatives.

Colorado Press Association introductory Member rate: $395Multiple Registration Discounts Are Available

Contact: Al Cupo, VP, Operations, Local Media Association(888) 486-2466, [email protected]

Wilma Irene PriceWilma Irene Price, 83, of Rocky

Ford died Monday, May 7, 2012 peacefully at Pioneer Health Care Center. There will be no local ser-vices. There will be no viewing as cre-mation has been effected. Inurnment will be private at a later time.

Wilma was born July 31, 1928 in Neodesha, KS to Ralph and Evelyn Eve (Casebeer) Tucker.

She graduated from Neodesha High School and from the Wichita State University Nursing Program.

She was the widow of George Price and was previously married to Wayne Mangus; they later divorced.

She retired as a proofreader at Rocky Mountain News. She was active in the printer’s union. She at-tended St. Peters Catholic Church in Rocky Ford.

She is survived by sons Harold (Debra) Mangus of Olney Springs, and Gary Mangus of Denver, sisters Carol Rutherford of Cape Girardeau, MO and Mary Price of Brownsville, TX, brother Robert Tucker of Neode-sha, KS, 12 grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister Nancy John-son and brother Ralph Tucker, Jr.

Arrangements are entrusted to Ford –Ustick Funeral Home. Condo-lences may be sent to www.fordustick.com.

Robert ArmendarizLinda Navarro The Gazette

Robert L. “Bob” Armendariz, who founded the bilingual newspaper Hispania News and first distributed it during an annual Cinco de Mayo cel-ebration in Monument Valley Park in 1987, died of natural causes Wednes-day at his home. He was 69.

“He went quietly yesterday eve-ning,” son James Armendariz, who lives in California, said. He and his sister, Roberta, who lives in Scotts-dale, Ariz., said services are pending and both are traveling to Colorado.

Armendariz, a military intel-ligence veteran, was born in Sugar City to a farming family. He had three sisters and four brothers.

Armendariz, a longtime advocate for Hispanic causes, had been head of the Colorado Springs Press Associa-tion for many years. He served on community boards including the Fine Arts Center.

The 25th anniversary edition of Hispania News is online, but hasn’t yet been printed. Bill Green, who worked with Armendariz for 24 years said “the paper is at the printer, the 25th anniversary edition, plates are shot, it just needs to be printed.” Part of the problem is that “everything is in Bob’s name,” said Green, and an estimated $2,000 was needed to pay the Pueblo Chieftain. Friends, mem-bers of the media and members of the community have been rallying all afternoon to raise the amount needed by 5 p.m. for the printer.

Plans had been to distribute the anniversary print version around southern Colorado, including the Cinco de Mayo celebration at the fairgrounds in Pueblo.

Roberta Armendariz-Madrid said

the publication of the anniversary edition is what she would want most of all and that it would have meant so much to her father.

John Henry, who knew Arm-endariz for 15 years and worked with him on the press association board of directors, said, “Bob truly did care about the community.” He said he and Armendariz met last week to discuss a project to place a Spanish-language tutoring series in Spanish-language newspapers across the country.

Former Mayor Lionel Rivera, vice president-investments for UBS Financial Services Inc., said, “Bob was a true champion for the business and Hispanic community. He was one of the early leaders (president) of the Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He worked tirelessly to level the playing field in Colorado Springs to help minority-owned busi-nesses get an equitable opportunity to compete for contracts in both the public and private sector. He was a sounding board for me during my time as mayor and always gave me thoughtful advice. He energized ev-eryone he met with his crazy sense of humor and love of Colorado Springs and Pueblo. I counted him as a good friend for these last 20-plus years and our community and my wife Lynn and I will miss him. My wife and I offer our sincere condolences to his family.”

Carmen Abeyta, who heads the local El Cinco de Mayo celebrations including Friday’s scholarship dinner and dance at the DoubleTree, said she had known Armendariz “forever and ever, a long time. Bob was everywhere, absolutely everywhere. He was onery and sometimes could be a challenge, but it was because he was so adamant about how he felt.

Most recently, said Abeyta, Arm-endariz “was very supportive of our Latino Community Luncheons. He never missed one.”

The newspaper, which had felt the impact of the economic downturn for a number of years, was on a shoe-string budget, Armendariz had told friends.

With the Cinco de Mayo celebra-tions going into full swing and the 25th anniversary of the newspaper coming out, Abeyta said, choking up, “Darn it, Bob, why didn’t you wait.”

County Public Information Of-ficer Dave Rose wrote to his media colleagues. “We are all saddened by the passing of our friend Bob. I met him back in 1970s when he was a PIO assistant at Fort Carson. Out of the service Bob began working as a reporter/photographer at KKTV in the days of sound on film. He was there for several years before the op-portunity with Hispania News.

“Bob was first with a smile and handshake, first to volunteer, first to help the new folks and first with a usually bad joke to break the ice,” Rose said. “In addition to many of us, Bob covered local news stories along-side a good many who have gone before including: Hal Tatel, Hal Ken-nedy, Jack Ryan,Thom Foulks, Glenn Urban, Stan Payne, Jim Gibney, Bill Walters, Bill Bruce, Gary Street and many more.”

Facebook and Twitter are filled with memories of the dedicated, often prickly, newspaperman.

Since 1988, the Colorado Springs Business Journal has given the Pikes Peak region its own business news-paper, operated for the first 10 years by its local founders, then since 1998 as part of the Dolan Co.’s national network of publications.

Now the Business Journal is go-ing back to its roots.

Owners of the area’s largest lo-cally owned media company, which includes the Colorado Springs In-dependent, signed an agreement Monday to buy the Business Journal, effective June 1. The acquisition in-cludes another Dolan-owned local entity, The Transcript, a tri-weekly, public-record newspaper featuring legal notices.

The new owners also will apply to service Dolan’s contract publishing of three local military newspapers: the Fort Carson Mountaineer, Peter-son (Air Force Base) Space Observer and Schriever (AFB) Sentinel. More than 68,000 local adults read these publications regularly in print, ac-cording to the latest Media Audit numbers for the local market, and thousands more online.

“Business is the most powerful institution shaping our city,” says John Weiss, publisher of the Inde-pendent and majority owner of the purchasing group. “Businesses, es-pecially locally controlled organi-

zations, provide most of our jobs, create most of our wealth, and shape our community’s environment. We aim to publish a great business news-paper and website that will improve our community by providing timely, vibrant local information to business owners and employees, nonprofit ex-ecutives and civic leaders who need to know what is really going on.”

During the transition from na-tional to local control, Independent executive editor Ralph Routon and CEO Fran Zankowski will divide their time between both organiza-tions. Former City Councilor John Hazlehurst will write for both the CSBJ and the Indy. He spent five years (2006 to 2011) exclusively at the Business Journal between stints as an Independent columnist. Rou-ton will also continue his Between the Lines and End Zone columns in the Indy.

But that doesn’t mean the two newspapers will be merging their content.

“We will keep the Independent and the new publishing group physi-cally, spiritually and legally separate,” Routon says. That includes main-taining the two newspapers’ offices, with the Independent still operating at 235 S. Nevada Ave., and the CSBJ at 31 E. Platte Ave.

Zankowski and Routon will di-

rect the CSBJ during the transition, while the Indy’s general manager Carrie Simison-Bitz and managing editor Kirk Woundy assume more responsibilities at the Independent.

“The current staff at CSBJ and the military papers is rock-solid,” says Zankowski, a longtime news-paper executive who has been at the Independent since 2005 and is also co-owner of the purchasing com-pany, known as the Publishing Corp. of Colorado Springs. “In the com-ing months and years we anticipate growing the current 20-person staff to publish even stronger print and online offerings.”

“We are psyched,” adds Weiss, a 1978 Colorado College graduate who co-founded the Independent 19 years ago. “Six months from now the CSBJ will be even more of a must-read.”

In a Business Journal online story, Dolan Co. president James P. Dolan said, “When John Weiss called to in-quire whether the Business Journal could be acquired, at first we said no, but we thought about it and decided that CSBJ deserved a more attentive owner, possibly somebody local.”

Reprinted with permission from the May 16-22, 2012 edition of the Colorado Springs Independent.

Business Journal gets back to roots


LEADVILLE from Page 1

“One thing people in the city don’t realize about small communities is how people come together when something needs to be done,” said Jim McCall, a member of Team Wii McFlabby and a Leadville resident for 38 years.

“I was blown away by the turnout. The most fun part was getting the whole community involved. At the weigh-ins every week, it felt like be-ing a Walmart greeter, saying hello to everyone.”

His team’s name, like many other team names, reflected the competi-tion’s mixture of hope and misgiv-ing. There were the Literary Losers, Wii McFlabby, Waist Not Want Not, Chunky Monkeys, The Fat Losers, Waist Management, Half Ton of Fun and the City — a loose reference to the cumulative poundage of 19-plus

tons at the initial weigh-in.Every week, the Herald Democrat

printed the names of the contestants leading the competition. Week af-ter week, the same teams tended to dominate the list: two couples com-posing the Mamas and the Papas, the elementary-school teachers called Bringing Sexy Back, and the Skinny Cookies (a team sponsored by the Cookies With Altitude bakery).

At the Week 12 weigh-in, with four weeks left in the contest, the competi-tors learned that they collectively lost 1 ton of weight, meaning the average weight loss per person was more than 10½ pounds. Some lost more than others. Debbie McCall, Jim McCall’s wife and another member of Wii Mc-Flabby, said she could see a dramatic difference in Susan Estes, a member of the Mamas and the Papas.

“You could look at Susan Estes from across the room and tell that

she’s lost weight,” Debbie McCall said.Leadville residents who weren’t

part of the Get the Lead Out contest found themselves following the com-petition or attending one of the exer-cise classes — drop-in hockey, water aerobics, a walking club, core and spin classes — or nutrition presenta-tions associated with the competition.

At the post office, supermarket, gas station, school and library, non-competitors stopped contestants to congratulate them and their teams on their progress. (Predictably, a handful of voluble local cranks also added Get the Lead Out to the Leadville Trail 100 race and other events they dis-like.)

Jackie Duba, a physician’s assistant at Zwardlinger’s practice, noticed a marked decrease in overall blood-pressure readings as the weeks passed.

Inevitably, as weight loss slowed, participants began dropping out. By

the end of the competition on May 7, a total of 33 of the original contestants had bailed.

Still, Get the Lead Out founder Karen Rinehart was impressed that most of the people stuck with the pro-gram. One of the most inspirational contestants was LaYana Doster.

Perennial dieter Doster had the misfortune of undergoing surgery on one foot during the middle of the competition.

Post-surgery recuperation re-quired her to stay in a wheelchair for more than four weeks, severely limiting the amount of exercise she could do. At the May 7 final weigh-in, Doster arrived with the help of a walker. When fellow contestants ap-plauded her tenacity and called for a speech, Doster was teary.

“I’ve done every weight-loss pro-gram there is,” she said.

“When I heard about Get the Lead

Out, I was pretty excited. I lost over 35 pounds, and I now know more about nutrition and food than I ever have. And what’s been instrumental is your support.”

Two of the biggest losers were spouses Susan and Gary Estes. Her starting weight was 208.4 pounds; by the competition’s end, she was down to 174.2 pounds. Gary Estes was more circumspect about his exact numbers, but he lost a total of 75 pounds — 23 percent of his original body weight — which won him the award for biggest individual male loser.

“It wasn’t easy,” Estes said, to trade the processed foods he likes — es-pecially pizza and spaghetti — for “nothing that gave us real joy,” spe-cifically, lean chicken, vegetables, fruit and low-carbohydrate, whole-grain foods.

Reprinted with permission from the May 22 edition of The Denver Post.

Weight loss competition turns into a total community effort

Editor’s note: Colorado Press Association’s legal counsel Tom Kelley, Steve Zansberg, and Chris Beall, with the Denver law firm of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, field questions from CPA members on First Amendment and freedom of information issues. Some of those recent questions and answers, in revised form, are listed below. If you have any questions you would like them to address, please submit them to CPA Executive Director Samantha Johnston at [email protected].

Question: Is there a requirement that the town counsel tape a work session meeting? The town manager says no, although the sessions used to be taped. They provide public notice for the work sessions but no votes are taken. However, they discuss things they are going to vote on. The argument from the town is that the work sessions are “administrative” and don’t have to be taped. Is that correct?

Answer: The town is correct. But not for the reason given, that is not because the town is labeling its meeting as a “work session.” Under the Colorado Open Meetings Law (“COML”), there is only kind of meeting for which the town must make an electronic recording, and that is solely an executive session. There is no requirement to make an electronic recording of a public meeting, whether it is a “regular,” “special,” or “work session” meeting.

In fact, none of the latter distinctions -- i.e., between a “regular,” “special,” or “work session” – have any significance under the law. A gathering is subject to the COML the instant that three members, or a quorum, of a local public body gather to discuss public business within the jurisdiction of their public

body. That gathering is a “meeting,” regardless of whether the local public body wants to call it a “regular,” “special,” or “work session” meeting. And, because it is a “meeting,” advance public notice of the meeting must be given.

If during that meeting, the public body then decides it wants to go into “executive session,” that is, to close the meeting to the public, then and only then must the public body ensure that the closed meeting is recorded electronically. (The one exception to the requirement of an electronic recording is if the local public body’s attorney certifies that the closed discussion involve an attorney-client communication subject to the attorney-client privilege.)

As a result, the rule is that a closed meeting (usually) must be recorded. An open meeting need not be.

Question: Do open meetings law requirements apply to the board of directors of a charter school?

Answer: Most definitely, yes. A charter school’s board is a “local public body” under the COML, and it is subject to all of the same requirements of the statute as would a regular school board.

Question: A special district hospital here announced that an emergency executive session was called for today at noon. This meeting was announced to board members yesterday afternoon, but not to the public. The meeting is to fill a vacancy on the board. I asked the chairman what the emergency was, since they have 60 days to appoint a new member. He said he was instructed to call the meeting by the hospital administrator,

and he was trusting that the administrator. My questions are: Is the meeting legal? Can they discuss the possible replacement in an executive session and then announce the appointment publicly?

Answer: No, and no. First, as to the question of the adequacy of notice for an emergency meeting, the COML does not have any explicit provisions that recognize an exemption to the regular notice requirements for an “emergency” meeting. However, the Colorado Court of Appeals has previously upheld town’s actions at an emergency meeting when those actions were later ratified at a properly noticed regular meeting. The court concluded that an emergency meeting is acceptable so long as the emergency was unanticipated and so long as the public is later given an adequate opportunity to observe a proper public discussion on the topics that were handled at the executive session.

Second, with respect to the notion

of an executive session to conduct a closed-door discussion of the vacancy on the board, the COML is clear. No such closed discussions are permitted, of any kind. The statute makes it explicitly clear that there may never be a closed-door executive session for the purpose of “discussions concerning any member of the local public body . . . . or the appointment of a person to fill the office of a member of the local public body.” This provision appears at Section 24-6-402(4)(f)(II), C.R.S., of the COML.

In addition, the board also may not

conduct any poll or reach an consensus around who the board wishes to appoint to fill that vacancy during a closed-door meeting. All such decision-making must be entirely in public

Question: We have a hospital district that won’t release a copy of a severance agreement that resulted in a large severance payment to an executive who was fired from the hospital. Is that legal?

Answer: No. The Colorado Open Records Act (“CORA”) makes it clear that any amount paid or benefit provided to a public employee incident to termination of employment is not within the “personnel files” exemption in the statute, and therefore must be disclosed. This provision, however, cannot be turned on its head to mean that the severance agreement itself is not itself a “public record” subject to inspection. In fact, the document is quite plainly within the statutory definition of “any record made, maintained or kept” by a government entity “for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law or by administrative rule.” This is why we have obtained access, under CORA, to settlement agreements between public employees and their former employers when such employees filed suit for wrongful termination and/or discriminatory discharge.

As any assertion that the severance is exempt from disclosure under the “personnel files” exemption, the Colorado Court of Appeals has made clear that the “personnel files” exemption is limited to information in an employee’s files that is unrelated to the employee’s on-duty conduct in discharging public employment functions. As a result, the “personnel files” exemption is statutorily limited to “personal demographic information” of the same type that is expressly set forth in the statute: home addresses, telephone numbers, and [personal] financial information . . . maintained because of the employer-employee relationship.”

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